Some of you are in line before the show opens on Saturday and stay until the very last minute when the show closes on Sunday. Others come only for a single day, or for parts of both. But there is one constant for the vendors when the show lasts for two days – we have a free evening after the show closes on Saturday. Some go out to eat together, while others prefer to be alone and decompress. This is my “second family,” but only rarely do we all get together – last night was one of those occasions.
This was my hotel room on Friday night. I was “multitasking” – making homemade ice cream while packaging sets of Distress Oxide pads and watching a game on my iPad. The last time I made homemade ice cream for the vendors was 14 years ago at StampFest in Kissimmee – we were all staying at the same hotel and gathered around the pool to eat it. This weekend, we are in Collinsville, Illinois (near St. Louis) – not all staying at the same hotel, but most of us were within walking distance of the convention center.
I put these pictures on my Facebook page, and my friend Doreen Chambers saw what was going on and offered to bring a cake and cupcakes – and with several vendors and the promoter celebrating birthdays this week, a simple gathering evolved into a birthday party.
The first arrivals – 45 minutes before the first scoop was to be served. They said that they had finished dinner, and if they had gone back to their hotel rooms (or in Kevin and Beth’s case, their trailer), they would have fallen asleep.
Pretty soon, we had a full house – and three of the birthday bunch present to blow out their candles.
Gary Burlin’s special day had started much earlier – he received these balloons before the show opened.
More pictures from the evening’s festivities. A good time was had by all.
Special thanks to the desk clerk at the Fairfield Inn – he found freezer space and stored the ice cream for us until we were ready. We fed him well for his efforts . . .
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