Since the ATC's that I had promised Enfys I have done no crafting, partly as I have an assignment for Uni to get completed - and any excuse not to do it would be great! Partly as I haven't been feeling well with a cough and cold as well as chronic toothache - I feel like I am falling to pieces!
And now poor J has gone down with it - he has an awful croupy cough, his asthma is really bad and on top of that all he has infections in both ears! He is not sleeping very well and is miserable - poor baby!
I have Uni next week and the week after I am going back to work on a phased return so I should be fully back at work just in time for thc Christmas holidays!

Some of the photos I took - can you believe this Jelly fish was in a tank behind glass - looks like it is just floating in mid air - we also saw sharks, and lovely fish and the wonderful sea lions!

Do you know the difference between seals and sea lions? Nor did I - but sea lions have ears that you can see and seals don't - there you are - not been a wasted day!

On Monday we went to France for the day - to bribe J into going shopping with us we arranged a trip to Nausicaa in the morning. We had a great time and I managed to get some fab photos. J was really funny when we got to the sea lions - he said 'where are they?' and we both looked at him as there were 5 large, fat sea lions all sunning themselves on the rocks! Right in front of him! Talk about can't see for looking! LOL The other thing he enjoyed was stroking a cod! It was cold, slimy and not as firm as we thought it was going to be, but it is another thing to tick off on our lists of things to do!

My friend from UKS - Helen - the fab Enfys the crochet queen has started a new job and she wanted some help from us all. She has been getting her ladies to do some ATC's which of course must be traded! To help her out - and something a bit different for me - I have made 2 sets of 4 ATC's both sets quilled - I have named them Under the Sea - a set of 2 fish and 2 octopi (is that the correct plural?) and A Bugs Life - a set of 2 caterpillars and 2 dragonflies - and a shameful play on some Disney films! LOL

Anyway - here they are - googly eyes and all - hope she likes them!

This week is a bit of an odd one. J had parents evening this evening. He's doing OK - bit distracted, or as we like to say easily fascinated! I have physio tomorrow and into school on Thursday to see the Occupational Health Nurse. Roll on Friday! Next week is half term and we are going to France on Monday for the day - then its off down to mums for a few days for J and me leaving Bruce at home to look after sad dog!

The other project I have finally finished is my doodlebug house - it has taken me ages to complete, not because it is difficult, rather that I didn't know what to do to complete it. Then along came Enfys!!! She made the fab crocheted flowers that I used to finish it off with. Doodlebug papers, black line peel offs, acetate for behind the windows, black and white buttons and some black card trim. Hope you like it! Now what do I do with it? LOL

I suddenly realised that I haven't posted any craft stuff for ages, I've rambled on about the family and this was supposed to be my craft blog! So here goes.......

I burned some CD's of photos and videos for various friends and family and wanted some sort of cover to put them in. I asked the good ladies on UKS, but got bored waiting :) so thought I'd trawl the internet - finally finding an easy one on SCS with a video. Once I realised what I needed to do I made it to suit me - here are some of the first ones I made.

I made the fish one for a little girl with surfing photos on it and the music one for DS's school with photos from their music day and the last one was for a friend who's son is great friends with DS and has a load of photos and videos that we took!

It's been a manic week for J - he has had mounds of homework, which he got right (so the nagging was worth it) and he has been selected as one of the final 3 boys in his class to be on the school council, final voting this Friday.

On Sunday we went surfing again, J and L had a 2 hour lesson this time with their instructors. Unfortunately the weather was very calm so they didn't have a great time catching waves, but they also had a go at kayaking and some fun stuff with their instructors, Dave, Toby and Jamie.
I also managed to get some video footage of them playing, J and L were on the TV on the news after the last time, when I tried to get a copy (bearing in mind it was about 30 secs long) I was told it would cost £100 to get a DVD from the news station! That's enough to buy a surfboard!!!

This time round the instructors had L doing handstands and forward rolls on his surfboard, J managed to stand up straight so we were happy! LOL

I have ordered some papers to do some surfing LO's and even bought a surfer dude necklace like J bought last week to put on a LO.

Just wanted to share the photo of L who was doing so well on his board - the instructors said he was the most natural surfer they had come across.

Saturday has got to have been one of my favourite days ever, the sun was shining, the sea was blue, the sand was golden and all in Joss Bay in Kent! We went along to Joss Bay Surf School as they were having a special surf day as part of Surf Relief UK and teaching children with disabilities how to surf. J had a lesson and I have never seen him so happy. Not only that, but he was on the Meridian news on the Monday and is also featured on their website.

JossBaySurfSchool

His friend L is a much better and more confident surfer and they actually taught him tricks - he was doing spins on the board within minutes.

The upshot is - we are booking a further lesson for them on Sunday so keep your fingers crossed for good weather and long waves!

Well at 12.30 am last night I decided it would be a good time to cook a pudding! Knee has been so painful after the op that I am not sleeping well at night and I end up watching B movies at night and sleeping in the morning - not ideal!

Mum had given me a load of apples from her tree and I needed some recipes to go with them. I am able to cook and I throw a good dinner party (although not for a long while) so most of my puddings have been desserts - the sort of posh stuff like lemon tart, chocolate mousse etc. So this time I thought I'd have a go at mum's Norwegian Apple Cake which I used to love.

It went really well, the mixture looks really weird, rather like a yorkshire pudding mix, or that foam you use to seal round pipes, but I have to say - even though I made it, it was truly yummy. B and I had 2 pieces each. Then I had indigestion as it was still too hot to eat!

Below is the recipe - will post a photo later as have just made another one (going to try and freeze it)

Norwegian Apple Cake

2 eggs
9 oz castor sugar
3 ¾ oz butter
just over ¼ pint of milk (creamy)
6 ½ oz plain flour
2 rounded teaspoons baking powder
3 – 4 bramley cooking apples

Whisk the eggs and 8 oz sugar together until whisk leaves a trail when it is lifted out of the mixture. Put the butter and milk in a pan, bring it to the boil and stir this boiling liquid into the eggs and sugar. Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder thoroughly until there are no lumps of flour, and pour mixture into large buttered and floured roasting tin. Peel, core, quarter and slice the apples arrange them over the batter and sprinkle with 1 oz caster sugar. Bake cake at gas 6 for 20 – 25 mins. When cooked, let it cool in tin and then cut into slices.

Sorry about the odd measurements, think at some stage it must have been transposed from american cups - but do try it - lovely!