In case you missed my email this past Tuesday, we will be closing the store.  We have given 90 days notice to the management company and our final day will be August 25th.  More details later in the ezine.

Store is 10% off.  No extra discount off of the 20% Annie Sloan sale and no extra discount off of the 50% off clearance room.

Welcome to Lynn’s Latest #000047

Thursday, May 29th, 2025
Volume VI  Issue 000047

Houston had a scare on Friday.  Actually, my entire family had a scare.  Houston was on a 4 day mountain bike trip on the Tour del Los Padres.  A trail that NO ONE travels.  He was alone for the majority of the 4 days.

On day 2 1/2, his brakes went out and he was at elevation 5,000.  He had heat stroke and had to decide to either carry his bike and camping gear down the mountain or abandon his bike.

He did abandon his bike, so you know how serious it was.  Here he is when he reached Ojai after a 9 hour decent starting at 3 am.  My poor kid.

You can watch his tiktok here.

He didn’t have cell service until Saturday morning at 8 am when he called Indiana hysterically crying.  She immediately called me and I got in touch with Houston and arranged to pick him up in Ojai.

He said that it was so bad that if he had a “Garmin In Reach” with him he would have contacted Search and Rescue by Satellite to get him down off the mountain.

You can bet that I bought him a “Garmin In Reach” this week and he is NEVER allowed to leave home without it.

Here is another video of him when he runs into a guy a few hours outside of Ojai that gives him a beer and yes he was crying.

And when he text me and told me about the beer, I said “Is that a really good idea?”  He said “yes”.  Oh my!  So hard being a parent.  Am I right?  Or am I right?

Here is his recap.

All he wanted was In n Out burger….so $37 later he was happy.

Watch the tiktok I made when we got to our house.  Thank you to Susan for holding down the store on Saturday so I could rescue my kid!

Thank you for letting me share that.   It was a super scary weekend.  Saturday night after his rescue, we ordered pizza and watched the Bob Dillon movie and Houston had a great night’s sleep.

Saturday afternoon in the store, one of Houston’s best friends, Logan and his Wife Madison stopped in to say hi.  They were in town from Nashville for a wedding in Ventura.  Crazy huh?  It was nice to see Logan as he was one of Houston’s best friends from Pepperdine undergrad and great to also meet his wife.

Well all of that has worn me out!  Time for an eBay score!

This one is very strange and I will tell you why.  Indiana and Larissa went to the Simple Minds concert this past Thursday night with their dad and Dean Factor.

Dean was the founder of Smashbox cosmetics and when he still owned it he used to ship me a palette of discontinued makeup every month for me to sell on eBay and split the money with him.

It was a sweet deal!  And we used to sell about $15k a month.  He sold Smashbox to Estee Lauder for 250 million and he started another cosmetics company called “Stroke of Beauty”.

He shipped me some overstocks to sell on eBay several years ago.  The morning after Indy had been with Dean, I sold one of the lots for $219.99.  Weird right?

Check out the listing here.

I worked on Sunday and Houston was picked up by a Pepperdine friend and driven back to Marina del Rey.  He has plans to return to Ojai and recover his bike in the next few weeks, when he is feeling better.

I don’t like this idea very much and asked him to please take someone with him.  He figures it is a 12 hour hike back to his bike.

He is supposed to start his summer internship on June 2nd at the LA District Attorney’s office.  Fingers crossed that he feels well enough to do this.

Carlos instinctively knew that Houston needed some love.  How cute is our kitty? Houston thinks he looks terrible in this photo.  Keep in mind we had  just rescued him from Ojai.

One of my favorite customers is Scotty the dog.  This puppy stands up for me to get a treat.  I am going to miss the dogs so much when the store closes.

Do y’all remember Candy who used to work here?  She came to us when Pier One closed and she was such an asset to the store.

She was in town for her granddaughter’s dance recital and popped in to say hi.  She paid me the nicest compliment and told me that I was the best manager she ever had.  How sweet is that?

Time for another eBay score and this one is something that I listed for my mom when I was up in Bellingham.

I talked a bit about these trade beads in last week’s ezine, but what was so crazy about this one is that we started it at auction for $49.99 and it was bid up to  $76.00 which is the exact price we had on it in my grandmother’s antique store.  Weird!

Check out the listing here. 

Here is the necklace ready to be shipped with my I Sell sheet and you can see the original price tag for $76.00.  Oh crap!  I just noticed that this strand sold for $71.00 not $76.00.   There goes my story!

Oh crap, it was the white hearts that sold for the $76.00.  Here is a link to that completed auction. 

