A Nick Kristof Follow-Up

Since its Friday, today's post was supposed to be Friday's Letters. But it cannot be, because I have to share with you the Nicholas Kristof Follow-Up! Because I would be a terrible blogger if I did not and people have already sent me e-mails with messages like "Ummm, why are you not posting the update?". So fear not friends, here it is (please note that I am fully aware of how totally silly this whole thing is/how nuts it makes me seem).

When I posted the original story on Wednesday, I tweeted it with a link to the blog (which I always do...do you follow me on twitter?).

And then I went about my day and my boss called from his office on the fourth floor.

And we were talking, talking, talking and because I was multitasking, I was also checking my email. And my email told me that Nicholas Kristoff tweeted me back. And I screamed. Screamed into my boss' ear and then had to explain  the whole story to him. I'm not totally sure he understood what I was saying because I was yelling and laughing so much...I'm also not sure why he didn't just hang up on me, because if I were him I totally would have.

And then I realized (thanks to my office mate, Amanda), that I had not only proclaimed my love of him in my post but I ALSO explained that I find him attractive. Awesome, Kate. Super awkward, geeze. But I composed myself and I tweeted a totally dignified response.

And then later that day, Half the Sky tweeted me. And I totally became that crazy girl. Please note that I will NOT be tweeting this post to him. Because goodness that would be too much!

Embrace the Camera

Last night, Fiance and I met a friend of ours at the Stanton Street location of The Meatball Shop. I went to the Greenwich Avenue location a few months ago with friends and geeze it was so delicious. Last night did not disappoint (especially because we got seated right away and didn't have to wait two hours for a table). I will say that the Greenwich Avenue location is a little bit bigger and the service is a tiny bit better. But overall, holy crap you should walk there right now if you are in the city. And I don't mean get in a cab...walk from your location because you will eat your weight is sweet tea, meatballs and ice cream sandwiches so its a good idea for you to get some movement in ahead of time!

Here are some pictures from last night! I wanted Fiance and I to take a picture but then our train came and off we went, so its just me! Also, tomorrow is Friday! Ugh I love me some Fridays.

To order, you mark what you want with a dry erase marker. This is how I want to take orders at our wedding!

Growing your bangs out is a tedious process. They are not even that long yet, and already I feel like I am engaged in a daily battle with myself about whether or not I want to shave my head, Brittany style. And the rest of my hair is past my shoulders. I haven't gotten a haircut since September...something needs to happen! 

Twitter Stalking Nicholas Kristof

Do you know Nicholas Kristof?

He's a New York Times columnist. You might know him from the book he and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, authored about women's education and empowerment throughout the world, Half the Sky. 

Well I kind of love him. He's a great writer, and he writes about things that I think are really, really important and for some reason I find him attractive. Not like George Clooney attractive, but handsome in a he's really smart and well spoken, and travels the world and looks nice in a suit, handsome. OK, judge away...I know you're doing it anyway.

In any event, I kind of stalk him on Twitter and on Monday night it finally paid off and I nearly died of excitement. In order for you to really understand this whole thing, its probably easiest if you see this through my tweets.

Tweet #1: Nicholas Kristof received an award with his wife at my graduation from Penn last May. He wasn't the speaker (that was cutie Denzel Washington), but he was still there and I nearly exploded when I realized he was there. Clearly, I tweeted him and hoped against hope that he would get up to accept his award, knock Amy Gutmann out of the way and say into the mic "What is UP KatieLegs?". He did not, obviously. (Note: do you know how hard it is to find a tweet you tweeted almost a year ago? Is really hard, guys)

I tweeted him a few times between last May and this month, but those were all about columns he wrote, and are not really important here. Needless to say, I never got tweeted back. OK back to the story...

Tweet #2 (for the purposes of this story): At the beginning of the month, I got an email that he was going to be at my job giving a lecture. Clearly I RSVP'ed immediately and Fiance said he would come so hooray, date night in the city! We got tickets! And I tweeted this!

Tweet #3: Great, super, I am SO excited to see him. But Monday was totally gross at work. But I was still so excited and I tweeted this!

Tweet #4: And then, Fiance and I were late to the lecture. Because I locked my keys in my office with our tickets, and I don't even want to talk about it because I cried in front of my building's security guard. It was awful. So we couldn't get in to see him in person because the auditorium was full, but we did get to see the simulcast of him next door to the auditorium, which was still cool I guess. The lecture was great, and because I twitter stalk him, I tweeted during it. And this is what I tweeted.

