Well, it's Epiphany, the Twelfth Day of Christmas, so one last post for this holiday season on the stories behind some of the Christmas tree ornaments in my now-too-big collection.
Aleksandra, a reader of this blog, commented on an earlier post and asked if I had any Texas ornaments. I used to - a ceramic Christmas-decorated cowboy boot, a salt dough Santa with a cowboy hat, and a couple ornaments in the shape of the state of Texas. A few years ago, I donated them to a silent auction at my place of work, designed to raise money to buy gifts for an Angel Tree child. In retrospect, I probably should have saved these to give to the offspring - oh well!
In my efforts to photograph all the ornaments I *do* have (so the offspring can decide what to keep), I came across a couple others with definite connections to places in Washington state. The first is a Grandpa Frost / Ded Moroz / Father Christmas figure carved out of driftwood and painted.
The tag that came with the ornament described it as a "one-of-a-kind souvenir from the Washington Coast. The ornament has been hand-carved and hand-painted on driftwood gathered from Pacific Beach." On the reverse, it gives a Pine Tree Cottage, Bellevue, Washington location, and names the artist as Nancy Voyce (and you can see "Nancy V" painted on the back on the white hair below the green cap).
I found a Nancy Voyce living in Bellevue, but there was no information available about her artwork. As for the Pacific Beach, there is actually a community by that name, and I am pretty sure that is where I bought this. More specifically, I likely bought it in the gallery/gift shop of the Sandpiper Beach Resort, where I got the next ornament as well.
The decorated sand dollar above has "Sandpiper" written in ink on the back. I think the sand dollar below is probably also from Sandpiper, but it doesn't say so. Sand dollars were prolific on the beach next to the resort.
The Sandpiper Beach Resort holds a lot of wonderful memories for me and my offspring. It was a site for many family vacations in the early 1990s, and was a great spot for swimming (or, in my case, wading - the water was too cold!), building sand forts and castles, flying kites, beachcombing, or just walking on a long stretch of beach where no vehicles were allowed.
Enjoying your series about ornaments and their provenance. Happy new year!
ReplyDeleteThanks Marian! I might write about some more ornaments next Christmas season! Happy new year to you, too!
Delete