Last Thursday, while my ezine was being sent out, I was driving Zach to Pepperdine to spend the day with Houston. I think it is soooooo cute that Houston wanted his cousin to shadow him to class all day.

It is kind of crazy, but Houston (28) and Zach (18) are 10 years apart and Indiana (26) and Kai (16) are also 10 years apart. My sister, Kiki, was 7 years younger than me and she had her kids later in life. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that the cousin bond is so strong!

Here is one of my favorite pictures of the cousins. It was a few years ago at one of my favorite restaurants in Hollywood that is now out of business…Spartina. UGhhhhh. From left to right, Houston, Indiana, Zach and Kai.

Fast forward to last Thursday…..Here we are as the boys get ready to “go to school”.

Welcome to Lynn’s Latest #000043

Thursday, April 24th, 2025
Volume VI Issue 000043

It was awesome that Houston gave us a tour of the law school and he introduced us to some of his friends. I can’t believe that his first year is ending and I hadn’t been down to see him yet. Ughhhh. Life just goes by so fast!

The building is really quite small, but the views are incredible. Here are the boys outside on the patio. Too bad it was overcast. That is the ocean behind them!

The cousins both had backpacks…Zach’s was a little bit bigger than Houston’s because it was packed for the first 5 days of his PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) journey. Once he put in all of the food I bought him, it weighed 23 pounds with all his gear…sleeping bag, cooking stuff, food, clothing etc.

I thought it would be fun to get a front pic and back pic. LOL. They were good sports! And they were both wearing similar cargo pants….btw, that shirt that Zach is wearing he “bought” it at my store.

He will only have one shirt with him to start and he picked this out and then we realized that my mom (his grandma…aka MorMor) is the one that consigned it…Awwww Serendipity and therefore it was free :).

While at the Pepperdine Caruso Law School, I did wander into the book store and bought myself a t-shirt. Gotta rep the kid’s school…si or no? In any event, I wore it to work on Friday and it was FREEZING…so had to throw on a jean jacket.

I did film a TikTok with Eddie (one of our favs) while wearing this amazing new ensemble. Just kidding!

Eddie was shopping for his upcoming trip to Burning Man in August. What do you think of his new ensemble? Hahahaha. Check out our Tiktok here!

Time for an eBay score! As you know, we are no longer carrying IOD, Annie Sloan or Redesign with Prima. In the store, all of these awesome products are now 20% off. However, there is not a huge demand for these products in our tiny market, but there is a huge demand worldwide.

So, I listed most of these items on eBay and RAISED the prices 20%. Sold out of this one transfer in a few weeks. SCORE!

Check out the listing here.

Let’s get back to the store….I was exhausted from my week moving Indy and then hosting Zach…but all good now and we are well rested!

On Saturday, we had the cutest customers come in. Check out Mark and Veronica who were visiting from New Zealand and bought some fun things to take home with them. A California license plate for Mark and a faux scrimshaw for Veronica.

Saturday evening as I was getting ready to close the store, I was walking over to Santa Cruz market to buy some asparagus for dinner, I saw a familiar face get out of a car in the parking lot. WHAT the heck? It was James Chapman.

Long story short. I got my MBA at USC back in 1992 and James was one of my favorite people. In fact, he and John Dilullo both made the trek to Bellingham, WA to attend my wedding to William. We were all USC MBA graduates. It was sooooo great to see him!

I posted that picture on Instagram/Facebook and had to laugh out loud when John Dilullo posted. OMG! These boys!

Seriously, the “wow just wow” got me. I miss these boys. And here is a photo from my wedding back in 1993… where both boys were present.

From left to right, Annie Hurtado, James (who came to visit), me, John Dilluo, Juliette Capretta (behind William my husband) William’s friend (Brian Wilson JD/MBA from USC) and Dean Factor. What a fun day!

And yes, we were doing the trojan marching band tusk dance and that is why we all look so crazy!

Later on that same Saturday, Martha’s boyfriend Jesse, came in with their son Phoenix. He is only six months and such a cutie! They bought him this little chair that is just his size.

This was the first Easter in a long time that I did not make baskets for my kids. To be honest, I was exhausted from Indy & Larissa’s move. And I had just spent a bunch of time with all of them! It was nice to have a little break.

I did get a super sweet text from Indiana though.

And just for fun, I will share a few picture from an Easter past. This was during covid and it was actually a super fun day!