Tweet #5: And I expected RADIO SILENCE from him because you know, that's how our relationship works. I see Nicholas Kristof someplace, or read one of his columns, and I tweet him and then he ignores me, because he legitimately busy in Uganda or Cambodia or Pakistan buying women back from brothels and fighting with The Village Voice. And I was totally OK with how that was going. BUT THEN NICHOLAS KRISTOF MADE MY LIFE and guess what he did? HE REPLIED TO MY TWEET!
Died. I died over my second mug of beer at the Japanese restaurant Fiance and I were at with friends (just so you know, that is too much beer on a Monday).

Died. I died and called my Mom who is basically the only other person I know who loves him (note: she does not find him attractive). And we yelled. And I glowed the whole way home and basically all day Tuesday and even still a little bit this morning.

So Nicholas Kristof, thanks for being super freaking awesome. I promise I will never guilt you into tweeting me again (maybe)!

Convince Me In Three

Guys, do you know what one of the coolest things about having a blog is? Its not that I have a place to broadcast my love of my cat OR document the books I am reading OR show you all the tasty things I eat.

Nope. It is that you get to meet people through your blog! Did you know that could happen? I didn't either! SO cool, no?

I "met" Jes of Two Smuppies about 6 weeks ago. I'm not totally sure how I stumbled upon her blog, but I'm pretty thrilled I did! I emailed her about a button swap (have you ever emailed a total stranger? It is real scary) and she WROTE BACK! I had emailed what seemed like 900 people at that point and it was radio silence, guys. But she wrote back!

This is Jes!

And she lives with a man (sometimes, living with a man is strange) which I totally identify with and she has a puppy that I swear to god looks like he has a smile. And not even a puppy smile, a real honest to goodness human smile. He is so cute and I want him and my puppy sister to fall in love so we can be puppy related. Anyway I got a little carried away...

Clearly we have a lot in common (men living, furry babies in our lives, our love of cupcakes) but one thing she loves but I just CANNOT get into is...John Mayer. I just can't.

I don't hate him (there are some people I hate, like Katie Couric for instance) but I just cannot for the life of me get into him. And it is frustrating because I feel like I am missing out on something, but I just don't know what the heck it is!

All of this to say is that Jes and I came up with this fun little thing we'll be doin' on the regular called "Convince Me in Three," where one of us will try to convince the other one to like something (or in this case, try to explain why I don't like this thing/person).

Got it? OK HERE WE GO! This is why Jes is totes in love with him and his dreamy voice! For three reasons I cannot get into him AT ALL go to Jes' blog here!

Reasons to Heart John Mayer by Jes from Two Smuppies!

1. His voice could melt even the coldest of hearts in the deepest corner of cold Russia. Okay, that's an exaggeration. But really, his crooning is fab. Although most of his songs have a pretty depressing mood to them... I think that he still has an ability to sing it as though it were a happy song. 

He's like the male version of adele to me. Is that taking it too far? I don't think so. Adele sings great breakup songs... and I think mr.mayer has perfected that with a deper voice. Actually, would you consider him voice to be deeper than Adele? I've heard him live and I don't know if I can. Anyways, "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room"? gets me every time.

2. He's got a sense of humor. Although dry and often coming off as drab to those who do not understand his Mayerish language, I think that he is full of surprise. Case in point: John Mayer on Ellen playing the celebrity game. probably my favorite clip. 

AND he sings in the bathroom with Ellen here: 

3. He's that "tortured" soul slash bad boy slash deep down romantic that I think we all want to get to know better. But also while thinking of how amazing John is, try to forget about that one article he did where he kissed and told. That was just a fluke. He's also a fantastic live performer. Given I haven't been to too many concerts in my day, I have been to enough where I know that John is better (if not more amazing) live than he is on the radio or on his cd. In fact, I prefer to listen to recordings of his live shows over the records. 

So, are you not convinced yet, kate?
Maybe he's just an acquired taste. 

Until next time, Kate readers!

Best Twin Ever!

Have I ever told you about my Twin, Tammy?

