August is a special month for me; for starters, its my birthday month! As mentioned in my last post, these past few weeks have been a bit crazy for me since I've been doing a lot of activities outside of social media; caring for my injured piggie - who is doing a lot better now - drafting up a business plan, and writing my first novel. I've been doing  some art offline as well, trying to make time to be creative too. 

    This post will probably be all over the place but I saw so many neat things that I just wanted to share them with you all so I decided to write a post on it. To start off, Dimitar and I have been looking for more decorations for our apartment to make it more cozy. Since this is our first apartment together, we're both really excited to decorate it for the holidays, especially Halloween and Christmas; we've even talked about how we want to keep the Christmas tree up all year when we get it. It may seem like too much to some, but who says every day can't be a holiday, anyways?

    We stopped at Tjmaxx, which is a home department store that practically has just about everything; clothes, food, decorations, stationary supplies, pet goods, cosmetics & more. I love shopping there because they always have a great amount of products from all over the world, all in one place. As usual though, they like to stock up for the next holiday about three months in advance and they have already started decorating for fall; I like it though. 

Pretty clouds

Thunderstorm on it's way!

Sunset

    I find myself looking up at the sky more often too. Seeing how the clouds form, especially storm clouds since they grow big and have precise outlines; it always makes me appreciate the little things that nature has to offer us. I've learned that making myself stop to appreciate the little things like the clouds, or the smell of the rain, can really make a difference in our life since they make us live in the moment. 

    Amongst everything I've been working on behind the scenes, I've also been creating some art here and there. I haven't had much time to be creative, but I do try to create sometime small if I'm able to. It always makes my day when I can draw in my sketchbook. With the new supplies I have from my recent collaborations with Artistro & Sakura, I have new art supplies to play with. Lately, I've been sketching in my sketchbook using my new acrylic paint pens that Artistro gifted me for a review. 

Sketching of a girl

Aesthetic vibes

Practicing painting landscapes

3 Marker challenge

        On my birthday weekend, I wanted to keep it simple. Dimitar and I spent time outdoors since we love being outside. Dimitar then surprised me by buying be a new pair of sneakers since I haven't had the best insoles in my shoes and it's been effecting my knees. So he bought me custom insoles that fit perfectly with my feet! Such a lovely gift! I haven't been able to go to the gym due to my insoles but now I can work out with ease!

Strawberry Creme cake & Colorful Bouquet

You can watch a vlog I made for my YouTube channel if you'd like a dip in my life by clicking the link below! 

    I haven't been very active lately. I decided to spend some time working on a business idea that I had no idea would take up most of my time. One of my dreams is to one day move to England because I love the environment and unique culture, but with the complex immigration laws now, there aren't many options for me to do this unless I; start a business there, go to school, or invest in an existing business which is the most expensive to do of the three. Since I already have an idea on what my business would be, I decided to spend some time researching and developing a business plan to present to potential investors.

    I didn't realize how hard this would actually be though! I had never considered starting a business of my own despite my independent ways; I have so many ideas that I know would make a difference into today's world but I never took them seriously until now. I discovered in my research that drafting up a business plan was really difficult because it involved precise research and money even, to prove that you have thoroughly thought your idea through. For weeks, I spent time on the couch researching for my business idea, for ten plus hours a day.  I still have pages to finish and research to do, but I'm taking a break to let myself relax a bit. When I get involved in a project I'm passionate about, I pretty much go all in so I have to pull myself away most of the time to notice life around me!

    Just when I was least expecting it too, my guinea pig Tipsy injured his eye. Between him and his brother, Tipsy is the clumsy one who often trips over his own feet or even the smallest bump inside of the cage. It doesn't help either that he's a bit chunky compared to his athletic brother. I noticed one day after cleaning their cage that Tipsy's left eye was watery. I didn't think anything of it at first since they normally have eye discharge to clean themselves, but when the crust started to form around his eye every day, I became concerned. Every day, no matter how much of the crust I cleaned up, the crust would return in a few hours. 

Gypsy (front) & Tipsy (back)

    I suspected that a piece of hay must have poked his eye since it had happened before that I found a small piece of hay in his eye; I was able to wipe it away but it did leave his eye watery afterwards. This time though, his eyes was redder which was alarming to me. Since I have experience with animals and working in animals hospitals too, I decided to take care of Tipsy on my own this time rather than taking him to the Vet. The last time I took Tipsy to the Vet, he wasn't eating, pooping, eating, and became very thin. I spent so much money on lab tests and exams for the Vet to tell me that there wasn't anything alarming that they found.

