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Opp 'Til You Drop

During a recent visit overseas, I learned the term "Opp Shop." An Aussie buddy of mine who has the best style and wardrobe I have ever seen - ever - revealed to me that her collection of fabulous is one part high priced brand name gear and one half other. The other, I learned, is a carefully selected and often revamped series of $2 - $6 pieces purchased from consignment or second hand shops which, while some cringe a bit at the idea of wearing someone's used stuff, they have coined the ever cool kids' opp shopping.

I had to try it...and was instantly addicted. I'll never forget the day I wore my four dollar, floor length, flowing ivory dress because my entire day was stacked with compliments and inquiries as to which boutique I had purchased it from! Lesson one - give the shops a chance and I'll bet you'll be surprised at what you find. Plus it's so funny to walk out having spent only a few bucks on an outift that, even if you are a serial dresser aka wear your outfits a couple times, you don't have to feel to guilty about. A majority of the killlerrrr kitten heel shoes, little vintage hippie purses, and one-of-a-kind rings my Opp Shop guide sports have been collected from these goody hunts.

That brings us to lesson 2: the magical shortening trick. This really was the kicker for me. My Opp Shopper, we'll call her "Sam," is always wearing these crazy unique clubbing dresses that are super short and made of bizarrely original fabrics (i.e. Camel coloured velvet mini? Where on earth do you find such a thing?). Even during my first couple Opp visits I found nothing as club worthy as this, but the next time I saw Sam I learned the ways. If you go to any local Walmart, London Drugs, etc type store you can pick up a little roll of hemming tape. It's a small roll of little white fluffy fabric that allows you to instantly hem any fabric by ironing the tape to seal wherever you've placed it. Sam's brilliant trick is to find funky patterned dresses, skirts and shorts (granny dresses work amazing - see above pics for inspiration), skirts, that I would never have looked twice at since a lot of these are knee or floor length items, and using the tape to bring up the hem to a sexier short length in just a few seconds of pressing. Suddenly a giant cream lacy dress that looks like a 70 year old's nightie becomes a fresh, young mini ready to pair with a couple of black leather sandals.

Which leads up to our final lesson 3: matching dirt cheap with chic. If you find a whole swarm of dollar items that look great together - go for it. But another cool way to enjoy the Opp fashion finds and mix it up is to pair them with one or more fancier, luxury pieces to bring the whole vintage look together. As seen at the top, adding in a great pair of leather boots, some cool jewelery, and a dark plum or black manicure can add some extra kick to balance wispy feminine prints and fabrics of the outfits.

Salvation Army and Value Village are the most obvious and easy-to-locate spots to start searching for this weekend's outfits, but there's also a few great spots on the bottom few blocks of Lower Lonsdale and West Broadway.

Enjoy your toonie finds guys,

Love Baba and Cool.

I Eat The Icing First.

As a great man named Homer has taught us, the fluffy hole-in-the-middle above is a truly drool worthy bite that you generally pick out of an oily cardboard box. I can make grilled cheese, sure, corn flakes, totally, but who the heck has time to make a damn donut?

Guess what, turns out it's faster than Kraft Dinner (I timed it).

This week, we came across an awesomely bad-cook-friendly site that uses a super quick video, and 7 uber basic and CHEAP ingredients that you probably already have at least 5 of (no really, we're talking flour, oil, a potato, sugar, salt, milk, yeast - that's all folks) to whip up your very own Krispy/Horton superior donuts.


*OFF TOPIC INTERRUPTION* This was too funny we not to include, this is what you call irony (the ad that was playing beside the fried donut recipe video...thanks Google).

Anywho, if you're anything like us 2, you will certainly be waking up on Saturday morning aka Jan 1st 2011 with a truly horrific hangover and have zero energy to go anywhere - or worse...cook. Also, you'll want grease and lots of it. Do yourself a massive favor and spend the few minutes getting these fried 'n' ready for your brutal a.m. headache, so when you roll outta bed and are still hearing house beats in your brain around noon you can give these a 5 second microwave and chow down over Jersey Shore Season 2 reruns.

Bonus* they show you how to make 2 flavours of creamy dips to dunk your O's in. GT's all around.

Love Baba and Cool


"The Secret Donut Recipe"
http://www.secretdonutrecipe.com/Site/Donut_Recipe_Story.html

100 Treats for $12

Holy mother. Okay, so we said the site was launching Jan 2011, and it is, but this little Vancouver tidbit can't wait (or at least it would be wrong to keep this from you for another week).

The two words we must share with you are TRAVELLERS DECK. Unbelievable. For around $11.95, this little box of cards is the best "game" you've bought since Guitar Hero came out, only this one relates to beer and food which makes it even better.

Every card is double sided with a special freebie or discount to, literally, the BEST f-ing places in Vancouver. We're talking about the diamonds of our city that any true West Coast foodie/wine-o/shopaholic would agree are the places to dine, party and purchase. Few faves I'm stoked to redeem so far would be:

Chambar - must try white chocolate tequila souffle and frozen blue cheese martini
Cafe Medina - best gourmet brunch in BC, lavender latte is killer
Raw Canvas - drink, eat, PAINT!

While the Groupons and Coupon Books you've all seen before are generally all based on discounts, this book is at least half full of no purchase required, zero cost items to try. Free appetizers, free mojitos, free desserts, over 750 bucks worth of plates and drinks and other random treats for the same price as a grande Frapp and a damn muffin lol you know what to do.

Easiest places to buy these bad boys are at Indigo or Chapters, or if you wanna save the drive buy it on their website and you'll have it in 2 days: http://travellersdeck.com/

Enjoy your freeeee days and nights out, and Happy New Year friends.

Love Baba and Cool