I have been remiss in my ezine writing!  Well, I do have some excuses lined up for you AND I did get sick, but I am getting one written just in the nick of time for August.

I know I know, I said I was going to write one every week or every other week, but in reality, it seems like it may just be one a month…I hope that is OK?

Fun Picture from my Mama’s (Mor Mor’s) 85th Birthday Party!
85 and Fabulous Baby!

Left to Right, Houston, me, Indy, Mor Mor, my nephews Kai & Zach and my brother Lee.

Welcome to Lynn’s Latest #010…

August 31st, 2021
Watch for it every Thursday or every other Thursday or Saturday!
Actually, lets be honest…watch for it whenever I get one finished hahahaha
Volume II  Issue 010

 

Where to begin?  It has been a month!  The last ezine came out on July 29th (a Thursday) and that day I drove to Pepperdine with the Cha Cha to pick up Indy after work and head to Marina del Rey.   Indy is temporarily filling in as the head of the Box Office for the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts at Pepperdine and boy am I proud of her!

Here is Cha Cha during her first visit to that amazing campus and I must say, she really bonded with George Pepperdine!

I was going to take the kids out to dinner and spend the night at their new awesomely adorable apartment with them and the puppy.  It is our goal that in the future Indy has her dog (yes it is her dog) with her more so this was a trial run.

We ended up at Tony P’s and were able to take Cha Cha with us.  The food was excellent and we had a blast!

Turns out the trial run with Cha Cha in the apartment went pretty well.  I was in charge of her that night (actually when am I not in charge of her?  that would be NEVER).  The kids live on the second floor so it is quite the trek to the dog area.  I took her out at 11 pm and nothing.  Brought her back in and she proceeded to start peeing on the floor in front of the door….UGHHHH!  So I rushed her back outside and nothing…..of course!

Thanks to my friend Candy’s advice (she has an awesome golden retriever named Peaches) we had invested in some bells for our door at home.  Cha Cha has learned to ring the bells when she needs to go and they are portable so I take them whenever we travel.  So at 3 am, I heard those bells ringing and out we went.  Success!

Relived to know that Cha Cha can go to the apartment whenever we need her to and it is all good!  Here she is chilling on their deck….Aaaah a dog’s life!

So that was Thursday night of my weekend and I also had plans for Friday and Saturday.  It was going to be FUN!!  But I will tell you about that later.  Time for an eBay score!

One of my favorite consignors, Deda, brought this into the store and I told her I thought we could do better on eBay with it.  I was right!  It was a signed Tommy Singer Native American Indian Bracelet that got 14 bids and sold for $348!

Here is a link to the auction so that you can read more about it. 

The neatest part of this sale was the email I got from the buyer a few days later.

“OMG-I knew the man (Ron Millam) who originally sold this bracelet! I burst into tears when I saw the stickers inside of the bracelet-Ron was such a wonderful man. To see his handwriting made me so very happy❣️

Thank you very, very much~
Gayle”

eBay really does make the world a smaller place and I have had a blast making a living by selling on eBay.  Y’all know that I raised my kids as a single parent by selling on eBay when we lived in Palm Desert.  This was after we closed my grandmother’s store in 2002 and before I opened this one in 2018.  eBay has really changed a lot of people’s lives!  Mine included!

OK, enough about that.  Time to share what we did on Friday night of that last weekend in July.  We went to a REAL concert and saw Rodney Atkins and Scotty McCreary.  It was awesome!

Scotty’s song, “Five more Minutes” totally reminds me of my Dad (aka Papa).  Scotty wrote the song for his grandfather’s and my dad was the best grandfather ever to my kids… He was more like a dad to them than their own dad.

In Scotty’s video there is a video of his Grandpa watching him play ball and he is in a wheelchair and has his arm around Scotty’s sister.  This is sooooo my dad as he would sit (not in a wheelchair) with Indiana and watch every one of Houston’s baseball games.  This song always makes me cry!  Here is a link to the video if you want to watch it.

On the left is the photo from Scotty’s video and on the right my dad with Indiana at Cooperstown back in 2009.  I miss my dad!

OK, thank you for that trip down memory road.  Now onto Saturday night!  It was the gang at the Saloon to celebrate Jeff Carolan’s birthday.  A fun time was had by all!  Happy Birthday Jeff!

But let me tell you after three nights out in a row, I was exhausted!  And that Monday I woke up with the worst cold ever!  I was sooooo sick for about 8 days.  I took 3 covid tests and all were negative and it turned out to be a really bad bronchitis that took some serious antibiotics to knock out.  I was literally in bed from August 2nd to the 10th!  What a waste!  Although, I did watch a lot of Criminal Minds.

