Oh, kitchen armoire, oh kitchen armoire, how lovely is your surface . . .

The image posted above is a photograph (taken in my kitchen) that shows some details of the 'winter-time garden' that I keep inside during the winter season. This "garden" is comprised of my less hardy outdoor plants that I bring into my apartment (from my roof-top extension urban garden which I go to great lengths to winterize.

I have also created a line of greeting cards based on some of my past roof-top extension garden winterizing endeavors. These cards are quite special to use for sending holiday wishes. They are part of my petite wrap-around card collection. 

A sample of a petite wrap-around card from the winter collection can be seen below:

As for the plants that I bring inside, I place them on top of humidity trays (placed below a cold/warm light system that is connected to a timer then suspended) that are filled with pebbles. This method is a great way to preserve the humidity and to keep the plants happy during the winter months.

I also find this a nice way to decorate for the holidays, when, in a relatively small New York studio apartment such as mine, there is no room for a Christmas tree; no matter how "lovely its branches" —besides, maintaining a little garden inside keeps my green-thumb muscles supple during the long winter.

As you can see, my inside garden is located on top of a piece of furniture, which anyone can easily do (in this case it is a wooden canning cabinet that has been in my family for over one hundred years and moved with great care up seventy steps to get to my apartment), and it is decorated with Christmas ornaments as well as lights —how lovely is my armoire's  surface!

If you aren't inclined towards green thumb activities or don't have room for a tree, I assure you that you can find a place for holiday decorations. One idea is simply to place bulb-style ornaments in a large bowl and put lights around its rim as seen in the photograph below:

". . .tis the season . . . "

FALL 2018 ADDENDUM: 

I no longer actively produce event program covers, invitations and the types of greeting cards described here or on my website but arrangements might be able to be made under certain circumstances. My focus is on the Words In Our Beak book series, pictured below...

WORDS IN OUR BEAK BOOK SERIES

...whose stories are told from the point of view of Cam, a female cardinal, whose photo is on the cover of each book. Words In Our Beak’s goal is to open readers to a simple understanding of the winged world and their environment. Set in my rooftop garden in NYC,  Words In Our Beak is directed to children and adults who are curious about birds, and want to learn about them from a unique perspective. The books include hundreds of images of flora and fauna, links to movies, as well as to informative narratives that have been created by the author.

Please click here to go to my blog post that provides details as to where you can get these books.

Additionally, I have rendered some images from these books into other formats and they are available via Fine Art America (FAA). Some of my other photographs (Black & White Collection, Kaleidoscopic Images and the famous Mandarin duck who visited NYC) can also be found on my FAA pages.

SUMMER 2020 ADDENDUM: 

                             

"Never say never," the saying goes, and I suppose that applies to saying, "I no longer....," which I did in my 2018 addendum and now I'm here to announce at the advice of Chris Deatherage, my book series formatter, who is also my web-master (for patriciayoungquist.com) I now have some versions of the greeting cards that are referenced in this blog post available via FAA, please click here to view them.