We're not actually twins, but a long time ago, before we were really friends, we had to take a trip to Washington DC together for school. And we went shopping with a group of girls to H&M and we bought the same dress. TWINS WERE BORN and then we decided we were basically soul mates and here we are four years later.

Also, I'd like you to know that this is one of the only pictures I could find of us because Twin took literally thousands of pictures in college and then we graduated and she took them all off of  Facebook. It was really traumatic for all of us! This picture is from Happy Hour two years ago and thankfully I documented it for posterity.

Anyway, after Twin graduated she moved back to California and now we write letters and video chat when Stephanie and I are together. I have pictures from when we video chatted a few weeks ago, but because I am an awesome twin, I will not post them! (They are not attractive)

Twin is basically a party planning genius. When we were in college she planned our formals, and her family owns a flower shop, so she is super knowledgeable about centerpieces and she knows all about colors and cake and wedding trends and EVERYTHING! But she lives in California so instead of coming places with me, she sends me emails with wedding photography and super helpful power point presentations. Seriously she is the best.

AND THEN on Friday I came home to the MOST EXCELLENT package anyone has ever sent me in the history of my life.

Right? Best package ever! She sent Stephanie 8 bags of Mini Eggs and me a whole lotta wedding ideas! And a pen with a giant pink flower on it that I used this weekend and embarrassed Fiance with! AND a beautiful wedding binder and THE BEST wedding post its that I can't even post because I love them so much and am concerned that if I post them you will run out and buy all of them and there will no more for me!

Thankfully, Twin provided me with some major wedding inspiration so that when my alarm clock went off at 7:30am on Saturday morning, I was ready to drive to Pennsylvania for John and Kate attempt to find a location for their wedding PART DEUX!

Do we have a date? No. Do we have a venue? Nope. BUT we have it narrowed down to TWO totally awesome venues and we're like leaps and bounds ahead of where we were a week ago. So hooray PROGRESS!

And, we got to play Bananagrams AND Holly came for a ride with us to our wedding venues yesterday!

Please notice that I spelled "Bait" incorrectly. Clearly, Banagrams is not a good game for me. 

Guys, I am growing my bangs out and it is taking FOREVER!

Successful weekend, I'd say AND tonight I get to see Nicholas Kristof AND eat sushi with our friends, one of whom is on tour with a band (this is what he does people, live on a bus!) and appeared in NYC for two days. Best surprise ever!

Happy Monday to YOU!

Friday's Letters Week Three (And Book #16)

I think I'm really starting to love this Friday's Letters tradition over at Adventures of Newlyweds. I find myself thinking about stuff that happens to me during the week in "Dear ...." terms, which is super helpful for memory making! Without further ado, this week's Friday's Letters!

Dear Spring Time in NYC, I love you. Seriously, I love you a lot. You are wonderful and you let me eat gelato for lunch and people are in the park again. I would really appreciate it if we could stay at this temperature until next Fall. Not 89 degrees, not 102 degrees with 98 percent humidity like we were last July. This temperature. OK? OK, thanks!

Dear Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I am very glad I read you as book #16! I am more glad that I read the book instead of seeing the movie. I was thinking Extremely Loud would get five stars, but the ending didn't thrill me, so its getting a solid four. I'm also considering adding Everything is Illuminated to the 2012 list. After two September 11th books in a row though, I am spent and the next book is a big departure from the trend...stay tuned!

Dear Happy Hour, I am really excited for you tonight. Sometimes, you come after a long work week, but sometimes you come after a Memorial Service for a former colleague who was a beacon of sanity and humor in a sea of crazy. Also, sometimes you bring people together who I miss a lot and who show me that even though sometimes people you thought you'd always have turn out to be less than reliable (or really even nice to you), when the going gets tough the universe sends you people you heart a lot. Vodka cranberry? Thanks for being great.

Dear Frozen Yogurt from Swirls and Twirls, You're great and I like you. I like you even more when I eat you for dinner like I did on Wednesday. And when you have gummy bears. Wednesday was awesome...in case you're counting, yes I did eat tasty frozen treats for two meals this week. What of it?

Dear Wedding Venues, Please be nice to me and Fiance this weekend. Please let us agree on a venue and pick a date. I MUST have this all situated before I attend Etsy's NYC Wedding Event, To Have and To Hold, in April!

Hope your week was fantastically fantastic! Check out more Friday's Letters here! 

