Los Angeles Fashion District/Santee Alley

For years and years, my Mom and I have been wanting to go to the Fashion/Flower/Textile Districts in Los Angeles. All stores and storefronts where you can purchase things at very inexpensive prices or wholesale prices.

In recent years, I've become friends with women who are familiar with the Districts and go about once or twice a year. Recently I announced to them that the next time they go, I would love to go with. My friend Paula was off today and we did just that! We drove into Los Angeles and went shopping.

Upon getting off the freeway and turning into the Fashion District I was absolutely amazed. I had no idea how massive the district areas were. Blocks and blocks of stores and storefronts. I'm sure Paula was quite amused at how astonished I was at every passing block. LOL.

We found our way to a parking structure, took mental note of what street and address we'd parked and set off. Wearing comfy shoes, water bottle in hand, and purses on our shoulder, we shopped through Santee Alley.After the first couple of blocks, everything looks the same and you can find the same stuff. But it's still fun to walk through and look.

I managed to do a little Christmas shopping. :) I CANNOT WAIT to give the said gift to the person. LOL. I also scored some stuff for school and rewards for brining in Box Tops, and scored a few things at the .99 cent jewelry store.

Then we drove around a little bit. Paula drove past the Fabric and Textile Districts where I was again amazed at all the bolts and bolts of fabric sitting on tables on the sidewalks. We drove past a store that took up half the block that was all sewing notions and laces and ribbons. We drove past the flower district and saw beautiful buckets of flowers. Drove past the silk flower stores. And ended up stopping at the Toy District. A lot of cheapy plastic like toys, but still fun nonetheless to explore.

I'd been warned about the weird people, the shady area. To stay alert, was even told to keep my money in my bra, LOL, but not once today did we see weird people, or ever felt uncomfortable about our surroundings. Paula says they are really trying to work on cleaning up this area of Los Angeles. And now that I now exactly where to go, I most definitely can't wait to take my Mom back and go exploring some more...especially in the Fabric and Textile District.

It was such a fun day to go into Los Angeles and it was a great day spent with a dear friend.