Twilight What Have You Done To My Wife

Okay, admittedly we are both big Twilight fans. While admitting this, we have both at times been prone to losing sleep because we have been sucked into a book (not just the Twilight books). We just had to share this video with you. It is so funny. We promise you will be laughing, whether it is with disgust or hilarity we can’t promise.

TWILIGHT WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY WIFE by Shallow Day.

Click the link above to learn more about the band. Their music is great, and their story is inspirational in what two of the band members had to overcome in order to just play music.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Condolences

We here at 2sisters would like to share our heartfelt condolences to the loved ones of luger Nomar Kumaritashvili who died as a result of a crash during a practice run this morning in Vancouver. Our hearts and prayers go out that they may be comforted and that there will be no more accidents during these Olympic Games.

Feature Friday Part Deux: Teri’s Valentine Door Decor

This is one of two, yes count them, two Valentine decorations in my home. The other one I posted about here. I had a lot of fun making this though. I again used the *cringe* pages from my old reading book. This is a project that I just used stuff I had on hand with the exception of I bought a small bottle of blue acrylic paint. I picked up the wooden letters at a sidewalk sale at Ben Franklin during the summer, with this kind of project in mind. The letters cost me 25 cents each, what a steal! My favorite funny thing about this project is that the O’s started out life as Q’s, and Mr. H. did some plastic surgery on them for me. What do ya think? Didn’t she turn out cute? (And yes, I really do have depressing dark brown doors, all I can say is *rental*).

I was so excited…..my Mod Podged paper didn’t bubble at all!!! My very first Mod Podge project that didn’t bubble at all. It was a bit of a challenge to get the extra paper sanded off the edges of the X’s because I couldn’t get my sanding block in there, I ended up using a emery board for most of it. Here’s a close up of how the letters look.

(okay, so maybe they bubbled a little, but hardly at all). I just wanted to do something that wasn’t traditional Valentine colors, and I am pleased with this project.

Linked to: Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous; Craft Party @ Crafts In Bloom; Get Your Craft on Thursday @ Life as Lori; Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Feature Friday: Micki's Valentine tier

I finally got a day off work after working 6 twelve hour shifts in a row, so I needed to do something fun. My friend Rozanna came over to help me make cupcake tiers. Well in the middle of it we ran out of epoxy. When we stoppted at Wally's to get some more she found these:

They are the melamine plates and plastic cups (total per tier it cost us about $5). So we stuck them together.

And voila teacher gifts!!!

Unfortunately hot glue doesn't work well to stick them together I found out. Mine met and early demise when I was trying to put it together while we were out running errands. The top 2 fell off. So my dh stopped and got me super glue and it didn't dry. I am not sure what I did wrong. So I don't have a picture of the finished product. I ended up just wrapping up the small teddy bear and the candy in the cello wrap and just giving them to the teacher. R*I*P!

THANKS FOR THE IDEA ROZ!!!

Linked to:

Get Your Craft On Thursday @ Life as Lori; Craft Party @ Crafts In Bloom; Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous; Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Don't forget to enter our first ever giveaway.....go here!

Guest Day Thursday: Kathy from Creative Home Expressions

Our guest blogger today is Kathy from Creative Home Expressions. She is and interior designer by trade and a blogger extraordinaire! She has had a couple of snow days lately (we don’t even know what those are here), and has been able to work on a couple of projects (lucky her). Here she is today to share a fun project with our readers! Thank you so much Kathy!!!

I’m thrilled to be a guest blogger at 2Sisters 2gether! Thank you Teri and Micki! In keeping with a project that is also home decor related, I thought I’d share a quick coaster project.

I had purchased this package of six coasters at Michaels from their $1.00 bins thinking that I could use them in another way {which I did, but that’s for another upcoming post}. They are labeled as “paper coasters”, but are cardboard. I had one left that I didn’t use.

I bought these napkins at TJ Maxx {or Marshalls ~ one of the two} with my first name initial.

Since I have reset myself up at the desk in our living room {another future post}, I realized I needed a coaster for my coffee while I’m reading so many awe-inspiring blogs in the morning. Actually, hubby said, “you should put something under your cup so it’s not right on the desk”. Sheesh!

So I took my extra coaster and one of my “K” napkins; and a little Mod Podge, and set to work to make myself a pretty coaster.

These napkins are smaller than the white ones with the monogram in black, like the one I did here on a plate, so they didn’t fit the full round of the coaster.