Reasons to Love New York AND Embrace the Camera: Spring Has Sprung

This is an extra special post you guys! Its a Reason to Love New York AND an Embrace the Camera and it is brought to you by Spring in New York City!

My work friends Amanda, Stacie and I went to get gelato on Tuesday for the first day of spring at Grom. Have you been? Geeze it is great and I got a cone even though I am fundamentally opposed to them. We'll ignore the fact that my gelato fell off and I caught it in my hand, thus proving that cones are bad news (cough, cough Amanda)

And then it was so beautiful on my walk home that I had to be a super dork and take a picture. Washington Square Park, I really love you a lot. Especially now that you're almost done being renovated and I can always find a bench...even if it is near the smelly new mulch (ew).

Hope Spring is shaping up for you wonderfully!

Reunion Dinner

Last night, after almost TWO weeks, Fiance and I got to have dinner together. Thrilled! More thrilling? He cooked it! Best future husband ever.

Things here a a little nutty this week (sometimes you have to go to the Bronx for work and take a lot of public transportation to get there) so here are some fast pictures from our Reunion Dinner. And of Dilly. Because I really like taking pictures of her and sometimes she is very funny!

That's what happens when you put food on the table for dinner. She things she is a person and that she can eat too (don't mind the AC hose in the background)!

This is the dinner fiance made us! Baked chicken, rice AND salad! Guys, we almost never have salad AND it had artichoke hearts in it...it was a big deal here on Tuesday night!

This picture might be my most favorite picture of Dilly ever taken. Fiance came home from his last late night of work on Monday and wanted a Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi (is there any better kind of Pepsi? I think not). Dilly wanted to snuggle.

This was the result. I laughed for about ten minutes, no exaggeration.

Books #14 & #15

Books #14 and #15 came and went in under six days (thank you body for not falling asleep on the train!) and I think I was on a little bit of a book high. Do you get that? All accomplished and happy that you finished a book instead of watching the NCIS Los Angeles marathon...despite your love for LL Cool J? Book high, people...its the new thing, obviously!

Book #14 was recommended to me by my boss who, knowing I loved The Hunger Games, thought that this would be a great read for me. He was right! Fair warning though, it is super dark.  

The Long Walk, which Stephen King originally published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman appears to be widely available under King's name. If you try for it under Bachman though, your library has to special order it for you from a library in Kansas. Seriously.

The Long Walk is set in the not to distant future where, on May 1st of every year, 100 boys start walking and do not stop until only one of them is left. Not to eat, not to drink, not when their sneakers fall apart, and not even to go to the bathroom. Ew. I love distopian stories  (The Handmaid's Tale is my favorite book of all time) but this was a tad bit dark, even for me. Overall though, I thought this was a great story and really hit home for me (slash made me a little terrified) as I'm considering doing this next May...hopefully they'll let me stop to pee.

Book #15 was significantly less impressive than book #14. Michelle Haimoff's These Days Are Ours came recommended by Hello Giggles Shiny Happy Book Club, so I thought I'd give it a try. The reviewer, Sarah Heyward, wrote of the story "Above all, there’s an impressive balance of wit and heart at work here, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t tear up a few times". Awesome, I thought, let's give it a try.

Set six months after September 11th, recent college graduates (who live in their parent's fancy, fancy apartments) are attempting to find jobs and regain some sense of normalcy after the attacks. I was expecting a more coming of age tale (as ridiculous as that sounds) but instead I got a bunch of whiny characters who spend lots of money (or their parent's money) on shoes that they don't wear to the office. I also thought that Haimoff totally dismisses the one person in the book who has a job by describing her as "on auto-pilot" while totally legitimizing the crazy "I want to marry this guy because his apartment is beautiful and his parents seem nice" rantings of the protagonist.

Overall, These Days are Ours was an easy read set in New York (which I always like). If you're not in the mood to be totally annoyed though, I can't say I would suggest it.

Weekend Wrap Up

On Friday night, me, Steph and my sister went to see Beauty and the Beast at Fiance's job.

And guys, I know I said it was a High School musical production of it and that that probably made you think it was going to be mehh OK. But alas! It was excellent! Not Broadway excellent, but excellent enough that the kids got a standing ovation after Be Our Guest and I cried a little at the end when they were all people again! And it was sold out, which Fiance was thrilled about AND I got to meet some of the kids Fiance works with every day. And ummm some of them wanted to take a picture with me. Which made me feel like they doubted that I existed AND that I was real old. Thanks, high school students! 

