Working in my Creative Space

After a couple of days of beautiful weather we were back to cold and snow over the weekend.

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and I am looking forward to a much slower week ahead. I can honestly say though that I was doing things that were enjoyable to me. I got to work in my happy space which is one that involves creativity.

We had a missions conference at church and our speaker had served in France so of course, French pastries were a must. I enjoyed trying to master some of them.

Macarons. These were not as pretty as the ones I see in bakeries, but tasted delicious.

Lemon yogurt cake.

French butter cookies. I do think I will add these to my list of cookies I make for the farmer's market this summer.

I've mastered the sourdough bread and really enjoy making this.

I spent the day in the kitchen (my happy place) on Saturday prepping food for the freezer and pantry. There is a local farm market I go to and they had a basketful of green peppers for 3 for a $1. Since peppers are normal $1.29 per lb. I purchased 6 large ones. They had a couple of spots on them (which is why they were so cheap), but were in otherwise great condition.

I made a huge batch of sofrito which is a combination of onions, garlic, green peppers, cilantro and olive oil. I then froze it in ice cube trays. I popped them out and put them in freezer bags so I can add a cube or two to different dishes I make. 

I took the rest of the peppers, diced them and flash froze them and then transferred those into a freezer bag to use in cooked dishes requiring green peppers.

Cabbage was on sale for $.39 per lb. so I bought two large heads to turn to sauerkraut. It is fermenting in a large crock at the moment. When it's ready I will transfer it to canning jars and can it for long term storage.

I had a large bag of pinto beans so I cooked up two pots of beans and used one for dinner and the other was put into freezer bags and stored in the freezer for future meals. For $3 I got enough beans for 6 meals. 

A big project I worked on the past couple of weeks was painting two rooms at the church for a new office for our church secretary. This was actually a fun thing for me. I did use muscles I hadn't used in a while, but I enjoyed sprucing up the previous nursery. 

The walls were this bright yellowish-green and we chose a pale gray (though it looked blue once it was on). So it did take a couple of coats to cover the previous color. I loved how it turned out.

I made curtains to match and it's beautiful and move-in ready. We have a few guys coming this week to move all the furniture. Someone else can paint the next room! ;-)

I spent yesterday afternoon in my other happy place - my sewing room. I am trying to restock my Etsy shop and my display at the local shop that carries my items. And that is what is on my agenda today. I plan on reading a book for my class and sewing and that's it. I don't even have to think about dinner as Dan and Nathan are meeting someone for dinner and then going to a meeting.

After my post yesterday, I am happy to report that today's activities are pure pleasure! And that is a nice start to the week.

Happy Monday everyone!