Quick Post: Sad News

I second that that we are missing our bloggy family. Have not had time to craft of blog. But wanted to share some sad news and ask for prayers. A squad mate of my brother in law was killed in the line of duty last week. Please pray his family and his squadmates and the safety of the people that are protecting us. Here is one of the links to the story and about the funeral.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/05/27/20100527phoenix-police-officer-killed-mourned.html
http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/06/01/20100601phoenix-officer-funeral.html

Just a Quick Hello & A Tip (Teri)

We have been so far out of the blogging loop lately that I almost forgot our password! We are missing all of you and wish we were better at keeping up. During May and through the summer we are reminded often of those brave men and women serving our country in the Armed Forces. I stumbled on this on one of my friends blogs, and thought I would share it. Did you know you can share your expired coupons with overseas military families? You can mail them to them and they can use them up to 6 months after they expire. How cool is that!?! Here's the post with more info. If anyone has any actual experience with this, please share, we'd love to hear about it.

Happy Mother's Day!

I have been feeling sorry for myself a lot lately because I haven't been able to make time to do the things that I want to (including blog). I ran acrossed this video on a friends blog and it really touched me, so I want to share it with you. My trials are nothing and yet my faith is so shakey. I hope this video touches you the way it did me. I am so grateful that I have been blessed to be a mother and I pray I can find the joy in it the way this courageous woman has. Teri

Birthday Prezzie

Hey remember me? If not, I’m Teri the older of the 2 sisters (hey those are a long 4 minutes). I just thought that I would throw that in there since it’s been not weeks, but months since I blogged. It’s been a little crazy around here, with a trip to visit Micki in March and a birthday in the family in March and 3 family birthdays in April. A layoff for my hubby last month and subsequently my return to full time work (I have been part time for the last almost 2 years). That’s my life in a nutshell. So, on to the fun stuff!!!

For our birthday Micki made me a very cute prezzie (not to mention the other gifts she showered me with). I promised her I would blog about it, because she forgot to take pictures of it before she mailed it to me. So here is the darling bag she made for me for our birthday!

Isn’t it darling?!? Plus unless your name is the same as me you won’t be able to steal it (or maybe she thought we were getting so old that I might need to remember what my name is).

See the inside is a cute as the outside and see how much it can hold (and yes those are graham crackers and there is frosting in the fridge to go with them).

And I won’t even lose my cell phone or keys!

Now don’t you all wish that Micki was your twin sister too?

The Shield (Micki)

My daughter had an end of the year project and she wanted to make a Roman shield. She wanted to make it out of wood even thought the ancient ones were made out of metal. Then my dad had the brilliant idea fo making it out of the sattelite dish he had just put in the garbage (thanks dad). Shhhhhh.....don't tell Direct TV or Dish Network or whoever. We thought it was a great idea. We googled images of shields and she picked the one she wanted to do. Her dad spray painted the blue part and then she hand painted the other colors. She did a really good job. I was so proud of her. Then I used some E6000 to glue the straps on the back. We loved it. She got an A on the project. However she got marked down for using metal.....WHATEVER. lol

Hair Flowers (Micki)

When Teri was here for craft day and her daughters birthday we wanted to make her daughter some flowers to go in her hair. My daughter wouldn't be caught dead with something as girly as that (she is a tom boy). I had learned how to make them at a church activty. They are super easy. Here is a tutorial I found since we forgot to take pictures of the steps. Instead of sewing ours together we just stuck a scrapbooking brad through the center and used hot glue to glue them on aligator clips. Here's our finished products. The green ones in the middle are the leaves off some of the flowers. Our mom came up with that idea. Thanks mom....they are supere cute!!

Cupcake fix (Micki)

So I had to make cupcakes for my daughter for a fundraiser at church. I am still recovering from a field trip yesterday and didn't want to go to the store to get anything. So I had most of the supplies and two yellow cake mixes. How boring. So I wanted to spice things up a bit so to speak and used peanut butter instead of the regular butter in the Golden Butter cake mix. They turned out yummy!! Kind of a weird after taste but good. I think I should have reduced cook time a bit because they are a little dry. But we topped them off with chocolate frosting and sprinkles.

Then on the second batch I beat the batter too much because my butter was a little hard (used regular butter this time so I could have 2 different flavors) and my cupcakes fell. :( I so didn't want to make another batch......
So I improvised with extra frosting in the center. lol Hope everyone likes frosting. My daughter loves basketball so thats why we made basketballs. Nothing better than a little (or a lot) of homemade buttercream frosting.....right Ter? (She hates frosting, how does anyone hate frosting?)

The best part is I made her clean up. :)

Guest Day Thursday: Hot Lunch Tip

We are so excited to have be able to share a great tip with you today (I know, don't faint, we have posted something 2 days in a row, but today's was pretty much a cheat since all we had to do was copy and paste. Hey! What do ya know it's even Thursday today, so I guess we can still call it Guest Day Thursday, hehehe). While blogstalking Teri ran onto this tip and thought it was such a great idea, she asked Don immediately if he would share it with you! He agreed, and so enjoy his great tip for homemade "hot" lunches!