    So for those two weeks, I took care of him on my own, tube feeding him 3x a day and increasing his dose of Vitamin C. It was very a scary moment for me as I really thought I'd lose him. But after fourteen days of caring for him, he jumped back and became his normal self. So now, when his eye started to develop crust and became red, I made sure to clean his eye whenever there was crust present and increased his dose on Vitamin C. I also made sure to clean their cage more often so that nothing would irritate his eye further. Since he was eating just fine and drinking water as usual with no weight lose, I was confident he'd recover well. 

    Today, after two weeks of his eye issue, his eye has now been clear of discharge and crust for the past four days! I'll of course keep monitoring him just to be on the safe side, but I sure am proud of my tiny trooper! 

Guinea pigs new cage design

    With my piggie making a great recovery, I decided that it was time to expand their cage. Their cage used to have two levels and they sure loved it compared to their tiny cage back in the pet store where I adopted them from. It was so hard on my back though during cleaning that I eventually got rid of the 2nd level. I have noticed that they aren't as active as they used to be, which is why they have gotten bigger truthfully, so I figured it was time to draw up a design for their new cage. 

    I knew I wanted their second level to have some roaming space, but I struggled finding a way to clean the 1st floor if the 2nd floor was too big. For now, I'll stick with what their cage used to look like and simply offer them another space where they can eat and get their exercise. Since both of my piggies are getting older, I want to make everything extra comfortable for their tiny legs.

    The bottom level will be 2x4 and the top will be 2x1. Dimitar said that when he comes home today that we'd stop by the home supply store to pick up the items we need to build the top level, so I'll just grab extra fleece in case I decide to expand even more in the near future. 

C&C cage inspiration

    I am also dedicating my time to writing a book! It's a nonfiction novel that takes bits from my own life and with everything that has happened to me in the past few years, I felt that writing a book was only right. I wont say much about what the book is about yet but in a nut shell, it's a book about a young girl who moves to England to start a new life. Since I have always enjoyed writing books since I was little-even if I didn't finish them, I still love the idea of immersing myself into a story based off of my own imagination. 

So, this is what I have been up to lately! Until next time! xoxo - Sarah

    Yesterday started out as a normal day; it was Dimtiar's day off and we both woke up around 9am to go to the gym. We stayed up late the night before watching Silent Hill and of course slept in; we were suppose to wake up at 6am though! 

    After the gym and back at the apartment, I made a smoothie but Dimitar told me that he had plans for us; I was intrigued so I took a shower, did my makeup, and chugged down my smoothie. I really had no idea what he was up to. He told me to bring my camera though to vlog which hinted that something big was coming. When we got into the car and he put on the GPS, I saw that our destination was 3 hours away!

    Dimitar wouldn't say where we were going so instead of prying, we spent a good chunk of time talking about life goals, singing to classic hits, listening to comedy skits and crazy horror stories on YouTube. The scenery was nice too. After an hour and a half of driving, we stopped for a break to get some food. 

Arriving at Ashland

    After roughly three hours of driving, we arrived in a cute, small folk town known as Ashland. Passing the town, the GPS said we finally had arrived and Dimitar stopped his car in the middle of the road.

    To my surprise, we were in Centralia, Pennsylvania; the location that originally inspired the making of Silent Hill! I was shocked because I had always wanted to check the location out and had no idea Dimitar knew about it too!

    For those who don't know, Centralia is a ghost town due to an underground mine fire, which has been burning since 1962; for about fifty years now. It's said that the fire can burn for another century, but it's hard for scientists to predict. Once the gases and fire started to spread, all residents were forced to move to Ashland. It's truly a sad situation that could have been completely avoided, but it was a honor to pay my respects.

Ashland

    We finally came across graffiti highway, the popular destination for those who enjoy exploring Centralia. It's a road that has been blocked off due to the cracks and gases that started to appear. Before, the highway was uncovered which attracted tourists to visit, but the road was officially covered with sand domes in 2020.

    There was only a small part of the road that wasn't covered which was on the other side of the road; Dimitar and I took pictures and recorded the best we could. Also, in the air we did notice a sulfuric smell throughout the entire town, which obviously came from the ground.

    Being in a real life ghost town made me contemplate on exploring the rest of the surrounding states near me for more abandoned towns, or even haunted areas. It's interesting to be part of a place that once used to thrive. There is something mesmerizing about seeing places age with time as the world moves on around it.

A vlog will be coming soon!

Until next time! xoxo - Sarah