Our next trip to Perth

I previously wrote about my bestie (known on this as P) moving to Perth. I was a bit devastated at the time, but we've gained a great spot to holiday in when we get the chance :D

Because we now get free accomodation thanks to my best friend, we have some extra pocket money set aside for spending on activities when we get there!

This lead me to start researching things to do in Perth. I actually came across that post after following starryeyeing.com, a beautiful Bulgarian fashion blogger. I have a bit of a woman crush on her and love the beauty tutorials... So anyways she linked to that article about Perth and now I want to meet a Quokka!

Image source: wikimedia.org

So the next time we go to see P we're definitely going to take a ferry trip to Rotnest Island and take an awesome selfie with a fluffy ball of adorable known as a Quokka!

Apparently they're known as the "world's happiest animal" so I'd like to go see it for myself. I find it hard to believe that they're any happier than P's Italian greyhound when he gets a treat, but we'll soon find out!

Getting moody with mood boards

I've recently been working with a friend of mine regarding their decision to build their dream home. I have a bit of experience in interior design, and after spending some time chatting and looking at ideas on Pinterest, my friend wanted to get my help in choosing a residential architect in Sydney.

After doing some research online, we spoke with a company who clearly understood our requirements. Both of us had a really good idea of the interior based on what we'd talked about, and sitting down for coutnless hours looking for inspiration.

We created a mood board, which is something I highly recommend for any of you out there that are looking into undergoing ANY type of design project. If you’re like me, you’re probably bookmarking designs you find online left, right and centre. It's like a digital collage of ideas that is a great reference point to return to when your design guru starts asking you questions outside of your area of expertise.

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Before I got into the habit of creating mood boards, I found outsourcing the design process to be a very tedious task. My hubby had me help handle the organising of the assets to get his businesses website re-designed.

I run my own blog, but I have NO IDEA when it comes to search engine optimisation and other technical aspects of web design. So when the digital agency we hired (who were great by the way) helped walk us through the more technical aspects, we were able to achieve those aspects without neglecting our original design concepts.

Long story short - create mood boards! If you're finding your design or DIY renovation projects too much handle, you can easily review your boards and get back on track.

I use Pinterest for mine, but you can use any visual bookmarking tool you like :D

"If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor" - Neil Simon

So we're on a renovation streak, and we're shopping for new floors. Even though we live in a smaller city (i mean Newcastle is pretty big, but it's definitely not as big as Sydney) there's such a huge amount of stores selling flooring in Newcastle.

In our research, we ended up comparing prices on the Newcastle Carpet one website. We've spent (invested?!) quite a lot on the house lately, so we wanted to stay within budget. Hubby and I typically plan out budgets for everything we do, but when it comes to the house we have a habit of blowing the budget out... Oops!

In this instance though we were extra focused on staying within the allocated budget, including installation. One bonus is that we found out there's a bunch of warranties for carpet from Carpet One which makes the pricing even more attractive.

Sustainability is important for us, so we've been looking at sustainable flooring options. Bamboo floors look like the way we're going go, and I've been looking at how they're made. The process is truly amazing, and it does make you feel warm and fuzzy knowing that they're sustainable and sourced responsibly.

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Hubby is more into engineered timber floors, as he gets the look that he's after of the more traditional style hardwood-timber, but much more affordable (within our budget! hehe) and significantly less costly to install. As the flooring consultant I spoke to mentioned to me "it's the total installed price that counts" which is 100% correct. My advice is figuring out the installation cost before committing to anything!

We're still in the research process, but I expect we'll have some nice looking new floors in our home by mid 2017!