And I did manage to get myself out of the house to buy Cha Cha some treats for her 1st birthday which happened on August 5th!  She is truly an 805 dog.  Do you get it?  She was born on 805…how cool is that?

The bummer about all of this (me being sick) is that I had planned to throw a one year birthday bash for the old girl on Saturday, the 7th.  I was going to invite the usuals and all of their dogs.  DARN IT!  The kids didn’t realize how sick I was and thought I was still having the party so they planned to be in Ventura on Saturday evening.  Surprise!  No party!  But they did come and rescue me and the Cha Cha.  They took her on a walk and helped clean up the house.  What a relief!

I was finally better and able to return to the store on August 11th….just in time to leave for Washington on August 12th for my mom’s 85th birthday.  Seriously?  That is how it played out, but let’s check in with the store and see what has been going on!

I was never a huge fan of the Contemporary front window display we did.  What is really hard about contemporary is that it is totally evolving as we speak…… as opposed to Mid Century Modern which I totally get and is rooted in history.

This definition is from Elle Decor….

“Contemporary is, by definition, what’s happening in design at this very moment in time. This definition makes it more fluid and hard to pin down. Modern design (Mid Century), on the other hand, has a distinguishable aesthetic that emphasizes crisp lines, warm neutrals, and balance”.

So, it isn’t just me…Elle decor even says it is hard to pin down…no wonder I struggle with this window.  Check it out.  The inspo for it was this amazing sofa and matching arm chairs.  We have sold the sofa, but the chairs are currently still available at $794 each.  They retail for $1,499 and are brand new.  Seriously, these are sick (in a good way) and so comfortable!

On a super fun and exciting note, we have been nominated for a very prestigious Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Award, The Barb Skivington award which showcases outstanding customer service in helping people with Annie’s Chalk Paint.  We hope that we are always there for you when you come in with paint questions and are always striving to do our best and better for you!  If you agree, please vote for us here. 

And now another fun photo from the store!  I have been trying to hire a social media coordinator for a few weeks now, and our friend and customer, Piper agree to help until we could find someone permanently.  She did such a great job and we hope she had fun doing it.  Here is one of her recent posts.  And if you don’t already follow us on Instagram, please do so….the store’s instagram is @lynnsconsignments and my personal one is @lynndralle.  Hopefully, both will keep you laughing and inspired.  That is all we want from you!  To laugh and be inspired!

OMG, the biggest news of this past month is that my mom (Mor Mor) turned 85 and somehow (by the grace of God) we all managed to turn up for the party!  Praise the LORD!

It was quite the ordeal to schedule and plan for flights as both Houston and Indiana have JOBS now!  NOOOOOOoooooooo!  Actually, I am very proud of them, but I do miss the flexibility that we used to have.

It had to be a quick trip to accomodate everyone.  On Thursday August 12th, I dropped off Cha Cha at Club Med for Dogs in Carp and then headed to Pepperdine to grab Indy.  Pretty fun picking up my girl from her work.   The plan was to head to Marina del Rey and park my car at their apartment and then (hopefully) Houston or Emma could take us to the airport.

We headed up the coast and decided to stop at Gladstones for lunch.  Oh, such great memories here!  Back in the day when I lived in Brentwood with Juliette & Pamela (this was right after USC) we used to head down to Gladstones almost every Sunday.  Sit on the deck, have some drinks, eat their peanuts and get in trouble!  I just came across this photo of the three of us at a party back in 1990.  That is Pamela, Juliette and me.

The last time I had been at Gladstones was back in April of 2015 when I took the kids to visit Pepperdine for the very first time.  Crazy how much Pepperdine has changed and enriched all of our lives since then.

Only fitting that Indy and I would stop there for a nice lunch now that they have both graduated.  Time flies!

After lunch we decided to stop by Houston’s school and see if we could get a tour.  It is so cool that he can bike from Marina del Rey to Saint Monica’s Catholic High  School every day for work.  We finally found him….on his bike hahahaha where else?  and he was getting ready to leave for the day.  He was gracious enough to throw on a button down shirt and head back to the classroom with us for an informal tour.  So exciting!

So much fun and then it was off to LAX. Indiana and I were arriving late that Thursday evening and my mom and my nephews, Zach and Kai came to pick us up! Love these little guys. Well, not so little anymore. Here we all are eating a late dinner.

