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:

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?

Mystery Monday: Blogger P’s and Q’s

We are finally back (hopefully) for the long haul. We just had a lot of catching up to do at home, and not projects were getting done to speak of, so there was nothing to post. We are glad to be back in the saddle again, it feels good!

Okay, how many of you are old enough that you have been told to mind your p’s & q’s. We certainly have. Our grandma (that we miss a lot) and our mom both have told us that. (On a side note: do you know how that saying came about? In the “olden days” in a pub when they would get rowdy they would be told to mind their pints and quarts, thus p’s and q’s) Well, we want to know if there is any such think as blogger etiquette?

We have set some standards for ourselves, but that’s about it. There are no hard and fast rules for blogger etiquette that we know of, so we are asking you to share with us.

The couple of “rules” we have set for ourselves are these. Be polite, if you don’t agree with something, or you don’t like a project someone has posted, just mind your mom and “when you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”. We wouldn’t want someone posting hurtful things on our blog, so we aren’t going to post them on yours. If we do disagree with you, and we leave a comment, know that we NEVER mean to hurt feelings, EVER. Secondly, if we join a bloggy party, it’s to network with other bloggers, and see what else is out there. Therefore, if we join a party, we only do so if we have time to visit at least 3 of the links and COMMENT on them, thus if we don’t leave a comment we visit another link. We feel that if we don’t have time right then to do this, we wait to join or don’t join at all. The last thing you will never see on this blog is swear words or vulgarity. If you do find something we believe offensive, we are sorry, that’s who we are. But, we will never offend your eyeballs with abbreviations or slang for swear words (ie. texting lingo), or with any vulgar thoughts. If you find anything like that on this blog, please let us know, we want to fix it. Last but not least, if you follow us or comment, we try to return the favor. Okay, so we don’t follow everyone who follows us….maybe that’s a “rule” we don’t know about, but anyway. If you follow us, we try to link to a blog you may have through your profile, and visit some of your posts and comment. If you comment, same thing, we try and visit your blog and comment. We have missed some of you, so if you have a blog and we haven’t commented on it, we probably don’t know about it, leave us a link in the comments section or email it to us at 2sisters2gether@gmail.com and we will be sure to visit.

That’s our version of blogger etiquette, what’s yours? We want to know how to improve our relations with other bloggers and enjoy our stay here in bloggerville!

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

Mystery Monday: What IS That? (Teri)

If you read this post, you know I have some crazy round things outside on my bird feeder station. I promised you that I would reveal what they are today. So, today’s mystery is what the heck IS that round thing on the bird feeing station? Here’s a close up picture that hopefully you might get a better view of what they are (there are 4 of them hanging up, one from each arm).

They are natural bird feeders that my husband and kids made. My husband sliced up a spaghetti squash that we hadn’t eaten, they then spread chunky peanut butter on it and stuck bird food and oatmeal to them. The birds have eaten some of it. They are just hung up with wire. It was a fun project and we like having a variety of things to feed the birds, so we can attract different birds. Here are a couple of little House Finches that were visiting us (the male is the one with red, see him checking out the girl?).

Do any of you have birdfeeders? What kind of birds do you attract? Have you made any “natural” birdfeeders?

Mystery Monday: Craft Day Mystery (Micki)

We fondly call this tulipalooza. :) It's time to get ready for craft day again!! I am so excited!!! It's going to be so much fun again. So we started getting ready earlier this time so it's not so much stress and money at the end. Here's the mystery: What are we making with these beautiful flowers? Hint: it's not a centerpiece.

Mystery Monday: Slump

Micki and I were talking about what to post today. As you notice there is no picture. We have both been in a craft slump. Not for the lack of desire or projects on our list, just for lack of time to get anything done. I have a couple of projects in the works, hopefully I’ll be able to post later this week, and Micki is busy getting ready for our next craft extravaganza at her mother-in-laws (it’s in mid March, lets hope you don’t have to wait until then to see a new project from us). So the mystery today is :

What projects are you working on, since we don’t have any to share?

Mystery Monday: Cleaning Products

We thought today we would share some of our favorite cleaning products with you.

Micki’s Favorites:

I love to use all natural cleaners that work great!! I know I am being preachy but they really are better for you and the environment. They are also better for my son who has asthma. These 2 are ones that I use everyday. The Mrs Myers Clean Day I use on my counter tops in the kitchen and bathrooms. The lavender is my favorite scent, but I like the lemon verbena too. The Holy Cow window cleaner I use on all the glass and mirrors in my home and it works great!! Smells great too!! I do not care for the Holy Cow multipurpose cleaner. It works well but smells really bad. I am really into the way my cleaners smell, because if they don't smell good, neither does your home (she forgot to tell you, especially when you have to cats, sorry Mick, had to add that).

