Panic at the Disco…..I woke up in the middle of the night before our final day and thought….Crap, I have too much great new stuff for eBay etc. and will definitely need another storage unit.
So, at 8:30 am on that final day, Jo Dallas and I headed to my storage unit and I rented another 10 by 10′. Thank you to Susan for opening without us! That new storage unit was a necessity to make this work. My goal is to be out of the second storage unit by September 30th…..
Walking into the store on the final day, Thursday, September 3rd, I couldn’t believe how much stuff was left. I quietly wondered if it would even be possible to get out of there in less than 24 hours. Of course, I didn’t say that out loud. I am known as “pollyana” and always look on the optimistic side.
Xander pulled Jo Dallas aside and said quietly, “Is there a Plan B?” Hahahaha. Here is what the store looked like around noon that day. Still pretty full!
As you can imagine that last day, was crazy! We had the “Moving In Project” come first to pick out items for the homeless getting into homes. Such a great charity!
Then the Boys and Girls Club came. Thank you Issac and Honer! They came back three times and left with three full trucks…..You boys rock!
Welcome to Lynn’s Latest #000061
Friday, September 19th, 2025
Volume VI Issue 000061
Then Nydia and her girls showed up to fill up a truck load to take to the Boys & Girls Club so that her daughter’s flag football team could get a $1,000 donation for donating a truck full. The Boys & Girls club MUST be overflowing with Lynn’s Consignments great stuff. Head in there to support them! I LOVE their thrift store on the Avenue.
I can’t go, because it will make me sad. As you can imagine, this has been a very tough month for me. I know it is the right decision, but it was definitely not an easy one. Go Cougars!
Part of that day included taking down my store sign. Signarama wanted $575 to take it down. I asked Kevin if he could do it and he thought he could. Someone suggested him getting up on the roof by going through the tenants apartment to take it down. He leaned over and got the job done!
After Kevin got the sign down in 15 minutes -literally (I paid him $100) I started putting him to work. He was like…”I am only here for the sign”. Oh shit! What was I going to do? I literally could not finish without him and Xander.
Kevin thought about it for a moment and being such a great kid he said, “If I can get my buddy Dave over here to help, I think we can make it work”. Dave drove over on Kevin’s electric bike and I put them in charge of moving all of the new gift inventory to my new storage unit. Jo Dallas drove Sandy’s truck and THANK GOD for these 3….they literally saved the day.
3 trips later and mission accomplished!
Well, we did it! And that is a “royal” we! Thank you to my incredible staff, family & friends that were there until the bitter end!
Here is part of the crew as we were finishing up Thursday night! David, Kevin, Whale, Val, me, Sandy, Joanne and Martha. Jo Dallas was in the other room!
We left the store Thursday night at 7 pm, absolutely wrecked and exhausted. We had until 9 am the next day to finish cleaning up so that I could turn in the keys and head to Palm Desert with Jo Dallas.
Xander and Kevin met us at the store early on Friday. Jeff Becker walked through with me at 11 am and I turned in the keys. Check out this tiktok of the empty store. Crazy right? But we did it!
Jo and I got on the road by 11:30 and headed to Palm Desert with the Cha. Mo was in Minnesota and we couldn’t stay with her so we got the duplex at the Inn at Deep Canyon. It is a great spot and the two units share a private pool. I love that I can bring Cha Cha. So much fun!
That evening we met Griff (eBay spokesperson) at the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We discussed my new podcast about eBay selling and him agreeing to help me format it. And also agreeing to be my first guest. Here we are at dinner!
The next day was the real reason I was in Palm Desert. To attend the celebration of life for Coach Jason Beck. Such a great man. He and his wife, Mary, loved Ventura and came out about 4 years ago and we all went to lunch. I took this great picture of he and Houston in my office in the store with a plaque from one of the teams that Jason coached.
Houston drove out for the day to attend the service and met me at the hotel. Since I rarely see my kids, I asked Jo to take a photo of us.
We knew that the ceremony would be PACKED so Houston and I got there about 30 minutes early. We walked in and immediately saw Mary….I looked at her with tears in my eyes (they were sooooooo in love—high school sweethearts) and she came right over and gave me a hug.
She looked confused with Houston standing next to me and I said, “And Houston is here”…she started laughing and said, “I thought that was your date…he is a man”. LOL…yes our little pudgy 10 year old baseball players are now all grown up!