After the play, we were very hungry so we went to the Diner (which is what you do on Long Island, duh).  I got a BLT and it was delicious.

I woke up at a time acceptable for real people on Saturday and I went to the gym. The gym on a Saturday morning is basically unheard of in our house but I went! And after the gym I even went food shopping...I was super productive!

When I got home, Fiance still had three hours until he had to be at work for the Saturday show (did I mention I saw him not at all last week?) so we got to eat lunch together, which is my favorite! He made turkey burgers and they were also delicious! I ate a lot of sandwiches this weekend, can you tell?

And then Fiance had  to go to work, and I laid on the couch with Dilly and read my book until like 6pm. Guys, I finished a book on Friday and finished another one yesterday. Reviews coming tomorrow...I am a machine!

That's the Snuggie that the kids at work got Fiance for his birthday. That's right its zebra print...its super cozy!

Saturday night I went to the movies to see Friends with Kids with some friends (who have no kids...I am a joke-ster!).

It was great! I thought it definitely would have been #1 at the Box Office, but clearly I am not up on movie trends as something called 21 Jumpstreet also came out this weekend and apparently that was #1. And I think The Lorax was #2. All of this to say, I think Friends with Kid got a raw deal and you should go see it because we all loved it. I don't have any pictures from the movies because you're basically not even allowed to take your phone out before the movie starts without people judging you. Haters.

Yesterday, it was b-e-a-utiful outside and my sister and I went to Brooklyn to visit my Grandmother and to see my parents who were visiting too!

That's me driving! See the window is down? I love me some springtime!

Holly also came to Nanny's yesterday (with my parents, people she did not drive herself) and she is super goofy in her cone head. She wasn't crying though and she even ran around a bit, so she is definitely on the mend! I think the cone is making her self conscious, though and one of her little legs is shaved. Poor puppy!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and that you are getting outside today if you live in NYC! It is definitely time for some margaritas outside!

Friday's Letters

Dear High School Musical Production of Beauty and the Beast, be over now. Seriously. Fiance is working 92 hours this week. 92! That is no hours for me. I'm over you. I'm coming to see you tonight not because I really like Beauty and the Beast but because I want to see what takes 92 hours to accomplish. Please do not disappoint me.

Dear College Spring Break I love you because my students are all away and I can catch up on everything I needed to do AND start thinking about the Fall (seriously where is the time going?)! Also I can have lunch with my Bestie in the park and exchange books. I love you.

Dear Bloggy Friend Lauren, RUN LIKE THE WIND on Sunday! And then have some serious Happy Hour! That's appropriate after running 26.2 miles in the Los Angeles Marathon, no?

Dear Dilly, you are super cuddly this week which I love. But I do not love when we are watching The Daily Show, waiting for Fiance to get home, and you sneeze in my face because you are laying on my chest. I know you only have one leg in the front, but seriously cover your mouth. It is not lady like at all.

Dear Weekend, I am so excited for you. I plan on sleeping late tomorrow and then going to the gym. And then cleaning my apartment. And reading a crocheting a lot. I used to be fun on Saturdays AND on St. Patrick's Day. But now I'm lame-o. But content and lame-o, so that's an even trade, no? Yes!
 
Hoping you all had a lovely, lovely week! 
Loooove,
Kate

More Friday's Letters here and my first one here

Embrace the Camera: Holly's Lady Surgery

That's me and Holly over my long weekend at my parents' last week.

How cute is she? She is totally unimpressed with my desire to take pictures with her always, but still adorable! I would like you to know that I had one million more of these but I only posted these (Photobooth is a terrible thing if you have cozy pets). You're welcome.

That's Holly yesterday!She is so sad because she got her Lady Surgery yesterday (I don't like the actual word for it ICK!). My Mom sent me this picture with this text message "Your puppy sister is sad. She misses her ovaries."

HOW SAD does she look? And then I called my Mom last night and I could hear her crying! Seriously. I cannot deal and am distraught. She can't even sleep in her crate because of that cone. I told me Mom (and bet my Dad $20) that FAT CHANCE they are never getting her to sleep in there again.

