Not a Routine Person

Not a Routine Person….

They (who ever they are) say that it takes 21 days of repeating an activity to make it a habit…NOT!  

I have spent the first few weeks this year on trying to establish a daily routine for myself.   I have it all printed and in sheet protectors in a very organized fashion in my dayrunner.  Very careful, hour by hour I have planned out my workday schedule and I have tried, truly I have, to follow the schedule hour by hour each day.  It isn’t working!  

I have realized that I am not a routine schedule personality, nor am I lazy, even though I do enjoy working sometimes in my jammies.  I am a productive person but not one who works on a regular routine.  I need flexibility and change in my daily life to stay motivated and interested.  Routines are boring!  I’ve thrown out set in stone hour by hour daily routine.  (This is prolly why I married my DH – he is not a time-oriented person either.)

I love my dayrunner and put absolutely everything in it – from notes on creative ideas, my address book, birthdays, and my calendar.  I even have my weekly TUIT list (TUIT = around to it) and monthly TUIT list in there.  But to have that hour by hour schedule staring at me just knots my stomach up into a big ball!  

I purchased a legal pad and have started outlining my basic TUIT list on it for each day.  I put about 5 or 6 jobs on each day.  As I cross each one off with my bright blue highlighter, I get a sense of satisfaction that my list is being done.  At the end of the week, whatever didn’t get a bright blue line thru it goes back on the next week’s list.  I don’t have to worry about what time I’m doing a job, I just do the job for however long it takes until I’m finished.  Then I get to stand back and smile about a completed job!  

Both my husband and I work from home so our days are not the typical workday to begin with.  We get up, drink our coffee, eat our breakfast, and begin our day.  Our days don’t stop at 5 pm either, some of them continue on into the night but we like our lifestyle and it works for us!  

While Flylady seems to work for some, I find that her less than gently reminders throughout the day make me nervous!  I have taken what works for me from flylady and have had much fun flinging the rest!   I don’t wear shoes in the house.  I keep a pair of rubber gardening clogs by my backdoor so I can slip them on when I take the dogs out or if I need to go to the aviary.  So no, flylady, I don’t dress down to the shoes and my sink isn’t always shining but my house is tidy and my creative juices are flowing again!  I would much rather have a couple of dishes in my sink than have my creative pipes all stopped up because I’m trying to work on someone else’s schedule!  

Double or nothing

Murphy, Harley, and Buffet on the back of dh's chair --waiting for a snack, snack, mommie!

Double or nothing?


Having birds is like having a bunch of kids….some days, I feel like I run birdie day care. We have three adorable macaws: Murphy, the B&G, Buffet, the Greenwing, and Harley, the Harlequin. Today’s tale belongs to Buffet.

One of my bird clients was visiting her baby sun conure. She enjoys my macaws so they were all out to visit in the den that afternoon. They had a popcorn and peanut butter sandwich party, so all three macaws were excited and happy. Buffet has such a sweet personality. He loves everyone and everyone loves him! He just melts before your very eyes when someone wants to pet him. He’ll roll over and raise his left wing for a good scratching. Well, Karin knew this and went to visit Buffet. She rubbed his head and under his wing. Did I mention that Buffet is a jewelry nut? He grabbed her engagement ring with that mighty beak and gave one good twist. Karen had the most startled look on her face! “He got my diamond!” Buffet just looked at me with those big eyes and said, “Ark!” Immediately I tried to look in Buffet’s mouth, nothing. Karin, her son, and I dropped to our knees and proceeded to crawl around the floor looking for her diamond. Nothing…. Did I mention I had not swept or vacuumed after the popcorn party? Yikes!

As soon as Karin left, I got on the phone calling our local vet. No, he is not an avian vet but he has an x-ray machine. I wanted an x-ray to see if Buffet had indeed swallowed that diamond! Dr. Curtis Crawford told me to hang on; he would do some calling and see how urgent an emergency this was. Of course, this is after 5 pm on a Friday! How fast could a diamond go from a bird’s crop to his gizzard and then into the intestines? Could Buffet pass this ½ ct. round diamond?

