I am sitting in my NEW office in my NEWLY finished basement LOVING every minute of being down here! Of course, there’s still a lot of work to be done, but I”M HERE!
On to the freebie…
Click HERE to download the August calendar. Have a great weekend!
-Emily
A couple of weeks ago, I posted some Temple Silhouettes as a Friday Freebie. Since then, we’ve gotten lots of comments asking if we had certain temples, or how to do it. So, I thought I’d do a quick tutorial today! I posted all the temples I had done, but here's how to do it yourself. You need some version of photoshop. I’m sure you could use a different photo editing program, I just don’t have a clue about any! I’m pretty much die hard photoshop. I use photoshop 7, but you can do it with pretty much any version as far as I know.
Step 1:
Create a new layer, whatever size you prefer (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, etc. are best for printing purposes). Find an image or picture you want to turn into a silhouette. It is much easier to us an image that has a pretty solid background. The image I’m using is about as simple as it gets, but you can use these steps with any image/picture. So here’s what I’m starting with:
Step 2:
Use the magic wand tool to select and then delete the background around the main image (that will be the silhouette). Use the eraser tool to erase any lingering junk. The goal is to get the background totally white. My image was already like this, but in a picture there will often be sky and clouds that need to be totally deleted, like this one:
Before:
After deleting the background: 
Step 3:
Desaturate (make black and white) the image. Adjust the brightness balance by maxing out the the contrast (all the way to 100) and moving the brightness in the negative direction until right before the entire image goes totally black. The numbers on this vary, depending on the picture. You just have to mess around with it, but this is where it will begin to look like a silhouette...like this: 
Step 4:
Now comes the tedious part. Once you’ve adjusted the brightness contrast, there’s a lot of touching up and erasing that needs to be done to make it look like a solid silhouette. Alternate between the paint brush (with black paint) and the eraser to finish everything off. Do this until you get the result you’re looking for.
Step 5:
Add text…whatever you want to say!
Step 6:
Flatten your image and save as a .jpeg file.
That’s it! Hopefully this all makes sense. Email or comment with questions!
-Emily
On Friday, my little brother Brad, returns home from his mission in Portugal! I cannot even tell you how excited I am to see him! I am also SO proud of my little bro! Getting his emails every week and seeing him grow has been truly amazing. We (the hubby, the kids and I) leave Monday to go to Seattle to see Brad and spend the week with the entire family back together, for the first time in 2 years! I have the best fam!
If you may be interested in what our church is all about, visit www.lds.org.
May the missionaries of the world always be in our hearts and prayers!
-Emily
Blueberry Buckle
Heat oven to 375
Mix together:
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C soft shortening
1 egg
Stir in:
1/2 C milk
Mix in:
2 C flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Carefully blend in 2 cups well drained blueberries and pour into greased and floured 9" square pan.
Mix together and sprinkle over top of dough:
1/2 sugar
1/3 C flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C soft butter
Bake 45 to 50 minutes.
Happy Tuesday!
-Emily
(image taken from google images, I did not actually take the picture!)
For over a year, we’ve been trying to finish our basement. One of the things we loved about our house when we bought it, was that it had room to grow, aka, an unfinished basement. With all the family we now have living around us, we definitely need the space!
Here’s the problem, once I get the idea that something is going to happen, or that I’m going to get something…I want it now! So this whole taking over a year to finish is starting to get old! Who am I kidding, it was old like a year ago! But, there is finally light at the end of this long tunnel! It is SO close I can taste it, but of course that almost makes it worse! The rest of my house is suffering big time! For some reason, I have no motivation to do any of my normal cleaning in anticipation for the day I can move everything downstairs! My office and ALL the toys will be in the basement, which will take a HUGE chunk of the day to day mess out of sight! Did I mention I couldn’t wait for this day?!
Well, it should all happen this week….at least that’s the plan! My hubby is doing most of the work, so it all has to happen after work! But we are going out of town next week, so I would love it to for real be done before we leave! Here’s to wishful thinking…right?! Wish me luck!
Happy Monday!
-Emily
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this idea! How cute is this:
A PERFECT gift for a neighbor or friend during the summer! GO print out Eighteen25s cute tag for FREE HERE.
- Cammie
I have seen a few of these doorway puppet theaters and thought they looks so cute and SO easy ( I love easy…especially after Em and I went crazy on our PVC pipe houses) I thought this would be a great project. You could make one of these and add a few puppets to make a great gift! Jaime at Her Hobby has a great tutorial!
- Cammie
Emily mentioned all the new changes we’ve made but how many of you noticed our site is now a .com? Our new website is www.pocketmealplanning.com! Go ahead and look at the address bar!! We love all the changes and we hope you do to! We also love hearing feedback from you, so if you have any please leave us a comment or email.
***Also don’t forget in honor of our Grand Opening and of all the changes we made, we are offering a 10% off of ANY purchase DISCOUNT that ends TODAY!