I have to go now because I can't keep looking at this picture because its making me super upset. But I would just like to say that I might have to start calling Embrace the Camera "Kate poses with various cuddly animals". I'm only a little sorry (and by a little I mean not at all).

Book #13: The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook

The average rating of The Ex-Boyfriend's Handbook on Goodreads is 3.44. Because Goodreads has rarely steered me wrong, this average prompted my reading the book upon discovering it on my Kindle (have I mentioned that a bunch of the ladies in my family have the same Amazon account? Totally awesome). 120 pages in, my Mom told me that no Kate, no one purchased this book...it was free on the Kindle Blog a few months ago. Warning bells, my friends...warning bells.

I really had high hopes for this one because it is set in England and I love books set in England! The plot was less than stellar (girl leaves boy, boy embarks on makeover journey, boy enlists the help of annoyingly attractive best friend and obviously attractive personal trainer, boy falls in love with personal trainer). Sorry for the spoilers. Worse than being predictable, Ex-Boyfriend was filled with terribly hackneyed one liners. And I thought the ending was terrible. Positive of the book: I love tea and then drink a lot of it!

I was apprehensive about giving this book only one star, since that piece of crap Steve Martin wrote got zero. I'd like to take this time to say that there is a BIG jump from zero stars to one star! This was an easy read and the characters were likable enough whereas the crappy Steve Martin took me forever and I hated the characters and worse than anything it made me NOT LOVE STEVE MARTIN ANYMORE. Tragic.

I'm hoping to finish Book #14 by Saturday morning except that I have to be careful with it because I had to get it out of the Rare Books section of the library. And it has a broken spine and a special label on the cover. So I feel like I can't read it on the subway for fear of...well a lot of icky things can happen on the subway. This post was much more ramble-y than I wanted it to be so WISH ME LUCK and farewell!

Of Miniature Landscape Design

Here we are folks, Part Deux of Kate and Lenore Take Philadelphia. MAY I PRESENT TO YOU today's installment: Of Miniature Landscape Design! 

We arrived at the Flower Show at 10:15AM, guys! That is a full three hours earlier than we arrived last year and ummm the Convention Center was already filled with uppity white elderly couples.

Have I mentioned that after the past two years places with a lot of elderly people with walkers slash wheelchairs give me anxiety? Because they do. Luckily, I was able to overlook them because the Flower Show was SO lovely.

This post is basically going to be a conglomeration of photos I took on my phone. Which is not an iPhone and I apologize in advance for the non-artsy-ness. I will also comment on these photos when I feel it is appropriate. Enjoy!

Do you like these flowers for a wedding? I believe they are too bright.

This man was performing a "how to make a bouquet" demonstration. You can't tell here, but he's wearing a headset microphone. Brittany Spears style, my friends. Please note the elderly. 

Please note that while this sign LOOKS like its for miniature landscaping its actually for the tiny, tiny flower section. The theme was Stargazing (obviously). Look how pretty! 

I loved this one! But the most important part of this picture are the words above the flowers. See that there? "Judges Comments"? This is our favorite part! They say things like "Middle flower is disproportionate to rest of piece and ruins aesthetic." Which basically means "Bitch please, you are not getting the blue ribbon". 

This was one of my favorite parts and I think that we totally missed it last year! Shadow boxes with themes! UGH they were so good! This one below won first prize and it was awesome. Doesn't it look like its real? 

I love these giant stone pots! I want one million of them in our home, but Fiance would have to lift them and they look super heavy. 

I feel like there were a lot of miniature things this year...look at those tiny flowers!

I loved this one! The stranger next to me felt the need to inform me that it is a Christmas Cactus. In case the sign next to it was unclear...thank you elderly woman!

I love that ball-y one in the middle! My Mom got a miniature terrarium to hang on the wall in our kitchen. I'm going back to PA in two weeks and I'll be sure to let you know if its still alive!

Did you know I went to Hofstra? Have I mentioned that I love love loved it? Did you know they are famous for their tulips? Needless to say I l-o-v-e-d this display! 

And now the part I KNOW everyone has been waiting for! MINIATURE LANDSCAPE DESIGN! 

There are even tiny statues! And a little wrought iron fence! I just love it so much (notice all of the exclamation points!)! 

SERIOUS QUESTION(S): Do we think my Mom and I could do this? And if we did how do we get them into the Philadelphia Flower Show? Or any competition, really? Advice please and thank you.