Hi. Miss Me?

Hi friends.

Sorry it’s been so long since I've last posted. I have no real excuse. I just haven't been motivated to keep up with the blog. I got scared that this was a stupid or lame idea and if any one found out it was me they might think I was weird or something. I don't know why I let that get in the way of blogging. I’ve never really been the type of person who cared what others thought of them. Growing up, I’ve always felt a bit out of place, like I didn't quite fit in and that was okay, it didn't bother me. I like being different, I like being me. So here I am. Strange, weird, different, wonderful me, back at the game of blogging. 

Truthfully, I don't know what I want to achieve from writing this blog. I might just use it as a virtual diary for my thoughts and struggles, or I might start posting fun, creative content. Or maybe even both. I don't want this to be another one of the same run of the mill blogs out there (totally not dissing those, anyone who runs one of those is an amazing and extremely talented person and I applaud them, obviously I can’t do the same). I want to do something different. I want to share my life with you, but not just the pretty bits, not just the fun, carefree parts of my life. I want you to see it all. We are all going through something. We are all fighting an inward battle. Some people could be having a tough time in school, making friends, studying, choosing a career path, others may be going through relationship turmoil, or family struggles. Whatever the universe is throwing at you, whatever things plague your mind, you are not alone. This life is hard, much harder than we were ever told it was going to be. But life is also beautiful. 

Ever since I was young and we would drive across country to visit family out west, I was always drawn to the pieces of land that were touch by the wild fires. Though the wild fires were destructive and devastating, the ability for life to grow from the ashes of the burnt wilderness always amazed me. It was like a real life phoenix. To see the smallest green sprout popping out of the charred ground, showed hope of beautiful things to come after such a terrible disaster. This post may be all over the place but please remember that no matter how severe the fire, flood, or tornado the universe throws at us there is always, always a beautiful life to follow. And thats the wonderful cycle of life. How boring would life be if it was all sunshine and rainbows— actually that kinda sounds nice… but you know what I mean. We need the bad times to make us appreciate the good times. That’s what I want this blog to be. Even if no one reads it, even if it’s just me typing out long-winded, rambling thoughts late at night when I can’t sleep. I want it to be out there. 

Let me know in the comments what you think. I want to get to know you. We are all in this together. 

xx J

Gingerbread Camper Creation

Hello Friends!

Happy December 20th! Only five more sleeps until Christmas!! Is everyone ready? Presents bought, wrapped, and under the tree yet? I know I’m ready and waiting rather impatiently for Christmas day to come so I can give everyone their gifts. This is why I usually wait until the last minute to buy and wrap my gifts. I have such a hard time waiting until the big day to hand out the gifts! But anyway…

If you didn't know already, every day in December I give my boyfriend a gift to open. It’s his own advent calendar of sorts made by me! If you want to check out that post I'll leave a link here and an update here.This morning when my boyfriend opened today’s advent gift, he was excited to find a little gingerbread camper kit. He loves to go camping and anything outdoorsy, so when I saw the kit when I was shopping one day, I knew he would enjoy it. So this afternoon, we decided to tackle building the gingerbread camper and we had so much fun!

We bickered a little bit as to how best to go about the decoration vs. assembly order. Do we decorate first then assemble, or do we assemble then decorate? We decided to try the first option and see how it went. We worked on it together, him doing one side while I did the other. We used the white, green, and black icing, and the little candy balls that came along with it. It was funny to look at the picture on the box and then look at our shabby icing job. I’m almost positive they used photoshop to achieve such perfect smoothness to the icing! 

We drank some tea and had some nice conversation while we waited for the icing decorations to dry before we attempted to actually put the thing together. It was pretty difficult for us to get the camper to stand on its own the way the instructions wanted us to. We ended up creating a little teepee with the sides and piping some icing on the top to join the two pieces. It held it together nicely while also looking like snow on the roof. 

We set our little gingerbread creation next to the Christmas tree on a table that houses a few other Christmas decorations, mainly of the Lego variety (I’m dating a man child!). It just looked so cute and festive! But I think our dog liked it a little too much. She kept staring at it and then looking at us like, “You gonna eat that? ‘Cause I will.” So now we can’t leave her alone in the room with it for too long! We will see how long it survives…

Have any of you made any gingerbread creations this holiday season? Do you make your own gingerbread, or do you take the easy route like me and get the pre-made ones? What other crafts do you like to do around Christmas? Leave some comments and let’s chat! 

