Beg, borrow, steal.... or rent?

Would you rent an outfit?

It's an interesting concept, renting an outfit instead of buying it, but would we actually want to give that a go, or are we still a bit snobby about things like that?

Clothes swapping, charity shopping and recycling have all seen a boom in the past six months, as people try and make-do with what they've got and try and stay on top of the ever-changing fashion trends. We no longer spend, spend, spend like we used to, and what's more sales bargains can no longer make us go wild with delight. Our environment is changing and that means we have to revaluate our wardrobe and expenditure a tad too.

The renting concept first came to my attention in Sex and The City: The Movie. In New York you could rent the latest designer 'it' bags for a week at a time, never buying but always having the most fashionable bag on your arm to accompany your stylish look

This got me thinking, why is no one out there renting entire wardrobes?

I am heading an a minibreak to Prague in November and am starting to think out my outfit ideas. I need a mixture of city chic, yummy mummy and comfort. Its harder than it sounds! Wouldn't it be great to log onto a website, select some key looks, enter your measurements, dictate what the outfits need to be used for (eg: shopping, theatre, dinner...) and within 48 hours an entire wardrobe of clothes arrives on your doorstep. I'm sure in the fashion world this is easily achieved, but not so much for a gal in the back of beyond.

Friendship - trials and tribulations

Here's the situation:

About a month ago we agreed to go out to dinner tonight with some friends - to an Indian restaurant 15 miles away.
In the meantime, last week we got the keys to our new house. The house was a bombsite - the last owners left a multitude of junk in all the rooms which we have had to dispose of, and about 12 years worth of dust and grime. I have spent all week scrubbing, hauling, polishing, steaming, vacuuming.... all whilst looking after my 15 month old baby girl. When it got too hard on her I called in the grannies to help - which unfortunately has thrown out her routine and she has become unable to settle herself to sleep at night, something which she has never had a problem with before.
RC, my lovely hubby has been unable to get time off work, and as he is working 12 hour shifts this week - he hasn't even seen the house yet.
Yesterday all my belongings arrived from NZ. I was at the house from 7am till 6pm and I am only half way done unpacking.
Tonight will be the first night we spend in the house together. It may take a while to get my little girl to settle to sleep, and to top it all my car has broke down and won't be ready till Monday.
RC is working till 8 again. We can either get a taxi there and back (££££) or his lovely daddy has offered to drive 20 miles to collect us and take us to the restaurant - a 40 mile round trip for him. RC is then up for work again at 7.

So, everthing is telling me to cancel. It makes sense to cancel. We will be falling asleep at the dinner table. And I really just want to curl up on the sofa in front of the TV.

So why am I stressing about it?
My friend will sulk. She won't understand. She'll just tell me to leave Maya with her granny - that she'll be fine.
And I will feel guilty.

I'm letting no one down - there were going to be 6 of us going, so there will still be 4.

Oh dear. It surely shouldn't be this hard. It's times like these that I wish I was in NZ - slightly different culture/mentality about this type of thing.

Bite the bullet, kiwi, just do it.