Here is my ezine for October and once again in the nick of time!  Happy Fall!

Fun Picture from my recent trip to Washington…..This is the first house I bought in Bellingham.  1109 Nevada Street.  William and I had an orange tabby cat named Kerouac back then.  I thought it was wild that there is still an orange tabby that lives there!

Welcome to Lynn’s Latest #012…

Friday, October 29th, 2021
Watch for it every Thursday or every other Thursday, Friday, or Saturday!
Actually, let’s be honest…watch for it whenever I get one finished hahahaha
Volume II  Issue 012

 

September ended with us making an offer on a house in the Montalvo area of Ventura.  As many of you know, the real estate market has been CRAZY!  There were 8 offers on the 1950’s Mid Century home and lo and behold, they accepted ours!  What????  I was NOT expecting that!

The kids and I had gone to see it on a Sunday when we hit a ton of open houses.  It was the first house we looked at and I wasn’t expecting much….but boy was I blown away.  It was seriously sooooooo cute!  The kids agreed 🙂  It had so much charm, it really reminded me of that first house I had purchased in Bellingham back in 1993.  Time flies!

Here we are all out to dinner after our crazy open house home shopping day!

After dinner, I had to rush home to pack as the next day I would be driving to Palm Springs to fly home to Bellingham to spend a few days with my mom and help her with eBay.

Speaking of eBay, I think it is time for an eBay score.  Don’t you?  Check out this clear glass skull bottle (well, it is almost Halloween right?)….it sold for a best offer of $75.  WHAT?  That is what I thought!  I had received a ton of emails about it (mostly rude ones) like “how can you possibly ask $50 (that is when I had it priced at $49.99) for an empty liquor bottle?”

Here is a sample of THOSE emails….

“That’s skull head vodka bottle… full it’s $30.. you are selling a smoky bottle of booze that is in every liquor store”

And another one….

“This is a decanter bottle. It was purchased filled with Crystal Head Vodka. The clear skull is the original and least premium in the line. interesting note: the skull bottle is a design collaboration between Dan Ackroyd and John Alexander, co-owner of the distillery.”

I was starting to doubt myself when I got an email from a different and NICE eBayer who said….

“Hello again,

I thought you might like to know that the shape of the bottleneck is rare and didn’t last long. A friend of mine just bought one for $150 (it had the cork).

Anyway, I know you asked in your listing if anyone knew anything…here’s what I know:
Crystal Head Skull bottles initially had the bottleneck shape your item has. It didn’t last long bc it wasn’t sturdy enough. They are hard to find and collectors will want one!

I would mention it’s a decagon bottleneck and they rarely come up for sale.  Thank you and have a great week!”

Bingo!  I quickly changed my title to include Decagon and raised the price to $139.99.  Hahaha…joke is on those mean eBayers because I sold mine for the best offer of $75…I didn’t hold out for more since I didn’t have the cork 🙂

Check out the listing here.

In 9 degrees of separation, something super crazy happened last week in the store.  A guy was in visiting from Oregon and I asked him “where in Oregon”?  He said “20 minutes west of Salem” and I said “Monmouth?”

What?  “How did you know?”

“My dad used to teach at OCE (Oregon College of Education) and I went to 1st through 3rd grade there.   In fact, I had two boyfriends during those years, Brent Howard and Eric Olsen.”

My new friend Dennis from Monmouth was like “No way!  I have built several homes for Eric.  He owns a big construction company in town.”

Here is a photo of me and my new friend Dennis.

I said to Dennis “Eric was super cute with a round face and wore a lot of plaid”. SMALL WORLD!   I decided to email Eric.  Here is what I sent him….

“Dennis Sheldon from Monmouth is in my store in Ventura, CA and I was telling him that I had two boyfriends from 1st to third grade, Eric Olsen and Brent Howard.  Hahaha and I said I remember Eric had the cutest round face and wore a lot of plaid shirts and he knows you!  Just had to reach out.  Lynn”

This came back from Eric

“…and I could never beat you in spelling bees or pretty much anything.  …oh, and still wearing plaid.  Eric PS  Dennis is a great guy

Apparently, I have always been a little competitive and a bit of an overachiever.  Pretty funny that is what Eric remembered!  Not how cute we were……

Check us out….Dang!  I couldn’t find my elementary school pics so here is one of how I looked at my 7th birthday and as soon as I find one of Eric (so you can see his cute round face & plaid shirt) I will put it in an ezine.  I am sure when I start to move, those pictures will turn up.  Wishful thinking?  I think so!

As you know, we hired the best Instagram gal, Rachelle.  She is doing an amazing job.  Please Please Please follow us @LynnsConsignments on Instagram.  Check out some of her recent posts.

