Jessica's Birthday

This bowl of taffy was a little too close to us. Let's just say we had quite a few.

The mussels were fabulous!

Jessica opening her Gift Certificate to Dry Bar. We've been dying to check it out! We're making a girl date to go, so I'll post about it soon. Emily from Cupcakes and Cashmere just posted about it on Friday.

Whitney, Jessica, and I (also seen here) celebrated Jess' birthday over the weekend with a fabulous dinner at Blue Plate Oysterette in Santa Monica. This place opened last fall (by the same owner as Blue Plate on Montana) and is one of my new favorites. The food is outstanding, the nautical decor is adorable, and the service is incredible (not only was our server attentive, the owner came by about 4 times to see how we were doing and they gave us free dessert for Jess' birthday). It's a popular place and they don't take reservations, so there's usually about a 20 minute wait. We had a glass of wine around the corner at Bar Pintxo while we waited (also mentioned here). The night was filled with a lot of laughs, great conversation, and amazing food (make sure to get the mussels if you go). Happy Birthday, Jess!

For the Love of Coupons

photo credit

photo credit

I've always loved finding a bargain and feeling like I got a great deal. But deals, in my opinion, shouldn't end with grocery store items and great clothes. I love finding coupons for restaurants and feeling like the splurge of eating decadent dinners out doesn't set us back as much as it normally would. In the past, I'd buy the Entertainment book and maybe use three coupons out of the hundreds offered and then forget about the book entirely. But now I use sites like Restaurants.com, Blackboard Eats, and Groupon to find savings on hundreds of amazing restaurants in my neighborhood. Who could beat that? The restaurants.com site offers specials on their coupons every few weeks where you can get a $25 gift card for just $2 (a $50 gift card for $4, etc.)! I buy them when they're at that price and they're valid for a year. Some of our local favorites have been featured on both sites and Gabe and I love leaving dinner, knowing we only spent 50% of the standard price!

On a side note, I'm back from vacation and working on uploading pictures, details, etc. Thank you for all the comments and support while I was gone, I appreciate it so much! I'm in the process of reading everybody's comments and catching up with all the wonderful posts that I've missed. Stay tuned for photos and stories from our Kauai trip, it was fabulous! And now back to the real world...