Teri’s Favorite:

I LOVE Method brand multipurpose cleaner. I use it on my counters and table. It cleans well, smells good, and is better for the environment. I agree with Micki, if your cleaners don’t smell good, your house sometimes doesn’t either. I haven’t jumped on the natural product bandwagon as much as Micki has (or as much as I should either), but I do like it when I can use less harsh cleaners. Here’s what the company says about their products (I took this right from their website).

All method products contain natural ingredients. When you see the word "natural" on a method label, it means that 100% of its functional cleaning ingredients - things like soaps, detergents, solvents and enzymes - are either found in nature or derived from natural sources.

We use natural and naturally derived materials from renewable or abundant sources wherever we can. If we can't find a natural ingredient to get the job done, we'll use a safe, green, man-made version instead. In all cases, we only use ingredients that have passed through a comprehensive green and health screen: ingredients we have confirmed to be totally safe for people and safe for the environment.

"Natural" is still not a standardized or regulated term. So while we could, we won't call a product "natural" if even one of its functional ingredients isn't natural or naturally derived. When it comes to labeling our products, we hold ourselves to a high standard because we believe that a natural cleaner should actually come from nature.

The mystery: What are your favorite cleaning products?

Mystery Monday and Tadpole Tuesday in one: Scarves

Okay I know its cheating but I am doing a 2 for 1 post. My post for yesterday didn't get done after I worked my 4th 12 hour shift in a row. I am sorry. But todays is about the same thing so it all works out...right? :) My daughter got a gift from her Aunt Teri several years ago of a knifty knitter loom. On the loom you just figure 8 wrap the yarn up and down the loom to the desired width and then wrap it again the other way. Then you use a little tool to take the bottom yarn over the top one and it knits a scarf. Its so easy!! Well we never did really use it. So this week my friend Amey inspired me to get it out when she used hers to make me a scarf. So I made one, and each of my kids decided that they needed one too. So I took my tadpoles to pick out their yarn and bought the loom for hats too. Well, okay it wasn't just one loom, it was the variety pack of looms. I can't do anything small. I have to get everything that they have out for every project I do.

The new looms and my kids yarn
The scarf loom and tool (and partially done scarf)

My done scarf

Mystery Monday: Our Disappearance and a Feature

Today's mystery:

Where have we been?

I guess we are the only ones who can answer that. We have been enjoying each other's company over the Christmas holiday. It was an unintentional vacation, we meant to post the things we had planned, but life just got busy. It wasn't a priority this week. If you will indulge us, we will post the things we had planned for last week, this week. Sorry if you have to hear about Christmas again after Christmas, but we had some fun things planned. We hope everyone had a fabulous holiday, we did, because we were able to spend it together (the only thing missing was our parents who opted not to join us this year).



We would also like to give a shout out to Mod Podge Amy and thank her for featuring our Noel Blocks on her blog on Christmas Eve. We meant to tell you earlier, but like we said it just didn't happen. If you click here it will take you to our feature, but please stay and visit her blog, it's awesome!

Mystery Monday (tardy again): Christmas Snowman

We are sorry that this post is late......but you know how this time of year is. Time just gets away from you. We have suspended our Christmas traditions until Christmas Eve. Our last one is very special to us and we would love to talk about it on the Eve of Jesus' birth. So today we are featuring our last craft from craft day. Here is our darling little snowman....this is my mother in laws. :) What are some of your cute Christmas crafts? We hope you are having a good holiday season.

Mystery Monday: Christmas Traditions

The first year Micki was dating her husband she came home with him for Thanksgiving. Her husbands mom sent them to Kmart to buy candles for the table. While there she spotted a cute Christmas Teddy Bear. She told her hubby (then boyfriend) about it. She came home before him and when she picked him up at the airport he had the bear for her. So every year since then they have bought a Christmas Bear. This year she switched to Walmart because the bear was cuter! They decided to break the mold and not get a traditional colored one. It's kind of a cheesy tradition, but special to them. They are on their 14th bear. :) They have no idea where they are going to start putting them all. They are getting overrun with bears.
The poor dirty one in the front was their very first and Micki slept with him for quite awhile so he got a little tattered and stained. Oops.

One of our other traditions at the holiday season is that on New Years Eve Mother Goose comes to leave one small gift for the kids every year. When Micki and Teri were little one year Mother Goose left Monchichis (yes that will date us). We got a boy one and a girl one and named them Mon and Chichi. So creative weren't we?

Now for the mystery: What are some of your quirky Holiday traditions?

Edited: We are linking up to Somday Crafts Christmas Traditions party.

Mystery Monday: Christmas Elves & A Rat

For those of you who missed last weeks Mystery Monday, we are posting all about our Christmas traditions every Monday in December. If you missed last weeks post, you can read it here.

