All In a Day

Most people stay home in their air conditioned house on a day when it's 96 degrees and feels like 103 degrees outside, but I had things to do and places to go!

To fortify myself before leaving home, I had a yummy breakfast that was both healthy and calorie conservative.   Of course, it included a cup of green tea.

I had seen in an e-mail last night that there was an estate sale nearby with teacups, so I decided to go.  I wasn't there when the sale opened at 10:00 a.m. so someone else beat me to some of them, but five of the 14 pictured were still there, and the price was an amazing $2 each!  I couldn't believe it since it was the first day of the sale and they were bone china.

  I will take them to The Whitney tomorrow.

I had $30 Kohl's Cash that needed to be spent before expiration, so my next stop was Kohl's. New bath towels was on my list, but I got sidelined by a Napier jewelry display before I made it to linens.  I'm not trying to rush summer, but I couldn't help purchasing a cute fall pumpkin brooch.  It was 20% off so only cost me $15.25.

Eventually I purchased the bath towels, then went to Bath & Body Works [in the same mall] and got fragrance refills on sale 5 for $28.  

It was a productive afternoon, then I made my way back home to my air conditioned house.  I poured myself a cup of refreshing Gazpacho [also calorie conservative].  Can you tell I'm trying to shed some pounds?  ;-)  Fish Tacos are on the menu for dinner.

How was your day?

Summertime in July

Summer didn't officially begin until June 20th so a full month hasn't lapsed yet, and it won't end until September 22nd, which means we have two months left but you wouldn't know it if you walked into stores.  Yesterday I went to two stores - Hobby Lobby and At Home.   Hobby Lobby was all decorated for fall...

 

...and At Home was a Halloween Lovers paradise.   Halloween is now ranked the second-largest commercial holiday in the United States after Christmas - higher than Easter, Valentine's Day, 4th of July, and Mother's and Father's Day.  Apparently I'm outnumbered, because as an adult, it's my least favorite holiday even though I do have some Halloween dishware.

Our summers are so short, I hate to start thinking about fall even though it's a beautiful season.

The City of Detroit will celebrate its 324th birthday on July 24th with several festivities planned.  The Whitney will be featuring a Detroit Classics menu July 7-25 and a Birthday Party in the garden on July 23rd co-sponsored by Detroit's iconic American Coney Island.  Detroit's Greatest Hits will be played and there'll be dancing under the stars.

We celebrated three family birthdays in July - granddaughters Ellie and Tiffany and daughter-in-law, Samantha.  Jeremy took the lovely photo of Sam [below] when he took her out to dinner for her birthday.

Tea times have slowed down at The Whitney during July.  Guests are enjoying summer vacations, beaches, and boating.  The guest count for tomorrow is only 47.  I can't remember when it was that low on a Saturday, but my knees aren't complaining.  

Almost all of the teas at The Whitney are custom blended for us by a lady at Eastern Market but she doesn't package the tea.  It comes in half lb. bags and I package it for our urns and 6 cup teapots.  Recently, however, we've started purchasing individual teabags from Bigelow Tea for guests who only want a cup instead of a teapot.  They've been very well received. A case arrived today and I'll take them to work tomorrow.

Hubby took this impromptu picture of me about a week ago when I was mating and organizing the teacups in the Music Room at The Whitney.  The shelves were once used to hold music when the Whitney's lived in the mansion, and we use them for teacups now. The pic is awful of me but it's a  glimpse of how beautiful the Music Room is.

Not much else has been happening with me which is why my blog has been rather quiet lately.  I hope you've been enjoying your summer.

July 4th Birthday Celebrations

I hope you had an enjoyable 4th of July.  As I mentioned a few posts back, our youngest granddaughter, Ellie, was born on the 4th of July and she became a teenager this year.  In the blink of an eye 13 years have passed.

Her aunt and uncle hosted the birthday celebration because Ellie's twin cousins turned 13 on July 5th.  The weather was nice until around 4:00 o'clock, then it rained for a half hour or so and cleared up again.  

Below is our birthday girl...

With 22 first cousins [ranging from 22 years old to 7 mos. old], plus all the adults, there was lots of activity - pool fun, trampoline fun [for the younger kids], cornhole fun [two sets of cornhole boards], basketball, and for those of us who were less energetic, we sat and visited or watched the Detroit Tiger ballgame on the patio TV until it was time to eat, and what a huge array of food there was.   My contribution was a pan of macaroni and cheese.

~ Landon and Izzy ~

~ Izzy with the youngest cousin, Baker ~

But the most exciting activity - at least for the three birthday girls - was opening presents.

The birthday girls - Ellie, CeCe and Carmela

They made a wish and blew out the candles!

~ Daughter-in-law, Samantha, and Izzy ~

There were fireworks later that night, but since I had to get up for work on Saturday morning, we left around 8:00 o'clock.  It was a great family fun day, but sadly, following all the 4th celebrations, tragedy struck Kerrville, Texas when the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in 45 minutes and took the lives of many and destroyed homes. Our prayers are with all those who lost children and loved ones.  I can't begin to imagine their grief and the anxiety for those who are still missing relatives.

Happy 4th of July!

 Happy 249th Birthday America!

I took the photo below in 2017 and wanted to share it again today.  Wishing you a wonderful 4th of July however you may be celebrating.