Tiny Beautiful Things

Yesterday was dominated by two different things, both tiny and beautiful. First, I made my first-ever fabric Yo-Yos. The one on the right--which has been lightly ironed--was given to me as a sample. I made the one on the left, and I kept it un-ironed, for more of a "poofy" look:

Yo-Yo's are puffy little circles of fabric sewn by hand. They're a great way to use up small scraps of leftover material. Yo-Yo's can be used in a gajillion ways. You can decorate gifts or create garlands with them:

 photo credit: iriskh

You can sew them on tee shirts, cloth headbands, little girl's dresses, purses, pillow cases, or sachets:

 photo credit: A Bit of Heaven

Yo-Yo's can be sewn into table runners, place mats, decorative scarves, or mounted as art:

photo credit: robayre

With enough time and patience (and 1,600 Yo-Yo's!), you can even make a gorgeous coverlet, like this one:

photo credit: Knittingand

I used this short video to learn how to make them. It was ridiculously easy. If you want to try your hand at making Yo-Yo's (try it! it's fun!), do yourself a favor and watch the video first. Extra bonus bits: The lady on it has a sweet accent.

I won't go over the steps, because she does a better job. But you can get the idea from my photos, in case you don't want to look at the video right now:

I took my Yo-Yo-making materials outside to watch the dogs play in the sunshine. While I sat there, I cracked open a book that Lovely Daughter #1 had just mailed me, a "just-because" sort of gift:

I lovelovelove this book and started marking my favorite passages right away:

Do you know it? The title is "tiny beautiful things: Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar." It is written by the gal who wrote "Wild," another favorite book of mine. Anyhow, by bedtime I'd devoured half the book. It's that good.

I love the coincidence--that I made tiny, beautiful things, and that I then sat down to read a book by the same name.

Sometimes a day just works out that way.