Hope everyone is enjoying their Christmas week! Stay warm!

xx J

Welcome to Foodie Friday!

Hello Friends!

I wanted to try a new series of posts sharing a meal or multiple meals I cook during the week. We will call it Foodie Friday! Because I work at varying times throughout the week, I don’t cook every night, nor do I actually eat three substantials meals everything day. So instead of doing a What I Ate Wednesday, it’ll be a compilation from the week. I’ll also be doing throw back Foodie Fridays and show you a few meals I’ve eat in different countries and, of course, give you the back stories. I might even throw in a couple funny anecdotes to boot! So without further ado: Welcome to Foodie Friday! 

This week was very busy and kind of hectic. My mom was in town visiting for Christmas and we did a lot of ordering in while she was here. I think we had pizza three times and always had leftovers for the next day. The day I took her back to the airport, she and I stopped for some good old sushi. I LOVE sushi and it had been a while since I’ve had it (I’m sure you’ll be seeing sushi on these posts often so I apologize in advanced). We went to the Ichiban Steakhouse and Sushi Bar near the Pittsburgh airport. For starters I ordered the clear soup (I had a bad sore throat and the warmth from the soup felt amazing!) and my mom got the house salad with ginger dressing. 

For the main course, we ordered two special rolls, the Beauty and the Beast Roll and the Spicy Beach Roll. Both had tuna, yellowtail, salmon, avocado, and the one had crab meat. They were phenomenal. Totally delicious! I like to dip mine in soy sauce where my mom likes to shove them full of pickled ginger and wasabi. Oh and I noticed on the ceiling of the restaurant there was a disco ball thing that spins around and shoots different colored lights around (not sure if there is a real name for it). And 3 times during out dinner, 3 different disco balls lit up and started going crazy to this really loud birthday song! It was the funnest restaurant birthday celebration I’ve ever seen. We should've said it was one of our birthdays, too.

My second meal for this post is one that I made at home. I subscribe to Blue Apron, which is a meal service that delivers fresh produce and ingredients for you to make your own meals during the week. I don't get a delivery every week, I don’t really find that practical nor do I have the money to do it all the time. But I do really enjoy making the meals and using ingredients I never thought I would. This is not sponsored, obviously, but if you want to check it out here is the link.

I made the Harissa chicken skewers with khorasan wheat and persimmon salad. I've never eaten persimmon, or even seen it, but the entire meal was delicious! I find it slightly therapeutic to follow a new recipe and make everything from scratch. It’s such a nice change compared to all the eating out we’ve been doing lately. My super picky boyfriend even enjoys most of the meals! 

I hope you’ve enjoyed the very first Foodie Friday! If you want to see more of these post, please let me know. Or if you have any delicious recipes you’d like me to try, send me a link. What have you guys been eating this week? Leave a comment below! 

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful weekend! 

xx J

Advent Calendar Update

Hello Friends!

How’s is your December treating you? It’s been a cold and snowy one for us which just means more time snuggled up with a blanket, a good movie, and some hot cocoa! And maybe a few christmas movies thrown into the mix, after all it’s almost Christmas. 

I thought I’d update you on how the Advent Gifts are going for the boyfriend and if you missed that post click here and get caught up. Well let me tell ya, it’s going a lot better than I thought it would! My boyfriend is super picky and hard to surprise but I was actually able to pull it off and it totally threw him off guard (it also freaked him out how I was able to do it without his knowledge, hehehe). And best of all, he absolutely LOVES it. Loves it! Every morning when we wake up the first thing he says to me is, “Presents?” So we start every morning out with him opening a door of his Lego Advent Calendar and once that’s built we move on to the wrapped presents. I asked him what his favorite gift has been so far and he immediately pointed to his Lego Advent Calendar, typical little boy. Other than that, he says his favorite is the Poo-Pourii spray. And let me just say it’s MY favorite, as well. When you live in a small house and don’t have a fan in the bathroom, smells travel. But when you use the spray, it smells so Christmas-y throughout our home. 