I added some scrap book paper first as a base, then cut out the “K” with some of the design to fit on top of that. You are only using the top layer of the napkin, so you’ll need to be careful. I just put Mod Podge on the coaster base and applied the napkin right on top. When that was dry, I put a coat of Mod Podge over the whole thing.

Then, once everything was dry, I sprayed it with some polyurethane spray for protection.

Now I have a coaster for my coffee cup that matches my living room and hubby doesn’t have to turn into me and “suggest” I put something under my cup!

Teri has a Diet Coke that totally needs this! Thanks again Kathy! (Can you believe this is her first guest post?).

Don't forget to enter our first ever giveaway here!

What’s Cookin’ Wednesday: Easy Chocolate Pudding Cake (Teri)

My hubby decided he wanted to make this for our Super Bowl Feast. It was delicious. There were two definite plusses for me: 1-hubby made it, not me; 2- it was made in the crock pot! How cool is that!?! Who knew you could bake in a crock pot, certainly not me. Doesn’t it look yummy? It was! All that pudding goodness in the middle!

The recipe is from Crock-Pot Recipe Collection.

1 pkg (6 serving size) instant chocolate pudding and pie filling mix

3 cups milk

1 package (about 18 oz) chocolate fudge cake mix, plus ingredients to prepare mix

Crushed peppermint candies (optional)

Whipped topping or ice cream (optional – but ice cream is recommended by me anyway)

1-Coat 4 1/2 quart Crock-Pot slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Place pudding mix in Crock-Pot slow cooker. Whisk in milk.

2-Prepare cake mix according to package directions. Carefully pour cake mix into Crock-Pot slow cooker. Do not stir. Cover; cook on High 1 to 1 1/2 hours our until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean (note: don’t stick it all the way down or you will just get pudding).

3-Spoon into cup or onto plate; serve warm with crushed peppermint candies and whipped topping or ice cream if desired. Tip: let cool at least 5 minutes before removing from Crock-Pot slow cooker.

(just fyi I don’t have a Crock-Pot brand slow cooker, I just copied the recipe verbatim, so take it for what it’s worth)

Don't forget to enter our giveaway! Just leave us a comment which one you want and that you are a follower!

Tadpole Tuesday: Valentine Cards (Teri)

While we were “watching” the Superbowl on Sunday we pulled out stuff we had at home to make some Valentine cards to send to our out of town family (that would be all of our family). We used everything we had on hand with the exception of buying a package of cards to decorate. This whole project to make 20 cards for my son’s class, 10 for my daughter’s friends, and 15 to send away cost us less than $3 because we had everything else on hand.

This is one made by my son, he wanted a picture of a ship from the old reading book I was using. He’s still little, but he loves to be creative.

This one was made by my daughter, she was very much into making unique cards this year (and about using her paper trimmer). My daughter had a good eye for different ways to put things together. She had a lot of fun slicing up the paper for the front of this card.

I wanted to include more of my kids cards, but I wasn’t up to editing their names out of the pictures (and of course I didn't think to take a picture BEFORE they signed their cards). Trust me though, they were darling!

Here are my three favorite cards that I made using an old reading book and some aged sheet music.

No this picture isn’t sideways, I put a piece of the pronunciation guide from the back of the reading book on sideways on purpose. (I keep telling myself it’s okay to tear this already falling apart book up to use creatively, but I’m telling you it goes against every fiber of my being. I am a true book lover, and it feels like murder to tear and cut pieces of a book). I love the way that the “onion skin copy paper” curls up around the edges of the book page.

It’s a toss up between this one and the next one which is my favorite. I thought that the title of this song was perfect! I loved that I was able to turn the card so that the lines go diagonal down it, I covered the front and back of this card.

I loved the picture on this card. I also loved the texture I was able to add with the ric rack and the fabric patch letters. It was also fun to use the juxtaposition of the misspelled letters on top of the page from the reading book! I know, it’s silly, but I am easily entertained.

Linked to:

Talented Tuesday @ My Frugal Family; Market Yourself Monday @ Sumo's Sweet Stuff; Met Monday @ BNOTP; Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Design; Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog; Craft Party @ Crafts In Bloom; Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous; Get Your Craft on Thursaday @ Live as Lori; Weekend Wrap-Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello

Mystery Monday: Coupon Organization (Teri)

If any of you visited us clear back in October, you may remember this post, where I talked about saving money on groceries. If not, go back and read it, see if any of the tips would work for you, or if you have any more for us. Today I’m going to share with you how I organize my coupons.