Just a heads up.  We are hiring.  I am looking for some part-time help to get us through the holiday season.  Must be motivated, outgoing, and good with people and computers.  It is also a very physical job 🙂  Just respond to this email if you are interested.

Just a reminder of Our CURRENT HOURS:

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

I headed up to Bellingham on October 3rd to help my mama and consult with my original employee at Leaf’s Antiques, Audrey Angel, regarding a closing consignment store.  Fun fun fun!

My big project with my mom was to go through bags and bags of flatware that she has accumulated to sell on eBay.  We hadn’t been able to ID them until a new tool was introduced on Replacements.com.  Yowza!  Did that change our lives!  I was able to identify about 100 sets of flatware for her that week.  Score!

Here she is getting ready to list a random box of assorted stainless.  Check out that nice weather behind her!

Here is what that listing looks like on eBay.  You can check it out here.

Check out this listing for some Towle Germany Stainless that I have up on eBay.  I found this set in the bins at a Goodwill in SLO (San Luis Obispo) when I was up there on that High School Girlfriends Road Trip.  I paid 50 cents per piece.  The salad forks list on Replacements for almost $60 each.  Score!

Since the salad forks are worth $60 at high retail, I start them at 50% of that price at auction, so this fork is currently at auction with a starting bid of $29.99.  Here is a link to the auction so that you can learn more about it.

While in B’ham, I also got to see 2 of the 3 high school girlfriends that were just down here in Ventura visiting.  We had a super fun dinner at my mom’s house!  Thank you Jo Dallas!  Here we are braving the cold weather out on my mom’s deck for a selfie.  Left to right, Jo Dallas, Joanne Wyatt, my mom, me, and Leslie Arntzen.

The next day, my mom and I would be heading into town to meet up with Audrey Angel.  Audrey was my first employee back in 1993 when I moved back home to run my grandmother’s antique store.  We have been friends for a loooooooooong time!

She is an expert at fashion and I knew she would be my “go-to” for input on opening a clothing consignment store. Yes, a clothing consignment store is in the works for me!  Just looking for the perfect retail location.  It must be close to our current store…so if y’all know of anything that is available, hit me up!

Here is a photo of Audrey and me with the “one and only” Cheryl Leaf taken back in 1996 when I was pregnant with Houston…OH MY!  It is also a photo from story #9 in my “1st 100 Best Things I’ve Sold on eBay” book.  So just for fun, I will also include the story!

In honor of my sister, Kiki, Audrey suggested we meet for lunch at Cafe Akroteri.  Back in the day, that was our Wednesday night hang out with my little sis.  Here we are after lunch.

After lunch, we went to check out Audrey’s favorite clothing consignment store, Serendipity, in Old Fairhaven.  Seriously, super cute!  Loved checking it out and Megan, the owner, is a doll!  Here are a few pictures of her store.  Doesn’t really do it justice.

What really touched me, was back in a corner, hanging from the ceiling was something that looked uber familiar to me.  It was a hanging fixture (made from old hangers) like the one that my grandmother used to use in her store to display primitives (think egg beaters, kitchen utensils, etc).  I thought there was no way it could really be the same one.

Leave it to Audrey Angel.  Of course, it was the same one!  It had found its way to Kiki’s house when my grandmother’s store was closed in 2002.  My sister (with her super big heart) had given it to Audrey when she asked about it.  Audrey has loaned it to her friend Megan and yes, a part of my grandmother’s store is on display in this darling shop in Fairhaven.

After such a fun and emotional day, reminiscing about my sister, I asked my mom if we could stop by the Hospice house on the way home.  My mom wanted NO part of that trip.  My sister passed away in Whatcom Hospice House in 2012 and my dad also passed there in 2017.  I haven’t been back there since a quick visit in 2014.  My dad went so fast that I wasn’t able to ever visit him there.  It was time for me to go and visit the place where they both left this earth.

My sister held the record for one of the longest stays…she was there for almost 10 weeks and my mom and I literally moved in.  It was our home for that time.  I really wanted to visit her room (room #11) and go into the living room area, but because of Covid, I was turned away.  UGHHHHHH….that damn Covid.

I was able to go out into the back and see her memorial bird and gaze back at the rooms.  We used to push her bed out every night so she could sneak a cigarette.  Oh, those memories.  And yes, she did die of lung cancer.  But who am I to judge?  She was dying at that point, couldn’t walk and it eased some of the pain.

I left Bellingham the next day and flew back to Palm Springs.  There are no Allegiant Air flights out of LAX this time of year, so that is the easiest and most economical way for me to fly directly into Bellingham.

