How it all got started...

To even try to understand my obsession, we have to go back to where it all started, 4th grade. I went to Grant Elementary with my sisters and in third grade we had an opportunity to sign up to go to a magnet school for the next three years, I chose Lee-Rossmoor. It was far from my sisters and had a lot to offer. There was this girl there, we all know the one, perfect in every way, perfect hair, skin, clothes. She was very nice and I have to say, it's all her fault. She always wore Guess and Esprit. I loved her clothes and begged my mom to take me shopping to buy something Guess. It was for Christmas and we went to the little Folk shop at Lakewood mall. There it was, that awesome jean Guess jacket, I was in heaven. I tried it on, it was two sizes too big, but I wanted it. It was 68.00 and my mom said it would be the only thing I could have. My sisters thought I was crazy and they picked out a lot of stuff. My mom told them I preferred quality over quantity, look what she started. I couldn't afford to shop for that stuff all the time, but I found a solution. I use to work with my dad at the swap meet on weekends and found that people always gave me, a kid, great deals on stuff. There were lots of piles of second hand clothes and most people hated to deal with clothes out there. If I found a good pile that had some name brand stuff, "Guess" I made an offer for the whole pile. At the end of the day they would tell me to take it all for 5.00. I took out the guess stuff that was my size, washed it up, and kept it for me. The rest I resold the following weekend and made a nice profit. Those who know me see how far back this really goes. I grew up at the Cypress Swap meet and still go almost every weekend. I took a lot of time off in High School, too many other things going on, but went back in college. Oh how things changed out there. It's funny, because when my husband met me he said I was a lot cheaper, designer to me was Gap, DKNY, and whatever else I thought was cute at forever 21 or Robinsons-May. I guess I keep getting more expensive. When Seven Jeans came out he took me to Nordstroms to buy a pair and the smile on my face made him laugh. I mean, they were an overpriced pair of blue jeans, 120.00, and they made me feel good. I still have them. But let me get back to the swap meet. When I went back I would always wee this tent with clothes that had a big crowd. I would check it out once in awhile and the clothes I picked up were always damaged in some way and I thought these people were crazy to shop here. Something drew me back to those tents and I started to find some really great clothes, all buy outs from Nordstroms, with things wrong that I could fix. I would buy a cute shirt for 5.00 and see it at Nordstroms for 88.00. Holy s***. I kept going back and finding more and more deals. Some things are worn and returned, some get snagged, some just get dirty on the rack. For whatever reason, the store can't sell these items and they end up here. Sweet. I would say 80% of my closet has come from there. I have found c&c tanks for 3.00, vintage t's that retail over 50 for only 5.00, lot's of Juicy Couture stuff, so many things I can't mention. It's all authentic (there are fakes out there and you have to know who you are buying from) and it's cheap. Let me wrap up this story with telling you about my best find ever. Sellers at the swap meet get great buy outs from high end stores but sometimes they don't always know certain name brands. There is one guy I buy from (I won't give away my resource) who once in awhile gets designer purses from Bloomingdales. They are store returns and may be used or have some slight damage. People wait at 6am for him to set up and it's a boxing free for all when he pulls the box out. I have gotten Marc by Marc, Coach, Dooney. But one time, there was this brown leather purse that caught my attention. You could just tell by the soft leather, fine stitching, expensive smell, that this was a find. I looked close at the embossed name on the clasp, it was a Chloe. Oh yeah baby. My favorite bag of all time. The return recipt was in it for bloomingdales, returned because a stitch needed to be fixed, sold for 1, 495.00. I asked the guy how much for the bag (at this point he only knew about coach and dooney), he checked it out, and said 40.00. I paid and ran so fast. I took it to Costa Mesa to check it out and it was the real deal. That right there, the Beginning of the end.