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.

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.

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!!!

Guest Day Thursday: Teri from Mama Thompson

2 sisters 2gether welcomes….

Hi...I'm Teri...(not this Teri:)...Mama Thompson Teri...and I am very excited to be guest posting here at 2sisters 2gether...I just love these girls and all the great stuff they do

(and not just because one of them is a Teri...although that can't hurt right?).

I'm a stay at home mama to one adorably cute and way too smart almost 3 year-old. I have been blogging for the past couple of years documenting the life of my cute Lil D (Life as a Thompson)...but decided back in September that I needed a place to document all the things that I love to do.

And thus began Mama Thompson.

I love trying new things...I love anything I can create with my own 2 hands...but what I LOVE most...is the satisfaction of seeing something and then making or doing it on my own. Whether it's a new recipe, a craft or decor for my home, a piece of jewelry or a total room makeover...I want to try it. Mama Thompson is the person that I strive to be...a better mom, wife, and homemaker...a "Mama" in every sense of the word.

If you feel the need to head on over to my neck of the woods (which I hear is just a few hours north of 1 of these sisters),

you will find...

"All the things I do in a day...well...when the (almost) 3 year-old let's me"

Jewelry

I also have an etsy shop, T's ETC

(I can make a shameless plug here right?:)

Furniture makeovers

Decor for Lil D

Decor for the home and holidays

What we eat (a variety of recipes)

and my favorite thing to do when I get the chance,

crafts

currently though...I'm doing lots of room makeovers...

(I am redoing 80% of my home from the basement up)

So that's me...just a mama...who likes to do well...

stuff!

Isn’t she great? We love to visit her blog (and it isn’t even because she has a great name). You need to be sure to read about the month she didn’t eat out AT ALL, her play makeup for little girls, and her darling version of the oh so popular ornament wreath. Thanks Teri for guesting here today (and shameless plugs are just fine 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?).

Tales of a Shared Womb: Honored Guests!

It certainly is an exciting week here at 2sisters! We have gotten an award (incidentally we received it from the two lovely ladies you are about to meet), posted our 100th post, and now we are having our second guest blogger (okay really second and third)!

We are beyond excited to welcome our guest bloggers today, we will let them introduce themselves. We love to read both their blogs, and hope you will enjoy them as well!

Hello and Howdy !!!

Let us begin by saying that is a complete honor to be guest bloggers!!

We are Angelique and Misty and we are identical twin sisters.

Angelique is the proud blogger of Six in One Hand

and

Misty is the bloggy diva of Six Divided By Two

known together as the Six Sisters.

Angelique: " Why do I just get to be a proud blogger and you the diva? No mam.."

Misty : I said PROUD blogger....

This is us all the time..

We love being twins . Would not change it for anything but we know the downside and (always) funny side of being a twin. So we thought it would be funny to share with you what we call,

"The Six Perils of Being a Twin"

1.Your children do not know who is who.

Angelique: " A common phrase in our family is, " I am not your mother.."

Misty: " So true. Once when my oldest was small she came up to me at church and said, " Hi Angelique!"

Angelique: " Do you remember when our kids were small? We would press our faces together and they would cry because they could not tell who was who..!"

2. Jilted Boyfriends!!

Misty: (laughing so hard she is in tears) Oh yes.. I almost forgot! The guy I never called back..

Angelique: I will never forget it!! He came up to me in the grocery store ranting about why you never called.

I told him I was your twin and he got mad. " Don't give me the old I have a twin routine!"

After I showed him my driver's license he apologized.

Misty: Never did call him back lol!!!

3. The infamous affairs

Misty: Whoa Baby!! I thought I was going to have to get a divorce behind that one!! My husband and I go out to dinner one night. He had been out of town for a few days. The waiter comes over and is telling me how busy of a woman I must be. He tells my husband that I was there last night with another man! OK I am pissed! I swear up and down it's not true - because it was NOT!!

Angelique: I had to explain to my brother in law that I had been on a date at that restaurant the night before!!

Misty: I wanted to kill that waiter. I had no idea what he was talking about!! We laughed about it later but I was not amused.

Angelique: That is why we always told each other where the other was going to be or had been. lol

4. Girlfriends you know nothing about

Misty: How many times has this happened? But the best one was your friend screaming,"Angelique !!" from the third level of the mall. Mind you I am on the first level. That would have been okay but even after I told her I was your sister she was screaming her conversation and phone number from the third level

Angelique: Yes, I know. I have mastered the art of playing you and never saying the person's name!!

5. Being accused of abandoning your newborn at the hospital!!

Angelique: I still can't believe that one!! The nurses thought you were me when Alex was born.

Misty: They personally escorted me to your room... I was waiting to see the looks on their faces!! All I wanted was a soda.

6. The Questions

Misty: What is the question that you get asked the most?

Angelique: "Where is your sister?"

Misty: "Who is the good twin and who is the bad twin?" or mean vs. nice-

Angelique: " How many minutes are you apart?

Misty: That's my fav. Do you always rank strangers this on a regular basis? I'm just wondering....

