Winter 2018 Newsletter

December 20th, 2018

Hi Everyone,

The holiday season is in full swing. Hanukkah was earlier this month and Christmas and Kwanzaa are nearly here, and soon everyone around the globe will be celebrating the incoming New Year. However, here with the spirit of the holidays, is the stress that comes with them. Kids are looking forward to their time off from school, but often after exams and papers are due, high school students have finished sending out their college applications and are now biting their nails, holiday gift shopping can become overwhelming, and decorating can feel like a chore especially if you’re hosting.

Luckily for us, traditions and deeply felt values—religious, communal and personal—are essential and comforting, reduce stress and add richness and meaning to our family life, to us as individuals and to the season.

In my winter Vinetrope Newsletter, I want to provide you the opportunity for a few stress-free moments during this busy season and maybe inspire a new tradition. In the Ross Family, we have made many gingerbread houses throughout the years. I particularly like to create little wintry and festive holiday scenes around the house with miniature figures, houses and dried plant life, often dusted with fake snow. (See below.)

Holiday Decor:

This is the mantle place above the fireplace in my kitchen. I collected ceramic houses many years ago and now use them to decorate during the holidays. To adapt them for a holiday display, I spray them with fake snow, which I scrub off when it’s time to put the decorations away in January. The roofs are removable, allowing me to put battery operated fairy lights inside of them. The landscape painting behind the display adds to the feel of winter and helps enhance its rustic atmosphere.

However, I do take shortcuts too. This is a pop-up tree with some additional decorations added and my garden lion, made of a light weight plastic, with a pine branch crown. I think it looks charming and is a great example of a quick, easy, stress-free holiday decoration. I just bent a branch of fake pine needles into a crown and added some extra trimmings. One year, I hung a bell around his neck. It only takes minutes and makes a neglected corner part of the festivities.

Gingerbread Houses:

Here is a gingerbread house my daughter and I made three years ago. To make it more stress-free, we bought three gingerbread house kits! (Yes, we cheated!) We bought two small gingerbread house kits and one larger one. This way, the kids can get right to the decorating, which is the best part. That’s not to say you can’t bake from scratch or design your own, but this newsletter is all about making holiday activities as easy as possible and having a good time. Be sure to get creative during the decorating too! We made the thatched roof out of mini-frosted shredded wheat. I love miniature anything. I create one scene at a time over a two or three-week period, dedicating just an hour or two here and there during the day, maybe 4 days a week. If I did it all at once it would be 16-20 hours of decorating! When put like that, it seems insane.

However, when broken up over the month, it’s actually pretty relaxing—almost meditative. I try to enjoy each little world I create and not think of it as a big job that needs to get done. I do what works into my schedule and some years, the result is more elaborate than others, but it always gives me pleasure none-the-less.

This year, Maria, who has worked for me for 30 years, helped a lot with the gingerbread houses and threw in her own personal touches! My daughter used to help too, but now she has her own home, twin girls and her career. Family and friends seem to enjoy seeing what I’ve come up with every year and each year the experience is both familiar and different. No two years are exactly the same, but many of my decorations have been in the family for years.

My Fairy Garden:

I’m sure I was inspired to create these gingerbread and home decor scenes because of my love of department store holiday window displays as a child. My mom would take me and my sister Rochelle into NYC every year to see them and I always thought it was so magical. B-Altman’s was my favorite stop. Their windows always seemed to be made for children. Of course, B-Altman’s is long gone. These days the windows seem more commercial and sophisticated from a marketing standpoint, and often even too slick and decadent for my taste. But those magical windows as a child never failed to impress me. They were fairy tales come to life. I’m sure they influenced my concept of what the world of vinetropes might look like and they made me fall in love with the concept of “miniature.” I even remember thinking as a child that this was what I might like to do when I grew up—decorate department store windows! So instead, I decorate table tops and nooks and crannies around my own house. One recent addition to my “inspirations” is my “fairy garden.” It has been arranged on a wooden platform so I can move it, but most pieces are not glued in place so I can change the scenes from time to time. In a fairy garden, the garden always stays lush within its borders, just like in the world of vinetropes. But by adding glowing LED miniature trees, it turns it into a holiday display. The world may be cold outside the perimeters of these trees, but inside it is eternally springtime or summer.

Here is an overall view of my fairy garden with holiday trees. You can see the kitchen fireplace mantle in the background with my ceramic houses.

Here is a detail image of a fairy in the garden with owls and mushrooms.

This is a close-up of my fairy king and queen on their thrones. Look at those crowns I found to adorn their heads!