Hi, I'm Don Carey, a full-time software engineer, part-time author, and over-time husband and father. I want to thank the 2 Sisters for inviting me to be a guest on this blog. I'm excited to share our handy little trick for sending hot lunches from home to school and work.

Both of our girls have food allergies, so when our oldest started kindergarten nearly eight years ago, we thought it would be best to send lunches from home. Not wanting to go the soggy sandwich on stale bread route, we came up with a system for sending hot lunches, and it has served us well.

The first thing I do in the morning is boil water in the teapot. Today's lunch menu is tortellini soup, so I also started some water in a second pot.

Once the water in the teapot boils, I pour it into our trusty little thermoses - one for each of the girls. There's usually one for me, too - no need to make lunch twice. But today I decided to pass on the tortellini soup in favor of left-over pizza in the fridge. Yum!

While the boiling water heats the thermoses, I make breakfast and heat lunch - either on the stove, or in our handy little toaster oven. This is also when I nag the sleepyheads.

Yum! Tortellini!

Now mix in the soup.

I empty the water and fill the thermoses with hot food. We usually try to plan our dinners so there are leftovers to use in lunches. Soup, stew, chili, and pasta dishes all work great. We've had mixed results with nuggets and burritos - they stay warm, but tend to get soggy.

Casseroles all work very well. Except for tuna casserole, which is never good. Ick! Yuck! Blech!

I then pack the thermos in an insulated lunch box with the sides, snacks, utensils, and a bottle of water. Today's menu includes goldfish, grapes, a granola bar, and bunny-shaped sugar cookies, just in case you were wondering.

All in 30 minutes or less. My only fear with this method is that one day I'll accidentally forget to fill the thermoses and send my children to school with nothing but hot water for lunch. But so far, so good.

My youngest still asks for hot lunch at school once in a while as a treat, but the 7th grader insists I pack her lunch every day so she doesn't have to wait in the long cafeteria lines. And she insists the food is better, too.

The Craft Day Spring Bracelet

Remember our darling Christmas bracelet we made at our last craft day. Well here is our spring one. It is so so so cute!!! Isn't my mother-in-law so talented. She once again made all the beads by hand for 21 bracelets. WOW!!

Blogging Blues

Okay we admit it....we can't keep up. We can't keep up with everything. It has obviously gotten overwhelming for us to post every weekday, so we aren't going to unless we have time. No more daily themes for the time being, we are only going to post what and when we can. Don't worry, our craft day projects are still to come. We are still rounding up pictures of all the different things, so you can see how many different faces one craft can have. Thank you for all of your support and we hope you hang around and see where this ride carries us!

Tadpole Tuesday: Mod Podge Picture Plaques Micki

The kids and I were looking for a simple project. I took them to Michaels and let them pick out a cheapo wooden plaque and a paint color. And here is what we created.

First, saran wrap the table (a must in crafting in our world):
Mom lays out the paint, brushes, bowls for the paint and the plaque:

The kids do a fantastic job painting the plaques:

Then you let the paint dry:

While it's drying you pick your matching scrapbook paper from moms stash:

You rip up the paper and mod podge the pieces on:

Then mod podge your picture on and viola:

We had a good time doing them and now they have pictures in their rooms. :)

Mystery Monday: Answer to Tulip Palooza (Micki)

Remember when we posted about tulip palooza here. We finally are going to reveal the answer. We couldn't do it before because it was a craft day project. We made this beautiful tulip wreath. It looks so cute on my door. It's so big and beautiful. I have never had any spring decorations so I was excited.


Here it was on my door:
We got some beautiful butterflys from Michaels:
And some bumblebees too:

Weekend Surprise: Craft Day

Yesterday was craft day at Laurel's. It's our second one. If you don't remember or weren't reading you can read about our first one here. It was so much fun!! We always have a blast and learn a lot about how to make the next one even better. We made lots of cute stuff of course. Tried new things. And just had fun. And ate of course. Micki's two aunts-in-law came down from Utah and were a huge help getting ready. We couldn't have done it without them!!! And our mom got to come to this one (since she lives by Micki now)!! Of course Teri drove the eight hours down for the occassion (but this time she planned on staying a few days instead of a few hours). Mom didn't think she would get her stuff done but she did and helped us!!! Here is some picture (only sneek peeks though cuz we are going to feature the crafts)

Who thought sewing with this many people was a good idea? But just wait until you see the cute project!!!


Teri and Mom

Are you jealous we could craft outside?

Smile...you *ARE* having fun!

Only part of the herd....

Yummy homemade lasagna! Thanks Laurel!!!

Takin' a lunch break...

More outdoor crafts...just to taunt you....sorry!

Who says you have to move the crafts while setting up the buffet?

2sisters 2gether!

Mom & Laurel....Micki's other mom.

This project was Teri's test!

*CHEESE*

Laurel (right) and her sister Kay (who was enjoying not being in the snow).

We can't wait to get some of the projects posted. We have missed all you guys and can't wait to get our craft on again!!!