Since our girls were little the Christmas Elves have visited our houses. Our kids each have special pillowcases that have a little pocket that the Elves put a surprise in. I hope you can see the cute little pocket in the picture. Even though they are almost teenagers, they still get just as excited about the Elves. Now that they are bigger, the Elves leave things like lip gloss and nail polish. Their little brothers get things like toy cars and bouncy balls. It starts on the twelfth of December, because the last night that the Elves come is the twenty-third because the stockings get filled on the twenty-fourth.

Ever since Micki’s husband was little, his family has had a “Christmas Rat” under the tree. This is a cute little burlap rat that holds candy. There are specific candies that tradition dictates must fill the the rat, they are, York Peppermint Patties, Rolos, and Reese’s Peanut butter cups. One year Micki and her sister-in-law were sent to get the rat candy, and they bought crunchy Reese’s cups and Hersey’s Kisses instead of Rolos, when they arrived home with the candy they were promptly sent back to the store to purchase the correct candy. They now understand the proper care and feeding of the rat. All of the siblings in Micki’s husband’s family now have their own Christmas Rat to fill. The grandkids think it’s fabulous because they have unrestricted access to candy. Isn’t he cute?

What are some of your unique Christmas traditions?

We have to apologize for the sporadic posts, we are in Lost Wages (aka Las Vegas) for a conference and we have limited (free) internet access. This post will be edited soon to include a picture of the darling Christmas rat.

Edited: We are linking up to Somday Crafts Christmas Traditions party

Mystery Monday: Christmas Traditions (Teri)

For Thanksgiving, my family and I got to go home to stay with my parents and have Thanksgiving with my husband’s parents. It was such a great trip. Last week we shared some of our Thanksgiving traditions with you here. This month we are going to share some of our Christmas traditions with you every Monday all month. As mentioned last week, we usually decorate the tree the day after Thanksgiving. Our Dad had the tree up and ready to go when we got there on Wednesday, and then Friday morning while our Mom and I were out snagging some hot deals, my Dad helped the kids decorate with their collections of ornaments. Here are the highlights (I have to show you their house, because I haven’t put up one single Christmas decoration yet).

The tree in all it’s collected-over-the-years glory!

Remember the vintage elves we mentioned here? Here are our two favorites, because of course, they’re twins!!! (they are actually 2 separate elves, but they have never been alone, because we are twins, we make sure the twins always get put together)

What would any family decorated tree be without some homemade ornaments (that’s Teri in about the first or second grade, we only know that it’s Teri because it says on the back….the mouse was made when we were in the Brownies in about the third grade)

Our Daddy’s ornament that we got for him one year, because he was particularly Grumpy that year. He always holds a place of honor on the tree.

Hope you have enjoyed sharing a glimpse into one of our holiday traditions. Now for the mystery:

What are your Christmas tree traditions?

Edited: I'm not sure this really counts as DIY, but I DID make a couple of those ornaments (about a few billion years ago), so that counts right? Linking up to DIY Day @ Kimba's ASPTL

Funky Junk Interiors Christmas tree partyLinking up to Someday Crafts Christmas Traditions party

Mystery Monday: Thanksgiving Traditions and Micki's Fall Floral

Our Thanksgiving traditions include eating, eating and more eating. :) Our mom and mothers in law are great cooks. We love to spend the holidays with family, both of us are away from our parents right now, and so the holidays are extra special when we get to see them. For years on the day after Thanksgiving we decorated the Christmas tree with our dad. It's quite the hodge podge of ornaments, especially fisherman Santas, vintage elves and homemade ornaments by none other than yours truly (there's even a Grumpy dwarf ornament that we gave him one year when we were in college, because he had been grumpy a lot that year). Now when we get to go home Grandpa decorates the tree with the grandkids.



Now for the mystery......What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

I made this centerpiece last night at like 2 am. I work the night shift right now and can't sleep, so I craft. Here's the mess I made while making it and the finished product. :) I love it, and I had to have an owl because my sister did. I bought a Christmas ornament from Michaels that was an owl.

Mystery Monday: Craft Day Thursday

This was our first bi-annual craft day at my mother in laws. She is so wonderful and hosted me, my sister in laws and my friends for a day of fun and food. The best part was that last minute Teri got to come down. I was so happy to see her and we had so much fun. We spent time crafting and if we weren't crafting we were buying stuff for more crafts!! We made so many fun projects and gabbed and ate. It was a blast!! We learned a lot about what would make it easier for next time and I think everyone had as much fun as I did. We made 6 crafts in all. Here are some peeks.....more to come of our crafts. :) That's the Mystery part....what crafts did we make? lol

The prep work......(mostly by my mother in law)






Our friends......
















Our delicious food prepared by my wonderful mother in law (it was so yummy!!) (Sorry there's no picture of it when it had just been set out, but we were ravenous).




Us......(don't mine the all day craftathon after driving 6 1/2 hours hair :)) Micki is on the left and Teri on the right.
There was even dancing that happened, and we were gonna share, but we are not technologically smart enough to edit it, and it's too long to upload.