The discount code: “grandopening10”
(Ends TODAY, July 21, 2010)
- Cammie
2. A bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips (use the whole bag if you want)
All you do is follow the directions for the brownie mix, add the peanut butter chips, and bake (because of the added chips we cooked for about 5 minutes less) Let cool slightly then eat up with a tall glass of milk! YUM YUM!
- Cammie
This past weekend was BUSY! As most of you know I am a mother of 3 children, ages 8, 7, and 4 and I’m 7 months pregnant with my 4th. My kids keep me pretty busy and I’m sure any mom would agree that children keep you on your toes! To add to my busy weekend I took Emily’s 2 kids ages 2 and 8 months for the weekend. I love her kids and they really are easy and such great kids but their ages are a little more demanding and with being pregnant, and having less energy I was worn out by the end of the weekend. I came home from church today and fell right to sleep on the couch (I never fall asleep on the couch, so that tells you something!) I LOVE being a mother and wouldn’t trade it for ANYTHING! I came across this article “You Might Be a Mother If” and I love how much I can relate to it.
By Leslie Wilson
- Every shirt you own has spit-up on the shoulder.
- Must-see TV includes Barney, Arthur and Disney Playhouse.
- You carry a diaper bag instead of a purse.
- You analyze babies’ bodily functions with women you just met.
- “Sleeping in” is when the clock reads 6:30 a.m.
- You never go anywhere without baby wipes.
- You sleep with a baby monitor a foot away from your head.
- With each subsequent child, you’ve progressed from sterilizing the pacifier to washing it off to blowing on it, invoking the three-second rule.
- Your children are better dressed than you.
- You used to be known by your first name - now you’re Jordan’s mommy.
- You store five sizes of clothes in your closet.
- You call your husband on his cell phone in order to have a real conversation with him.
- You go to bed at 12:30 a.m. and get up at 5:00 a.m., thankful for the extra sleep.
- Excitement means Pampers are on sale.
- You consider PBJs and Cheetos a nutritious meal.
- You can change from lounging-sweats casual to night-on-the-town glamorous in three-and-a-half minutes.
- “Doing lunch” means meeting three friends and their preschoolers at the McDonald’s Playplace.
- Hearing the words, “I’m done,” from the bathroom sends chills up your spine.
- You own more Disney movies than pairs of shoes.
- You can pee with three children watching you - and only two are yours.
- You spend more on babysitters than you do on utilities.
- If you were trapped for days in your car, you could survive on the Cheerios and french fries on your floorboards.
- You can tell what your daughter ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner by looking at the front of her T-shirt.
- You willingly hug and kiss a kid who has sticky fingers, sweat-drenched hair and a milk mustache.
- You’re overworked, overcommitted and underappreciated - and you wouldn’t trade your life for anything in the world.
- Aren’t these SO true? I love the “doing lunch” means meeting friends and their preschoolers at the McDonald’s Playplace. (most the time its the park) I also liked, You used to be known by your first name - now you’re Jordan’s mommy. There are several friends at church that call me Jer’s mommy or Brigg’s mommy.
- Cammie
A while ago, I got really into learning how to do silhouettes in Photoshop. And, when I get “really into” something, I tend to go a little crazy. I ended up making several different LDS Temple silhouettes and Cammie and I gave them as gifts one Christmas.
My hubby and I were married in the San Diego, CA temple (I still have anniversary on my mind!) so I framed an 11x14 San Diego temple silhouette and have it in our home. I love it. So, I thought I’d share the different temples I have.
(*If you want a tutorial on how to create your own temple silhouette, go HERE.)
San Diego, CA
St. Louis, MO Boise, ID
Dallas, TX Mesa, AZ 
Nauvoo, IL Oakland, CA
To use these images, click on an image to enlarge an right click, save as. Have printed at a photo center or on card stock.
-Emily
While I was grocery shopping yesterday, I found strawberries and blueberries on a GREAT sale, so I decided (then and there) that I would buy a bunch and do some freezing. So, I thought I’d share!
Flash freezing is super easy, and keeps the berries (or whatever you’re freezing) from freezing together. This makes it easier to use what you want straight out of the freezer (no thawing) and return what you don’t want back to the freezer! Here’s what I did…
1. Wash and dry your fruit.
2. For the strawberries, I cut off all the green stems and any bad parts. Then spread out fruit on a cookie sheet and stick it, uncovered, in the freezer for about 30 minutes.
3. Dump your fruit in any sized ziploc freezer bag or containers and store in the freezer!
I can’t wait to make some yummy smoothies or blueberry pancakes! Man I love summer!
-Emily
We have been busy, busy making TONS of changes here on Pocket Full of Posies! Over the next few days be on the look out for several improvements and changes. We have so many things planned and in the works, we just couldn’t wait to start sharing! The first, and probably most exciting for us, is the introduction of our NEW STORE! And we are considering today our “Grand Opening!” Our new store is easier to navigate, easier to understand, and just plain better! Don’t worry, we have all the same products, it will just be even easier to purchase them!
