MAGAZINE COPY CAT CHALLENGE

I am just tickled to death to jump right into the big middle of
DEBBIE DOO'S
MAGAZINE COPY CAT CHALLENGE

I am playing with one of my all-time favorite COPY CAT posts...

TAILGATING DONE RIGHT
by COUNTRY LIVING MAGAZINE...

I just fell in love with this awesome photo in their magazine...

and...I pretty much knew when I saw it that

I JUST HAD TO TRY IT...

Isn't this picnic tailgating set up just the cutest thing...

Of course...I don't have a vintage , red plaid picnic basket...

nor a vintage to.die.for. cute thermos...

but, just maybe COUNTRY LIVING
didn't have an adorable
VINTAGE BLUE WICKER PICNIC BASKET...:)

Delicious HAM AND CHEESE sandwiches...

PICKLES and CHIPS...

juicy, ripe, red PEARS...

My vintage DRINK CROCK

full of 

ICED RASPBERRY  TEA
and my BLACKBERRY WINE...
I have TWO glasses...
One for you and one for me...

MR. SWEET just loves it when I use food in my photo shoots...:))

The beautiful wicker PICNIC BASKET with the cute RED checks

was given to me from MICHAEL LEE..

It was a giveaway and I was blessed to have my name drawn...

COUNTRY LIVING.....

SWEET NOTHINGS...

This was a LOT of fun...

Thank so much, DEBBIE.

I am also joining in with:

FOODIE FRIDAY with GOLLUM

FOODIE FRIDAY with THE RANCH

TICKLED PINK

FEATHERED NEST

HOME SWEET HOME

INSPIRATION FRIDAY

VINTAGE INSPIRATION

My thanks to all the lovely hosts..

I hope YOU will go by some of these great blogs and their parties.

Lots of fun.

THANKS so much for stopping in today.

xoxo bj

BISCUITS AND GOOD COFFEE

Hi, Sweethearts..   ♥

ANOTHER biscuit post...

are you just sick of them?

I have a few emails, asking for the recipe

so here I am doing another post on the sweet little things.

*wonder if I should put the recipe on my sidebar?*

 A big skillet of homemade BUTTERMILK BISCUITS
is a FANTASTIC way to start the day...
I make them pretty often...we LUV a good biscuit.

...just made a fresh pot of DUNKIN DONUTS coffee
in my vintage CORNING PECULATOR COFFEE POT.
You can smell and hear it perking all over the  cottage...
My Mr. Coffee went kerPlunk last week and I've not been in a big hurry to replace it.
I am enjoying the ♪♪ perk perk ♫♪ sound..
it takes me right back in the middle of my momma's kitchen...
♥♥♥
perk perk perk...
fresh cinnamon toast ...
a big glass of icy cold orange juice..
bwwaaaaaaaa, i want my momma...

I WISH I could say these came off my plum tree but...

they actually came from the market.

No matter WHERE they come from...they are ripe, sweet and full of juice..
♥♥♥
I actually don't even HAVE a plum tree but I am wondering...WHY NOT?
I should have planted one YEARS ago.
If YOU get a chance to plant a fruit tree, I urge you to do it..
You will so enjoy the fruit in a few years and, boy, it will be MUCH cheaper.

 These little COFFEE SHOP plates look so cute, nestled down with
the set of Wal*Mart dishes I bought a few years back.
I SELDOM buy NEW dishes but BOTH these sets were bought new...
♥ 

 This set seems to look ok summer and winter...
just depends what you put with them, I think.

I used my golden Rooster tablecloth here...
it seems to really bring out the golden color of the dishes...

and a touch of my signature BLACK and WHITE...
it just goes with ANYthing

The Wal*Mart dishes...
...a service for four...
When I went back to get another set, they had already discontinued them...
SHOOT..!!
Then, one day, early spring, I stopped at the ♫♪♪ GOODWILL ♫♪♪ 
AND THERE WAS A SERVICE FOR 4
...brand new!
of the large plates, smaller ones and bowls..
no coffee cups but that's ok.
So, now I have enuf for 8 dinner guest  and ....I'M TICKLED.

♥Vintage,olden flatware that I love...
my Aunt Bonnie started the set back in the late 50's.
She gave them to my mom who added a few pieces
and then they were passed down to me.
I found a few pieces on Ebay a few years back.
I am always on the watch for a few more pieces to add...
they will go to daughter or granddaughters.....or grandboys, for that matter.

My recipe for the BEST homemade biscuits...FROM SCRATCH....

*

2 cups all purpose flour

2 Tablespoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/3 cup shortening

3/4 cup BUTTER MILK

(no buttermilk ?...just add a tablespoon (or cap full) of vinegar to regular milk (we called it SWEET MILK when I was a kid...every now and then, I say "sweet milk" and the grands look at me like I have

3 heads !!) ;>)

*****
The dough needs to be moist...not dry, so if you need to add a little more milk, by all means, DO.

I add enuf to make my dough VERY wet..having to add flour to my hands

to *work* it..
****************

I like my biscuits baked in a CAST IRON SKILLET

Those crispy bottoms...

