Life is Messy, Mikhail eating corn on the cob

Little boy loves his watermelon and corn on the cob. He is a good eater! He will try just about anything you give him. 

Kit used: Life is Messy by Cindy Ritter Designs.

Mikhail, Halloween 2014

Mikhail dressed up as a cute little fireman this year for Halloween. Mommy and daddy took him around her parents neighborhood to go trick-or-treating.

I used "Be Gracious" by Cindy Ritter to make up these layouts. The colors are wonderfull...fallish, but can be used for any kind of layout.

Mr. Elf

Grandma (that's me) found a cute pattern online to crochet an Elf (Elf on a Shelf) for our little grandson. If you know the Elf on a Shelf theory, you are supposed to hide him until he arrives on Dec. 1 (or the day after Thanksgiving) and then he leaves on Dec. 24. The Elf, whom you should name, "watches" over little boys and little girls and reports back to Santa. Moms and dads move the Elf every day into a different position or doing a "naughty" or "nice" task. Children are not supposed to touch the Elf.

So...I was not sure if the new mom or dad wanted to do this, so I went ahead and made Mr. Elf.  If they wanted to do this, great, but it is a big task to do every day for a month and then every year for who knows how long!  If not, our grandson could just play with him.

Here are my layouts...

Carter Mountain Orchard

On Saturday there were all kinds of Fall Festivals in the area. Even though the forcast was not too good...rain again...we decided to chance it and go to Carter Mountain Orchard in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Normally, we were told, the last mile to the top of the mountain would take over an hour to drive. Since the weather was cool and rainy we drove right up.

An apple orchard on top of a mountain...wow, was pretty cool. They had buildings with things to buy, a wine tasting area (we purchased a bottle of Riesling), all kinds of apple items (I got an apple cider slushy, it was wonderful, little boy loved it) and more. You could pick your own apples off the trees or out of large crates outside the buildings. That is where we "picked" ours.

Here are two layouts using Spooktacular by Cindy Ritter. 

Monticello in Virginia

We went to go visit our grandson, Mikhail, and yes his parents, LOL! We love them all equally, okay almost, little boy is a little in the lead! He is so cute!

His parents had to work on Thursday, okay I take that back...Timothy had to work half a day. Rayna and Mikhail were sick, throwing up sick, when we arrived on Wednesday, Oct. 8. Rayna watches another little boy so took the next day off because of illness. Poor little boy, and poor Rayna.

So...Ken and I went to Monticello for the morning/ early afternoon. It is President Thomas Jefferson's estate in Charlottesville, Virginia. We had a cool but very nice day on Thursday.  Rained Friday, Saturday, Sunday and most of the way home Monday. Then, of course, it rained in Ohio the next few days...but not as much.

Here are four layouts of Monticello. I got most of the photos in, have to do a couple more of the cemetery.

These layouts are done with a kit called Regal Earth, love the deep tones in this kit. Cindy Ritter is the designer, love her kits! Click on the kit title to go to Plain Ditial Wrapper (a brand new store for her) and see the whole kit, or purchase it.