I got a photo of Houston with Jason’s son, Darian, who Houston played ball with. They were looking at all of the memorabilia set up in front of the church to honor of Jason.
The photo on the table in between the two boys was a really cool black and white taken by the Desert Sun Newspaper back when Jason was in high school and a pitcher for Indio High.
Apparently, he was a local legend in the desert and everyone just called him Beck. I had seen the photo recently when Jason had posted it on his socials, along with the story.
I showed Houston the post before the service started and he was like…”Of course you commented that it was an awesome photo….hahahaha”
We thought there would have been a bunch of baseball boys and coaches at the service, but there was only Chris Bash and his wife. Got a picture of he and Houston. Chris looks the same…Houston does not…Chris said “Oh My God…you have gotten so tall…I have gone out and you have gone up.” Funny stuff!
Chris’s son, Andrew, is playing AAA baseball for the Toronto Blue Jays (I think) and he gave us a few of his baseball cards. Chris seemed to think that he would be called up to the majors soon. Pretty cool!
Andrew looks totally different than he did in middle and high school. He was really tiny and skinny. His mom was telling me that he always shows up to training camp at 195 pounds and they want him at 220, so he has to eat a lot! Who has that problem anyway?
After the service, Houston wanted to head back to Marina del Rey because he has a lot going on with Law School and his film making. I convinced him to stay for lunch. We invited Jo Dallas and she said “no thank you” and Houston said “Let’s go to Cactus Jacks and I really want Jo to join us”. Called her again and we convinced her to get out of her “private” pool and come with us.
Didn’t get a photo of us at lunch, but when I went into the bar to say hello to Mel, (one of our favorite bartenders), I ran into Kristy Gitmed. Kristy worked at Xavier College Prep in the Financial Aid office, where both of my kids attended private Catholic high school. I was in her office quite a lot….LOL.
It was great to see her and she and Houston got caught up! She actually begged him to come back to teach at Xavier…I guess they are in desperate need of teachers. For those of you who don’t know, Houston completed a Master’s Program at Notre Dame in Teaching and spent 2 years teaching at Saint Monica’s in Santa Monica.
Needless to say, he is DONE with that! And I don’t blame him. I think teaching must be one of the hardest professions on this planet.
The next day, Sunday, Jo and I headed to Palm Springs to visit my mom’s cousin Gwen. We had a lovely visit and then I dropped Jo off at the Palm Springs Airport PSP to fly back to Seattle….best little airport in the world.
Having Jo in town for the final days of the store was SERIOUSLY a GOD SEND. Could not have done it without her and so many others! You are all AMAZING. Thank you again for everything and y’all know who you are!
OK, time for an eBay score! I can’t remember where I bought this…which is unusual. I typically remember everything about an item. But in any event, it is an authentic bobbin from a mill in the UK. The buyer paid full price of $52.79 and I shipped it to Greece! Check out the original listing here.
After I dropped off Jo at the airport on Sunday afternoon, I headed home. I must admit I crashed pretty hard. I was exhausted and running on adrenaline.
But, wait there is more. I forgot that that same Sunday night, Sandy and I went to see Darius Rucker at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Sendia, God Bless her, had two tickets and could not go due to her treatments. She offered the tickets to Sandy and I. What an amazing gift!
We had a blast and I really did crash when I got home that night!
BUT Monday morning, it was back to the grind. I met Adolio and Paul at the store at 10 am for them to take a final run to the dump. That made it feel really final. Ughhhh. I miss the store!
But, I know it is ABSOLUTELY the right decision. Just a really tough one!
After the dump run, I took Sandy’s truck to the car wash and then filled it up with gas before returning it to her. She has been sooooo kind, over the past 4 years, to loan it to me when ever I need it and especially during this last month of closing! You ROCK!
Here they are at Five Points shining up her tires. FYI, when I returned it to her…..she didn’t even notice that it was clean! HAHAHAHA.
On Tuesday, I got an email from the Becker Group, I needed to have the outdoor weeds at the store removed immediately, or they would charge me to do it. Ughhhhh. Luckily, Xander and Kevin were able to rally and get it all cleaned up. Way to go boys!
Spent the rest of the week organizing my storage units and catching up on things that got overlooked with the store closing. It has been A LOT. Then I headed out to Palm Desert on Friday (again), but this time for a happier reason. I was going to attend Riley’s bridal shower on Saturday. Wouldn’t miss that for the world!
