Story and photo by Julia Severance
Just about every day for three years, Douglas Danger Rothwell – Doug for short – has cheerfully greeted the people who come to Whim So Doodle to shop and take art classes.
It is a tough job, and Doug acknowledges on the store’s website that he sometimes lies on his back – just to “make sure that everything is clear from the floor to the ceiling.”
Doug is a 5-year-old English white lab who belongs to the daughter of Whim So Doodle owner Jill Orobello.
Sadly, he does not know that he will be out of a job on Dec. 31.
That’s the day Whim So Doodle, an iconic arts and crafts store at 237 Second Ave. S, will close after 27 years.
The building that houses the store has been sold, Orobello said. She is searching for a warehouse-type space where she can continue holding arts classes, but the store itself will not continue.
“Whim So Doodle really has become a family,” said Orobello, 58.
It began in 1992, three years after the Orobello family moved from Cincinnati to St. Petersburg when Peter Orobello, a surgeon who specialized in ear, nose and throat problems in children, was recruited to work at All Children’s Hospital.
Jill Orobello is a registered nurse, but she became a stay-at-home mom to care for her first son, who suffered from an autoimmune disorder, and the couple’s other five children.
She said she started her business to create a safe and encouraging space for her family. It helped sustain them when her son died in 2000 at age 14 and her husband – a marathoner – died after a heart attack on an early morning run in 2015.
The store, first called Whim Sew Doodle, focused on counted cross-stitch, needlepoint, sewing and smocking.
It grew into a broader art store and twice changed locations as Orobello brought in rubber stamps, paint, memory-keeping products and paper supplies while building a customer base and staff.
The staff includes Orobello’s daughter, Tayler Rothwell, who started working in the store when she was 14. She is the store’s marketing director, teaches a monthly brush calligraphy class and brings Doug, her dog, to work each day.
Over time, Orobello said, the close-knit environment in the store led to the mission statement on the back of the classroom wall: “Come as strangers but leave as family.”
Karen Dos Passos, a longtime customer of Whim So Doodle, took her first class there in 2013. She has taken most of the classes offered by Whim So Doodle, but the art journaling class has been the most meaningful.
“Watching someone else grow in their art is just as important to me as seeing myself grow,” said Dos Passos.
As Whim So Doodle prepares to close, Orobello is marking down prices on her inventory and saying goodbye to longtime customers.
Meanwhile, the affable Doug maintains his post near the door, awaiting scratches and treats.