In the rest of this newsletter, you will find many more decorating ideas, including festive holiday cupcakes using mini ice cream cones and instructions on how to turn them into Santa hats, elf hats, and little Christmas trees.

There are examples of my mom’s fanciful felt ornaments, which created a family tradition, and a snowy excerpt from my book, Return of the Vinetropes, with illustrations. Also, a lovely winter poem, by my daughter Kara Lysandra Ross and you will meet my biggest fan, Genevieve Jones, who modeled with my book for some pictures. There will be more festive images and some with my granddaughters.

I hope this holiday newsletter will offer a short respite from this often too hectic time and that you will sign up for my quarterly newsletters if you haven’t done so already.

The Excerpts:

From Return of the Vinetropes, Book One in the Vinetrope Adventures Trilogy

First, here’s a little background:

It all begins, when 12-year-old Sara, who has lost her mom to cancer, and Lucinda Vinetrope, the lonely fairy-like being who finds herself born full-grown and stranded in Sara’s backyard, meet and form a special bond. Together, with a cast of enchanting characters, such as the brave and wise owl, Owletta, the humorous squirrel brothers, Ekle and Apkin, Sara’s teenage brother Steven, Jamuna, (called Jam) Sara’s new human friend who has the gift of prophecy, and even a flock of talking seagulls, all play a part in finding out if other vinetropes now exist. And if they do, if the vinetropes have truly returned in force, might not their evil enemies, the chargons and vinkali, return as well? That would put the whole world in danger.

Lucinda Vinetrope

Meet one of the book's main protagonists-the friendly fairy-being Lucinda Vinetrope by the illustrator of my book, Julie Bell. Lucinda is 100% sentient plant-life and has returned to earth from different time on earth. Within her chemistry is the answer to clean energy! Note her sparkly hair. Yes, it looks like fairy lights twinkling in her leafy tresses in a holiday spirit.

The magical and feisty fairy, Lucinda Vinetrope, brought to life in this illustration by Julie Bell.

In the scenes below, the main characters have been awaiting the return of Owletta, who has gone on a mission, a long journey south, to see if she can discover if other vinetropes exist. She has been gone for two months and there is much concern for her safety. She left with clues given her by the squirrel brothers, Ekle and Apkin and without having met Sara yet. It is December 10th, and Jamuna, Sara’s friend, has had a prophetic dream that tells her that Owletta is on her way home and will arrive that very day!

Julie Bell, the internationally-famous fantasy artist, illustrated my book!
Here is her portrait of Owletta, who is the primary character of discussion in the following excerpts.

JAMUNA’S (JAM) DREAM:

In her dream she was a crow! It was snowing hard and she was flying directly into the storm over a large stretch of woodland. The branches broke unexpectedly through the fast falling flakes, black and sharp. Startled, she was afraid they would scratch her, cut her or throw her to the ground. But no, she regained her bearings, and lifting herself higher, she found herself looking down once again on the landscape. The wood was a black blur against the ground, the ground now covered in deep snow. Suddenly a hole in the ground tore open right out of the whiteness.

It was a tunnel, and from the tunnel emerged a speeding train. She was flying right over it now, going in the opposite direction. The train moved swiftly on a path that ran through the forest, right down the middle. But then she saw it wasn’t a path, but railroad tracks.

She reversed her course and followed the train. The snow and wind, moving with her, whipped her along, till she caught up. Soon she was hovering over the train.

With the wind helping she could fly as fast as the moving train! It all seemed perfectly natural. Looking up and into the distance, she made out a familiar sight. It was the skyline of New York City. That’s when she woke up.

Jam sat straight up in bed. She looked at her clock. It was 6:00 am. She opened her blinds partway to look outside. It was snowing, pretty hard. She knew what the dream meant! Owletta was returning. She was flying home in the snow, as straight as a speeding train!

Drawing by the author

OWLETTA’S RETURN:

Without realizing it, Jam’s dream was completely and literally correct. Owletta was actually riding on a train. She and her fiancée Hool, whom she’d met on her adventures, had hitched a ride back north on a train, beneath the radar of humans. It was a trick they learned from the seagulls.

Owletta and Hool got off the train in Newark, NJ, and rose up into the falling snow. It was cold. Now that they knew how to ride trains, it made sense for them to use one for the trip back. So they chose a train that got them as close to their destination as possible. They were on the last stretch, almost back to Sara….

“This is abominable, horrenendous!” said Hool, flying next to Owletta, with difficulty, in the cold gusty air. “How do you stand living like this?”
“Many owls do, my dear. You’ve just not had to, but you could. You’ll see, once we settle in my old nest, you’ll be fine. Anyway, it’s only a temporary stay, till we tell the others and decide what to do next.”

