Today I wore this to work.

Outfit 21: pants from Target, top from Ishka, headband from Witchery, Diva bangle, Tigertree necklace and DFO sandals. The top has a beautiful pleat detail on the vertical blue part and cuffs. Colleagues liked it.

And I sort of faltered. I bought stuff. And some more, not pictured, but they are for a birthday present and so don’t count in this remix/shopping ban.

My colleagues thought my purchases were the only logical thing to do. For Borders has gone bust and was given a birthday voucher for a generous sum, and they were only honouring vouchers if you spent the equivalent of the voucher. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep my voucher for. And so I shopped.

I panic shopped. I bought a cute little bag for my belly dancing shoes and scarf, and several books, a homeware item a magazine and a card. Everything I bought I wanted, so it was not impulse buying.

Initially I was annoyed by having to spend $100 to use a voucher that had already been paid for. But now I’ve been to Borders, spent $100+ and seen forlorn staff fending off customers and being interviewed by the media, and worrying about whether they’ve got a job in the near future, I don’t feel so hard done by. The poor staff were consoling customers and genuinely worried about their jobs. It’s so sad. I love Borders. I loved poring through the Kurt Cobain books before I moved here to Melbourne. I loved reading magazines on their comfy chairs when the temperature was ridiculous. And I loved the cook books. But now with the trend of online bookstores and e-books, and competitive global rates, the physical bookstores are suffering. I noticed the demise of Borders’ CD stock a while back, and now their DVD are dwindling, they have homewares, and a smaller range of books.

My panic shopping and 30 for 30 interlude is justified when a store I have a voucher for goes into voluntary administration. Even Kendi Everyday would agree. I only went to one store, and no clothes were bought.

Tonight is nice. I’m dead tired, so am relaxing. Wine, music, dark chocolate and reading The Secret Life of Dresses, which is a book based on the A Dress a Day blog.

I hope my blog is made into a book one day!

PS: you only have a few days left to vote for me (Tune into Radio Carly) in the Best Kept Secret category of the Bloggie Awards. Thanka!