I think sunflowers have to be the best happiness booster there is. Can you even look at one and try to not to smile? Impossible. They are the essence of carefree joy. Sunshine soaking into your outstretched arms. Endless skies and puffy blue clouds. Adventures and discoveries. There are a thousand good thoughts in each of their seeds and they show us to always keep our faces lifted to the sun.
This summer, I had some sunflowers surprise me in the garden! They came up, presumably from seeds drop last year, and very early in Spring, I could see them pushing upward, each day gaining inches. They are now well over 7 feet tall and have given some glorious blooms.
Our homeschool co-op planted a little plot of sunflowers that is growing nicely and that has started to bloom as well. I hope the kids will get to come out and see the miracle of growth and the fact that the little seed indeed has a giant plant inside! And to get to experience the same joy I have when I see those perky yellow blooms start to open up.
I am working on an order of sunflowers for an interior designer. I played around with three designs and we settled on the ones with a long cording as the stem, which gives one the ability to use it as a tie-back for drapes, to tie on a purse, or more! They are all colors and shaped with a little fabric stiffener.
We taught this as a class to the ladies in our felting group at the Elburn Library and they loved it. Planning on scheduling a class here at Esther's Place in the next few weeks! And I got an order to make a wreath with sunflowers, too.
So I'd say that this is the summer of sunflowers. What else can perk up your spirit and bring joy to the down trodden? An everlasting sunflower can!