Oh I have to share that we did have a small mishap with the presents and my sneaky dog… It seems that little miss was not thrilled that she wasn't getting to unwrap a daily present and one day I came home from work to find one of the little bows I had tied around the packages was sitting on our bed. I was super confused but ran immediately to the tree and found one little tiny present to be missing. It turned out that my sly fox for a dog took the gift that had a lip balm duo in it and opened and ate the wrapping and packaging! She didn't eat the lip balm though(?). My boyfriend thought she had gotten a lip balm off of my vanity and he set it on there for safe keeping. Silly puppy. I’m on the hunt for one more gift to replace the stolen one but I’m sure I’ll think of something soon. 

So tell me, friends, what have you been doing in the days leading up to Christmas? Do you have advent calendars you’ve been enjoying? What are some holiday traditions you and your family have? Leave some comments and let me know; I’d love to get to know you some more!

Enjoy your day and stay warm

xx J

I took this pic on December 1st before any of the gifts were open :)

Advent Gift Ideas for Him

Happy December 1st, friends! 

Can you believe it’s December all ready?! Neither can I, but here we are, only 24 more sleeps until Christmas day! This year I’ve started my holiday shopping a little early to get ahead and not stress myself out as we near the big day. I’ve also decided to try something new and surprise my (very hard to surprise) boyfriend with a gift a day starting the 1st and ending the 24th. It took some time to plan as 24 gift ideas are difficult to come up with. My boyfriend and I don’t usually exchange presents on holidays, partly because we tend to buy the things we want for ourselves throughout the year, and also because we would rather spend our money going places and doing fun things. I wanted to switch things up this year and surprise him with advent gifts in a gesture to say thank you for putting up with my craziness throughout the year. Guess what, I managed to actually surprise him! I strategically bought items when he wasn't with me and immediately took them to my dad’s house where I would secretly wrap them, tie them up with string, and tuck them safely into an unused closet. It took some planning and time management to get everything sorted before today. I had a lot of fun finding silly little gifts to give him and hope you’ll try it some day, too. Because my boyfriend is incredibly difficult to buy for (another reason we don't usually exchange gifts), I decided to go with fun gifts that made me think of him when I saw them, festive items to get him in the Christmas spirit, and some random odds and ends I thought were cute. Don’t think too much into it if you decide to try this as well, and don't spend an arm and a leg buying luxury gifts, unless you want to of course. The average amount I spent on the gifts was around $10. But make it your own and do what’s comfortable for you.

Here are the things that I included in the advent gifts:

• Lego Advent Calendar -- you can find it here
• Holiday flannel bed sheets -- like these
• Candle
• Books
• Gingerbread House Kit
• Poo-pourri spray -- I got mine here
• Games
• Box of crackers (his favorite snack)
• Socks
• Holiday sweatpants
• Lip balm
• Box of chocolates
• Apple pie kit
• Tree ornaments
• Ugly Christmas sweater -- I picked up this one
• Custom made lighter
• Holiday decor
• Classic holiday movies
• Framed photo
• Miscellaneous items 

Have fun with it and be creative! I kept the wrapping very classic with the brown paper packaging and I added the white and red striped string for that simple and old school feel. I just love how cute they look stacked beside the lit Christmas tree! With the exception of the first day, when I’ll give him the Lego Advent Calendar so he can open that each day along with his other advent gifts, I’m going to left him choose which gift he would like to open that day. You could add numbers to the packages coinciding with day of the month it should be opened on. Another option would be to hide the gift each day and give them a clue to the present’s whereabouts making it a treasure hunt! There are loads of different ways to be creative and make this your own. Leave me a comment if you are doing this, too, or what I could do next year to spice it up. Hope you all have a wonderful first day of December and I’ll see you soon! 

Thanks for reading!

xx J

August Boxycharm Unboxing

Hello Friends!

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their weekend! Today I received my August Boxycharm and I thought I would share it with you.

If you don't know already, Boxycharm is a monthly subscription service that sends you a box of usually 4-5 beauty related products for a flat rate of $21.00 a month. I’ve been getting my boxes for over a year now and some months are better than others. With this particular subscription, you don’t get to customize your box to your preferences, everyone gets the same monthly box. This will be my last box with Boxycharm as I did cancel my subscription to future boxes to try out some other monthly services that of course I will be sharing with you. 

  

Every month, the goodies arrive in this sleek, little black box. (They are perfect to store small objects and trinkets in!) I always get excited to see what’s in each box because you just never know what you're going to get!

