"What I Had Before I Had You" Noble Paiges Book Club Discussion--Last Question

Hey everyone!  Here's the last question for "What I Had Before I Had You."  And I'll be announcing the next book in just a couple of minutes and I'm hosting a giveaway, so be sure to check it out!

"What I Had Before I Had You" Noble Paiges Book Club Discussion--Question 3

It's hard to believe that this is almost the last question!  I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

"What I Had Before I Had You" Noble Paiges Book Club Discussion--Question 2

I'm back with my second question of the day for you guys!  Thanks for watching!

"What I Had Before I Had You" Noble Paiges Book Club Discussion

I can't believe that we've already read our first book and everyone is ready to discuss it!  I'm so excited to be a part of this book club and I can't wait to seewhat everyone has to say about the first book!

I'll be adding more video questions to the blog and YouTube throughout the day today, and Paige will be updating her blog throughout the day.  We have some great discussion questions lined up so be sure to check back and forth throughout the day for more content.  Also, if you post anything on Instagram, make sure and use the hashtag #noblepaiges so we can see your pictures!

And don't forget to check back at the end of the day for when we announce next month's book!

Here's the first question!

I'll be commenting throughout the day, but make sure and stop back by in a couple of hours for my second question!

Flowerpot Wreath

I've been busy making some Easter projects for my grandma and her friend.  I wanted to make them two different wreaths since they are at the same nursing home.  So first up is the flowerpot wreath.  Technically, both of these wreaths could be considered Pinterest projects, since that is where I found them.  That's where I find a lot of my project ideas.  But anyway, here is the post where I found the wreath.  They had a lot of cute project ideas but I chose two that I liked, including the first one.  I didn't read any of the directions, I just kind of winged it.

One of the reasons I made this wreath was because I found my small flowerpots at DollarTree and they were 3 for a dollar.  Which means the whole project came in around twenty dollars.  Not too shabby and I could have spent a little less because I had leftover pots. I also could have spent a little bit more if I didn't have craft paint on hand.

I went to town painting the pots different colors.  I just used a foam brush.  My hand was cramping by the time I was done, but honestly, I just used a really thick coat of paint and just did one coat of the darker colors, plus some touch-ups.  The lighter colors took me about three coats.

After letting them dry, I just wired them to my wreath base and then hot glued them, for some extra stability. I found my wreath at at Wal-Mart.  Looking back on the project, I wish I would have waited to pick up the wreath at Hobby Lobby, because they had a similar style that was a lot smaller and I think a smaller wreath would have looked better.

Also at Wal-Mart, I purchased some cheap flowers and a piece of foam.  It doesn't matter what size the foam is really, because you're going to have to cut it down to fit in the pots.  The inspiration photo has pots in all different sizes, but I found mine in just one size, so that's what I worked with.  I cut the foam down to size using a knife and I just used the trial and error method until the foam could be pushed down into the pot.  I could have hot glued them into the pots, but I knew none of mine would be facing down, because that's how I wanted it to look.  Using wire cutters, I trimmed the plastic flower stems down to a short size and stuck them in the foam.  Here's a photo of my finished project and I'm sorry that I didn't take any photos during the process.  Some day I will get better about those "blogging photos," I promise!

This project was fairly easy, but it was time consuming.  And to be honest, by the end of it, I was just ready to quit and be done with it.  But I stuck with it and am glad that I did so, because I really like the finished product.  I do like the other Easter project that I did a lot better.  Stop by later this week to see my other Easter project, it's super cute and about the same price point as this one!

Pinterest Challenge--Firecracker Chicken Edition

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a great weekend. I can't believe that it's almost over!  I found a recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago for a dish called Firecracker Chicken.  It sounded good, I had most of the ingredients and so I printed it out that weekend and was going to make it for my husband and myself, figuring that my parents wouldn't like it.  Spoiler alert, I've made it twice and my parents like it so it's on the menu this week for all four of us.

But then once Sunday night rolled around, we were busy and hungry and when I went to get the recipe, I realized that I hadn't read it all the way through.  This happens to me all the time!  So frustrating, and I never learn.  I decided to wing it and make it my way.  And while all the credit for this recipe definitely goes to the sauce, I found my way to be much easier and a little bit healthier.

Just as an FYI, I keep all my meat frozen, that way if plans change, I'm not forgetting about meat in the fridge and letting it go to waste.  The downside to this is that I have to think about meals ahead of time and defrost the meat (I don't like using the microwave to defrost meat).  This night, I hadn't done that, but by happy accident I had a bag of frozen chicken breast strips.  These are way easier to cook with even though they are frozen as well.

The directions say to cook them over medium heat for a few minutes on each side.  So I put them in a pre-heated pan.  My only complaint with this product is that the chicken is all different sizes.  But it's really not that big of a deal.  While they started cooking, I made the sauce, making it exactly as it is in the recipe.  Here's what mine looked like.

Then I poured it all over the chicken.  The chicken wasn't fully heated yet, but it doesn't matter, because you want the sauce to really cook into the chicken.  I turned the heat up higher and the sauce soaks into the chicken and then it is ready to serve.

I served mine with rice pilaf that I had been cooking at the same time.  By far, the rice took the longest to cook.  I use Rice-a-Roni brand.  And here is a picture of how it looked on the plate!

I'm definitely no food photographer, and I don't ever intend to be.  This recipe definitely received two thumbs up from everyone in my house and I hope it's popular in yours.  If you want to find more recipes that I've pinned (or anything else that I've pinned), you can follow me on Pinterest.  There's a button to the right of this post that will take you right to my Pinterest!

Thanks for taking a bit of time out of your day to read this and have a great day!

Project Life Week 10 Process Video

I hope you're having a great day!  I finally finished my Project Life for week 10 and I realized that I definitely need to get caught up and stay that way because I have so many more details if I'm only running one week off instead of three!

Before you get to the video, I have a couple of things to tell you!  First off, check the blog later this week for a tutorial for an Easter wreath that I made that came out super cute!  Also, I will be announcing the giveaway winner.  I'm super behind, but I haven't forgot about it! And don't forget that the first Noble Paiges' Book Club discussion will be held on April 12th, so that still gives you 11 days to finish reading "What I Had Before I Had You."  Thanks so much for watching and have a great day!