I haven't tried royal icing yet but really want to, but my sister-in-law told me that when she tried it (wilton recipe) that it was so tough that she could hardly squeeze it out and it bent her tips. Any ideas to make it easier?

just add water to get the desired consistency. I found that if it was too stiff, it dried too hard and cracked off, anyway. it also did not look to nice. so just add a bit of water

and add a little bit of water at a time until desired consistency is reached. Too much water and the flowers will run into themselves and be a blob. Been there - done that!

I use antonia74's recipe and have no problems with it..I do thin it out for flooding.

http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1983-Antonia74-Royal-Icing.html

Sounds like she didn't have enough water in it. You may need to add more or less water than the recipe to get it to a comfortable piping consistancy. Just add your water in very small amounts at a time. You don't want it so thin that it does not hold its shape, but you don't want to hurt yourself trying to pipe either.