Since most of you don't live in my town, I wanted to share photos from my Book Signing for "Dainty Dining" at Scott's Bookstore yesterday! It was quite exciting, because Scott's is my town's beloved (and highly-respected) independent bookstore. Over the years I have interviewed many authors here, ranging from southern writers such as Celestine Sibley, Lee May and Lee Smith to a few others you might know like Anne Rivers Siddons and Nora Roberts. And now, it was my turn!
I am very blessed to be able to call owner Earlene Scott a friend. Among the many kindnesses she has shown me, I can't begin to count the number of tea books she has introduced me to and ordered for me over the years!
You may recognize the bright pink book on the store's front table!
When I got to the store a few minutes early to get ready for the book signing, my longtime tea friend Sandra was there!
Another friend who showed up to support me is my "Cake Lady" friend Susan. She is also the only friend I can say I've visited two of the department stores in the book with: Macy's in New York and Marshall Field in Chicago!
There was a surprise appearance from Ruth, a former co-worker and also a former housemate! When I first moved to Newnan, we both lived in an old Victorian house and my upstairs apartment was over her downstairs apartment. Good memories!
These are my dear friends Mike, at left, and her granddaughter Kate, whom I've known since she was a baby. Their families have taught me much about what true hospitality should look like!
My friend Bonnie, who works at Scott's, did a great job of keeping me focused while I signed books for those who came in as well as those who had pre-ordered over the phone. It was interesting to me that so many people had obviously given thought to the words that would appear in books purchased as Christmas gifts for sisters, friends, mothers. I *love* knowing my books are going to such great new homes! And here I look kind of dorky (I'm probaby saying something smartalecky to Bonnie), but I wanted you to see the outfit I chose for the occasion, another Quacker Factory eBay find with teacups and teapots on it. Got some nice compliments on that!
And the two people who encouraged me on this book the most, my husband Alex and my book designer friend Deberah, I forgot to get a photo with! (Alex actually took most of these photos.) At least this photo shows Deberah on my right. She really functions as half of my brain sometimes when I'm working on projects. I sat right there and told a woman that no, I don't have any stores from California in my book when Deberah said, "Yes you do, remember? Bullocks?" Oh yeah! Sheesh. What would I do without my friends?
And speaking of friends, I was greatly honored that a professional writer friend,
Cathy Lee Phillips, carved time out of what I know is her insane December schedule to attend my book signing. Cathy writes, speaks and sings full time, and since she travels all over the country, I won't be surprised if some of you have met up with her before, perhaps at a Women of Faith conference. Cathy has been a wonderful mentor to me in this first effort of writing a book, and she also approved my decision to get cute new shoes for the book signing!
Despite the rainy afternoon, I had a wonderful time and actually found it quite incredible that people would come out to buy my book, have me autograph it, and of all things, thank ME for writing it. I didn't expect that to be so humbling, but I left with a heart full of gratitude for my book- and tea-loving friends, old and new!
On Saturday, my very special guests for tea were my sweet sister Rhonda and some of her high school friends. Here are, from left, Rhonda, Anslea, Tina, Rachel and Angie. These "little girls" I once knew have grown up to become such beautiful (and fun!) young women.
And just because we rarely seem to have our picture made together, here are me and Rhonda. I was on Facebook one night back in October when I saw an interesting discussion develop. One of the girls told Rhonda wouldn't it be fun if they all came to *my* house for their annual Christmas party this year and if I hosted a tea for them! I grinned when I saw their comments, but of course I chimed in and told them I'd be glad to do it, because a) I love any excuse for a tea party! and b) I can't think of anything I wouldn't do for my sister if she wanted me to. (If you're blessed to have the kind of sister I do, you know just what I mean!)
Here are some photos of the table before we tucked into the food. I forgot to get closeups of the teapots, but that's OK because we had two Christmas teas that were new to me, and I'll tell you about them later this week because they were quite well received!
So what did we eat? Well, first of course were the scones, served with jam and whipped cream. I made two kinds, Currant Scones and White Chocolate & Almond Scones. I love using my Nordic Ware pan that makes 16 mini scones, because guests will try both flavors if I keep the scones small.
Rhonda insisted on helping make some of the sandwiches, and when I saw (and tasted) hers, I was glad. She made these cute Egg Salad Sandwiches in Christmas tree shapes with olive slices for ornaments. Pretty!
She also made her Chicken Salad Sandwiches using these soft, delicious brown rolls. I love Chicken Salad but it is always the most time-consuming thing to make, so I was lucky she volunteered for these!
I made the Olive-Walnut Spread Sandwiches (in wreath shapes) and Cucumber and Dill Sandwiches (in triangles).
On this tree-shaped tiered server you can see we also had the Ham Salad Sandwiches I wrote about here on Saturday. And for our sweets, on the bottom tier, we had Lemon Madeleines and this Cranberry Bread.
My mother contributed this Christmas green plate of her famous Divinity. It truly is some heavenly stuff!
I also decided we needed more chocolate so I served these Cappuccino Crinkle cookies. So easy, so delicious.
And last but not least, we had White Chocolate & Raspberry Mini-Trifles! I had been eager to try serving something in these little glasses like I've seen in Tea Time magazine. When Ross had a set of 8 (with matching teaspoons) on sell for just $5.49 recently, I took it as a sign. These really seemed to be a hit, and I liked the small size — especially after all the other yummy stuff on our menu. To make them, I simply layered grocery store pound cake, this white chocolate filling recipe and fresh raspberries. It was a beautiful, sunny morning, and I so loved being able to enjoy a Christmas teatime with my sister and her sweet friends!