The next night, Friday, we had made reservations at Anthony’s for an early dinner as opposed to our late dinner!  Hahaha.  We LOVE Anthony’s and they have a sunset dinner special that ends at 5:30 so Indy, my mom, myself and the boys arrived right on time at 5 pm.

Turns out one of my mom’s neighbors from her beach was sitting right next to us.  Small world!  Dinner was delicious and afterwards the server came out with a desert and a candle in it and started singing to my mom.  My bad, I had forgotten to tell the server.   So, who had?

I asked the server for the check and all she said to me was “Christmas came early this year”.  Huh?  What did that even mean?  OK OK, it finally dawned on me and my mom that her sweet sweet neighbors, Mary Ellen and Howard had paid for our dinner.  OMG!  You have got to be kidding me.  Soooooo sweet that my mom even started crying.  Aaaaawwwww!  Here is my mom with Howard and Mary Ellen.

After dinner we headed home to prepare for our next arrivals.  Houston would be arriving that night at 8 pm and my brother would be arriving at 10 pm.  This meant two trips into Bellingham International Airpor but it was the best we could do.  Party was Planned for Saturday, August 14th at 2 pm.  Here are the cousins chillin on the couch the night before the party!

My mom never gives me a birthday list so I am always scrambling.  On Wednesday night before our trip I hopped on Amazon and bought a menagerie of items that I thought she would use/enjoy.  My mom sells on eBay and does about $3,000 a month!  Pretty amazing for an 85 year old.  If she can do it….y’all have no excuses.

For her gifts, I bought her a few crossword puzzle books (she loves the ones by Merl Reagle), a trivia book for seniors (hahaha), a case of printer labels (for her eBay packages), a tiara, a sash, an 85th birthday sign for the house, some sticky post it notes, a wine glass that said “eighty fing five”, a poster card that showed what was going on back in 1936, and a huge box of freezer ziplocs for her flatware (that she sells on eBay).

I couldn’t believe it, but they all said that they would NOT be delivered until 10 pm Saturday.  That wasn’t going to cut it, but I held my breath.  Lo and Behold at about 2 pm the day of the party, the boxes started arriving.  I was saved!  Here she is wearing her tiara and sash!

Here are some fun pics from the party!

After the party, Indiana had me take some fun photos of her on the beach.  I love the way they turned out!

Behind Indiana in that last picture you can see my two high school friends, Leslie Arntzen and Jo Dallas.  The stayed til the bitter end with all of us and we had a blast!  So much fun, in fact, that they are flying down here to hang out in Ventura for this upcoming weekend.  Hahahaha!  I LOVE my high school friends.  In fact, Kathy Rutan will also be joining us and we are headed up to Paso Robles for a Train concert (my favorite band at the moment)!  So exciting!

So here are Jo, Leslie and I.

What a whirlwind of a trip! We left the next afternoon to head back to LAX. I took the kids out to dinner at a super fun Italian restaurant in Marina del Rey/Venice C&O Trattoria. It was delish. Then Monday morning Indiana and I headed up to Carp to pick up the puppy. Boy did we miss her! Took her to the beach that evening.

OK, enough of that trip, time for an eBay score!  Check out this Royal Copenhagen Christmas plate that I picked up in SLO (San Luis Obispo) on our way back from the OITF (Outstanding in the Field) dinner that we attended in July.  I paid $2.  We started the auction at $124.99 and it got 7 bids and ended up selling for $162.50.  That is what I call a SCORE!  Check out the auction here.

Side note…many eBay sellers are afraid of RC (Royal Copenhagen) and B&G (Bin & Grondahl) Christmas plates.  The reason being that in the 1970’s supply was off the charts…it was when everyone and their mother had these blue & white plates on their walls.  Hahahaha…true though!

Unfortunately, the demand today does not justify the oversaturation and some of these plates are not even worth $5 now.  However, some are worth much much more.  I grew up in this business and am thinking about doing either a Collector’s plate video, eBook or teleseminar to share my secrets.  Anyone interested?  Which format?  It won’t be until after I finish Antiques from A to Z though…..working on that like a fiend!

The week after I got back from Bellingham, I decided to make a quick trip out to the desert to source and drop off stuff for Mo (my “original” eBay assistant) to list for me.  I headed out on Saturday morning and met Indiana in Sherman Oaks to drop off Cha Cha.  The kids were going to watch her at the apartment.  Let’s see how that goes…..

It is crazy to me, but every time I go the the desert I run into someone I know.  Well, we did live there for almost 16 years and I did raise my kiddos there so that could explain in.  In any event, I arrived to the desert about noon and Mo and I headed to an estate sale on Fiddleneck.  I was just mentioning to Mo that a gal that I used to go to the gym with used to help at some sales at a house on Fiddleneck.  Lo and behold, it was the same house.

