New Book

It's been a busy week at The Whitney.  I worked Monday thru Thursday serving Afternoon Tea to 62 guests.  I'm off today because I have a Dr. appointment, otherwise there would've been more guests added to the total.

Since I didn't have to set an alarm for early wake-up this morning, I decided to treat myself to some pleasure reading before going to sleep last night.  Preparing for my presentations means reading non-fiction biographical and historical books, which doesn't leave a lot of time for fun reading.

Last April I ordered my friend Angela McRae's new book, Emeralds and Envy, and it's been patiently waiting to be read.

I read seven chapters last night and will take it with me to my Dr.'s appointment today, which will be at least an hour's wait!  I'm anxious to resume my reading so I can finish the book this weekend.

I'm not a big jewelry person, so it was fun looking up the names of costume jewelry designers mentioned by Emma Madison, the main character in the book.  Some of my tea friends, Linda, Barb, and Louise, are big jewelry collectors and belong to a jewelry club called, "Glitterbugs", so I know they'd recognize the names Miriam Haskell, Delizza & Elster, Eisenberg Ice, and Cristobal.  The only ones I'd heard of were Coro and Trifari.  

The book is actually a murder mystery that Emma tries to solve when she happens upon the crime scene at the Silver Squirrel Antique Shop and Tina LeMann's dead body.  That's as much as I'm going to share.  You'll have to read the rest for yourself.  The book is available at Amazon.  Order your copy today.  It's a great read!

On another subject...  I was pleased to finally get my official Whitney business cards this week.  

I trained one of the male servers to take over for me on days like today when I'm off and on the weekends.  He'll be working the Daddy/Daughter tea tomorrow which will only have 15 attendees.  It's an event sponsored by Mary Jones, the tea blender for The Whitney.  She'll be serving two iced herbal teas - Strawberry/Raspberry and Peppermint.  Since I'm off today, I made a gallon of each yesterday and put them in the beverage refrigerator after they cooled down.  I researched keeping them chilled for two days and most references said iced tea will keep up to three days refrigerated if no sugar or fresh fruit has been added.  Some websites, however, said iced tea is best consumed the same day it's made.  I'm hoping these herbal teas will still be fresh tasting tomorrow at 12:30.  Otherwise they'll be scurrying around making more.

How long do you keep iced tea in your refrigerator?

One last item for those who like to keep up on my family events.  Granddaughter, Isabella, graduated from 8th grade this week.  It doesn't seem possible that she'll be going off to high school next fall.  She's beautiful inside and out.  I don't know too many 13-year-olds who text their grandparents for no other reason than to tell them they're loved.

Our son, Jeremy, was teaching in Denver, Colorado when he and Samantha were married. Izzy wasn't born there, but she was conceived there, so a couple weeks ago Jeremy took her on a Daddy/Daughter trip to Colorado where she could see first-hand where it all began - both her life and her parent's marriage.  Her middle name is Vail in honor of where it all began, hence the significant sweatshirt!  ;-)

They had a great time together, and I'm glad Jeremy and Samantha take their parenting roles seriously by being very involved in their children's lives.  These are memories Izzy will never forget.

[Bishop's Castle]

I was delighted when I got a text from Jeremy earlier today saying, "Look what I'm having."  The message was accompanied by the photo below.  He knew what would bring a smile to his mama's face!  ;-)

Happy  Flag Day!

[Crafty Mommy Photo]