"Strawberry Fields Forever..."

Good morning and a big hello to all my new followers, including Ann Marie who made a fantastic card for the Krafty Krew challenge (sporty) last week.
So I forgot to mention in my last entry something quite disgusting that happened to me recently. This will show you how lazy I really am because I was prepared to drive around with it for over a month before doing something about it!!
As a preamble to my story I must first tell you about how we get our shopping. Because Jo is no longer able to walk without a great deal of pain and I can't get around without having to sit down and rest my back, a very good friend of ours volunteered to do our shopping for us on a friday afternoon after she finished work, all I had to do was go to the shop, pay for it and then take her home before unpacking it. This has been such a massive help to us both, words can not express how much it has meant to us.
So, about five or six weeks ago I started to notice this really funky smell in the car. To me it smelt like cabbage, white cabbage that has been left in a plastic bag and the heat has gotten to it and it has just started to emit a noxious odour. Obviously, rather than check the car I just opened the window until the smell went away.
Over the following weeks the smell got stronger and stronger until about two weeks ago I got in the car and there were a load of flies on the inside of the back window and near the bottom of the windscreen. I knew what this meant; something had died in my car and I now needed to investigate. I had the bonnet (hood) up - couldn't see anything. I opened the boot (trunk) to look around and couldn't see anything. I was baffled.
We went to our friend's house for lunch one day and while we there, Isabel, our friend's mother said she thought the smell was a dead rat! She lives out in the sticks and is surrounded by fields and has had the same problem, a rat crawled into her car and died and it took a garage ages to find it. So armed with this new information I left it another week or so before finally ringing Ford and asking them to look for the source of our problem. As we are on the Motability scheme (if you are not familiar with this and have a disability, give it a look up on the web, it's well worth doing) and the garage couldn't find the source of smell. They were on the verge of giving us a new car as the smell was thsat bad, when our Motability rep Justine asked us to have a look in the boot as there were a load of maggots and flies in it! I had already inspected the boot a couple of weeks ago so I found this a little odd, until I actually moved the storage box we have (in case of emergencies, torch, blanket, foot pump etc) and found a missing bag of ASDA Smart Price chicken breasts, which our friend had bought as part of our shopping and we had spent weeks wondering where it had gone or if in fact we had even ordered it! Obviously it was no longer frozen. In fact it was so far beyond frozen it was now literaly a smalle scientific experiment about slime and ooze.
So with the offending item removed and the odour almost gone, I still need to give the boot a good scrub out but it is nowhere near as bad as it was! But this does not exactly put either Jo or myself in a particularly good light does it???
On to this weeks card for the Kenny K Krafty Krew and Challenge #103 is Strawberries and Cream. As you can see, I have used the rather fabulously named Capt. Locke (available here for the very reasonable price of only $3.00). This is the first time I have coloured her and she is a real joy, so many lovely curves and highlights to get your teeth into (Oo-er Matron!!). My papers are all Basic Grey and I have used a pretty diamante flourish which I think comes from Creative Expressions. The ribbon and metal Strawberry are both from my ever-increasing stash. Hope you like the finished item and that you too will have a go in the challenge, the colour combo is a great one to try and was totally new to me.
Take Care and hope to see you again very soon,
Hugs 'n Stuff,
Andy
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Entered Into: The Corrosive Challenge #154 - Cheeky, Saucy and Sassy
Great Impressions Challenge - Show Us Your Best Stay In The Lines Colouring
The Hybrid Chick Challenge #23 - Ice Cream
Come And Get It Challenges - Bingo
Cupcake Inspirations Challenge - Photo Inspiration
Colour Me Creative Challenge #48 - Anything Goes with a Girly Twist
My Sheri Crafts Challenge #90 - National Ice Cream Month
ATC's and Cards With Attitude Challenge #18 - Anything Goes
Splendiferous Creations Challenge - Die Cuts
Fat Pages and Cards With Attitude Challenge #18 - Anything Goes
Inspire Me Fridays Challenge #68 - Anything Goes!
The Poodles Parlour Challenge - Use A Digi Stamp
The Stamp Man Challenge - Anything Goes/Summer Colours
Jackson Digital Expressions Challenge #16 - Anything Goes (Optional Sketch)