My new business-PERSNICKETYS ATTIC

What started out as a hobby for me has already turned into a pretty successful small business for me.  We have decided on the name PERSNICKETYS ATTIC and you can find us on Facebook   I am hoping to get a website soon as well as a possible retail spot come spring/summer.  Here is some of the work I have done...

I painted this vintage military dresser in a buttery mushroom color for our little boy.

Hutch painted in a duck egg blue.

A sneak peek into the dining table and chairs that I am doing...think...Pottery Barn.

Country hutch with pie Tin doors.

Vintage Military Issued buffet with a record breaking sale.  This sold within 30 minutes of me posting it.

We LOVE this piece.  It is a SINGER Buffet and Hutch.

Pictures of our house...and Moose!

Thought is was about time to add a picture of the front of our house.  

We love it!!!

These pictures were taken right outside our front door. Talk about Northern Exposure!

Almost 9!!! Time has flown!!!!

Hard to believe it has almost been a year since our 1st born was baptized!!!  I was just looking through some old pictures and had to post this. Can I say how much I LOVE this girl!!!  She is so amazing and so talented!  We are so blessed to have her in our family!!

Right before her baptism

She was so happy that her Grammy and Grappy were able to come for her special day.

We think she is Beautiful.  Inside and out.  We are so lucky to have her in our family!

Happy Birthday Neil and a Great Friend!

It was Neils birthday on Monday.  What did he want?  His usual Chocolate eclair cake!!!  The girls LOVE when it's his birthday because they know what they are about to partake.  Chocolate, creamy goodness.  It was a good day.

I Love my family!!! Aren't they most the most beautiful thing!!!

                                      

We have some of the most amazing, loving, giving friends here.  Our good friend Bonnie delivered another one of her amazing bread loaves to us last night along with ,not only a HUGE container of her fresh raspberries, but also a huge zip lock bag as well which we will freeze for consumption during the winter months.  I have to laugh at my word "consumption"...LOL!!!  Anyway...she has hundreds of raspberry plants and they did extremely well this year so she is sharing her bounty.  She gave me about 15 of her shoots and it looks like only 2 survived.  I don't think I watered them enough.  Next year she will give me more and I will make sure I soak those babies so that we can have a good crop of our own raspberries. It's good to have such great friends!!!

Camping Family. Happy Family.

Have I mentioned we like to camp.  No?  Well...we do!!!  We are so blessed to have children that like the outdoors as much as we do!

                   I have no idea why Ella has such a sour look on her face.  Maybe she burnt her marshmello.

Always striking a pose!!!

Looks like his face is getting burned. Cool camera trick!!! 

  LOVE this girl!!!

And this one!!!

   And I cant forget about our beauty queen smiling girl!!!

     I was a nervous wreck when he suggested taking all 3 of the girls out by himself.

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                              Yup...we are getting our fill of camping up here and loving every minute of it.

Fall Baking

Well...I decided that since fall is so short here ( if you blink you will miss it) and the snow arriving any week now, what better time than now to get a jump on my fall baking.  I LOVE this time of year.  I love the crispness of the air outside and the changing of the leaves.  The crunch of the leaves underneath our feet is one of our favorite sounds. 

So I made two loaves of bread today.  I have a dear friend named Bonnie who is an absolute AMAZING cook and baker.  She sometimes brings over her homemade bread and rolls and some raspberry jam from the raspberries out of her garden.  Anywhoo...I made her recipe.  Cant wait to slather some of our freezer jam on a thick slice of heaven, 

So I have a secret.  I'm a scone snob.  Actually, both Neil and I are.  I don't remember the first time I ever had one.  Just seems like I have always loved them.

Short story... I delivered two of my children at CHOMPS in Monterey, California. A couple of hours after delivering the first child, Neil walks in with an almond and crasin scone from the deli in the hospital.  At that point I was so hungry to eat that I did not care what he brought me.  We were shocked at how incredible these scones were.  They were perfection! (hold on...let me wipe the drool off my mouth as I am writing this.)   We must of had 5 more during my 3 day stay.  Don't judge.

While preparing for delivery of my next child there, our minds would drift to the thought that we soon would be reunited with those decadent scones.  Sure enough...as soon as I was well enough to eat, Neil bought us two scones.  We had about 2 everyday.  Each.  Again...don't judge.

So that brings me to this post and the picture below.  I have tried to make scones many times as good as the ones we had at that cute hospital in Monterey.  To no avail.  A friend of mine from church posted on facebook about these amazing pumpkin scones she had made.  I think she had already made 3 batches and they were gone within 48 hours at her house.  I decided to give this a try.

So yes...we are in scone heaven again.  I made two batches.  The first batch I made I forgot to put the baking powder in it.  Luckily...as I was getting ready to cut the dough I remembered, so I did a baking no-no and kneaded the baking powder into the dough.  They rose some, a little denser, but still delish.  The second batch I made was perfection.  It has a basic powdered sugar glaze on it and then is topped off with a spice glaze.  YUMMY!!!  Cant be good for my diet...but hey...I am basking in the fact that I have found a wonderful scone recipe and am enjoying every autumn infused morsel.

Berry Picking

Last week our family went in search for blueberries.  We hiked up to Glen Alps and started to scout out the area.  We came across what I thought was tons of low bush blueberries so we started to have a field day thinking we had hit the mother load.  After we had more than a bucket full, this older man came up to us with his empty bucket.  He asked us what we were picking.  We responded..."blueberries".  He looked at us kind of funny and ask if he could take a look.  He informed us that they were crowberries.  My heart dropped!  The whole time I was picking, I was thinking of all the yummy syrups, jams, pies, ect that I could make with these small blueberries. My aunt has the BEST blueberry orange pie that I have been craving!!  Yes Aunt Doris...I'm speaking of you! We kept picking until we had a bucket and a half full.  

Crowberry (Empetrum) is a small genus of dwarf evergreen shrubs that bear edible fruit.The fruit is a fairly dry black berry, smaller than the alpine bearberry, but with somewhat better flavour, and looks  similar to a blueberry.

The kids were very cold.  On the mountain, the wind was bitter.

Our stash.  After we went picking, we stopped to pick raspberries as well.

Rhubarb from our yard.

I looked online for recipes that I could make with our crowberries.  Instead of jam, I decided to make a crowberry pie.  Neil said it was one of the best pies he had ever had.  I had him take 2 slices to his Russian coworkers and they loved it as well.  Neil thought it had a Christmas taste to it.  He said there was a hint of evergreen.  It was very good and we want to go and pick more to freeze for a future pie.

 They have the most amazing mushrooms up here.  This was growing in our yard and reminds me of Alice in Wonderland.

No words needed...