I GOT A HAMSTER! & Other Things I'm Doing During Quarantine

It's been two-weeks since we were all told to self-quarantine. My job is allowing us to work from home, we can hardly find toilet paper in the stores and we have more free time than ever. Let me start by saying I am extremely grateful and lucky that I am able to work from home, that my friends and family are healthy.. I really don't have many complaints as of lately. 

I have also very much love working from home. Because of the fact that I don't have a commute, I'm able to get so much done! Even just working from home, if I need to start the dishwasher or switch out the laundry I can do it right there and then, instead of at 5 o'clock at night. Same with walking Oliver! I love walking him at 4:30 instead of 6 at night. I just feel so much better not being in a rush in the morning and I hope that my job starts to allow us from working from home more often because of this.

The personal negatives I've had.. again, I feel like I shouldn't even complain.. my trip to Colorado Springs got cancelled and all the stores are closed! That's okay though because we are getting most of our furniture delivered, but you know when you just need something I can't just run to Home Goods and grab it. Honestly that's all my complaints. I really, really, can't complain.

Now, onto the things that I'm doing to pass the time. I truly haven't been going out, unless we need something. There's been a few trips to to home stores (before they closed) and we visited our family last weekend, but besides that.. we've been chilling at home and it's been great. We actually just moved in the beginning of March and because we've been swamped with work, putting our apartment together was a slow process. Now that we have more time, we've been able to focus on buying furniture and just getting it all together. The apartment looks so different than it did three weeks ago, but I'm loving it. I'll be sharing a new apartment haul on the blog soon, then once everything is put together, I'll be sharing an apartment tour.

The next thing that my boyfriend and I have been really into are puzzles! I don't know what re-triggered this in me, but I loved doing puzzles as a kid and so did my boyfriend so we ran to Barnes & Noble and found this puzzle of baby Yoda 😭 and this stain-glass window one but with Disney characters. We finished The Mandalorian one in two-days, but the Disney one is taking us a bit longer. Regardless, this has been a great brain-stimulating activity that you can do in the house. Plus a little glass of rosé makes it really fun!

Some creative projects that I'm doing is working on my blog, as you can probably tell, I've been pumping out the content. I'm also thankful for daylight savings time (and the fact that I'm working from home), because during my lunch break or right afterwork I can get some photos in. I've also been journaling a lot. I plan on sharing my journaling experience and how I journal on the blog soon, but I have loved journaling during my down time. I am also working my newsletter (click here to subscribe) and hopefully soon I'll get the first new newsletter out! I'm also hosting a giveaway once the Facebook page reaches 500 likes (less than 100 likes to go!!). I'm able to balance multiple things through the day so my creative projects are really thriving.

Reading! I am an avid reader, but I feel that past two-years I've been slacking. I finished one book already and started a second one. There is something to therapeutric about lighting a candle and reading your book before bed. Super chill.

Working out and stretching. My boyfriend has been way better at this than I am, but when he's not looking I like to just stretch and do some yoga. It's so easy to morph into your bed and forget to move your body, but at times like this it's important to keep moving.

Focusing on my skincare. Since I'm home all day and not in a rush in the mornings or at night, I have been focusing on my skin and doing full skincare routines in the morning and at night.

My boyfriend and I have been loving our video games. He got on Warzone on Xbox and I've been playing Sims 4, but my boyfriend bought me two upgrades, the vampire and magic packs. It was been so much living out my Vampire Diaries life tbh. I also saw that Animal Crossing just came out and I'm trying to restrain myself, but if we're going to be in quarantine another month, I'm going to cave.

I have been tacking my to-do list. You know that ongoing list of things that dont really have a time limit or isn't due until April (taxes). This is a great time to get those things done. I need to book some flights, pick up Oliver's medicine, pay some doctor bills and yes, my taxes.

Another thing I did was update my Poshmark and Mercari. Since we were moving, I took a break, but now I have some great items listed. Check out my Poshmark by clicking the link here and my Mercari by clicking the link here.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for... I got a hamster! To everyone else, this may seem random, but this was not a random purchase. I told my boyfriend about a month ago that I want a hamster, but because we were moving he said, "Let's wait until we're settled in the new apartment." Well, we're settled and we have a lot of downtime so when we went to the pet store to get Oliver some food, I saw this hamster that reminded me so much of my childhood hamster and when I held him I just knew. So my anniversary gift came early and I'm stoked. We were in the middle of a Harry Potter marathon (another thing you should be doing during this time) and I knew I wanted to give him a cool wizard name. Something about Albus Dumbledore just stuck with me, so I decided to name him Albus. He is the cutest and so lovable. Oliver is very curious about him and will watch him when he's in the cage or rolling around his ball. So yeah, if you need something to do, get a hamster, totes worth it.

What are somethings you're doing during quarantine? Got any tips or ideas you want to share? Leave a comment down below. Follow me on Instagram to see more behind the scenes of my days @michelekatsaris. And stay tuned for more apartment posts coming soon!

xoxo, Michele

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