A Day To Remember

This is a scheduled post as I am on holidays! I have written these posts up at the lake before we headed home to do a little much needed watering and weeding in the garden.  After a few days of hard work we were rewarded with the start of our holiday in England.

We are around the half way mark now and so far have been to the London area to see my cousin.She and her friend took us to Oxford for the day. We read about the history, enjoyed the architecture and also got a kick out of seeing the spots where one of our favourite TV shows, Lewis, was filmed. Lewis just ended on Canadian TV so it was such great fun that they chose Oxford for our outing that day!.
They also took us to the  Imperial War Museum where DH says he could have stayed for 2 days! He just loved it. Next up was a trip to Dunstable to see the kite fliers and the paragliders, the views there are spectacular. It was hard to say goodbye to them...they are such lovley people and always knock themselves out to ensure we have a memorable stay!

Next stop on the itinerary was Hampshire. I had a day of fun meeting up with  Di of Pixies Crafty Workshop and Sam of Hettiecraft. We went to a wonderful craft store called Flutterby's where I loaded up on Wild Rose Studio stamps and a good many other treasures. We picked up Mr Scrappymo and headed off to see Highclere Castle. It was wonderful. I really enjoyed our day out and will never forget how much they went out of their way to welcome me. Sam drove hours to meet me as she lives in Wales!!!

They were both very gracious about Mr Scrappymo tagging along as he is very reserved and nearly jumped out of his skin to have to meet up with "strangers"...Oh my, little does he know about bloggy friends! He seemed to be permanantly attached to my hip and strode through that castle with what seemed like a determination to be done!  Then announced that he loved the castle!  Thank goodness he managed to walk about the grounds on his own and then we could have a good chat and catch up, and sadly the day soon ended...
Here is a picture Di took of the three of us...We did not bring a laptop and as my camera has about 2000 photos on it I do not want to download them onto my cousins poor laptop in order to show you any of mine! Will do a picutre heavy post when I am home!
Left is Di, I am in the center and Sam (Hettie) is on the right. I am a big lady and struggled a bit with the weather as it was quite muggythat day,  so I think I am looking a little overheated!

After Highclere, we left for Whitehaven, the seaport town beside the wee village of Cleator where my Gran was from. We took day trips into the Lake District and toured Windermere, Grasmere, Amberside, Ullswater, Keswick and many more. We took different routes home each day so have traveled over various narrow, mountain passes and have seen so many of the gorgeous views of Cumbria.
We had a great day out with my cousin and his wife at the Lowther Show. DH climbed up a hill and called us over and we just managed  to see the horse and wagons riding round. The funniest thing there that day was a dog race where 3 dogs were suposed to chase a cloth baited with scent around a circular track.

Well the 2 larger dogs were off like a flash, chasing the scent like crazy and then out came a wee little dog who lagged behind for a few steps and then it noticed that the bait was half way round the circle...so it just cut across the track and grabbed the bait and won!  It was so funny!

We stayed with my cousin and his wife, two of the most wonderful people and they went out of their way to ensure our time with them was memorable. We had outings with my other cousin and my Aunt and we toured about Cumbria, we ate fabulously, we laughed and we laughed some more. This other cousin is a ace at directions and map reading, he soon had DH sorted about the best roads to take. My aunt is still spry and very nimble on her feet, she lept into the SUV with no problems at all! I took 3 times as long to get in and out...lol
It was so hard to bid them goodbye!  Family ties across an ocean are wonderful but leaving is so hard.

We arrived in Filey today and plan to be down on the beach in the morning for coffee and a bacon butty!
I will soon meet with Sue J from Ollismam and Sue P from Planet Susie and hopefully Jo from A little Piece of Me and  her lovely daughter Bex from Rebecca's Craft Corner.

So on with my scheduled post...
Perhaps the title almost fooled you ...bet you thought it was going to be another one of my local area posts...nope...finally have a card to share with you!

This is for my finished  birthday card box. I wanted something feminine and girly but still keeping with the shabby chic look I have been making up here at the lake . I only have that one small box of supplies with me this time, so many of my cards are going to look a bit similar...DP, Kraft die cuts, bit of paint, some chipboard, bling and maybe the odd flower...do you see a pattern here... lol
I know it is quite similar to my Silhouettes post but C'est la vie!

I had a little chuckle when I posted this photo...it has an escaped little diamond attached where it does not belong. When I was placing the diamonds on the corner die, I kept dropping them...I found all but one of them. I looked high and low on the table , on my clothes and on the floor...of course I did not find it as it had attached itself to the oval fancy die edge, just above the middle left edge.   lol
 It has since been plucked off and is currently banished to the naughty chair!!!

I was so happy that I managed to pull the errant diamond off without tearing the kraft paper (as I usually do in these situations). I was so happy about it that I redid the photo... lol

Here is a little closeup of the blinged up corner die. Did you notice that I managed to use up a couple more of the tiny flowers...Yay! I think this one will make a pretty birthday card.

Recipe:
Card base - From my stash; Michaels Recollections brand square textured card set
DP - First Edition Spring Feast 6x6  paper pad
Card Stock - Kraft snippets from my stash
Dies - Spellbinders Floral Ovals and Spellbinders Fancy Ribbons Die and
          Spellbinders  Fantastic Florals Two corner
Chipboard - from my stash; Michaels dollar bins
Bling - from my stash
Sentiment- from my stash; 7 Gypsies, Trousseau

I am entering this card in the following challenges

Pixies Crafty Workshop - must use snippets