Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia -- an almost unpronouncable word for a condition that makes every day life very difficult for its sufferers. A more descriptive term is "face-blindness" - the inability to recognise faces -- in extreme cases even those of your nearest and dearest. There is no cure, just coping strategies that vary in effectiveness.

It was quite a surprise a year or so ago when my brother announced he had this condition very severely -- none of the family had ever suspected he had this difficulty. Since he sent us various links to articles about the condition we all took the on-line test. My results came back as borderline as having a problem -- I just thought i was bad at remembering people!

Today he has been featured in the Guardian Weekend Magazine with an article on the subject in which he describes his difficulties: I don't recognise my own face . He has also written more about his condition on his website here: http://www.barryw.net/me/pa/prosopagnosia.html

Out and About at Markets and Fairs

With the Christmas shopping season well under way, here is a list of the markets and fairs I will be attending:

Sunday 23 Nov - Marple
Sat 29 Nov -- Bakewell ( as part of Derbyshire Country Markets)
Thurs 4 Dec -- Buxton
Sun 7 Dec -- Poynton
Sat 13 Dec -- Whaley Bridge
Sat 13 / Sun 14 Dec -- Buxton Winter Wonderland
Sat 20 Dec Bakewell ( with Derbyshire Country Markets)
Sun 21 Dec -- Marple
Mon 22 Dec Buxton

I am hoping to have plenty of Christmas cakes (both plain & iced), Christmas puddings, Mincemeat and Mince pies available at each event

Messing about with card 2

As one of my crochet necklaces did not sit well on the jewellery display bust i made yesterday, I have adapted the design to make a shorter, wider bust. This has worked well -- and will also add height variations when in use on the crafts stall.









My second "make" for this morning is on a slightly larger scale -- a Christmas Tree for my decorations. Again a very quick and simple make. A large oblong of corrugated card cut in half along the diagonal and then the two halves taped together to form a large triangle. The whole piece then covered in green wrapping paper. An old square christmas card box doubles as a "tub" / support -- and is also usefull to store extra decorations!

Messing about with card

Having had a very busy & successfull weekend at the Great Peak District Fair, I have been catching up on housework and occupying myself on gentle, less tiring tasks yesterday & today.

I found a link to a "how-to" on making gift-boxes so dug out my box of old Christmas cards and made 3 little boxes very quickly:

As they are made from recycled cards they have writing inside the base --but they are fine for using as a decoration on or under the tree at Christmas. For actual use as gift-boxes I will cut some plain card to size for the base -- or use some unwritten cards! The size of the final box depends (naturally!) on the size of the original card -- and the trick is finding cards with good centred images.

The other card make is courtesy of Boojewels -- a simple jewellery display card. It was super-easy to make and looks very effective. This one is my first one, and I will be making more and trying them out at this weekend's markets!

My next task will be to devise an easy & effective display board for my crochet christmas decorations --watch this space!!

What better way of spending a sunny autumn afternoon, than taking a walk down an English country lane? Childhood memories of picking blackberries always come flooding back -- along with the scratches and nettle stings! The recent fine weather meant I was able to take a bucket or two on a walk down the lanes. The blackberry crop is a bit scarce this year -- but the hedgerows abound with lots of other berries so I picked quite a variety -- blackberries, elderberries, rosehips, hawthorn berries and rowanberries. With the addition of some apples & sugar they have made some delicious Hedgerow Jelly.

Crochet Necklaces

As always, I took some crochet on holiday with me. This time I took some fine cottons and as well as making some bookmarks I have been experimenting with crochet necklaces. The first was 3 yellow flowers on a green chain. I added some vintage buttons to the centres of the flowers on my return home. The second is in an off-white and is more free-form - it still needs some beads or buttons adding to it yet.



I am pleased with the results and will be making more of these -- particularly the flower one in different colours.

Partial Eclipse

This morning there was a partial eclispe of the sun. I managed to find the eclipse glasses that we bought a few years ago when we saw the total eclipse in Cornwall, so I was all set to look at the eclipse without danger of damaging my eyes.

We had lovely blue sky and sunshine first thing, so I was in high hopes of having a good view. All started well, at about 9.30 I had a look and thought I could just see a little bit out of the sun. But then thick clouds came over so I couldnt see any more for a while. The grey clouds kept coming & going so I was in & out of the house like a yo-yo every time it looked like the sky was brightening! I also tried to take some photos with the not very accurate technique of holding the eclipse glasses over the camera lens -- this is about the best shot I got!