We are also in the process of going .com! We are SUPER excited about this and hope to have it all figured out and done by the end of this week! Along with the upgrade, we are changing a few of the cosmetics of our site and adding some great stuff! So, be sure to check out all our new features and pages! In the next few weeks we have even more exciting additions! Pocket Full of Posies is moving up…watch out world!
So, in honor of our Grand Opening and of all the changes we are making, and because we are just too excited, we will be offering a DISCOUNT for the next week! So, check out our new store and receive 10% off of ANY purchase! Yay for discounts! Spread the word, tell all your friends, blog about it, Facebook it, Twitter it…do it all! We are pumped!
Here’s the discount code: “grandopening10”
(good through July 21)
Let us know what you think about all this! Happy shopping!
-Emily
Since our anniversary fell on a Monday this year (yesterday to be exact!), the hubs and I decided to celebrate this coming weekend. Cammie is taking our children for TWO WHOLE NIGHTS! And we are spending the weekend ALONE at home! I cannot wait…seriously! I don’t remember the last time I’ve been able to sleep in…I wonder if I can still do it!
Now, of course, this means I’m going to have to make this yummy treat for our weekend alone! Mmmm…can’t wait!
May your Tuesday be Tasty!
-Emily
Today is the anniversary of the day I married the man of my dreams. 5 years together, and I can’t believe how fast it’s flown by! I came across this the other day on a favorite blog, Love Actually, and just had to share. I was cracking up! And, since today is a day of love for me, I thought it was perfect!
Tech Support for Installing a Husband (taken from Love Actually, author unknown)
Dear Tech Support,
Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.
In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NBA 5.0, NFL 3.0 and Golf Clubs 4.1.
Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed,
Desperate
———————
Dear Desperate,
First, keep in mind that Boyfriend 5.0 is an entertainment package while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Please enter the command: ithoughtyoulovedme.html, download Tears 6.2 and be sure to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If those applications work as designed Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.
However, please remember that overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.
Whatever you do DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (It runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)
In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0-program. This is an unsupported application and will crash Husband 1.0.
In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Cooking 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.
Good Luck!
Tech Support
Seriously, hilarious! Of course, I love my Husband 1.0 upgrade and wouldn’t change anything!
Have a great Monday!
-Emily
Remember how I told you I was going to make a dress for Ali? Well my mom and I tag teamed it tonight! BUT as she was sewing she realized we forgot to buy bias tape. It was late and we didn't want to run to the store, so I got online to learn how to make our own bias tape out of the material we already had. I found a great tutorial from Savvy Seams. It was SO easy and I've actually wanted to learn how to make bias tape for awhile! So as my mom kept on sewing I whipped out some bias tape! Here is a picture of the finished project! Isn't it darling? 
This is what I call the BEST fruit salad EVER!!! It is called Best Grape Salad. I am in AZ with my family right now and for the 4t of July. My brother-in-law works for the fire department who are in charge of the fireworks. Before the fireworks the department puts on a BBQ and potluck with all the employees family and friends. We were all invited this year. SO my sister Amber made this AMAZING grape salad. The best part was while we were eating there was a guy going around with the empty grape salad bowl asking everyone if it was there bowl. He finally came up to my sister and asked her if it was her bowl. When she said yes he was SO excited! He took her over to his wife clear across the field just to show her he found the person that made the amazing dish! He was so excited he found her and of course he requested the recipe! Here is the recipe:
(Picture from OrgJunkie)
There are SO many reasons why I need to re-organize my filing system, one is that since our Dave Ramsey class we have been trying to organize our finances and get all our paper work in order. Another reason is because I am terrible at filing things away, ONLY because I know I’m going to have to search more than I want to in order to even FIND the right file the paper belongs in! My files right now are all jumbled and mixed up, there is no order to them. So I have been getting a few tips! One tip I actually got from a friend of mine, who by the way is SUPER organized.
She said one thing that is SO important about organizing your filing system is that all the tabs are in line with each other. It is more pleasing to the eye and easier to find the file you need. I also happened upon Organizing Junkie’s Filing System and she does a whole makeover to her filing system, I love her sub-categories, and if you notice her tabs are in line with each other! Good luck, I know this task will take longer that I want and my office will look worse before it looks better!
- Cammie
Before I get to the freebie for today…
I thought I’d compile a bunch of pictures I found using Google Image search of 4th of July food ideas. Now, because I found all of these pictures via google image search, I cannot give credit to any of them…or give you a recipe. These are simply for inspiration! Happy 4th of July! Oh, and don’t forget to download your FREE July calendar!
And now for the freebie…as promised!
Click HERE to download this calendar.
-Emily
Warning…this post is a total cop out! Life has been super busy lately and so I’m afraid I haven’t had time to write or find a good tutorial for you all today. I’m sad to admit that I’m totally dropping the ball today. So, I promise to have a great freebie for everyone tomorrow! And, don’t forget to check out our giveaways going on RIGHT NOW!
-Emily