I was walking around and a gal says, “I know you”.  I looked at her and it wasn’t my friend Janet from the gym so I said “Really?”.

Turns out it was Janet and I didn’t recognize her because she used to wear wigs because of alapacia and her condition improved and she has her own real hair now!  So fun to see her!  And she helped me get a screaming deal on a set of china.  I only paid $100 for the set!  Had to grab a selfie with her……

And then after that shopping extravaganza we had to grab lunch.  We decided on Cactus Jacks and our favorite bartender was there, Mel….so had to grab a photo with her as well.

The dinner set I bought at the estate sale with Janet was called Wedding Ring by Susie Cooper and was made in the 1940’s.  Here is a link to one of the auctions.

I left Palm Desert early on Monday the 23rd as I had to pick up Cha Cha in Marina Del Rey on my way home (that added an hour to my trip and routed me through Buena Park…wth?) and make it back to Ventura in time for her 1 pm grooming.  Oh the joys of being a pet owner!

HAHAHAHAHA  I LOVE it!  What would I do without my Cha Cha and Carlos now that the kids are gone?  And for those of you who want to know how the weekend went with her in Marina del Rey…Here is a screen shot of Indy’s Instagram post.  I would say it went pretty well!

So back to the store and the front window.  I was super happy to redo it from the “contemporary” to my new found inspiration “beachy”…now that wasn’t hard at all right?  It is Ventura and I believe that we have the “endless summer” here so instead of going all hard core fall and holiday on Y’all I decided to extend that summer.

Let us know what you think.  Val and I think it turned out super fun and playful.  The Blue Crush Surfer Movie poster sure add some interest don’t ya think?

Piper helped me find a local gal to take over the Lynn’s Consignments instagram account this week as a test.  So far, I think Rachelle is doing great.  Please follow us @lynnsconsignments and let us know what you think.  Here is one of her first posts.  I LOVE how she is using the outside wall with the rustic weeds at the base for a backdrop.  Looks pretty cool!  This darling folding shelf is down to only $119.  It won’t last.

Here is another of Rachell’s posts.  I love that she is showing what is going on in the store!  Super fun!

I haven’t mentioned much about Carlos since he has become an outdoor cat.  He is really happy doing his thing.  He did hurt his leg a few days ago so I have been keeping him inside.

Here he is helping me do an eBay for Business Podcast interview with Griff last week.  You can see my huge Yeti mike and Carlos just chillin on his back.  The interview will air next Tuesday so I will shoot out an email to let y’all know.

In my timehop this week, up popped a photo from 4 years ago.  We had just dropped off Indiana for her freshman year at Pepperdine and my mom and I headed up the coast to check out Oxnard and Ventura.  That was a life changing day.  I had NEVER been to Ventura and immediately fell in love and decided that Main Street would be where I opened my store.  Fast forward and yes, we are still here!

Check out my mom crossing the street after we went shopping in the Goodwill.  Crazy how one day can change your life!

Just a reminder of Our CURRENT HOURS:

Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 5pm
Sundays 11 am to 3pm

We took in so much great stuff this week!  Please stop in and see us!  Also, here is a photo of those amazing purses that both “Hearst Winery” and “Birds Gotta Fly” told me to carry.  They are flying (just like the birds haha) out of here, so please come in and check them out.  Prices range from $24.95 to $59.95.

And, just one final eBay score!  This Anthropologie coffee mug sold last week for $42.49.  Hard to believe isn’t it?   Check out the auction for that mug here.

For those of you interested in learning more about selling coffee mugs on eBay, I did write a pretty awesome eBook on how to do it.  Check it out here.

Oh and one last picture of Cha Cha.  I think she is pissed off that the kids moved out.  Why, do I think this?  Let’s just say she has gotten a little bit overzealous in chewing things up.  Waaaaaay worse than when she was little.  Here she is with the aftermath of one of her toys….a little car that Emma gave her.  I texted this photo to my family members and my brother wrote back…..”Cha Cha’s stuffing is falling out”  HAHAHAHA!

Take care and we hope to see you soon!  Sandy, Peggy, me and
Val!

Thanks for reading my ezines!  I appreciate it….as always!

eBay with Heart & Design with Heart……Lynn

 

P.S.  All of the professional photos I use on Instagram, Facebook and in these newsletters were taken by my friend Denise’s daughter, Jaclyn Sabo.  She is amazing!   To learn more about Jaclyn….https://www.jaclynszabo.com/

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