A couple of weeks ago I heard noises outside.  A rustling sort of sound I couldn’t quite distinguish.  I peeked outside and saw nothing.  A few minutes later there was no doubt in my mind what I had heard. The house had the distinct aroma of eau de skunk.  The little critter had gotten underneath my house and was scratching about.  Uh oh, nesting time.

I have only heard her (or is it a he?) one time since that night.  It was early morning and the feisty little thing was scratching up a storm underneath my floors.  That was a few days ago and I had pretty much forgotten about the little stinker.

Until this morning.

I think it moved in while I wasn’t looking.

I awoke to its presence permeating the house once again.  So my dilemma now is how to deal with the odor.  I cannot prevent critters from gaining access to the crawl space under my house because it’s connected on both sides to other homes.  So no matter what I do to secure the perimeter of my house, there are umpteen other ways for animals to gain access.

My first idea was to try and overpower the odor with something more powerful (is that possible?).

I could….

Burn some candles.  These Cranberry Cosmos from Colonial Candle sound delicious.

Pick the 100 or so lemons off my trees out back.  They are very aromatic and always make the house smell so fresh.

Bake some cookies.  There’s nothing like the smell of fresh baked cookies.  Good excuse for going off the diet, no?

(Photos via flickr)

Conditions of this award are:

That I tell you 7 things you may not know about me.

That I nominate 7 others blogs for the award.

(There are three of us here at Atticmag but my  two blogging partners, Jane T and Allison, refused to contribute. In truth, there should be 21 things no one knows about us.)

Here are seven things you don’t know about me.

7. My very first job after college was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, typing labels for photos of art in the museum collections. (photo via artstampsdk)

6. I am a coffee addict. Early one morning in 1983, on a Chinese train to Shanghai, I borrowed our guide’s handkerchief so I could brew coffee in a soup bowl  — in front of me, partly obscured by the jar Coffee mate I brought from New York.  Everyone thought it was hilarious and a very sleepy me was photographed reaching for the hot water thermos.

5. In 1997, during a military coup in Cambodia, I had a significantly grounding experience. I had tagged along with my husband, who was there on assignment for Vanity Fair and on the third day of the trip, the current dictator, Hun Sen, toppled Prince Rannaridh, son of the Cambodian king.  When the shooting began, tanks appeared on every corner – this one came towards our car in the alley behind our hotel. Every time I hear someone say “oohh, that was so scary” this is my reference point.

4. My love of furniture dates to my childhood in Los Angeles, where my parents owned an upholstery factory on Sunset Boulevard and Alvarado St. Among my earliest memories are upholsterers spitting tacks onto the ends of magnetic hammers to secure webbing.

3. The late Frances Elkins is the interior designer I would like most to have worked for because her taste was exquisite and two of her default sources were Jean-Michel Frank and Diego Giacometti.

2. I adore wonky archaeological trips like this one touring Greek temples in Sicily.

1.  Shoes are one of my trademarks. Among my vintage favorites are these fuchsia suede Maud Frizon cone heels, purchased in Paris in 1987.

And the blogs we nominate are:

Hatch: the Design Public Blog
Fifi Flowers Design
House of Turquoise
The House That A-M Built
The Peak of Chic
Bahrani Diva
My Notting Hill