Angelique: "If I hit you will your sister feel it?"

Misty: No, but you will if you hit my sister. Once again, back to that rank strangers thing.

But there are sooo many things that we love about being twins..

The bond that we share is uncanny. Being a twin, to be so close to a person, is truly a gift from God. A friendship/sisterhood that could never be broken or explained.

Thank you so much girls, we can totally relate to so many of those things. We have gotten good at either playing each other, in fact we answer to each others names more often than to our own. It makes it hazardous when you work with someone with your sister's name. We long ago decided though, that Micki IS the evil twin (she even has a shirt that says "I am the evil twin". It's all good.

Being a twin is truly a gift from God. We don't know how we would ever survive without each other. One cannot truly understand the bond that you share as a twin unless you are one, it's just impossible.

Guest Day Thursday: Fabulous Jane

We would like you all to give a warm welcome to our guest host today! Her name is Jane and she is FABULOUS!

She is hosting our 100th post!!!

Yes ladies and gentlemen....this is our 100th post!!!

Take it away Jane!

Hey guys, Jane here from Finding Fabulous! That's me above with kid 1 & 2 who are just the very center of my universe! Okay, I'm pretty fond of the white furry guy too! I'm so excited to be guest hosting over at 2 Sisters 2Gether, they are so fun...I just love all their fabulous crafty projects and yummy recipes too!

Well my blog Finding Fabulous pretty much describes itself. I'm all about finding fabulous design...on a budget, for less, without breakin' the bank! Yup, no need to spend a ton of money if your looking to spruce up your home. Here's a peek at some of my projects:

Here's my Wrought Iron moulding project above our bed! For this project I framed out the wrought iron wall hanging with simple trim moulding. And talk about thrifty...the iron piece was just $25 and the moulding under $10. And for under $40, I've got a big focal point with some much needed heighth and drama to an otherwise simple bed!

Did you know you can buy Wine Crates at Total Wine for about $5 each? Yup, just 5 bucks! I gave my crates an aged appearance by staining them. Super easy, super fun and aren't they fabulous for above hutches and armoires?

Do you need new picture frames? Do not, I repeat, do not go out and buy new ones! Go find some old ones (either from your attic or your local Thrift Store) and spray paint them. Here I used Rustoleum's Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint for the frame on the far right. I confess, I love ORB spray paint...this stuff rocks!

Here are a pair of antique chairs that have been in my husband's family for at least 100 years. They used to be covered in leather and were in bad shape. I recovered them in this fun fabric I found at Garden Ridge for just $5.99 for two yards.

Okay, I have a confession...I'm not real Crafty, but more of a roll up your sleeves Diy kinda gal. But every now and then I pull it off. Here's my twine wrapped wine bottle. I got this idea from the Thrifty Decor Chic, but used a large wine bottle as the base. This project was super easy, super fun and you can't get any thriftier than making home accessories with items from your recycling bin!

And finally here's my thrifty home office! Instead of going with a bulky, overpriced executive desk (those babies go for 2 thousand dollars or more!). I chose to use a dining room table instead from World Market! The price was right, I loved the clean lines, and the desktop work space was HUGE! Oh and those fabulous botanical prints were FREE! Yup, free from an on-line website called Vintage Printables!

Okay, so there you have it, Finding Fabulous in a nutshell! I hope you like my projects and feel inspired to go revamp something in your home! It doesn't take a lot of money, or even any talent, just a "think outside the box" mindset, and a little creativity!

Oh and be sure to check out my day Frugalicious Friday! This day's all about sharing your fabulous, thriftiest, most frugalicious home decor finds and design projects! And give us the scoop on how you $ave!

Thanks again to the 2 Sisters for allowing me to be a guest host today...you crafty girls rock!

Thanks so much Jane! We love her blog, always full of fun decor items that don't break the bank. We love to link up to Frugalicious Friday, it's so fun to see all the money saving items and projects out there!

Keep yours eyes peeled ladies and gentlemen.....we have a surprise planned to celebrate our 100th post!

Tales of a Shared Womb: A Guest

Today we have a guest for Tales of a Shared Womb! Rozanna is one of our friends, and we asked her to share her story! We hope you enjoy her guest post.

Hi everyone! My name is Rozanna and I am not a twin but I am mother of (almost) 14 year old identical twin girls "A" and "B". Let me start by answering all of the questions right off the bat..... No they were not fertility treatment babies, I was 17 when they were conceived. Yes they are identical. Yes I had them naturally and not cesarean section. NO I don't have any identical twins in my family, fraternal yes, identical no. There are twins on my husband side but we don't know if they were identical or not. And finally yes, for the most part I can tell them apart and always have.

Lets just start with the basics here for starters. When they were born we kept baby “A”’s bracelet on from the hospital until she was about 6 weeks so everyone else could tell them apart. After she out grew her bracelet we had her ears pierced so we could tell them apart. We did try to paint her toes but It was very hard in pics to tell them apart and their toes were not visible. They did everything at the same time, teethed at the same time, got sick at the same time, even potty trained at the same time. They have always had this weird twin language that none of us understood. For instance, they would be sitting at the table eating their food and one would eat all the meat and the other all the potatoes and jabber some language and switch plates. Or while playing with a toy they would jabber something and both go off and pick up the same thing.