On Monday, Memorial Day, I did Fit Buddha with Sandy and we went out for Martini Monday.  Let me tell you, I sure needed that after the weekend with Houston.

I would also like to thank our service men and women who have given their lives for this country.   It is greatly appreciated!

OK, on Tuesday I did a lot of eBay shipping and even made a little Tik Tok that you can watch here. 

Sorry, it is sideways.  I just don’t know how to do a TikTok horizontally and there may not be a way.

For my consignors, here is more info about the closing.

This has been an incredibly difficult decision for me.  Here are the details of the closing process for my consignors.

Thank you Ventura for your support!  It is greatly appreciated!  We LOVE you all!

We are going to see how this week goes and the store is still 10% off.

So, the store is still up in the air as far as it’s future is concerned, but I am relieved to be back writing my regular newsletter.  It gives me a sense of normalcy.

Just so you know, no matter what happens with the store, I will continue writing, because I LOVE doing these and I have been writing them for almost 22 years.  Crazy!

Here is what my ezine used to look like.  This is issue #11 from Volume 6 and it came out on June 17th, 2010.  Crazy!  Right?

In this issue from 15 years ago, I talk about taking Houston to a VIP Dodgers experience (where he got to meet Manny) if you want to read about it….. Here is a link.

There are also a lot of great eBay tips in this newsletter.  In case you don’t read it, I just have to share these priceless photos from that day.

Manny signs a ball for Houston and then drops it!  Check out Houston’s face when Manny picks it up!

Welcome to Lynn’s Latest #000046

Thursday, May 22nd, 2025
Volume VI  Issue 000046

Since my last real ezine was two weeks ago, let’s catch you up.  Here is the tiktok and reel that I posted last Thursday morning.  Thanks to the podcast Ventura Forward mentioning it we had over 5,000 views on Instagram.

Click here to watch the reel on Insta or here on TikTok.

The Saturday before Mother’s Day, my friend Rebecca Rudenko and I went to see the Shawn Jones Trio at The Grape.

Shawn is soooo talented and it is always a treat to see him perform.  We got there late and it was packed…so we had to sit off to the side.

Soon after we arrived, Shawn gave Lynn’s Consignments a “shout out” recognizing how important small business is to Ventura. Thank you Shawn!

During the break, we got a photo.

I hadn’t seen Rebecca since we went to see Pete Yorn in LA and I am so mad at myself for not getting a photo of us at the Grape, so here is an oldie but a goodie.

This was at her Halloween themed birthday in 2018.  The dressed up clown is a really weird silver boy that she bought at my store…LOL!  Gotta love Rebecca!

The day after Shawn’s concert was Mother’s Day and bless her heart, Indiana came home late Saturday night to take me to breakfast on Sunday.

We both had to work on Sunday, so we arrived at the Harbor Cove Cafe at 9:15 and if you can believe it the line was almost to the parking lot.  “What in the World?” as my dad would have said.

You can barely see Indy in this photo, but she is last in line.

Here is the sweet post that Indy put on Instagram.

Indy also got me the best card because she knows how tough it has been for me with the store this past year.

AND while working at the Brentwood Country Mart she had found a kiosk where they were helping little kids make gifts for their moms and she made one of the cards for me.  Hysterical.  Best gift EVER!

After a lovely breakfast, I made it to the store on time to work and I was out in the back clearance area explaining the pricing to a young couple.  He was standing up and she was on the floor looking at frames.  She looks up and me and says….”Are you Indy’s mom?”

“Yes”!  And she was like, “I am Becca and I was in PIT (Pepperdine Improv Troupe) with Indy”.  Seriously?  How cool that on Mother’s Day someone recognizes me as Indiana’s mom?

So, we had to do a TikTok.  LOL!  Check it out here.

Before I forget, we hit 1,000 followers on TikTok and we only started posting daily on April 1st.  Pretty awesome!  Thanks for the support!

We actually have 1,121 followers as of Wednesday.  Pretty cool!

Then Susan, her husband Brad, son Bronson and their dog Pootie stopped in to say hi and brought me champagne and flowers! So sweet!

Oh my gosh!  We are only caught up a little bit and I am exhausted…time for an eBay score!

I am happy to report that eBay is picking up!  That is great news…now if the store would just do the same 🙂

I bought this figurine four years ago at an estate sale and paid $10.  I did put a high price on it, but I was ready to let it go and accepted a best offer of $150 last week.

Here is a link to the listing if you want to check it out!

I had been trying to get up to Bellingham to help my mom for a while and when I made the announcement last Thursday about the store, I knew it was time to get out of dodge and help her.