In this post I shared with you that I use a website called Pinching Your Pennies to help find the “deals”. There are many sites out there to help you know where to find the best deal on things you buy, but I like this one the best for a couple of reasons, first off, it’s FREE and who doesn’t like that price. Secondly, they have teamed with Grocery Smarts to make a customizable printable grocery list of deals. With this system I also get multiple Sunday papers, thus getting multiple sets of ads (I get 3). This requires that I organize them so that I can find them. Thus my coupon crate.

I know you are wondering why you would need an entire crate to organize your coupons. The reason being is because I don’t clip them, at least not until I’m ready to use them. The way the PYP website works is that it tells you what is on sale, how good of a deal it is, and where to find the coupon you need for this item. I save my coupons for 5 months (If you count, you’ll know I don’t have 5 months worth, my dh threw about 3 weeks worth away because they were causing clutter….I could have throttled him), then I toss them, by this point they will all be expired. As you can see I have multiple categories.

Everything behind the Smart Source tab is that type of insert, ditto for Red Plum, General Mills and Proctor and Gamble, these are your “brands” of inserts. I also use printed coupons, and I print the ones I will use when I see them, and them I save them for when I need them. If you want a good tutorial about how to use your coupons, how to read the website, etc, go to the Utah Forum on PYP and they have some great tutorials (not sure if the other states do or not, but the same general principles that apply in Utah will apply elsewhere as well). It’s great for beginners (and seasoned couponers as well). Each week of coupons is put in it’s own sheet protector to make it easy to pull out all 3 inserts together.

I write the date the insert came in sharpie on the upper right hand corner of each insert so that I easily spot what weeks coupons I’m looking at.

After I have made up my shopping list and printed it out, I clip/print the coupons I need and fold them inside the list and put them in an envelope to take with me. It may not be a perfect solution, but it works for me (I pretty much copied my friends organization, so it’s not even an original idea……THANKS SUNNIE!!!) If you want more tips on saving on your groceries, click here to take you to my post from October.

I also have folders for restaurants, stores and services (things in here range from Children’s Place % off coupons to ones for oil changes), and one for clipped coupons which doesn’t have anything in it right now.

So I guess today’s mystery is:

Do you have a coupon organization system that works for you?

Linked to:

Favorites Linky Party @ They Byrd Nest; Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

100th Post Giveaway (closed)

We have had so much fun writing this blog and interacting with all you out there in bloggy land, that we decided to have our very first giveaway. It’s to celebrate our 100th post. Now, it’s not something big or exciting, but it is from us, made with love. You have your choice of the following cupcake tiers:

Your fourth option is something custom with a color of your choice, but this may take a while, as I will have to find the dishes in that color. Glasses are difficult to find in colors for a reasonable price, so it will still probably have to be clear glasses.

Here’s how the giveaway works. Requirement #1 you have to be a follower of our blog, #2 you have to leave a comment on this post telling us which tier you would like (so tell us in your one comment that you are a follower and which tier you would like). Pretty simple. We will leave this open until next Sunday (Valentine’s Day) and then we will use an uberscientific method to choose who wins (we’ll have our mom pick a number). There you go! Thanks for taking the time to stop by our blog, it’s awesome to hear from you.

Sharing the Bloggy Love

As we promised, we are passing along the award we received from the Misty at Six Divided by Two. This award was given to blogs who “think outside the box and cherish individuality”. We believe the following blogs do, so without further delay, here is who we have decided to pass the love to.

Amanda at Serenity Now….A Mommy’s Solution to Staying Sane for always making us laugh and for blogging in her unique style because it’s her “serenity/sanity” not because she’s here to impress us (although she does).

Teri at Mama Thompson for finding new and different twists on some of the “trendy” decor trends out there. And for not being afraid to talk about who she is and what she believes (and because she has a great name that is spelled the RIGHT way). (also, look for a guest post from her soon)

Lastly (but not leastly) to Sara at Cupcake Muffin for having such unique recipes and new twists on old favorites. Take a gander to see what we’re talking about.

We hope you visit these lovely ladies and see what we’re talking about. Don’t be afraid to tell ‘em we sent ya, because we want them to know we love what they’re doing!

Amanda, Teri and Sara, feel free to pass the love along. Let others know how much you appreciate them putting themselves out there.