When they were getting their exams for their braces the orthodontist was completely shocked that they had the exact same mouths! The same craniofacial measurements, the same odd shaped tooth, and were missing the same adult teeth! At each and every dental appt, if they have cavities they have the same ones in the same teeth! Twin "B" has always been the sicker of the two with asthma and many nights was rushed to the er for steroids and breathing treatments. Whenever we had to go in the middle of the night “A” got to stay with grandma and as soon as they would give “B” steroids, instead of her getting wild and crazy like expected, her sister would at home with Grandma. Or when one acted sick and would pull on her ear we would take them to the Dr. Most of the time the twin that was symptomatic wasn't the one that was sick, the other one was!

Since they have been in school it has been brought to my attention many times (at the beginning of the year) that some teachers thought a little cheating was going on. They would have essay tests where they could pick the topic and both many times picked the same topic and wrote essays very similar to each other. Or would have a math test and miss the same answers. After the teachers got to know then and their "twiness" we haven't had any nasty grams about cheating but I am sure next year when they start High school they will start again.

We did have two cribs when they were born, bunk beds as they were small kids and now they each have their own rooms, but they still slept together. And by sleep together I don't mean in the same room, imagine two teenagers sleeping head to feet together in a twin sized day bed. I don't know how they get any sleep but they sure do!

Now that they are older they don't have twin language anymore but they do speak to each other telepathically (I swear)! For instance, this summer we were all outside (which is hard to do where we live) sweating our you know whats off when one of them out of no where started singing jingle bells. They just looked at each other and started cracking up! Everyone around them were very confused as to what was so funny when they told us that one of them was thinking about the song and the other one started singing it! They also constantly are finishing each other's sentences and talking at the same time.

Teri asked me a few questions so here we go...

How did you feel when you found out you were having twins?

Let me just say shocked! Like I said before I was 17 when I got pregnant which was a shock to my family in itself. I had lost so much weight from being sick no one at school really believed I was pregnant. My mom and I prayed so hard for a girl since I only had 2 brothers. We went in for my regular ultrasound at 20 weeks and when they put the us on my stomach my mom said "look at your twins!" We both started laughing and my Dr said "your right!" I said "Shut up that is not funny!!" He said he would never joke about something like that and showed me both of their heads. I just started crying and said just please tell me they are girls! My husband (who was in the room and we were broken up at that time) almost passed out and his mom was just in complete shock also! I just had gotten used to the idea of having one baby and now found out I was having 2! Big shocker!!

What is your favorite thing about having twins?

I never had a sister and even though my brothers and I are very close it is still not the same as having a sister so I would say that seeing the relationship between them is my favorite thing. It is a relationship that not everyone can understand.

What is the most difficult thing about having twins?

Honestly they were my first kids and they were so easy going that it was hard but I really had nothing to compare it too! I would say overall though The hardest thing is that we have two more children, another girl age 7 and a boy almost 5. The girls have each other and are very close so I think sometimes they pick on their sister and brother. The reason we actually went for baby #4 was not to try for a boy (as most people think), but because I wanted Hannah (My 7 year old) to have a sibling close to her age that she could grow up with since we waited 7 years between the twins and her. Also they would never betray each other which is a good thing but sometimes I worry that they would keep secrets from me that I need to know about just because they are so close.

Thanks so much Roz! We are laughing about the sleeping together part, because we totally did that. We each had our own room, and one of us had a full sized bed, so that’s where we always slept, clear up until Teri got married and left the house. We agree with you, unless you are a twin or have a close personal relationship with them (like being their mom), you can’t don’t fully realized how closely connected they are! How did you like hearing about other twins? We are looking forward to more guests soon!

Guest Day Thursday: Mr. H’s Birdfeeder (Teri)

My darling husband, Mr. H., loves to watch birds and we have had a couple of birdfeeders hanging up in the backyard that my kids made from recycled water bottles. We live in a rented condo and so he wanted something fun to watch out our kitchen window (looking out the back window, I’m sure you can see why). He found the plans for this bird-feeding station in Nature’s Garden Magazine. He added a suet feeder and a hummingbird feeder so we can attract different kids of birds.

Here’s the view from my back window:

Here’s a little friend I was able to catch from my back window. He’s a House Finch.

Want to know what those weird round things are, come back on Monday and find out.

Guest Day Thursday: Shannon the seamstress (Micki)

My sister in law, Shannon, is a wonderful seamstress. Before getting her job outside the home, she sewed for a living. She makes anything from bags, to shopping cart covers, to beautiful outfits for little girls. She is one of the most talented people I know. We are just beginner crafters compared to a lot of the people we know. Here are some pics of some of her beautiful work:
A darling purse she made for herself






Cart Covers (the second one even has a matching diaper bag):