Nineteen Years Ago Today: Twelfth Night, 2007

This is a post copied from my old LiveJournal from Saturday, January 6, 2007:

Jan. 6th, 2007 04:25 pm

Twelfth Night

( Bling-bling )

Breathless gave me some nice stuff for Christmas and Epiphany:

[From left to right in the photo above]

[1] a silver necklace with malachite and painted jasper, and matching malachite earrings. We go back a long way on malachite (the first piece of jewelry he gave me 25 or so years ago was a malachite and silver ring), but the painted jasper was new. It's called that because the striations can look like they are painted onto the stone.

[2] Another gift is a good example of that. [3] He also gave me a necklace of mother of pearl and tiger's eye.

Current Location: home
Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: Alison Krauss + Union Station "New Favorite" album

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Some of the links above take you to better photos of these pieces.  Mark took this one of me wearing his Christmas Eve gift (the malachite and painted jasper) along with my son Eric on January 2, 2007, just before I took Eric to the airport to fly back to Washington.

I also wore it when I (finally) got my driver's license updated to our address - so this was on my license until the 2018 renewal.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

Nineteen Years Ago Today - Christmas Eve in 2006

It's Christmas Eve 2025 as I write this, and seems to be a good time to post it, although I probably gave this to Mark much earlier.  I still have this ornament on my tree:

And of course there was a little gift card to go with it, and of course he kept it:

This is the post about his gift that inspired this ornament:  https://abt-unk.blogspot.com/2025/03/march-25-2006-another-early-birthday.html

I wrote the following about Christmas Eve 2006 in my online journal:

Christmas Eve was very nice. We opened our gifts since we were going to be gone all the next day. We gave Eric* an MP3 player (Creative Zen 1GB), Napster gift card, and an extra set of Skullcandy ear buds, plus a couple little things (like a Tervis mug with our county courthouse emblem). We'll be going out shopping later this week, for some new (size 16) shoes, among other things.

I got Breathless all sorts of little stuff, some of which were things I wanted too, like a rain chain. I gave him his big gift back in November, a model ship** he wanted from the Blue Moon Gallery in Grapevine.

Breathless got me a beautiful necklace of silver and malachite [and painted jasper] with matching earrings,*** and a black Coach leather bag. Breathless got me a brown leather Coach bag about 25 years ago that I'd kept and used mainly for special occasions over the years, but I've been using it daily for nearly a year now, so it is nice to have an alternate.

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* My son Eric was visiting for the holidays.  We went to Austin on Christmas Day to visit my family there, his grandparents and my siblings, his aunts and uncles, and his cousins.  Today I'll just be seeing my siblings.

**  The link to the photo of the ship (which is also pictured in my last post) reminded me that one of my other gifts to him was a base for an old clock that had belonged to his father, which you can also see in the photo.  I still have all of these, and I'm still using the rain chain, although it's been moved to the left of where it is in this photo from 2019:

*** More about this necklace in a future post.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

Nineteen Years Ago Today: Holiday Preps

This is a post copied from my old LiveJournal from Monday, December 4, 2006:

Dec. 4th, 2006 12:37 pm

holiday preps

Got a lot more done this past weekend. On Thanksgiving weekend (Saturday), we bought a couple poinsettias (red), a small tabletop rosemary tree, a fresh wreath, and some of those cinnamon-scented pine cones. I also put out some of the few decorations I'd brought with me (the stuff family or friends made or gave to me), so the house looked somewhat festive when Breathless' daughter and her family came to visit that Sunday. Oh, and I made some Christmas cookies (pecan puffs) for them to eat and take with them.

Above:  The wreath we got, hung inside the front door so we could smell it!

Below:  One of the decorations I'd brought with me, that my mother made.

I was expecting to be alone this Christmas, so had originally planned not to put up a tree until I could find a fake lit tree on sale after the holidays. For so many years in the Pac NW, my son and I would go to a tree farm and cut a fresh Doug fir. I don't think you can do that here in Texas, although I know there are farms with pines and cedars - I don't like the former and I have family members who are highly allergic to the latter). Nevertheless, Breathless wanted to have a "real" tree this year, so we bought a cut 6' Doug fir this past weekend.

He'd picked up some tree lights on sale earlier in the week (many of mine had burned out, and I gave those that worked to my son), and he also got some red rope lights cheap. We put those up outside yesterday afternoon (MAN! Was it cold and windy!), and it makes the top (non-brick) half of the four columns out there look striped, like candy canes. I'm thinking next year though we might put these on the back porch (there are only two columns out there, but we can double the amount of lights on each) as I think I'd like something a little more old-fashioned for the front, maybe some lighted garlands to wrap around the posts instead. That's something I definitely need to buy on sale after the holidays, as I am picky about how realistic the fake greens look.