“I still say it’s cold and miserable.”

“It is. I normally wouldn’t be out in this weather. But we should make the best of it, and I think we will be there soon.”

It was mid-afternoon as they made their way over the suburban landscape. The snow was really heavy now. They passed over a school sports field and a patch of woods. Owletta knew they were close…but the snow was obscuring her vision. Before they knew it they were crashing through the top branches of a tree.

“Ouch," screeched Owletta, breaking through the top branches. She grabbed onto the first branch she could catch and came to a sudden stop. Hool kept scrambling and tumbling and grabbing, one branch and then another until he landed with a plop in a drift of snow.

“Oh my goodness, are you okay?” Owletta called down. She quickly made her way down to Hool. He was up to his waist in a snowdrift, his wings sunken into the whiteness at each side, his talons sticking out in front.

Drawing by the author

“That really hurt. This rotten snow of yours broke my fall, but I’m not happy, I can tell you that!”

“But you’re okay? Let me see.” She circled around him as he stood up, ruffled his feathers and grumbled and complained, flapping off the snow.

“Owletta, is that you?” yelled a familiar voice.

“What?” She turned around. It was Lucinda, with Ekle and Apkin right behind. They had fallen right into Sara’s backyard.

“Owletta, it is you!” Lucinda called out with excitement.

“Lucinda!” They embraced. Ekle and Apkin approached happily.

“You’re back, you’re alive, we were so worried,” said Ekle.

“We were afraid you died,” said Apkin more bluntly. “Did you find our mates? And who’s this owl?” Apkin never missed a thing.

“…this is my fiancée, Hool Beecham.”

“Yippee!” said Apkin.

“What? Fiancée?” said Ekle.

Oh my goodness,” said Lucinda, dropping, with relief, to her knees in the snow. It reached her waist and Owletta helped her up.

“I realize you are all very excited, and this is a wonderful reunion, but would it be too much to ask to get out of this miserable mess?” were Hool’s first words.

I hope you enjoyed the excerpts from my book! You can read more about my book and purchase it on Amazon here.

However, I guess people have been busy holiday shopping, because my book inventory has sold out through Amazon and is being restocked as we speak. Sorry for the inconvenience!

So instead, you can order my book from the ARC Store until Amazon is restocked.

The Cupcake Craft:

In keeping with my love of miniature decorations, I was delighted to discover miniature ice cream cones—real cones for little scoops and little hands (or little snacks). I had often used decorated upside-down cones as trees to decorate my gingerbread houses. One year, we created a whole forest around the gingerbread house. This year, the tiny cones gave me an idea for some unique cupcakes. So, I came up with these three ideas: Santa hats, elf hats and little Christmas trees for cupcake toppers.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. This is an example of the items needed for the holiday cupcakes (be creative!). Mini ice cream cones turned upside down make perfect elf hats, Santa hats, and little Christmas trees. To keep things stress-free, you can use your favorite cupcake mix or even buy cupcakes. I frosted my cupcakes in snow-white icing and chocolate to compliment the colors of the hats and tree.

2. For the tree, simply frost the cone in green icing. You can do this by "painting" it on with your fingers or dipping it into a shallow bowl of icing and rolling the cone until it's fully covered.

3. I found this lovely holiday sprinkle mix at my local grocery store. You can simply mix together a variety of colorful sprinkles to roll the tree in. They will look like ornament decorations on the mini tree.

4. Pour your sprinkle mixture into a plate and then roll the cone onto the plate so that the sprinkles stick to the wet icing. Now your tree is decorated!

5. Place your decorated tree onto the cupcake. I chose to use a cupcake with white frosting because it looks like snow. I made a little star out of yellow fondant for the tree topper and placed a mini sugar gingerbread man in the front, which I found in the baking section of my local supermarket. You may find these too or some other fun holiday trim.

6. On to the elf and Santa hats! I used licorice ropes to trim both of them. Here is some licorice ready to go onto the Santa hat.

7. Here is the finished Santa hat in place on a chocolate-frosted cupcake with a rolled green fondant trim and licorice rope trim around the bottom. I used a mini-marshmallow as a pom-pom on the top.

8. Here you can see the rolled green fondant ready to go onto the green elf hat. It’s the same process as for the Santa hat.

9. This is what the finished elf hat looks like with both trims and the marshmallow pom-pom on top.

10. Voila, the elf hat is in place on a white-frosted cupcake.

11. This is what all three finished cupcakes look like when they're finished and ready to be eaten. What a fun holiday treat!

