a whiff

I stepped into my downstairs bathroom today and smelled the sweet smell of....bleach.

Bet you thought I was going to say something else, right?

It is from those toilet flush tablet thingies that keep me from growing mold around the edge of the bowl between cleanings...And they give off the slightest hint of bleach in the small powder room who's door is mostly kept closed all day.

I love that smell.  And as I turned in an order for a Scentsy party that I am going to miss this weekend since I will be in NOME I got to thinking about all the things I love to smell.  So here they are in no particular order.

12. Evergreens; specifically the one we chop down every year for our Christmas tree. We cut off a circle from the trunk, I write the year on it and we keep them all in an old holiday popcorn tin.  Every year we open that tin and smell all of our Christmases past.  But the first few days after it is home are the best. When I am laboring on our 1700 lights that get wrapped around each branch, even my hands smell like evergreen as the sap gets all over me and the needles scratch my skin. And don't forget the first time you turn on the vacuum again after you have thrown out the tree and cleaned up all the needles gives you the faintest whiff of evergreen too.

11. Hot tar. Be it on a roof, a road or a driveway, I love it.

10.  Permanent markers.  I simply cannot uncap a Sharpie without sniffing it first.  I probably look like an OCD sufferer or someone with a twitch when I do this, but I love that smell. However, I am very careful not to get it on my nose.

9.  Bread.  Why doesn't Scentsy come up with something like that?

8.  Gasoline.  I don't like, huff the gas tank or anything, but I do like the whiff of it as I am filling up every week.

7.  Lilacs.  But only the flowers...I hate anything artificially scented lilac.

6.  Lavender.  I miss my HUGE bushes of this I had in Utah.  I am hoping to plant some here and see how they do.  I loved to weed my flower beds in our old house just to get in and work in those bushes.  Mmmm.  I spent a small fortune in sachets and things at the farmers market in Salt Lake this summer. The best Lavender ever, though, is in Washington.  Pike's Place Market has stalls and stalls of different vendors and I once was the proud owner of the best lotion ever that smelled divine, but I lost the jar after it was empty.

5.  Newborn baby heads. I have often wondered why they smell the way they do. Is it the smell of heaven or just the smell of old placenta that takes a little while to wear off?

4.  Inside of a jack-o-lantern right before you scoop the guts out to carve it.  And I like to eat the seeds raw and slightly slimy.  Cooked and salted are good too but I still sneak a few, fresh from the guts of the pumpkin.

3.  The seashore.  Salty air, decaying seaweed, sand and fish.

2. Alaska.  I tell you the air is cleaner up here.  Ethan commented on our trip to Utah this summer that he missed how it smells up here.  Even in the dead of winter it just smells fresh!

1. Fall.  I love dead leaves and crisp air. I love this smell even more than the smell of mowed lawns in the summer.

And here are a few other smelly things to note:

Current perfume: Pink Sugar...I am told I smell like cupcakes.
Favorite guy cologne: Oh how Polo and Eternity take me back, but I also like Hugo, and one of the Burberry ones... my brother has it...
Current shower gel: Body shop; Coconut
Favorite Scentsy: Cinnamon Cider and Spiced Grapefruit
Favorite Bath and Body Works: Coconut, Lime, Verbena; Kitchen Lemon and anything grapefruit

And things I hate to smell?  Sewer, puke, old garbage, and dog breath.