He also got me a real (mostly cedar) garland for the mantle (which I have intertwined with some sparkly white netting), and when we got the tree, they gave me as many trimmed branches as I wanted. I think I will make those into some sort of swag to hang on the front door, with some wide red velvet indoor/outdoor ribbon I have.

Above:  The mantle with much of the stuff talked about in the post.  More in a future post about the painting, and more below on the plaque in front of the fireplace.

Below:  The door swag I made.

Today he is supposed to put up the tree lights, so I can decorate (with all the ornaments and icicles I DID bring) tonight. No hurry.

Current Location: lunch break at work
Current Mood: jubilant
Current Music: computers

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In a reply to a comment on December 6, I added:

"The tree has lights and ornaments now. Breathless picked out such a good tree (very full) that I am not sure it needs icicles. I had so many ornaments that I put some on the garland on the mantle, and will do a very small Pac-NW theme tree (ferryboats, various whales, an eagle, a salmon, etc.) for the guest room where my son will be sleeping. I also did not hang any of my bell ornaments - may add those to the garland (which has Texas ornaments) as well, or put them on doorknobs."

Above:  Eric with the main tree on Christmas Eve.

Below:  The small Pac-NW tree I put in the guest room for Eric.

"I've been collecting ornaments since I put up my first tree of my own in 1979 (a 3' one in Corpus Christi, where I had my first "real" job after getting my bachelor's degree). Now I really have way too many for a 6' tall, very full tree! I plan to give my son the ornaments on his theme tree (forgot to mention it also includes Seahawks ornaments - he's a big 'Hawks fan), plus some others, but I suspect I'll be storing his until HE puts up that first tree of his own!"

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Below are a couple more holiday decorations.  I will tell the story of this "Beware of the Trains" plaque in a future post.

Above:  The candy cane mice were made by my aunt, Sister Jean Marie Guokas.

Below:  I decorated the masts of Mark's ship with tiny wreaths.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

Nineteen Years Ago Today: 2006 Christmas Card and Newsletter

Nineteen years ago on this date (which was a Saturday in 2006), I was sending out my Christmas cards (homemade this year) and the print and e-mail versions of my annual holiday newsletter.  

I don't have an exact copy of my homemade card, but I believe on the front of it, along with the words "New Degree," I included parts of the graduation announcement for my Master of Science in Library Science degree, as I think I had plenty of announcements left over from May.

Inside the card, I had the words "New Job!  New House!  New Love!" as well as our names and new address, my phone number, and one of my e-mail addresses.  I'd gotten business cards at work, so that provided the illustration for the job, while a photo of the house from June and a photo of the two of us from August provided the other two illustrations.

As I wrote to my sister-in-law June on this day, "Yes, I am one of those people who does a dreaded newsletter (since 1986)!  Two years ago I started e-mailing it to most people to save postage and to be able to include more color photos (expensive to print out) as well as links to various web pages, and now to my online journal."  The e-mail version (not pictured here) included the two photos from the inside of my card, plus a bonus photo of the back of our new house.  You can click on the images below to make them larger and more readable.

Above:  Page 1 of the print version of my annual holiday newsletter.

Below: Page 2 of the print version of my annual holiday newsletter.

© Amanda Pape - 2025 - e-mail me!

Treasure Chest Thursday: More Washington Ornaments

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.

© Amanda Pape - 2022 - e-mail me!

Treasure Chest Thursday: Old World Metal Art Ornaments

A couple of the prettiest Christmas ornaments in my collection are these two brass "Old World Metal Art" 1979 dated ornaments, by Kristin Kjorlaug Inc. (originally Kristin Company).   These must have been among the very first ornaments I bought for myself, for my first Christmas tree in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1979.  The first is a snowflake; the second is called "the little Mary."

I still have the original sleeve one of the ornaments came in, along with the original documents.  Here are some of the images from the pages, which tell a little about the company.

I found some examples of different snowflake designs from later years for sale online.  I don't remember what I paid for these in 1979, but now they seem to sell for about $8.50 each.

"The little Mary" was apparently designed by another artist called Pat Greer.  I was unable to find much information about her.  However, I found a lot of information about Kristin Korlaug herself on her granddaughter's website.  Here is what she wrote:

Kristin Kjorlaug was the artist name of my dear Norwegian grandmother. In 1884 her grandfather brought the name Kjorlaug from Norway to America. Kristin was a Norwegian name that she adored. Not only did she sign her artwork with this name, but she also named her brass art company The Kristin Company in 1972— a company where my grandfather, an engineer, chemically etched her artwork on brass sheets, then clipped and polished them to sell as ornaments. They ran this company together until 1987. 

