Shopping in L.A.

Okay so I promised I’d tell you about our *fast* shopping trip to L.A…. so here I go! As most of you know I’m from AZ, so taking a day trip to shop in L.A. is a little bit c-r-a-z-y! Luckily one of my good friends Jenna shares the same obsessions I do and wanted to join me on this fun adventure. By the time we got off it was already almost 5am…yikes! So we ended up getting there later than we would of liked…11 am!! Only in L.A. does traffic last ALL day long. Since we got there late we didn’t mess around. Just shopped, shopped, shopped! We didn’t even stop to eat lunch. That could wait… lol.

We made our first stop to the L.A. fashion mart. The last Friday of the month it is open to the public. All of the designers are selling there samples, so you can get some pretty good deals!!

We did find a couple great finds in the mart, but we weren’t having to much luck in the mart this year. After a couple of hours we decided to head to the streets.

Once we found the trim store (on 9th St. and Maple) we were in heaven. We were like little girls in a candy store. I think this is where we spent the majority of our time. This cute boy followed us around for an hour as we said okay how about a yard of this … this and this… lol. I think we each walked out of there with at least 50 yards of stretchy elastic. How could you not? There were SOO many colors at only .20 cents a yard!  There is one place in mesa that has nice trims but they are around $5 a yard and they don’t have nearly as many colors to choose from.

H.E.A.V.E.N. I’ve never seen so much lace. They had it in every shape, size and color you could think of. Are you swooning yet?

P.S. Keep in mind I have “travel” hair and makeup.

Our next stop was the Michael Levine Loft. It kind of reminded me of a thrift store… you have to be ready to dig. However I found some fun fabric all for around 10 bucks.

The only piece I didn’t find in the bins was the minki. I found it at a cute little shop next door. They went down quite a bit for me… now I’m wishing  I would of bought more because minki aint’ cheap!

We seriously could of spent all day at the fabric stores, but we just didn’t have time. There was SOO much fabric and most of it was super cheap.

For the last hour we roamed the San Tan Alley. I got all of these necklaces for $1 each! Yes they’ll probably break in a matter of days… but that’s the kind of jewelry I like. With little kids there is no point in investing in fancy jewelry. I can’t tell you how many necklaces I’ve had broken or lost in the past 2 years.

Once  I got home I found these spools (left over from tulle) and wrapped my elastic around them. I’m loving this polka dot elastic!

I found all these fun flowers at .10 cents a piece. I believe the zippers were .25 cents.

Yummy lace… :)

I also found all these fun flowers at the trim store! I thought they would be perfect for trimming a skirt, lamp or simply for making hair accessories.

Here’s everything laid out when I showed the hubs my goods. He was actually surprised I came home with $21. I actually was too. ;)

I really didn’t buy much for me…  was having to much fun in the kids stores. I got these three shirts, the necklaces and a pair of sunglasses.

I told you we had the most fun in the trim store! ;)

Emmalyn’s pretty happy with her new shirt and headband I made. All the shirts I bought were only 5 bucks! They are all Nordstrom quality… so I was pretty happy with my purchases!

 

All in all it was a great trip! I woke up at 4am and walked in my door at 2am that night. Was it worth it –YES!

We barely survived the drive home. I think next time I would vote sleeping over… but as a nursing mom I’m not ready to leave my baby over night.

Thank goodness for pop, candy and some good tunes to keep us up on the way home. We were reminiscing through our favorite high school songs, it was pretty fun!

It was definitely a fun girls day out. It was fun to just be me.

So do you see a shopping trip to L.A. in the near future?

I’ll totally go with!

**UPDATE**Here is the website so you can find store directions: http://www.fashiondistrict.org/