Happy Birthday Brennen!

I'm sitting in my parents kitchen having my first cup of coffee at 9 am. I'm getting a lazy start to the day because I am exhausted from shopping with Liz yesterday. We sniffed out bargains at Thrift World and I have some more lovely wool sweaters to felt and cut apart for making more hats and Pippi purses. Liz and I also drove to a very large Antique mall and I found some lovely napkins, cool old buttons and handmade lace. We spent 3 hours at the Antique mall and it felt like 30 minutes.

Mom just reminded me that today is my handsome nephew's birthday. Brennen is turning 23 today! He's a really sweet young man, plays the drums beautifully and I'm jealous of his thick curly hair.

PS22 Chorus "LANDSLIDE" by FLEETWOOD MAC (acoustic version)

Love to hear these beautiful children singing!

Happy Memorial Day!

Spring

Spring loves to listen to your stories, play the piano and listen to Opera on the radio while her Grandmother bakes chocolate chip cookies for her.

She is knit from handspun handdyed South African Fine Wool from http://www.SewKnitNBeads2.etsy.com/

Her body colors are pastel pink, pastel purple and pastel yellow. Her dress is handmade from a repurposed wool and new ribbon.

Graduation, American Idol, Culvers and spending a week with my Mom

Dennis and Grant at graduation.

We all loved Grant's graduation weekend. The weather was perfect and the parties were great fun. I told Grant I would buy a keg for his party and I also made pulled pork for an army. We ate some great sandwiches, Shirley's coleslaw, Bill's chocolate chip cookies and more. I'm lucky to have a family that likes to pitch in and help me out!

My mom has stayed the week since Grant's graduation and last night we went out for dinner at Papa Keno's for pizza. Logan came along with us and we spent the evening talking about Physics, girls and motorcycles. I ordered my favorite pizza slice, Mama Keno, and had a tall cold Boulevard Wheat beer. Yum!

Today my mom is pissed that Adam didn't win American Idol. She had the television volume on high last night and kept yelling at me to come watch Kiss or Cindy Lauper with her. She's such a teenager.

Today we went out shopping and ended our trip at Culver's for some frozen custard. We're having a great time and I'm enjoying my fun Mom this week. I'm not sure she convinced that I'm having a good time because she asks me every morning if she's driving me crazy and my answer is always no. I did just realize last night though, that I am a very different parent than she is and mentioned that to her in the car coming back from dinner with Logan. She replied, "Duh, did you just notice that?" Yeap.

Grant and my mom at the Honor's Ceremony.

Happy happy, joy joy!!!

Grant, who is obviously happy to be graduating.

This was taken prior to the Honors Ceremony where he was one of about 34 Liberal Arts and Sciences graduates who graduated Summa Cum Laude or with Highest Distinction and with Honors. The University of Kansas is graduating about 5,000 students at today's ceremony in Memorial Stadium. Thankfully, the weather is bright and sunny. Grant's other grandfather will be walking down the hill to the stadium with him, and Dennis will be wearing his full doctorale regalia. What an honor for both of them. We are all very proud for Grant to be recognized for his academic diligence and achievement. Our sweet bright and beautiful Grant Denton Wille!!!

Congratulations to my sweet Grandson!

Love, Gramma Joan XXX

I heard some bunny is graduating this weekend

My oldest son Grant graduates this weekend from The University of Kansas. My mom is here visiting us for a week and helping celebrate Grant and all his accomplishments. I've been busy in the kitchen cooking for the weekend events but had enough time to finish up this knit bunny this morning.

We are getting ready to go to a recognition ceremony for students who have completed the University Honors Program and candidates for Distinction or Highest Distinction from the the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. I'm so glad that it stopped raining, the weather is cool and the skies are blue.

Mongol Rally Ramble

The music and company were great at the Mongol Rally Ramble fundraiser that Grant and Andrew put on last week. Grant has decided not to go on the Rally this summer after all, for which I am grateful. It was a nice Mother's day gift to hear from him.

Happy Mother's Day

My mother Joan, beautiful niece Valerie, and me. Omaha 2009

Its been a busy week for me. Yesterday, Oz and I drove to the country to visit his mother Shirley. She showed us around her newly planted garden and the chicken yard where the chickens are now living instead of a cardboard box on their porch. The chickens are so pretty! Everything looks beautiful in the country this year.

Grant and Andrew's Mongol Rally Ramble was so much fun although they didn't have the crowds they wanted and rumor has it that they lost money on their fund raising project. I enjoyed the great live music, visiting with Melody, and talking with a bunch of young men who were Grant's childhood friends. It was a nice reunion for me and so fun to see these boys all grown up. Apparently I mother more people than I realize and it was nice to hear that from one young man who was often at my home as a boy. He reported that he felt safe, unjudged and welcomed by me and I opened his eyes to the possibilities of another way of living his life.

Loving you all. XXOO

Girl in flower costume

Girl in flower costume, originally uploaded by The Field Museum Library.

I used to work/play at The Field Museum of Natural History as a graphic and exhibit designer and found out today that the Field Musuem is sharing old photos from their archives on Flickr. Yay!

Double clicking on the photo will direct you to more photos from The Field Museum on Flickr.

This photo comes from a set from the Wildflower Preservation Society, Illinois Chapter, 1902. Great material to help me with some new doll designs and they are just fun to look at too.

Part of the Illinois Urban Landscapes Project.

Teamflatlanders

My son, Grant, is planning on traveling across Eurasia this summer on an adventure called the Mongol Rally. I invite all my local readers to come to the fund raiser for their adventures this Thursday to hear some great music starting at 2 pm until 2 am. You can bring your own tent and camp too! Click here to for the link for information on the Ramble fund raiser.

This is a charity event and Logan invited me to join the event because I have an awesome "evil eye" to give the young people who are misbehaving. I'm hoping that I can enjoy the music, visit with some great young people and spead the day with my boys.

Saturday update

We have a new roof on the house...just in time for tornado and thunderstorm season to swing into full force! I'm also pleased that I sold Blue Grey Kitty which was shipped off to Cambridge, Massachusetts yesterday. I need to start knitting more cats and bunnies for my Etsy shop because it's looking a little empty now. I started knitting another bunny with some lovely pastel handspun yarn. I also finished another hat design. I'm trying to duplicate Logan's favorite knit hat, Topi, in wool felt. This design covers the ears and I think it looks great on. I added a vintage button on the front.