O HONEY !

**

425 for 15 to 20 minutes...until golden brown..just like in a magazine...

O...I HOPE YOU LIKE THEM...

all buttered up and full of bacon, sausage, butter

or HOMEMADE CREAM GRAVY....

And...really....they aren't half bad served with fresh APRICOT JAM...

and a good, ole cup of coffee....

My kinda breakfast...
Thanks so much for coming by.

♥♥♥

I am joining 

FULL PLATE THURSDAY

OPEN HOUSE THURSDAY

TIME TRAVEL THURSDAY

VINTAGE THINGY THURSDAY

TABLESCAPE THURSDAY
Thank you, ladies, for these fun parties.
Thank YOU for stopping by today.
xoxo
bj

A HILARIOUS EMAIL

Subject: The Bathing Suit When I was a child in the 1950s, the bathing suit for the mature figure was boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered.  They were built to hold back and uplift, and they did a good job. Today's stretch fabrics are designed for the prepubescent girl with a figure carved from a potato chip. The mature woman has a choice -- she can either go up front to the maternity department and try on a floral suit with a skirt, coming away looking like a hippopotamus that escaped from Disney's Fantasia, or she can wander around every run-of-the-mill department store trying to make a sensible choice from what amounts to a designer range of fluorescent rubber bands. What choice did I have? I wandered around, made my sensible choice and entered the chamber of horrors known as the fitting room. The first thing I noticed was the extraordinary tensile strength of the stretch material.  The Lycra used in bathing costumes was developed, I believe, by NASA to launch small rockets from a slingshot, which gives the added bonus that if you manage to actually lever yourself into one, you would be protected from shark attacks.  Any shark taking a swipe at your passing midriff would immediately suffer whiplash. I fought my way into the bathing suit, but as I twanged the shoulder strap in place I gasped in horror: my boobs had disappeared! ? Eventually, I found one boob cowering under my left armpit. It took a while to find the other. At last I located it flattened beside my seventh rib. The problem is that modern bathing suits have no bra cups.  The mature woman is meant to wear her boobs spread across her chest like a speed bump.  I realigned my speed bump and lurched toward the mirror to take a full view assessment. The bathing suit fit all right, but unfortunately it only fit those bits of me willing to stay inside it. The rest of me oozed out rebelliously from top, bottom and sides.  I looked like a lump of Playdoh wearing undersized cling wrap. As I tried to work out where all those extra bits had come from, the prepubescent sales girl popped her head through the curtain, 'Oh, there you are,' she said, admiring the bathing suit. I replied that I wasn't so sure and asked what else she had to show me.  I tried on a cream crinkled one that made me look like a lump of masking tape, and a floral two-piece that gave the appearance of an oversized napkin in a serving ring. I struggled into a pair of leopard-skin bathers with ragged frills and came out looking like Tarzan's Jane, pregnant with triplets and having a rough day. I tried on a black number with a midriff and looked like a jellyfish in mourning. I tried on a bright pink pair with such a high cut leg I thought I would have to wax my eyebrows to wear them. Finally, I found a suit that fit...a two-piece affair with a shorts-style bottom and a loose blouse-type top. It was cheap, comfortable, and bulge-friendly, so I bought it.  My ridiculous search had a successful outcome, I figured. When I got it home, I found a label that read: 'Material might become transparent in water'. So, if you happen to be on the beach or near any other body of water this year and I'm there too, I'll be the one in cut-off jeans and a T-shirt!  YES....THIS IS ME !  Now THIS swimsuit is  GIVING ME NIGHTMARES...  and ya'll can have your sea shells and sea glass you find on the beach...... I'd rather find Mr. Johnny Depp on the beach any old day !! You'd better be laughing or rolling on the floor by this time.   Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.  With or without a bathing suit. Ya'll have a really FUN day... Lots of love, bj

FRIENDSHIP...The Sweetest Gift

"Anybody can sympathise (sympathize) with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise (sympathize)  with a friend's success."

- Oscar Wilde 

The Sweetest Gift...

sounds like FRIENDSHIP to me.

"A hug is worth a thousand words. A friend is worth more."

"I get by with a little help from my friends."

- John Lennon 

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches,
but to reveal to him, his own."
-Benjamin Disraeli  

"Friends are the Bacon Bits in the Salad Bowl of Life."

- "Pizza Place Sign", 

"We are all angels with only one wing...we can fly only embracing each other."

I am truly blessed to have so many good friends..

IN REAL LIFE...

and in BLOGLAND...
JANERA of MY GARDEN HAT..
we had such a good time at our meeting.
I am linking with
RUBY TUESDAY (not a lot of red this time, Mary)
TABLETOP TUESDAY
3 OR MORE TUESDAY
and because the little CANDY DISH is VINTAGE and thrifted:
2ND TIME AROUND
NIFTY THRIFTY TUESDAY
TUESDAY TREASURES
TWICE OWNED TUESDAY