perth: day one

Last night I headed to the airport for my flight from Melbourne to Perth and I couldn’t be more excited – four days off, at least over 2o degree weather each day, and catching up with family and friends (with a 4k run in the middle there somewhere). The flight on the way over was without issue, and for the first time in a long time, I didn’t bring my laptop with me, so I managed to finish my August book in one sitting (Time Traveller’s Wife - highly recommended read).

This morning I awoke at the crack of dawn (well 630ish), still being on Melbourne time, but it was comforting staying in bed whilst thinking I would usually be at work! The morning was busy with things to get checked off my to do’s – I got a much needed trim of my hair at my old favourite hairdresser, grabbed all the bits I need for my City 2 Surf run here on Sunday, and managed to pop in Floreat to get a book for my flight home (Catch-22) and grab a bite to eat. I had insisted to Mum before I came over that I would like to visit Delish for Lunch – they have the most amazing range of sandwiches, and one particular toastie that I just love:

my amazing Tex Mex Chix toastie – not exactly sure what is in it (I think chicken, avocado, cheddar, cream cheese and some sort of tex mex flavouring)

mum’s beef and caramelised onions sandwich

and james’ (couldn’t be patient enough for me to take a snap first) chicken and avocado sandwich.

I am sure there are many places that have popped up in Perth since my absence with better food – but this food just reminds me of when I lived here, so it is always a required re-visit.

After the delicious lunch, a much-needed nap was taken (how come you always sleep so easily on holidays) and the rest of the day was spent relaxing at home before another requested meal – fish and chips from my local fish and chip shop. Good fish and chips is just something I haven’t found in Melbourne, probably as I live in the North, so it is another must eat when I am back home.

Today is likely to be catching up with friends – but we’ll just see how the day turns out.

heading out west

Tonight I am heading back home for a long weekend and I can’t wait! Although I’ll be getting in at midnight Perth time (three am Melbourne time) I imagine I will be full of energy, just excited to be back home. Although I have been in Melbourne two years now, and have even bought my own house here, I still call Perth home, maybe more because it’s where all my family is.  The weekend is fairly unplanned as the thing I love best about going home is just relaxing at our house, and being around my brother and parents.  Although some must do’s for when I go home to Perth include:

• Buying some Biltong from the South African shop. Not many South African expats seem to make it over to Melbourne, which results in a severe lack of good Biltong here – Perth has heaps of good South African stores so I will definitely be chowing down all I can eat whilst I am there
• Eating Fish & Chips – no fish & chips in Melbourne have yet to come close to the deliciousness of the fish at our local fish and chip shop back in Perth
• Visit Shoe Show – I am sure I just haven’t found the equivalent yet in Melbourne, but Shoe Show in Perth is a chain of stores that carry brand name shoes (think I Love Billy to Tony Bianco) for cheaper prices. It is always good to pop in there when I am in Perth and see if any good bargains are to be had
• Head to Edo in Subiaco for a Chicken Katsu Bento Box – best chicken katsu I’ve ever had! And so reasonably priced, I highly recommend you pop in and grab any one of their bento boxes for a lunch or a takeaway dinner.
• Visit Karrinyup shopping centre – I worked in this shopping centre for over 3  years whilst at Uni, and love to pop in to see what has changed. It also has a really great range of shops now, so perfect for a quick shop and coffee with mum!

Now a lot of my must dos seem to centre around food – but I suppose that is just how most of my life is – I certainly live to eat, not eat to live! I’ll have some updates on how my Perth adventures go over the weekend soon.

preparing for the best-est guest

I found out a few days ago that my awesome mum is coming over for a few days in two weeks, and I am so excited! She will be staying in the second room, which only just got around to organising. However this room is still not quite finished – there are a few touches that are needed before it is mum ready!

This is the room’s current floor plan. The expedit is against the far wall, the desk in the middle, and the bed to the one side. The black circle behind the bed is a structural post that’s part of the original building. The bed and expedit will stay, however I am looking to replace the desk and chair, as well as adding something next to the expedit and behind the bed to serve as a bedside table/stand.

I am not sure what piece of furniture to add next to the Expedit – maybe a smaller Expedit? A 4×2? This could serve as more storage as well as the top could serve as a place for a bedside light and bedside stand. I am still deciding on what desk to go with as well – I love the solid wood Ikea desk, however the dimensions may not be exactly what I want (and the desk isn’t critical to chance before my mum’s visit).

Apart from these floor plan changes the room needs a few finishing touches to make it welcoming as a guest room:

• A new throw or quilt for the bed
• A bed-side lamp for reading
• Vacuuming of all cat fur (unfortunately Bailey has taken a liking to the new bed linen)
• Some fresh candles or flowers

Might be able to grab a few of the above at the Target Home sale this weekend!

At least sprucing up the room will keep be occupied whilst I count the days to mum’s arrival!

in search of the perfect outdoor table

Once again I am reminded of how far Australia is from the rest of the world, when I can find my perfect outdoor table everywhere but here. My outside deck is quite small in size, all I have now is a BBQ and some pot plants, but I would love to add a small, colourful bistro size table for drinks and small meals. My inspiration for this has come from the following images:

image courtesy of apartment therapy

I love the bright red bistro set in this image, the red against the green really pops.

Images courtesy of housetohome.co.uk

Again the bright colours seem to really work outdoors

Of course when it came to actually finding something like this in Australia I’m stumped. The chairs are no problem, I can find similar type chairs everywhere, mostly in replica stores – true most of them aren’t intended for outdoor use, but the materials they are made of lend themselves easily to this purpose. And if that doesn’t work – I quite like the idea of painting small wooden chairs a bright colour, like with the last image above. The table is the piece that is quite tricky to find – all that is around is round wooden tables (which I could paint a bright colour, but I don’t feel would have the same effect). I did however stumble across this yesterday:

Perfect! I found this table at Urban Balcony – it is the perfect size, and it comes in a wide range of bright colours. The only downside? The price starts at $395 for the 60cm diameter. Just a tad outside my price range for what is essentially a small table. I suppose the search will have to go on, I am hoping that as summer comes, a new range of outdoor furniture will emerge, and hopefully my perfect table will find me.

nearly complete….

While it’s raining outside, I did manage to complete some more garden work the last weekend. Short of finding the perfect outdoor table (which is proving quite difficult) the outdoor deck is finished. After re-staining the deck, not killing my plants, and adding the deck to the downstairs area, it’s finally looking ready for summer – now the weather needs to catch up.

I managed to find some plants for the box on the weekend – they can grow up to 2.5m tall, so they can cover the fence. Fingers crossed they stay alive long enough to grow that tall!

wishful thinking at etsy

I love etsy! The only thing I don’t love is that my favourites list just goes on and on and on – there’s no way I could ever purchased all I loved from there. Here are just a few things I am lusting over currently:

anything to do with typography

from the  jenniferramos store

from the dearcolleen store

from the hijirik studio

from the yardagedesign store

cute stamps

from the marchare store

from the marchare store

chunky jewellery

from myfaunaflora store

from the RedChair store

fun stuff for the house

from the Mookah store

from the Redstitchdesigns store

I could spend all day on etsy! Now just to narrow down my wish list to things I can actually buy!