I found super cheap airfare on Allegiant…only $114 round trip out of LAX.  I text the girls to see if they could watch Cha Cha and it was a go!

So last Thursday, I drove down to Indy & Larissa’s apartment to leave the Cha and uber to the airport.

It was fun, because I got there early enough to hang out for a bit.  Here they are in their super cute new living room.  Just a heads up…much of the wall art comes from Lynn’s Consignments!

Oh and also the couch and the throw pillows…..are from my store!

The Allegiant flight out of LAX was basically empty…well half full and I got an entire row.  Seriously!  All the way across.  Sweet!

And in even better news, when I landed, one of my best friends from high school (Kathyrn Tice Ann Rutan) was there to pick me up so that my mama didn’t have to go out at 9:30 at night.  Love you KTR!  And she brought her darling puppy. LULU!

OK, time for another eBay score before we get into my WILD time in Bellingham.   Just kidding…it wasn’t really wild, it was mostly about helping my mom and trying to get her house sold.

I bought this Anri figurine for $5 at a thrift store.  I know all about Anri and Ferrandiz from growing up and working for my grandmother.  Very collectible and they have a pretty big following so I always pick them up if affordable.

Sold it for a best offer of $75 since it had been listed since 2020.

Check out the listing here.

OK Back to Bellingham.  Not back to the future, but more like, back to the past.  Bellingham is my past and Ventura or maybe Europe is my future.

This transitional time with the store is really making me think about where I want to end up and what I want my future to look like.

I have a daily calendar from Unf*ck Yourself (Gary John Bishop) and this showed up the other day…really got me thinking.

My first day in Bellingham was Friday.  My mom and I made a list of everything we wanted to accomplish and got to work.

First up, I ordered a banner that my brother had suggested about 6 months ago.  If any of you have noticed when driving in LA, almost every apartment building has a banner on it so when you are in traffic you can look up and see “If you lived here, you would be home now”.

We thought that would be a great selling point for my mom’s home because she is right on the road where people wait to get onto the ferry to Lummi Island.  Her home still has the same great views (maybe better) and low bank waterfront, but you don’t have to take a ferry to get there.

Here is the finished product.  What do you think?  And you can see the Ferry Landing in the background.

Next, we met with the realtors who came out to the house and we dropped the price of her house from $800k to $780K.

Then I took my mom to a doctor’s appointment, ran some errands and got my mom a hip xray (because she needs a hip replacement).  Then we met my high school friends, (Leslie and Kathy) along with Kathy’s mom for a late Mother’s day celebration at Anthony’s.  Sooooo fun!

The next day I worked on paperwork for my mom and found some really great antique trade beads and sterling silver flatware to list on eBay for her.

We also went into town and picked up prescriptions, shopped at Costco (where I was checked out by a high school classmate Rob Walston…totally random LOL) and then got Taco Time for dinner.  I LOVE Taco Time…wish we had them in California just like everyone in Washington wished they had In-n-Out.  Hahaha!

Here are some of the awesome items I listed for my mom on eBay that day (Ok some of the items I listed when I returned home on Monday, but I got them written up and photographed up there)!  OK…I am so tired just thinking about everything we got done.  No rest for the wicked.  But am I really wicked?  I think not.

Here is one of her auctions that has two bids already.  Yay!

Out of the 36 items I listed for her, I never thought that this one would get the first bids.

These are called white hearts or Cor da lindo allepo. My mom inherited these from her mother, my grandma, Cheryl Leaf.

Check out the listing here. 

Since these white hearts have a bid, I thought I would share a story from one of my 100 Best Books about the same type of beads and just to note, I was wrong in my title and description.  UGHHHHH and I can’t change the listing now because it has 2 bids!

This is story #1 from “Money Making Madness”.

OK back to present day, I am still in Bellingham and later that night (Saturday), Kathy and Leslie were going to hear a band in Ferndale.  I wasn’t sure that I was going to meet them, but then I thought, Life is short and I LOVE these girls.

So, I rallied and met them at 8:15 in Ferndale.  Yikes!  That is a late start time for me…I love early evenings and happy hours.  LOL.  In any event, we had a great time.

While in Bellingham, I text Zach and said “Honey, can you please call me while I am with Mor Mor?”.  We would love to catch up.

On Sunday, right before my flight, Zach called.  It was great to hear his voice and he has already done 624 miles of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail).  Wow!  Almost 25%.  I am so proud of him.  I asked about his favorite food so far…tortillas with peanut butter, pepperoni and jack cheese and/or tuna fish.  ughhh!  And his favorite protein bars and candy…snickers (I let him know that the snickers bar is named after a race horse) and Zach said “Well the candy bar is more famous than the race horse” and we laughed.

