Archive for December, 2009
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Greetings from the newest member of the OolaMoola team!
Hi! I’m Bargain Moola and I’m a shopaholic on a budget. I’ll be scouring the high street and Internet for the biggest discounts, the best deals and the hottest spots for saving money.
I’m excited about joining my fellow OolaMoolas in helping you live the good life on a modest budget. Designer shoes? I’ll find them for half the price. (and probably buy them myself!) That cashmere wrap that’s perfect for your mum’s birthday? I’ll point you towards the best places to buy it from.
It’s not all pretty shoes and flirty dresses though! I’m a gadget addict and love finding the latest product to save time, money and space at home and on the go!
Just let me know what you’re looking for!
I live about an hour outside of London, so I’ve got plenty of ideas on how to save money if you live outside the capital. Feel free to challenge me to help you find something, using the challenge form.
Image from Flickr User: Jacob Bøtter
Posted in Introductions
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Crafty times: the zipper flower part 2
Well crafters, there’s good news and there’s bad news.
The good news is, the zipper flower is done. Ish.
The bad news is that it just about defeated me and I’ve finished this project with one zipper amoeba and a whole new appreciation for Velcro, snaps and ties.
Zippers are a tricky business, and to turn one into a flower, well, I think that takes a little more dexterity than your correspondent here could muster. Only those who play fast and loose with the whole representational thing are likely to call my little craft a flower. It is a zipper amoeba.
Here’s how I did it, along with a few tips on how NOT to do yours.
First, I consulted a very handy tutorial on craftster.org. Once I had an idea of what I was doing (or thought I did), I gathered my crafting components: needle, thread, scissors and zipper. I had run out of black thread and so had to buy more, which nudged my costs above the £5 mark, but not too far out of reach: all in, my bill was £6.30.
Everything you need to make a zipper flower
Posted in Crafting, Fashion, Uncategorized
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Crafty Cheap Christmas Sweets
Generally, if you want to give a present that appeals to all ages, sexes and races and don’t have a budget of thousands of pounds, it has to conform to at least one of the holy trinity of gift ideals - impressiveness, cuteness or deliciousness. Case to point - in my previous post I told you all how to make a sockmonkey- a present that hits both the ‘aaah’ cute factor and - unless you are some stitching wizzkid - a certain amount of surprised adulation from your family that you actually made something other than a sandwich with your own fair hands.
In this post I am going to show you how to make three different types of edible Christmas treats, that when parcelled together with a bit of decoration can make a gift that is both impressive and yummy. Observe! My ginger biscuit, peppermint cream and chocolate truffle Christmas tree! (for want of a snappier name)
What do you need to make this sweetie stack?
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Crafty times: the zipper flower part 1
If there’s one thing you can rely on, it’s the fact that every December, most women buy a new dress for the Christmas-New Year party season… and most of us buy it in black.
But this year, I’ve got a bit of a problem. You see, I did a bit of a closet re-org last weekend and I counted EIGHT black dresses… none of which I’m prepared to part with. I also counted a great deal of non-black dresses, leading me directly to the conclusion that this year I will NOT buy a new dress.
What to do? Accessorise, my dears, I must accessorise… and happily enough, I know just how: with a zipper flower.
The raw materials... a zipper. Photo by Uwe Hermann @ Flickr.
Over the past few months, I’ve spotted zipper flowers on a few well-accessorised fashionistas around town. They’ve also been featured on some crafty/style blogs, like The Best of DIY and Chictopia. I even spotted a couple for sale in Topshop, but they don’t come cheap — the one I liked was £25!
Clearly, a bit of craftiness is in order if I want to update my party wardrobe on the cheap (and chic).
Can it be done? Absolutely, and I’m setting a spend limit of £5. I’ll post back with my results and the official OolaMoola zipper flower how-to.
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How to make a Sockmonkey
So Christmas is creeping up around the corner and you’re so deadly broke that a ‘night out’ has simply become a synonym for ‘watching Eastenders at a friends’ house’. Well fear not! For those of you who are short on funds but have plenty of time on your hands, I have the perfect gift idea.
Sockmonkeys make great toys for children (or, if your sewing skills are less robust) thoughtful presents for adults. I mean, that’s the joy of handmade things after all, so long as they aren’t utterly hideous beyond all redemption, the receiver will be so touched that you actually spent time - time that could have been spent googling your name or chewing your nails - thinking of them and repeatedly pricking your finger with a needle, they won’t care if their gift looks like a slightly wonky gangbanger (see below).
Anyway, I digress. How to make a Sockmonkey.
You will need socks (duh), pins, a needle and thread, cotton wool (or something to stuff it with) and buttons for eyes.
Posted in Crafting
