It's a New Year!

Happy New Year!

New Year, New Goals right? I am excited to see what 2022 has in store for us. ☮️out 2021, can't say I will miss you too much.

I love these first few weeks of the new year, the quiet after the holiday season, and the time I set aside to reset, and focus on new intentions for the year ahead.

One of my goals for this winter was to get my (many) jars more organized in a space that I could access more easily and to get a small selection of our canned goods into the kitchen on display so we can get them into more regular rotation.

Thanks to my handy husband, and some beautiful wood stain, these open shelves came together in a snap, and are even prettier in person! What was a wide-open space being underutilized is now both functional and beautiful! Plus it gives us a space to display some of our favorite handmade gifts from the holidays. I am still on the hunt for different brackets but wanted to see if we liked the open shelve concept first.  (Look how gorgeous these Weck jars look!  One of my favorite styles is the Cylindrical Jar front and center).  

Typically your canned goods should be stored long term in a cool, dark room, like a basement or garage (that is insulated from the extreme heath and cold).  We have that dedicated space, but it is not always the first place we look when planning meals, when we are good at planning meals.  All things we are focusing on this year :-).  So now, having a small assortment of everything on display will hopefully nudge us to get creative and put to use everything we make during the year.   It also helps me plan different recipes to try that will provide more quick, convenient meals (like the sloppy joe mix I made last month.  Definitely a winner!). 

I am happy to report in the few weeks we have had the shelves up, we've used quite a few jars and it is definitely inspiring our meal planning efforts.  

Next up: Daydreaming about my garden and veggie goals for the year :)