What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box

What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box

John and I love our date nights. We love cinema nights and dinner dates, but every now and then we like doing something a little out of the box. So when Just Us Box offered to let us try out their first date night subscription boxes, we jumped at the opportunity. The first box was Stargazing themed which we were very intrigued about. We were curious to see what we'd receive in our box and excited to have an 'out of the box' date night! So, if you want to see what was inside our box, and how our date night went, carry on reading! ♥


Inside The Box

What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box
What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box

When we first received the box, I was so excited that I opened it up right away (yes, without John... oops! He didn't mind) and was very impressed by the contents of the box. In the box we received all we needed for a perfect stargazing evening including a date plan, an activity sheet and a little envelope containing a couple of challenges.

What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box
What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box
What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box

Having to be outside for our date night, I was instantly thinking about the weather because I get cold very quickly and easily, but John doesn't, so I was happy to see a little roll up blanket to sit on together and a flask to fill up with a hot drink! We love to indulge in some hot chocolate, especially the ones that taste like our favourite chocolates so these were right up our streets with a cheeky little packet of Haribo each!

And to stare at the stars we were given an impressive hand-held telescope. YES. TELESCOPE! I couldn't believe this... I was curious as to what in this box would be the stand out item highlighting the stargazing theme and this was it! It even came in its own little protective bag and everything! Along with that was a tiny little key ring telescope John let me keep for my keys and also a DIY telescope I'm sad to say I destroyed.

I tried to make this thing prior to the date night. I know John hates fiddly things and when I showed him it, he said I could make it. And I did! I made it all but I was impatient and didn't let the last bit of glue dry properly... The super glue slid over the smallest lens that was inside the box and if you know science, plastic and super glue don't mix so I pretty much burned the lens with the glue. It was a shame because I knew it was going to work having followed all the instructions so, so carefully! It would have made a great addition to our date night. RIP DIY telescope.

What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box
What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box
What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box

Also in our date night box were some little lights to get this date night a little more romantic. First of all we had a little torch for when we're outside in the darkness, and a couple of candles to set the mood. We didn't use the candles in the end, because it was quite windy and we didn't really need them but the torch was handy when we lost anything around us!

We also got a couple of things for after the date including a star jar to fill with little love notes to each other and a passion pouch with some UV paint and lipstick and even a UV light! The jar is a lovely thought too, but living apart we haven't been able to put it to good use. This will be kept though and put in use when we move in together though for little pick me ups :) I did although wonder how the notes could be differentiated and I thought it would be a good idea to keep the notes in separate colours so you know who's note is for who! For example, I would have pink notes and John could have blue!

The Date Night
What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box

We didn't end up taking any photos of the date night really which I really should have! But alas, I did take a photo of our set up prior to our date night commencing and I took a couple of shots of the stars I was surprised turned out on my camera. I'd set it up on a tripod to keep it still and wanted to see if I could get some lucky starry photographs, which I did!

ANYWAY. We could have gone to lots of different places for our date night, and we could have done it at any time, but it always seemed to be cloudy, raining or just not a great day for us when we planned our date night. It was very weather dependent and we weren't sure on location either. We thought the park would be nice, but John and I being very wary of our surroundings didn't like that idea, because we knew we couldn't enjoy it properly with our guards up. We settled for the comfort of the garden at my house, simply because we had a nice area to sit in, it was more secluded and being closer to fields and less street lights, it was darker. It made sense.

I set up a little bench area we made with a blanket from indoors and the blanket from our box. It looked pretty cute if you ask me! I also decided I wanted to make use of all the things we had in our box and even made ourselves a flask of the hot chocolate we were given and set it outside ready to go. We had the telescope to hand, hot chocolate at the ready and the little challenges to read. It was also a perfect night with not a cloud in the sky. I was so happy we could finally have this date night!

What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box
What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box


When John arrived, with everything set up we sat ourselves outside and let our eyes adjust to the darkness. With the long summer days it was about 10pm when we set ourselves outside for our date. It took about 15 minutes before our eyes adjusted to the darkness and the stars began to appear. Orion's Belt was in view, along with the 'Saucepan' and lots of other star constellations. We weren't very good at figuring them out, but we of course were well informed of the two infamous ones we could see very clearly!

