The smell of success

I've been scrapping an older beloved kit -- Road Trip. This paper has a distinctive, fabric-like feel to it. I actually made a layout for publication using this kit's papers 'way back in 2005. Then I re-ordered more paper. I made another spread using the paper for another batch of papers, but it wasn't on assignment. And I ordered more of the paper. Blue, yellow, and white is one of my favorite color combos. I don't know why, exactly. But these colors have always made my heart trip a little faster.

Anyway. I play with paper. I no longer play with paper professionally. I used to write for Memory Makers magazine, and I was a freelance artist, too. For a few years there, editors would call me and ask me to write about this aspect or that, or the craft editors would call and ask me to make a layout about this thing or that.

I got burnt out.

Throughout that entire period, I was a smoker. I knew that smoke permeated my craft room, and I really didn't care. I couldn't create if I couldn't smoke every once in a while. Although -- smoking did force me to stop playing with the paper and glue and stuff. You need both hands to make a scrapbook page. I needed one hand to smoke.

So I smoked.

And now I'm not smoking.

Was it just the other day that I was saying that I don't perceive an increased ability to smell or taste?

Well, my tastebuds are still waiting to be awakened, but I think I am now officially perceiving a greater ability to smell.

I'm working with these gorgeous Road Trip papers, and I made a stack of the pages I had finished so far and put them in a plastic sleeve for safekeeping. And as the stack slid into the sleeve, I couldn't help it. I inhaled. And darn it... the paper smelled like stale smoke.

Dang, dang, dang.

All the precautions I've taken over the years to protect my most beloved batches of paper... and for Road Trip at least, it was all for nothing. Smoke permeated my paper.

Dang it!!!!

Now, the pages still *look* sublime, and that's what really counts, right? But ... I'm so disappointed. Stinky smoke smell! What a bummer!

On the other hand... the very fact that I can *tell* the paper smells rotten... that's a good sign, isn't it?

I am two weeks away from the recommended stopping point on Chantix. As I've already reported, my sister Amy is already off the nicotine patch. AND... she still isn't smoking. I think she has successfully broken the habit!!!!!! YAY, YAMY!!!!!!!!!

But me?

Time will tell. My doctor gave me the option of staying on Chantix for *six* months. I'll decide how I feel some other week. Right now, I still want my crutch! But I'm going to use it go smell the roses. Figuratively speaking.

Hey! Do I smell a skunk? Oh, no, the windows are open to let in the cool night air! I'll go close them. And then I'll be grateful for my increased sense of smell!!