Mystery Monday: Produce Palooza (Teri)

One of the nurses at work told me about this local co-op called Bountiful Baskets. For $15 you can get a produce basket full of grocery store/restaurant quality produce. I’m not talking a puny basket here….there was one small laundry basket of veges and one of fruit. There is a $3 sign up fee, but after that, it’s just $15 each time you order. You don’t have to order every week (some places it’s only available every other week), you can order however many times you want. I ordered this week for the first time, it took me a bit to understand it, but I figured it out eventually. Every time you order you make a $15 “contribution” and you’re good to go. They also ask that you volunteer to help sort the produce when it arrives whenever you can.

They also have different other things you can order each time, since it was my first time, I only ordered the basket. They had a special Mexican produce basket this time, as well as tortillas, bread and sweet bread. When we picked up our stuff, I was really sad I hadn’t ordered the tortillas, they looked wonderful.

Take a look at what we received:

Here’s the breakdown:

1 basketball sized head of leaf lettuce (gigantic)

1 large cabbage

2 bundles of spinach

2 bundles of asparagus

6 small cucumbers

6 small zucchini

5 concorde pears

1 box strawberries

2 boxes blueberries

16 tangelos

9 small braeburn apples

9 bananas

How’d we make out? I was so excited to see what we received! It's always a surprise what you get, they try to do seasonal things when available. I would recommend this to anyone. There are locations all over Utah as well as Arizona, Nevada, Idaho and Washington. We are so excited!!!

The mystery: Has anyone else participated in a local co-op? How did you like it? How did it work?

Anyone Interested?

We are looking for guests to feature on our Guest Day Thursdays or Tales of a Shared Womb. We would love to feature you. Just leave us a comment or shoot us an email if you are interested.

Feature Friday: A Book Review (Teri)

Percy Jackson 5C Prepack by Rick Riordan


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
For any of you out there who have pre-teen or teenage children (or for anyone who, like me, loves to read a really fun book), I would highly recommend this series. The first book Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Theif has been made into a movie that is currently in theaters. What started me reading these was taking my kids to see the movie. I enjoyed it so much, and my daughter already had the books and had read and loved them, so I picked up the first one and was instantly sucked into Percy Jackson's world of demigods and monsters. Okay, I'll admit, I AM easily entertained, as anyone who knows me will tell you. You have to take any recommendation from me with a grain of salt. I have had friends tell me that I like everything I read, and I do like ALMOST everything I read. There is a simple reason for that, I don't read genres that I know I don't like. I don't read horror, spy novels, murder mysteries, graphically sexual books, books with a lot of swearing (if I start one that has a lot of swearing, I don't finish it). I'm sure there are other genres out there that I don't read, but you get the idea. Call me a prude, closed minded, whatever you like, but I love that I lead a somewhat sheltered life, and I don't need my mind clouded with images and ideas that don't fit my morals. Whew! Who put that soap box there...I didn't mean to get on it. Anywho, I was saying, I LOVE these books. They are highly entertaining, imaginative, educational (at least for me, I know little to nothing about Greek mythology), clean, and just plain fun to read. I wouldn't hesistate to recommend them to anyone, because they are just good reading. They are not free of sadness and death, but they do encompass the ever constant battle of good and evil, in a way that is engaging and entertaining. I hope you will let me know if you read these books, as I would love to know what you think.

View all my reviews >>

Just a quick note to let you know, we will hopefully be posting a Tales of A Shared Womb next week, Micki had a funeral (her grandfather-in-law) to attend, so we weren't able to get anything up this week. Micki - tell your family my heart is with them, wish I could be there to support all of them (and you). Love ya!!!

Guest Day Thursday: Crafty Sisters

We would like to welcome our guests today. They have a great blog called Crafty Sisters where they feature all kinds of really fun tutorials, projects, copy cat projects and power tool reviews (and pretty unique pets too).
Take it away ladies!

Hi, we're Nicole and Candace from Crafty Sisters!

We are so excited to guest post on 2 Sisters today!

Thanks so much for inviting us!

We are both lucky enough to be Stay at Home Moms.

Candace has four wonderful crazy little boys

and Nicole has a beautiful fun energectic little girl.

Our Husbands=NOT handy...so we became handy ourselves.

We love to decorate our homes- especially for the Holidays!

Here are a few of our latest Easter projects.

Even though it's a month away, we couldn't help but start early.

We love getting together and making things.

We are pretty fearless when it comes to using all sorts of power tools!

We love to revamp furniture. There's nothing like taking an ugly thrift store find and making it beautiful again. We have tried making some good knock-offs too!

We love to dabble in a lot of different things from crafty fluff with felt, sewing and fabrics to our

projects with wood and furniture redo's.

We consider ourselves "die-hard" Crafters!:)

While Candace is busy with her furniture renovations,

Nicole is busy with her little wood craft business that she sells on Etsy and teaches classes locally.

We love learning and sharing what we do.

It makes us happy and we hope that we inspire too!

Thanks so much for inviting us over and allowing us to share a little bit of ourselves.

Thanks Teri and Micki!!

THANKS LADIES!!!