The company always includes a handy little info card to tell you what the products actually are and how much they retail for. I really like having this guide because then you know what everything, how it works or is to be applied, and how much everything’s worth in case you wish to order it in the future. 

The first thing I pulled out of the box was a Doucce Cosmetics Maxlash Volumizer Mascara. I’ve seen this brand in previous months and I do believe we’ve gotten other mascaras by this brand, as well. It claims to give you thick and voluminous lashes and the wand does have a fuller brush on it but the bristles are longer so hopefully it won’t clump the lashes too much. I also noted that the mascara formula doesn't have a bad smell to it. I’m one of those people that smells their beauty products before using them. Anyone else like that? The mascara retails for $22.00.

The next product I grabbed was the Dirty Little Secret Velvet Matte Liquid Lipstick in the shade “Phantom”. The color shows through to the outside of the package, which is adorable with white polka dots, and is a very pretty bright red color. When I swatched it on the back of my hand it had a thin, liquidy texture and it applied evenly but wasn't very opaque. Once it dried, there was no transfer and it didn't smudge when I rubbed my finger across it. The formula doesn't have a smell to it, which, in my opinion, is ideal for products going on my lips. The liquid lipstick retails for $10.00.

Next, I got an Aloette Time Repair Serum and so far this is my favorite thing in the box. I’m a skin care junkie! Serums are generally expensive, especially when they are for anti aging and have good ingredients in them. The back of the package says, “smooth away the appearance of lines and wrinkles with age-defying green tea extract and alpha and beta hydroxy acids.” Yay, green tea and hydroxy acids! It comes with a pump, has a nice clean, aloe scent and a white, thick consistency that absorbed quickly into my skin and didn't leave an oily residue. I’ll try this over the next couple of weeks and report back with any improvements to my skin. The company also sent a 25% off coupon to be used within the next 10 days. Use code: BOXYCHARM. The serum retails for $48.00.

After that I found a Beauty For Real Shadow Stx in the shade “All Day Latte”. When I swatched it on my hand, it applied very smoothly and evenly. I’m loving the color; it’s a lightly sparkly mauve-y purple shade. Definitely up my alley! It set quickly and didn't budge when I rubbed my finger across it. The card in the box says, “this paraben free and cruelty free, long-wearing, cream-to-powder eyeshadow stick is easy to apply and is infused with meadowfoam seed oil to moisturize, rejuvenate and reduce the signs of aging. You do need to work quickly with the product because the tip says that you have about 15 seconds to work with it before its set for the day. The shadow stick retails for $19.00.

And finally, the last product in the box is the Coastal Scents Blush and Bronzer Mini Palette. And it comes with a little blush brush! The palette contains five shades: two blushes (one matte, one shimmer), a highlight, and two bronzers (one matte, one shimmer). The swatches are nicely pigmented and apply smoothly. I really like that it gives you the shimmer and matte options, and the bronzers aren't too orange so I think they would blend out nicely on the skin. All the colors are more on the light/fair side of the skin spectrum so if you have a deeper skin tone I don't think this would be the best option for you. It is, however, a great travel palette. This palette retails for $13.95 and the brush is $6.00. 

All in all I really enjoyed this month's box. My favorites were the serum and the blush/bronzer palette—I think Mona would get a lot of use out of it! We got five products and the blush brush as a bonus item that all came to a value of $118.95 and it only cost me $21.00! This box makes me want to renew my subscription but I'm excited to put the money to other services. So be on the look out for more subscription service posts! Leave me a comment about a monthly box that you think I should subscribe to.

Thanks for reading!

xx J

Welcome to Life of JoNa

Hi everyone!  Welcome to our new blog, Life of JoNa.  We are so glad you clicked on us and we're excited to share our life with you.  We are two sisters who live in different countries and want to become better connected with the world.  We have a burning passion for travel but also love doing fun things at home.  So if you like food, beauty, travel, DIY, outdoors, and just an all around good time, stick around and see where our life takes us!  By creating our blog, we hope to do and see more, and create new, amazing friendships along the way. We want to have open communication with our readers so please leave us comments about things you'd like to see, how we can improve, or just to say hi— we'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for being here and we'll see you in the next post!
🍀JoNa