12. The best part of the baking process was offering them to my twin granddaughters! They happily ate the whole thing! (But I definitely wouldn't give these to them as a bedtime snack--too much sugar!)

I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy DIY holiday treat! I love exploring new crafts and recipes and look forward to continue sharing them with you all! Subscribe to my newsletter so you don't miss out on any seasonal crafts, recipes, home decor DIYs, and more!

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Genevieve Jones:

We had the pleasure of spending some pre-holiday time during Thanksgiving week with our good friends of thirty years. We now have three generations of friendship—us elders, our children and our grandchildren. Our kids spent many wonderful vacations together growing up and now the grandchildren are sharing special vacation time. We have grown into a group of 17! One of our friends granddaughter’s, Genevieve Jones, is one of my biggest fans. She is 11-years-old, a perfect age to enjoy Return of the Vinetropes.Genevieve modeled with my book for me, so here are three great photos of Genevieve I’d like to share. She looks just like she’s from a fairytale herself!

Genevieve holding my book

Genevieve and I

Click here to get your copy of Return of the Vinetropes

A Winter Poem:

My daughter, Kara Ross has been writing her entire life and is also a fine poet.
Here is her beautiful poem on winter:

Winter’s Grip
By Kara Lysandra Ross

Frozen and silent
soft and seductive
tendrils in the wind
wrestle their way to the ground.
Writhing against the inevitable
they come to rest
atop the frozen Earth.

Deadly beauty,
the ice queen’s curly tresses
grip our hearts and bodies.
Numbed and overwhelmed by her treacherous magnificence,
she tucks us in between soft white blankets,
and hardened soil.

Kara is also Co-Chairperson and C.O.O. of The Art Renewal Center (ARC), a non-profit art educational foundation. She writes professionally and recently published her first book, William Bouguereau: The Essential Works, in conjunction with her dad, Fred Ross, who founded ARC and is also a writer on art and aesthetics.

Click here to learn more about William Bouguereau: The Essential Works

Here are some more pictures of Kara's two daughters, my granddaughters, who are fraternal twins at two years and eight months old!

In these pictures they are dressed as 'Anna' and 'Elsa' in their holiday outfits from the Disney movie Frozen. They look like little snow princesses!

A Family Tradition:

My mother Marjorie Olson Lazarus was an artist in her own right and a writer as well. She was also a doll maker (she painted, baked and assembled antique doll molds and then created original outfits for them) and a dressmaker (she made Rochelle and I the most beautiful outfits). For the holidays, she started the tradition of creating unique and original tree ornaments out of lightly-stuffed felt designs, embroidered and twinkling with sequins. For example, she designed and made Snow White and all seven dwarfs, the characters from Alice-in-Wonderland, and Beauty and the Beast from Beauty & The Beast. Every year, she would create new patterns and ornaments and gift them to my daughter and nieces. Kara has continued the tradition and designs new felt ornaments herself each year and my sister has made several as well.

Here are some examples of the felt ornaments:

Here is a close-up of the Alice and the Rabbit felt ornaments by my mom.

Here the Mad Hatter was made by my mom and Golden Goose by Kara.

The felt fox was made by my mom and the gingerbread boy by Kara.

'Ariel' from The Little Mermaid by Kara.

Here are few more selections of scenes and decorations from around the house.

I like to create scenes on the top of breakfronts and cabinets. Here is our wine cabinet in the dining room decorated.

My sister gave me the cage and I had to create a scene! Adding fairy lights makes it feel more Christmas-like.

I’ve collected Santa Clauses for many years. Every two years or so I purchase another one. Placing them all together makes a statement and is arranged quickly and easily.

Here is the gingerbread house scene again with more fairy lights inside.

I also have a book of poetry available on Amazon. It’s called Seeds of the Pomegranate.

So if you have an adult in your life who likes poetry, it would make a lovely gift. You can purchase Seeds of the Pomegranate here.

And for the tweens and teens, and fantasy lovers take a look at The VinetropeAdventures, Book One, The Return of the Vinetropes.

I want to end my winter newsletter with one final, funny image. This is my sock angel alligator! I made him using a green sock, fake nails for his toes, white feathers for wings, pom-pom for tongue, and fake eyelashes, a bit of felt, beads, pearls and embroidery. He graces my holiday banister.

I hope you had fun looking through these images and readings in this holiday-themed newsletter. I wish you all a most wonderful, magical and healthy new year! And may you all be blessed with the three M’s: the Mystery and Magic of life and the Motivation to be creative!

With love,
Sherry L. Ross

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