Palm Springs/Palm Desert was a whirlwind.  Once I landed at 10 am (early flight), I headed to some thrift stores and then went to get a tattoo.  What?  I had sent a text to my family unit (Lee, my mom, Houston, Indy, and Emma) and said “I am about to get the first and only tattoo of my life”.  Crickets.  No one even responded.  Obviously, they don’t care what I am doing anymore!

Finally, my brother text back and said “Cha Cha, eBay, Cancun?  So Many good choices”.  But I was like seriously?  Why would I get an eBay or Cancun tattoo?  Maybe Cha Cha or Carlos…..but NO!

I was getting my eyebrows tattooed!!!  Jokes on them.  After that, I had dinner with the girls…super fun.  They were heading to a Maddie and Tae concert out at the casino, but I passed.  I was EXHAUSTED!  I certainly look EXHAUSTED in this photo, but darn my eyebrows look good.  Hahahaha.

The next morning I hit some garage sales and a few more thrift stores.  I needed to be on the road by noon so that I could help Val close the store.  So, before noon, I hit a Tattoo Mark Estate Sale and spent $400.  Got some amazing STUFF.  Just got to get it all listed!  Hint Hint Mo…as I left most of it for you!

Then there was an estate sale out in Indian Wells that sounded pretty good.  TOTAL SCORE!  I walked in and there was a pristine Villeroy & Boch HUGE set.  I could hardly breathe.  Pretty pathetic isn’t it?  But things like this make my world go round.  I asked how much.  The gal said, “Let me go check”.  She came back in and said “$300”.

I let her know that I thought that was A LOT and she said “Wait a minute, that price is for the gold-edged dinner set.  I will be right back.”  She walks back in and says “This one is $60.”  OMG!!!!  I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.  LOL!

BTW, rookie mistake.  Many estate sale dealers and the public at large think that a dinner set that has gold trim is worth a small fortune.  Sometimes that can be the case, but more often than not, NOT true!

Here is a sampling of some of the listings I got from that set.  The pieces in the set added up to $6,000 (yes I said $6k) at high retail.  I always hope to get 1/2 of high retail on eBay.  So that $60 set could end up making me $3,000.  I do LOVE eBay!

Here is a link to check out everything we have listed on eBay in this pattern.

OK, enough about that trip. It’s time to talk more about the store! As many of you know, October is Breast Cancer awareness month and in honor of that, one of our front windows was PINK! My grandmother was a survivor of not only breast cancer but also breast cancer of the lungs and breast cancer of the hip bone. This was years ago (back in the 1980’s) and I used to drive her to the Group Health facility in Seattle for her treatments. She had an amazing Doctor (Dr. Toby) who had her take Tomoxifin and it literally saved her life.

Sandy, who works in the store, is also a survivor of breast cancer. All of my employees have become like family to me.

We are so grateful for all of the breast cancer research that has allowed these two amazing women (my grandma & Sandy) to survive. Sandy is donating this awesome HOT Pink Breast Cancer bike to the cause and we will be raffling off tickets to win it this month with 100% of all funds raised going to Ribbons of Life here in Ventura. Come on in and support this cause that is so dear to all our hearts!

Here is what that front window looked like.  We have taken it down now to make room for Christmas.  Yes, I did say that out loud!  We are not drawing for the bike until Sunday, October 31st, so there is still time to buy a ticket.

And if you can’t stop in and buy a ticket, you can purchase one here and we will put your name and phone number on a ticket to be placed in the drawing!  Thank you for supporting this great local charity!

We have already raised $580!  I would really love to hit $1,000 for this local charity.  So please help us and you can also follow along with how many we have sold.  I started with 1,000 tickets available (I know wishful thinking) and we currently have 884 remaining.  That means we have sold 116.  If you click this link to purchase, you can also follow along.  you can purchase one here   THANK YOU!!!!

RAFFLE will be held Sunday, October 31st.

The day I got back to the store, Friday the 8th of October, I am flipping through my Instagram and see that Pepperdine is having an alumni PIT (Pepperdine Improv Troupe) Show. And one of the stars is none other than…..my daughter. Why doesn’t anyone ever tell me anything?

Couldn’t miss that.  Found a friend to go with me and luckily Sandy and Val covered the store the next day and I was off!  Super fun especially since Houston’s 3 best friends were all in town for the show as well.

When Houston did his sophomore year abroad in Heidelberg Germany, he made his 3 best friends on that program.  They are called the Milchmen….some inside joke about drinking a bunch of milk.  Anyway, here is what they looked like back in Germany when my mom, me, and Indy visited and took them out to a Schnitzel dinner in February of 2017.  I can’t believe that was almost five years ago.

I wrote a pretty fun ezine about that “European Vacation” if you want to read about it here.