I'll be honest, we weren't very good at keeping to the date plan and made it up as we went along. It's sort of what we do... We're not very good with instructions. But we did make good use of the contents of the box. The flask kept us from having to go inside to make a fresh hot beverage, and the blanket stopped us from sitting on the cold and hard seat. The blanket I bought from inside for me when I got cold.

The only minor problem we had was with the hand held telescope simply because it was difficult to keep still! We could see the stars we wanted to see beautifully for a few seconds if we kept still enough and even spotted some more beyond the area we were looking at which was amazing. Ones we would never have spotted with the naked eye. It was seriously fascinating... I just wish we had a stand for it to keep it steady.

We got a little excited at one point when I thought I was staring at a plane in the far distance to realise that it was actually a moving star. It had to be! No red or flashing lights like a plane! Just a star travelling across the sky quite slowly it looked with no tail, but actually what really was quite quickly as it disappeared after a minute. Not long after we spotted a second one... Again no tail. We couldn't figure out if they were comets or shooting stars, so we decided they were just 'moving stars'!


What Cat & John Did | Stargazing Date Night - Just Us Box

I got a little sad when I remembered that most of these stars aren't there anymore and just light travelling across the universe. But John was there to comfort me and it was lovely. I always loved stars, and though John doesn't really have an opinion on them, we spoke a lot about them. We talked about aliens, the future trip to mars, all the things we knew about the moon (though the moon was no where to be seen), and the new planet they recently discovered with a atmosphere similar to ours.

We stayed outside until midnight. After a while started to get too cold for me, and it was about time we ended our night being a work night for John! It was a  great evening and we enjoyed being away from technology for a while and taking a step into doing something more intimate, quiet and in touch with the natural world and sciences! Though we didn't follow the date plan as much, we felt educated after a fun time discovering the far universe above and enjoyed the deep meaningful conversations about the world above and  laughing about our simple child-like ones like pointing out the sky looked like a dot-to-dot book.

Conclusion
Overall, we had a fun date night. It was definitely something different and out of the box. Though we have had similar dates, we never had one where the aim was to stargaze so if we've ever had moments staring at them like on holidays or during that midnight picnic, it's been because we've relaxed back and been caught in a moment of spontaneity.

As for the box, it was spot on for a stargazing date night! We loved the contents of the box and though we were a little naughty not following the date plan, it was pretty close to what was on paper! We liked that there was guidelines to follow, but you didn't have to, to have a good time. I feel like we still made the most of the box otherwise using pretty much all of the contents of the box for our date and still reaching the stargazing goal! Our favourite thing in our box was definitely the telescope. Still gutted that I killed the paper one...

I have to be honest with this review, and I have to say the only thing that I'm not keen on is the prices of the box. The subscription is monthly and you can commit to a various number of boxes starting at £30 monthly or committing to a full 12 months for £25 per box billed every 12 months. There are 1, 3, 6 or 12 month subscriptions. This trial box was just £18. The other thing for us, is that a date night usually entails some dinner too. Thinking about this alongside the date night at about an average of £30 for two people, this date could cost us about £55-60 maybe even more depending the meal cost. Maybe for us, because we live separately things are still expensive on evenings together, but for a couple living together this may not be an issue. BUT... This is not to say we won't think about subscribing at a later date when it's more within our budget!

With the price in mind alongside what I've experienced with the trial box, I would recommend it still! It's definitely for couples like John and I who love doing something new and changing it up when we can. It's also lovely to know that you've got a new and surprising date to look forward to each month no matter how many dinners and cinema dates you've had! A double thumbs up from us ♥

What do you think of the box! Would you subscribe to Just Us Box?

2 comments

  1. This was just the cutest post ever!! What a fab idea for a date night, so out of the usual! I loved it! :)
    Ana
    www.labellavitaxo.com
    x

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  2. I really do love this idea and am definitely mentioning this date idea to my boyfriend for this weekend as we were going to do a similar date not long ago but it was raining unfortunately. I love how in deft you've describe it too!

    Isobel x

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