On Saturday, Flamingoville’s residents, consignment and resale shopkeepers all, knuckled down to learning and Sharing, and soaking in the Sarasota sun poolside. Good news! Cathy’s back with us and she only missed PART of the fun and learning. Seven topics and 5 hours later, interrupted only by our cottage-potluck lunch, we were ready to relax over dinner at Kate’s (AKA my place). Well, everyone relaxed except for Kate with volunteers Tanya and Tracy, who came early to help chop and cook and set tables. (Thanks, you two, could NOT have done it without you, nor had as much fun!)
After dinner entertainment was courtesy of a generou
s and imaginative donation from Cynthia of The White Elephant in Virginia. When Cynthia donated the Display Diva Bucket, absolutely FILLED with display tools and props, I asked her to come up with a way to award the prize, and oh my did she! Tanya “ran” the event: Decorate a window for a specific shop (Cynthia’s imagination ran wild here: everyone had a different type of shop to decorate for, from a dance studio to a barbeque specialty shop!)
After much trading and cutting and sticking, the entries were voted on and Smokey Joe’s, by Marriette won…but only after a tie with Julie’s Tiny Dancer display! The tie was broken by their creating a theme song for their imaginary shop. Here she displays, for your enjoyment, the squeegee from the Display Diva Bucket she won. Everyone agreed this would be a perfect activity for a staff gathering in their shops, so this may be the birthplace of a new employee-bounding tradition as well as a fun evening for resale shopkeepers themselves. Thanks Cynthia!

