Bubble Bubble toil and trouble.

This is what you get when you have a crazy friend who happens to have a box of dry ice in the boot of her car.
You throw it in the pool to see what happens.
Naturally.
Judi your as hot as Ice Ice baby.

A Sneak Pink of my new digs.

'Sjoe thats pink!'
Coming to SjoeThatsNice oh so very soon.
ive been plastering,painting,peeling,hammering,throwing out, moving in furniture, moving out furniture.re-upholstering, re-arranging and finally nesting.
All those super nifty tricks i learnt from handy ex boyfriends in the past,
have finally managed to come to some use.(So to Mr Ex who famously stated 'Tell me one beeping good thing that you learnt from this Titanic of a relationship, i say The difference between a wood nail and a regular nail!')
See boys, when you showed me the correct way to screw in a light-bulb i really was paying attention.
Watch this space for more renovation happiness.Sjoe thats nice style.

Sundays

No this is not a film set.
These are my friends.
This is the dogpark.
This is where we roll on a Sunday.
As do the rest of trendy dog walking joburg-ers.

Little boy blue.

Im all kinds of blue today.
light blue because it was such a pretty pretty pretty day,
then i tuned a shade of evening sky blue as the storm clouds gathered and finally broke into millions of spluttering raindrops that fed my newly planted pumpkin seeds so heartily that i did a little rain dance.
Then the medicinal blue took over like a mourning cloth over my heart thanks to my week long flu, which has left my glittering sparkly party dress hanging like a wall flower in my closet, giving me angry looks everytime i blow my nose.
Im sorry really pretty dress, i promise we will have a starry eyed, dance the night away night out on the town soon.
Untill then, some blue images of the nice kind, that make the blue's in life all the more colourful and reminds me that the blues, on a good day, really is just amazing music, if you turn that frown upside down and turn the stereo on max.

Life after flu.

tonight my friend Hayleigh came over with white wine and soda water.
Our intention was to have an early night with white wine spritzers, tapa's and each-others company.
You see, i have flu.
The debilitating, i cant get out of my pyjama's, let alone my bed, kind of flu, that leaves you weeping for hours, sniffling like some tragic Jane eyre novel an eating everything in sight kind of flu.
However, because it was a Cara and Hayleigh night, things didnt really go according to plan. Yes we were at home, with a laptop as a 'DJ' mozzies for fellow party go-ers and room temperature beer, but i swear, you couldnt have had more fun, not even in New Yorks trendy Bungalow 8.
It went a little like this(thought a photo montage may work better in this situation)

Nutella.The world needs You.

World Nutella Day was started in 2007 by Sara of Ms. Adventures in Italy and Michelle of Bleeding Espresso. And for this we are eternally grateful!

Nutella Meringues
Makes 15 to 20 meringues (depends on how big you make them)

3 large egg whites, at room temperature
a pinch of cream of tartar
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon, castor sugar
1/4 cup Nutella

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.Make sure you have one oven rack in the bottom third of your oven and one in the upper third of your oven.

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Set up a double boiler (a pot with another pot on top or a heat-proof bowl on top) and put the Nutella in the top of the double boiler. Warm the Nutella through and then set aside while you make the meringue.Let the Nutella cool as you make the meringue.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, place the egg whites. Beat on medium-high speed until they are completely foamy.

Add the cream of tartar and the salt and continue whipping at medium-high speed until when you lift the whisk attachment, soft peaks form. This should take a few minutes.

Once you have reached the soft peak stage, increase the speed to high and begin adding the sugar a few spoonfuls at a time (this should take a few minutes).

Once all the sugar is in, the meringue should be very thick (almost stiff) and when you left the whisk firm peaks should remain.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and drop in all the Nutella. With a rubber spatula, gently fold the Nutella into the meringue three or four times. You’re aiming for a swirled effect so don’t overmix. This will also help avoid deflating the meringue.

Using two spoons, drop the meringue onto the parchment-lined baking sheets in large dollops.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, immediately lower the heat to 120 degrees and rotate the trays. Bake for an hour.

After an hour, check the meringues. If they are completely dried out then turn the oven off and leave the meringues in the oven for a few hours to cool with the oven. If the meringues still look a bit “wet”, then continue baking for another 20 minutes or so. Either way, once fully baked, turn off the oven and leave the meringues in there for a few hours.

When you remove the meringues from the oven they should be completely dry and cool and will sound hollow when you tap the bottoms.

YAY! you have made amazing amazing amazing Nutella mirangues!

Your hand-me-downs may just be a treasure chest.

Cleaning out my closet once a month is a religious experience for me.
From the 'what the bleep was i thinking??' to the 'Sjoe!i forgot i had this amazing dress!'
I have so many items i simply cannot bare to part with, but also know i cannot under any circumstance be seen in them.
So i was scouring the net for new and creative ways to give a little shine and polish to my drab about to be thrown away's.
my dear friend google, feeling my pain, decided to make my day and suggested re-inventing the simple old tee shirt into a material necklace.for reals.
Look how lovely.

Feeling completely inspired by the packets and packets of nuts and bolts i found in the back of my closet i realised do not undermine the simple house tool or anything remotely to do with hardware, because you can turn boring old nuts and bolts into utterly stylish bracelets, just look!