But first, I would be meeting Griff at his home on Friday afternoon at 5 pm for my podcast lesson. He is a wealth of knowledge and we had a great time!
Check out the painting behind him on the wall. I was fascinated by it and thought it was extremely well done. Griff told me that it is a painting of Jackson Pollok’s wife, Lee Krasner and it had been painted by Ruth Moore.
Griff knows that the lamp in front is too big and I agreed!
Apparently, Lee Krasner sat for a few famous artists on that same day in the same outfit. One of those paintings now hangs in the Met. Wow! I think this one is better done than the one in the Met. Griff’s former partner bought it on the East Coast many years ago and Griff purchased it from him for $800. Bet it is worth a lot more than that!
Griff and I did a tiktok promoting the new show and then it was off to dinner at Si Bon. You can watch the tiktok here.
We had a wonderful two hour dinner at Si Bon. Three course meal for $36. I had the caesar salad, the surf and turf and the apricot tart. Griff had some weird cold soup (ok ok it is called Vichyssoise & he made me taste it-yuck) , the surf and turf and also the apricot tart. Super fun evening hearing about his growing up in Moorpark, CA and a recent visit back.
Time for an eBay score! I LOVE this one. I sold three teaspoons for a best offer of $120. Isn’t that crazy? $40 for each spoon! This is a great brand. Always, pick up this brand, Sasaki. Check out the listing here.
After that fun evening with Griff, the next morning I had a dog walker come to take Cha Cha out so that she would be exhausted and sleep while I was at the bridal shower.
The bridal shower was in La Quinta at Riley’s Aunt Susie & Uncle Dave’s house and it was wonderful. Great food, great company and fun games. The theme was ice cream!
Eight years ago, some of Riley’s friends and some of her mom, Kel’s friends, went on a cruise to Mexico. So, at the shower, I wanted to recreate a photo with those of us who were on that cruise. Too fun! And great memories. From left to right….Candy, me, Courtney, Riley (the bride to be), Midu, Kel and Heather.
I did suggest a group photo and to accomplish this, we took chairs from outside and some of us had to crouch down. Honestly, it felt like we were taking a sorority photo….hahahaha. But, a great keepsake for Riley to remember such a beautiful day!
Can’t wait for the wedding in January!
I left Palm Desert early Sunday and headed back to Ventura. Monday, I did Fit Buddha with Sandy and we went out to lunch. Then I got word of what needed to be fixed at the store to get my entire deposit back. Fingers Crossed! One of the things was to take the logo off of both front doors. I also needed to grab the Spectrum box to return to Spectrum.
Sandy, being the amazing friend she is, said she would meet me over there. I picked up the key from the Becker Group and went home to grab Cha Cha. We thought that the dogs (Sam and Cha) would have fun running around the empty store.
They had so much fun…the dogs that is! And mission accomplished! Here is a link to a tiktok that I posted.
Monday night, Marc came over to print a document that was due on 9/15 and we sat outside and had a glass of wine. It was a lot of fun, because my neighbors are AWESOME and so many have dogs that want to hang out in my front yard and play with Cha Cha.
Here is Marc with Duke (the guy) and Fred (the dog). I told him that their names should really be reversed….Hahahaha! Archie (another dog) also came over to play. Let me tell you, Cha Cha was exhausted that night!
I am not sure the Cha likes me working from home, because I wear her out! She insists on following me from room to room and then all of the friends that stop by at night….my poor baby!
May I just mention, no one and I mean NO ONE, should wear black socks with tennis shoes.
Tuesday, I had dinner with a friend at the Greek restaurant in the harbor. It was fun! Wednesday, Kevin went to the store to sand down the glue from my signage and paint it for the Becker Group. He did a great job! But I have to tell you, it has been one project after another and I don’t feel like I have really had a break yet! Hopefully soon!
Thursday, Xander came to my house to work on some home projects. We got rid of all of my old outdoor furniture and took down the screen shade. He also installed outdoor lights all around the house! Such great accomplishments these past few weeks…Finally getting some time to work on things that I have been putting off because of so much of my energy going to the store.
The response to my new podcast has been off the charts! I am so excited to record the first episode with Griff in the next few days! Keep the questions coming!
Here is an email I got from a longtime follower and former Queen’s Court member…really warmed my heart!
“Hey Lynn,
eBay with Heart & Design with Heart……Lynn
Past Newsletters can be found on my blog.
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