I am not sure why they all had potholders on their hands, but maybe they were cooking! Then the kids used their Baggus to collect eggs that year. And speaking of Baggu, we are getting some new styles in this week! Very exciting!

On Easter Sunday, I got a text from Sandy and she said “Let’s go to Tony’s for Pizza and sunshine”. It was an immediate YES! I love Tony’s and it would be nice to get out of the house as all I did on Easter was laundry, dishes and clean house. And I hadn’t seen Sandy in a week as all she does is work anymore!

We headed to Tony’s at 4:30 and the band was awesome, but it was soooooo cold and windy that we changed plans and ended up at Cafe Fiore by the fireplace….and for the life of us we could not get a good picture, but we did get a pic of our drinks. LOL.

Then Monday we did Fit Buddha and headed to Lure for Martini Monday. We tried to get a photo and this is as good as it got! Oh well!

And here is another fun TikTok with Cha Cha. Who wore it better? Click here to watch the video.

So far everyone is saying that Cha Cha wore it better. Well Susan and my own daughter…..

Some exciting news! I got a text from Houston on Easter and this is what he said…..

“I’m considering where I’ll live next year. Wanting to ask if living in Ventura might be an option?”

My answer…Of course! The casita was his bedroom before I started renting it out. He still has 2 years left of law school and the commute to Pepperdine wouldn’t be too bad..about 45 mins. Fingers crossed!

Time for an eBay score! I bought some head vases back in August of 2020 when visiting my mom up in Bellingham. I took an offer of $50 for this one yesterday, because, why not? And I probably paid $7 for it and had it for almost 5 years. Time to move it out!

If you don’t know what a “head vase” is, let me explain…these were all the rage in the 1940’s and 1950’s and the head is actually open so that you could arrange flowers inside. Weird, right?

Check out the listing here.

Just googled one to show you what it would look like with flowers in it and found these CRAZY expensive ones on Etsy with faux flowers and they are asking $540. I think I am in the wrong business….si o no?

AND, I never want to visit the person’s house who collects these with the flowers in them. Oh my! Creepy!

Time for an update on my nephew Zach and his Pacific Crest Trail Hike.

But before I get to that, after our evening of Fit Buddha, dinner at the Saloon and shopping for his first five days of food…we came home and watched the old home movies that I had put on thumb drives as a Christmas present this past December.

It was crazy watching them because his mom (my sister) was between the ages of 20 and 22 in most of them. Very close to Zach’s age now. And she passed away when he was only 5 years old. Bittersweet for both of us to watch them and we stayed up until Midnight doing so! Crazy.

Here is Kiki showing us how to use the microwave one Christmas in my grandma’s kitchen…circa 1991.

Zach’s 19th Birthday was yesterday and he sent me these pics from the trail. He left the Mexican/American Border on Saturday morning and as of yesterday, he had hiked 100 miles. Way to go Zach!

I hope you don’t mind following along with us on his journey. Remember what Zach said about decision….”I don’t want to live an Ordinary life.” We should all aspire to this. Let’s all live an EXTRAORDINARY Life! He is definitely a DRALLE!

Many of you LOVE the stone bracelets that we sell for $4.95 each. These make great gifts and we just got in a new shipment yesterday. Tons of fun colors. Come in and check them out!

I am headed to Vegas on Friday morning early. What was I thinking? What am I thinking? I really don’t have the time to be going out of town.

But about 4 months ago, I saw that AC/DC was getting back together. One of my best friends from high school, Kathy Rutan, absolutely loves AC/DC. I think it is probably her favorite band, so I suggested that we all go to Vegas to see them.

Fast forward and here we go….wish me luck. This is the four of us from a trip several years ago. I LOVE my high school friends.

From left to right…Kathy Rutan, Jo Dallas, me and Leslie Arntzen.

Things we need for the store…..

AND PLEASE NO CONSIGNMENTS ON WEDNESDAYS….this is our big furniture take in and catch up day. THANK YOU!

Night Stands
End Tables
Dressers
Rugs
Lamps…both table and floor
Nice Throw Pillows
Wicker/Baskets
Metalware
Woodenware
Garden
Outdoor
Dressers
Desks
Oil Paintings

Susan and I are ready for our next design job! There are so many great things in the store and we have the inventory to do a beach house or any other style you may be considering. It can be a small job or a big job. Reach out for more details!