Craft Beer of the Month Club, December 2013 Review

Omg! This box is HUGE news! I am in Kentucky and, like lots of states, no alcohol can be shipped here. But this one can! And I got a subscription for the hubs for Christmas! And we are super excited about it!! :)

Craft Beer of the Month sends a monthly box of 12 beers, 3 each of 4 different kinds, from small-production, independent brewers around the US. The monthly cost is $37.75 with free shipping and, if you sign up for monthly service, they send various introductory bonus gifts!

Here's first looks:

And the breakdown:

Two selections from Elysian Brewing Company, Washington: 

Loser Pale Ale

Bifrost Winter Ale

Two selections from Seirra Blanca Brewing Company, New Mexico:

Roswell Alien Amber Ale (haha)

Nut Brown

We also received several free bonus gifts for signing up! 

Bar snacks

Tasting glasses

Bottle opener

I'm not doing a cost breakdown for this box because it is definitely worth $3.14/beer for us. Craft beer is definitely more expensive than regular beer and there is value for us in the information provided and the opportunity to try things we've maybe never heard of - and the fact that we can do it without ever leaving the house!

So excited about this subscription and looking forward to seeing what they send in January!

Restaurant Review: August Moon

Hubs and I headed out for dinner a few nights ago and, after debating lots of new places, we wound up at one of our longtime favorites, Louisville staple August Moon Chinese Bistro! 

What to wear?? It was SO mild all summer and, now that it's the end of August, it's been SCORCHING hot! So I took the chance to get in another cute summer ensemble! 

* See by Chloe seersucker apron dress
* Bauble Bar chunky crystal necklace from August Mystery Makeover box 
* Juicy Couture suede wedges

There are so many great things to eat here, but it happened to be happy hour so we sat at the bar to take advantage of drink specials and the small plate menu! They have lots of things to try and I think small plates are $5 each? It's a fun way to have dinner out, ordering 3 or 4 things to share (even though that's not what we did this time... LOL!). 

Finlandia Vodka Fusion Blood Orange Martini, $5 on Happy Hour (normally $6.50) - Made with fresh blood orange puree, super tart and SO good! 

Veggie Spring Rolls, $2.50 per roll - Nobody likes super spicy more than I do but WHOO, their house made mustard is HOT! 

Sichuan Style Hot and Sour Soup, $3.50 - One of hubby's faves!


And for entrees!
 

Thai Curry Vegetable Bowl with  Warm Naan, $5 - Okay, this right here. This is why we went. It's one of my hands down favorite dishes ANYWHERE. It's only available at the bar during happy hour (4-7 I think?) but, OMG, it's my vegetarian dreams come true!! 

Hot and Spicy Beef and Vegetables, $14 - Definitely not the hubby's favorite thing he's had here. He didn't even take the leftovers home! 

Seriously, I will go back over and over for the Thai Curry dish! LOL! You can view the entire August Moon menu here. 

Date night! Bruno Mars Concert!

Woot Woot! One of the best parts about living in a bigger city with A+ facilities? Every awesome concert comes through town! Last weekend we had tickets to the Bruno Mars show and got together with some friends to make a night of it!! 

First of all, always, what to wear?? Here's what I went with!

* V neck t-shirt from Victoria's Secret Pink. My favorite! These are perfect!!

* Current Elliott tie dye crop jeans

* Bauble Bar rose gold pimp necklace

* Old Navy sequin crossbody

* Christian Louboutin 140mm Bianca in Hot Pink

And then, next question, what to drink?? Hubs created a signature drink for the pre-party, a Mars martini! 

The extensive ingredients! 

One of the test runs!

I'm not sure what the mixture, etc., involved, but the thing tasted like dessert, kind of like a (cold) hot chocolate/white russian mix? He even froze the candy bars to try to use chunks of them as "ice cubes"! Creative! :)


I made the Bourbon Baked Brie that is one of our favorite, favorite apps (recipe here)! OMG... that thing is delicious. I was so excited to eat it, I totally forgot to take a picture of how pretty it looks right out of the oven. Here's a delicious plate that I reheated the next day! 

nom nom nom nom 

We headed downtown to the YUM Center and I tried to get all the University of Kentucky fans in our group to take a pic with our beloved Louisville Cardinal bird (and throw up the "L" that's our team sign)... kind of a fail. For those who don't know, this rivalry is serious business! LOL!

We ran into a friend who had basically an empty suite to himself so we gathered up our friends and moved to primo seats! Lots of room for dancing, dancing, dancing!! 

View from the suite! Nice!

The crew!

So many selfie FAILS, this one was at least not totally ridiculous! LOL!

Yep... DANCIN'... 

And a few pics of Mr. Mars! Most of my pics were super blurry from dancing! LOL!

Such a FUN night out!! Love this city and LOVE the chance to cut loose!! 

Long Weekend in Mexico, Part 2!

Time for the rest of my thoughts and photos from the long weekend hubs and I spent in Cancun! Yay! Here's the link to Part 1, if you'd like to get caught up!

So the "all-inclusive" at ME Cancun was one of the nicest we've ever experienced! Lots of cool decorating touches and nice shops that carried pretty fancy things. We had super fab sit-down dinners each night at a wide variety of restaurants, from Brazilian to Japanese! As covered in Part 1, we stayed in "The Level," so we also had unlimited top shelf drinks the entire time that were for real top shelf! Nice!  

Swanky random photos in the elevators

LOVE a hotel that stocks you up on Aveda!

Rain shower was to die for!

Sushi served with jalapenos to top... Life changing.

My awesome bedazzled Chucks purchase!

One of the additional perks of The Level was a free pay-per-view movie and room service movie snacks! Fun! We rented Wedding Crashers and were a little confused by some of the random condiments that came with our M&Ms and popcorn, but whatevs! LOL!

We mostly just spent lots of time on the beach and one rainy day on a Bali bed around the pool. We were soaking wet from the pool in the elevator and a guy grimaced said "Ooo, how was the pool in the rain?" Um, WET? It's not like it was cold! LOL!

Rainy day view from the Bali bed

Happy in paradise

Sea turtle eggs all up and down the beach!
Would love to see them hatch!!

Fresh kiwi margaritas  = health food ;)

So so many unfortunate bathing suit choices...

Loved all these friendly little sea birds!

As I covered in part 1, I was disappointed that this trip wasn't going to include the swimming pigs of the Bahamas, so I packed a piggy of my own and went "swimming" with him! He was such a good sport! ;)

Look!! I found one!

SMOOCHES piggy!! I was so looking
forward to meeting you! ;)

Swim was a bit stressful... fancy drink and..

Some time in the sun! Ahhhh! 

The one time we ventured out was to spend some time in La Isla, the massive shopping center across the street. The girls swam with dolphins there years ago but I had forgotten how nice it is! We had pizza at a waterfront place to celebrate my birthday and hubs made me drink beer by the yard... I wasn't as tortured as the pics may suggest! Haha!

This place had a LOT of facts and info on the walls... A LOT.

Last swig was a bit rough :-/

Birthday chocolate mousse! <3

Sketchy souvenir shopping... LOL

Placed in our room while we were out! :D
So many nice, personal touches! 

All in all such a fun, relaxing, relatively inexpensive getaway! I apologize, Cancun, for thinking you're average. Your people were incredibly wonderful and our experience was second to none. We will be back! Gracias!!