I said to him “How are you doing”? and he said “I have never been better”….Wow!  What a great attitude.  He also let us know that he had been drinking some Proseco on the trail.  Oh well! Whatever it takes to get you through the night!  Zach is only 19.  But that is the drinking age in Canada….and he is on his way to the border!

Zach shared this picture of him in Idyllwild with the Mayor of the town, Max the dog.  Hahaha!  Zach looks good!

My mom drove me to the airport on Sunday and I love the Bellingham airport because I can arrive at 2:15 for a 3:15 flight.  I had checked in for my flight on my phone and it automatically gave me a center seat.  Not happy about that, so I went up to the counter to buy a better seat.  The gal was so sweet, she moved me free of charge and put me in an aisle with no other people.  Score!

The flight took off on time and we had a tail wind and arrived at LAX in only 2 hours!  Crazy!  Indiana picked me up with Cha Cha and I was back home in Ventura by 7:30.  Amazing!

We sold a little white dresser on Wednesday to a super cute couple and they said “Are you Houston’s mom?”  What?  Two sightings in a week of my kids friends.  LOVE this!

It was Zach and Lauren and they went to Pepperdine with my kids.  They recently moved to Ventura.  I told them that Houston may be living with me next year and Zach was happy to hear that as he wants to cycle with the Goose.  I did warn him that Houston (aka Goose) takes his cycling very seriously.  LOL!

Got the funniest email from Chris Stalcup about my options for the store….

“You’re the best,  Boss Lady.   Your team is great.   Product is great.  I go with your flow.  Been a great run – and for Option 4 – I say you and your team get your own Show and go transform similar stores across the USA.   For real.  Millions would watch!!!  Big budget Big salaries Big Happy!

I really really really don’t want to write this email. I would much rather be writing my normal ezine. This is so sad for me that I am on a plane to Bellingham as you read this because I can’t bear to hear “how this is your favorite store”, because it certainly is mine.

Or what we hear every day….”We are so glad you stayed open”. For those of you who don’t realize how hard it is to be a retail brick and mortar owner, I will tell you these past months have been the most difficult of my life.

As you know, I was going to close the store in December of 2023. Because of all of you (my wonderful consignors, customers & staff) and your support, we were able to rally and remain open. Thank you!

However, the past 16 months have been extremely challenging. Sales have never returned to the level that it takes to sustain the overhead for a 5,000 square foot store. We are not even breaking even at this point. Ughhhh.

I need to make a very difficult decision by the end of May.  This gives us about 2 weeks…here are my options…If you have any other ideas, I would LOVE to hear them!

1.  Do we close and look for a smaller, more affordable space?
2.  Do we close forever?
3.  Do we see if our amazing customers/consignors can rally around us in the next 2 weeks and see if we can stay open?

As of today, I am voting for Option #3.  Ventura please help us survive!  Tell your friends and family about us and help save a small business!

We are having a “We Don’t Want to Go Out of Business Sale” for the next two weeks.

The store will be 10% off this week.  No additional discount on the 50% clearance in the back building.  No additional discount on the 20% off Annie Sloan & IOD.

Main Store Hours
Weds to Sat        11 to 5
Sunday              11 to 3

And since we did get in some really cool stuff this week…here are our new arrivals.

Chaise Acme Vendome Patina With Two Pillows Gold $695.00

Buffet with Iron Work $295.00

Rustic Chest $196.00

72″ Sideboard Collins Natural Walnut $595.00

Dining Table Trestle Legs Coaster Bexley Live Edge $595.00

Coffee Table With Drawers Name Brand Flower Shaped Cream (Ivory) $295.00

Writing Desk Woodbridge Marseille French Country Bordeaux Brown $595.00

Burlwood Harp Small End Table $295.00

Mission Hand Made Small End Table $69.50

Antique Tile End Table $150.00

Stickley ? Mission Arm Chair $495.00

Counter Stool Hawkesbury Tan/Black $95.00 – 4 in stock

Ottoman Homeroots Amelia Brown Cotton Square Cube $69.50

Oak Hall Tree $95.00

Interior Design Wood Sign $65.00

Pyrex Pink Daisy Divided Dish $49.50

Johnny Was light grey embroidered floral tunic $65.00

Johhny Was sleeveless bright floral boho breezy dress $79.50

Lime green linen halter dress with bow at neck $48.50

Thank you for your patience and understanding during this difficult time.  Lynn & family

P.P.S  For those of you who don’t live close to Ventura…don’t forget you can shop our store online!