A New Dawn, A New Day ....

In the words of Nina Simone and latterly the luscious Michael Buble it is a new dawn of a brand new day. 

Following the carnage that greeted me at the bottom of the garden yesterday and with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach I have had to brace myself to go down and clean out the chicken coop.  It was so silent and the dogs just sat watching me, they have been very subdued and so have the cats.  Mr Fox must have made a return visit because last night Ruby was barking like mad and some of the wire fencing had been pushed over in the run and it wasn't like that yesterday. 

The hardest part was explaining to the children why the chickens weren't there.  However, it is amazing how philosophical 9 year olds can be and we chatted about how happy they had made us, what lovely eggs they gave and that they were happy too in their short lives.   I  think that chatting to children about the darker side of life is very important in the right context and setting unlike my late in-laws who swept the nasty things under the carpet.  This has resulted in a grown man who just cannot handle his feelings and bottles everything up.  He is blaming himself now for letting them out too early, they usually don't go out until I am up and the dogs are in the garden but as it was such a lovely morning he let them out at half five when he left for work.

Anyhow back to the new day and let's think of something nice.  I spent yesterday evening working on a little idea for personalised cushions and finished this

Using iron-on transfer paper, the sort used to make T-shirts, I have made the centrepiece of this cushion cover with the vintage photo of my great grandparents Bertie and Florence with their three eldest children Eric, Clarice and little Florence.  Bertie & Florence were both born in Suffolk and moved to Bedfordshire in the early 1900s.  Bertie's father and his father before him had been farriers/blacksmiths but as the new century dawned and sanitation/running water came about, Bertie adapted his skills to plumbing.  He must have been doing alright judging by this posed studio photo. 

I have given it a border of vintage lace and 1930s chintz around the edge.  My thinking is that I can take this as an example to the craft fair next month and if people like the idea all they need to do is e-mail me their favourite photo and I will do the rest.  I am hoping to start a couple more later but we will see how this new day pans out.

Thank you all for your kind comments left yesterday xx