Based on this information, other hints I found on the granddaughter's Facebook page, and the Edina, Minnesota location of the company, I determined that the original Kristin Kjorlaug was Dorothy Ann Kjorlaug Cummings, 1923-2011.  Her husband was former Honeywell aeronautical engineer Kimball Curtis Cummings Sr., 1921-2020.

© Amanda Pape - 2021 - e-mail me!

Treasure Chest Thursday: Marine Animal Ornaments

In December 1993, my son Eric's third-grade class was working on a project on marine animals.  I remember Eric doing lots of research on narwhals and hermit crabs.

As it was Christmastime in Lynnwood, Washington (where we lived at the time), I was popping in at Wight's Home and Garden store to see their "Wonderland of Christmas" display of about 35 trees, each decorated with a different theme.  And of course, the ornaments were for sale.  I got many ornaments at Wight's in the years we lived in Lynnwood (1990-1995), as we'd put up a pretty big tree.  I'd typically scout out the trees and come back and get ornaments in the after-Christmas sale.

I must have found these ornaments on some wildlife-themed tree.  I bought them (even though they weren't on sale) just in case Eric and his class needed them for the project.  At the end of it, they were planning a display of their findings, with all the parents invited.  I don't think any of the ornaments were used for that, but for many years after, they hung on our tree.

Above:  The seven ornaments on a tree.  

Below:  Bald eagle - okay, so it's not a marine animal, but it does eat them.

Above and below - whales, I think.  Maybe the one above is a gray whale, and the ones below might be blue whales

Pretty sure these are a salmon (above) and a sea lion (below).

A shark (above) and a manatee (below).

© Amanda Pape - 2021 - e-mail me!

Treasure Chest Thursday: Seattle Ornaments

I have WAY more Christmas tree ornaments now than I will ever need, given that I don't put up a large tree any more, and also inherited a number of ornaments from my mother.  So I thought I would write about the stories behind a few of the more interesting ones, before passing them on to the offspring.

The ones I'm writing about today are from the offspring's birth state of Washington.  The Seattle area, where the offspring grew up, is well known for the Puget Sound ferries - so of course I have a couple ferry boat ornaments, both made of wood.  This one even has little cars on it:

This one looks more like the Washington State Ferries, with the color scheme used in the time I lived up there (late 1984 to January 2006):

It was a gift from a coworker, Cheryl Robinson, who was a registered nurse who worked a couple mornings or afternoons per week at multiple schools within the Edmonds School District.  Therefore, I'm not sure if she gave this to me during the period I was working at Terrace Park K-8 (Christmas 1997 or 1998) or at Hazelwood Elementary (Christmas 2001, 2002, or 2003).

We also acquired a couple Seattle Seahawks ornaments over the years.  It's nice to see that the logo on the helmet is still used by the team today.

© Amanda Pape - 2021 - e-mail me!

Treasure Chest Thursday: Mt. St. Helens Ash Glass Ornaments

I have WAY more Christmas tree ornaments now than I will ever need, given that I don't put up a large tree any more, and also inherited a number of ornaments from my mother.  So I thought I would write about the stories behind a few of the more interesting ones, before passing them on to the offspring.

The ones I'm writing about today are from the offspring's birth state of Washington.  When I moved there on November 1, 1984, glass ornaments, made from ash from the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington, were very popular.

Here is the first one, from Evergreen Art and Design in Chehalis.  (My photos don't do the ornaments justice.)  It has about a ten-inch circumference and a three-plus-inch diameter.

I store it in the original wooden box it came in, which was made by D&D Box in Rochester, Washington.

I also still have this descriptive card inside.

It reads:  "Mount St. Helens erupted May 18, 1980 giving mankind another example of the power of Mother Nature. Millions of tons of volcanic ash were thrown into the air, blanketing several states. This ash contained 64.2% silica, the basic ingredient of glass, plus numerous trace elements including alumina, iron, calcium, silver, and gold.

This ornament comes to you from Hank Claycamp's Evergreen Art and Design in Chehalis, Washington. Working just an ashfall away from the volcano, artisans fashion each handblown piece from a unique blend of man's ingenuity and nature's bounty. The glassworks also produces a variety of paperweights, vases, lamps, bells, bowls, honey jars, jewelry, and custom designs."

Unfortunately, although I found listings at auction sites for similar ornaments made as early as 1982 and as late as 1985, neither Evergreen Art and Design nor D&D Box seem to be in business today.

Here is the other ornament, from Glass Eye Studio in Seattle:

As the descriptive card notes, "handblown glass insures individual creation - no two pieces are exactly alike."

Apparently, the Glass Eye Studio has run out of Mt. St. Helens ash and no longer makes the ornaments, but a few can still be found online.

© Amanda Pape - 2021 - e-mail me!