Left to right, Noel (honorary Milchwoman), Indiana, Reilly, Houston, Alec, Logan and my mom.

And here they are at the Pit show earlier this month. Left to right Houston, Alec, Indy, Logan, and Reilly. Good times!

Since we are talking about Indiana and Comedy Shows…in super great news she just booked a gig in WeHo next Saturday night!  WoooooHoooooooo in WeeeeeeeeHooooooooo!  I am taking a group of friends to see the show and if you are in the area, please join us.  So proud of this kid!

Tickets can be purchased here on Event Brite. I am still trying to find out what a KW33N is and this is what I have so far…..K=Knowledge W=Wisdom 33=Understanding N=Nubian. Just text the Indy Girl to find out for sure!

So what has been going on at the store? Lots! We are ordering in tons of awesome new gifts for you to shop for Christmas. No Supply Chain problems here! We are also taking in a lot of fun consigned items so there is a great selection. Don’t be afraid to start your holiday shopping early. We have you covered!

Check out these hysterically funny Shannon Martin Christmas Napkins and Greeting Cards. She also has magnets and post-it notes.

We also have a lovely assortment of Myra Handbags and Thyme Evergreen Candles. Please stop in soon and check us out!

We also have a lovely assortment of Myra Handbags and Thyme Frasier Fir Candles. Please stop in soon and check us out!

In more fun store news, I got a super surprise a few weeks ago.  One of my favorite Queen’s Court members stopped in on her way to her high school reunion in Santa Barbara to say Hi!  Pam Clayton was in the house.  LOVE this lady!

She and her husband Terry represented the Queen’s Court at my grand opening of the store back on March 1st, 2018 and I will always be extremely grateful that they were there with us!

Here we are at the Grand Opening. Can you believe that on this upcoming March 1st, 2022 we will have been open 4 years? WOW!!!! Thank you to all of you for helping to make this happen!

So during this home buying process, my realtors Joanne & Jeff, who also happen to be my very good friends, invited me to go see the Rolling Stones on October 18th.  And even better than just being able to see the Stones, we were in a private executive box.  Yowza!  What a super fun night.

From left to right, John Givins, Katie Carolan, Merdi Wallace, Mark Field, me, Joanne Carolan, Terri Nunn (Lead Singer Berlin!!!) and Sheri Mayer (Dr. Love).  Such an awesome bunch!

Let me tell you, Mick Jagger still has it! He is freaking amazing! And at age 78….he did not disappoint!

I have been alone at the store A LOT lately because Sandy is in Italy and Candy has been in Texas.  Thank GOD they are both returning soon.   I don’t think I can keep up this pace.  As an example, one Thursday morning, Scott and Patty from up North stopped in after breakfast at Pete’s They couldn’t believe our prices and were furnishing a home.  Next thing you knew, they had rented a Uhaul one way, I had called Adolio to the rescue and we sold them a truck full!  So much fun!

Even got a Thank You note in the mail from Scott & Patty!

In more fun store news…we have tons of new Baggu in stock.  Hats, towels, bags, masks, purses, bags, etc.  Please come in and check them out.  Here are my two characters, Indiana and Emma, modeling the new bucket hats.  Sooooo cute!

Speaking of characters, the one, the only….Tiki Jason stopped in the store last week to take me out to lunch!  Always a fun time when he is around.

My house closed officially yesterday!!!!  I am so beyond excited and grateful for how easy the process was.  If anyone needs a recommendation for a realtor or a loan officer, hit me up.  In the meantime here are Joanne and me at the final walkthrough.  Don’t you love the flowers in the kitchen window box?

Can’t wait to move in.  Won’t happen till mid-November which gives me some time to pack.  If you know me, you know I have A LOT of stuff!

Can’t end this ezine without one more eBay score……Check out this EMPTY Jose Cuervo Box that is at auction.  Already has a bid of $29.99.  It might even go higher!  Check out the auction here.

I am headed to Phoenix next week for the Ali Brown Iconic Conference. Can’t wait to come back inspired with tons of new ideas for my stores….YEP…I said it…STORES!!!!
Oh, I almost forgot…we have gotten in sooooooo much amazing furniture. I just haven’t had time to photograph it and get it on the website, so please stop in. Sofa’s galore and check out this amazing Mid Century Modern Danish (all original) Domino Mobler set that just came in…..swoon.

This is where Houston and I signed the papers for our new house with a traveling notary. Epic!

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

PLEASE consider buying just one raffle ticket.  Seriously, it is for such a great cause….Fighting Breast Cancer!  Click here to purchase.

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/

P.P.S.  If you have a friend who wants to sign up for this newsletter.