Summer is here and it's time for delicious cocktails and pretty dresses
But before I get to the cocktails and the dresses: my publisher is doing another Goodreads giveaway for advance copies of The Wedding Party! Go here to enter -- the giveaway is open until June 22nd! And if you've already read it, or read either of my other books, I'd love it if you reviewed them on Goodreads or Amazon or wherever books are sold; reviews help authors and books a ton. (Especially since there are always a bunch of people who give books 1 star on Goodreads before they've read them, which I don't understand at all, but I digress). And you can always preorder The Wedding Party (or Royal Holiday!) at any of the retailers linked, or at your favorite independent bookstore!
Okay, now on to the dresses: one recent trend I'm a HUGE fan of is the number of mainstream brands adding plus sizes. J. Crew, Loft, Reformation, and Anthropologie have all done so recently, and it's made my shopping life so much more fun. There are lots of fun dresses out there, but today I'm here to rave about the Anthropologie plus line, because I've now bought four dresses from it and they're all great! The sizing is easy to figure out (in my experience, it's slightly generous), the fit is good, and the wrap dresses have ample boob coverage. Yes, they're on the pricy side, but I've gotten all of these dresses on sale -- one of them was marked down, and the other three were on two different weekends where they were doing 20% off all dresses, so if there's a dress you have your eye on, I'd sign up for their email list and see if there's a sale (though this can backfire, there was a dress I almost bought the other day and didn't, and when I went to get it the very next day when it was on sale, it was sold out in my size) (Oh no, I just checked and it's back in stock now, help me resist). I got many ideas from this excellent dress roundup from Go Fug Yourself (lots of which come in a big range of sizes) so go forth and shop! And if you buy a dress I have also bought and we both wear it at one of my book events this summer we have to take a picture together, it's a rule.
Do I have a perfect summer cocktail for you: Earl Grey gin and tonics. It's a good friend's big birthday this weekend, and that makes me think of the big birthday party she hosted for me a few years ago, and the delightful and refreshing cocktail we made. This is a great summer drink to have for a crowd, because the prep work is easy but it feels fancy and delicious. I found many recipes on the internet for this, and they all do it slightly different ways -- some make tea and combine the tea with the gin and the tonic, some steep the tea in the gin, etc. I did the latter, but even there there was a range of ways to do it, but this is what worked for me. And it's super easy to alter the recipe depending on how many you're serving -- this is for a big crowd, but it's easy to downsize it.
Earl Grey Gin and Tonics
750 ml bottle gin
6 tablespoons loose leaf Earl Grey tea, or 3-4 tea bags
Tonic
lemon slices
Ice
First, infuse the gin with the tea: combine the gin with the loose leaf tea or teabags in a big glass container (or pour out some gin from the bottle and just pop the tea right into the bottle. Let the gin infuse for about 2-3 hours, and then strain (you can do this well in advance). When it's time to make the cocktails, combine the tea infused gin, tonic, lemon slices, and ice in a big pitcher, and serve.
Enjoy! Have a great weekend!
Jasmine
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Buy The Wedding Date and The Proposal, and preorder The Wedding Party and Royal Holiday!