Dr. Crawford called me back about an hour later. He had spoken to a couple of avian professionals and the consensus was that a greenwing macaw could and prolly would pass a ½ carat diamond with no problem. I called Karin and assured her that all was well. I went through the poopy papers for a couple of days without finding the diamond. Either Buffet passed it and I missed it in the paper; he didn’t pass it and is still carrying it around, or he never ate it to begin with.

Buffet is not officially for sale but my husband says that everything has a price tag or you will lose it. We figure that the diamond retails around the same thing a Greenwing macaw would sell for…. Hmmmm…buy the bird, get a chance at a diamond….almost as good as double or nothing.

Queen of Hysteria?Hysterical? I don’t think so! My DH (dear husband today) has dubbed me the Queen of Hysteria! Don’t get me wrong, I have always wanted to wear a crown, not a tiara, a full fledge crown. I’m the queen of my home. My husband says I rule. I think I would rather rock but will take what I can get. If he thinks I rule then ok, I’ll rule. My scepter is a broom, my robe an unfinished quilt in progress, my lady in waiting will have to be Bailey the cocker spaniel. Wait can a male cocker, no matter how cute, be lady in waiting? Hmmmm...crown, what crown? Where in the world did that crown go?

I can think of any number of kingdoms that I should rule but I’m not sure hysteria is the one. The Queen of Procrastination….The Queen of Stress…. The Queen of Dust Bunnies, but Queen of hysteria? I admit I get a little excited about certain things… company coming when the house has been hit by hurricane Haygood, deadlines that have crept in without giving me ample notice; you get the idea, but to call me hysterical? I really think that is going a little far!

Listen to the pitch of my voice? Of course it goes up a couple of octaves but I’m excited and you have that music so high I can’t hear myself think much less hear myself!

The voice of reason? What in heavens’ name does the voice of reason sound like when 10 dust bunnies have run across that den after I just vacuumed the floor? Those dust bunnies don’t even have names yet and company is due to walk in the door in 15 minutes! Goodness Gracious! Breathe!You want that quilt when? Today? What? You ordered six months ago? Really? Time flies! OH, my, I have about 10 feet of binding left to stitch down on this quilt and company is coming in 10 minutes….. Queen of Hysteria? Where is my crown? I think I will accept my title and wear the crown with pride, just as soon as I make the darn thing.

Water water EVERYWHE

Water, water, EVERYWHERE!

I don’t believe in the typical resolutions for a new year, but I do try to set goals and form new habits each year.  This gives me an opportunity to evaluate what I accomplished the year before and what I need to try to change, both personally and professionally.  

My goals this year was to treat my designing as a real job.  I worked for two weeks on setting up my daily routines so that I had studio and bird barn time scheduled during the week.  I don’t mean the everyday stuff, such as email, basic bird care, etc.  

Well, this past week was the first week to implement my new daily routines.  Last week, I kind of just slipped into the new schedule.  This week I got up with a mission set to stick to the routine…. Well, you know the saying, “the best laid plans of men and mice…”  I was rocking along until about 4:00 pm yesterday.  Steve (my DH) had been in and out all day so I wasn’t sure if he was home or not throughout the day.  I had finished cleaning upstairs and was sitting down to spend some time on a new design.  I was actually going to have a couple of hours to sew before supper!  WOW!  Unexpected pleasure!  

All of a sudden I heard water running, you know, like Steve might be in the shower.  I went to investigate after hearing it for a few minutes, thinking that it was really odd for him to be in the shower that time of day unless he had an appointment or meeting.  I went to our bathroom first, no Steve.  Then down the hall, that bathroom door was closed.  Kind of strange that he would shower there, but ok.  I knocked and poked my head in the door.  No Steve but water shooting out horizontally from under the vanity!  The floor was flooded!  When I opened the door, the water just flowed out into the hall!  I tried to turn the water off under the sink.  The knobs were too tight to turn!  I only accomplished being soaked.  When I ran down the stairs to call Steve, I couldn’t believe my eyes!

The ceiling fan in the den looked like an upside down water fountain.  The den floor had at least an inch of water standing and the water was just pouring from the ceiling!  I got the shop number dialed and screamed in the phone – “COME HOME NOW!”  I did manage to get out to him that water was spewing everywhere.

Thankfully, I married a man who is mechanical and pretty handy.  He turned the water off at the street and came inside to help me get buckets, and pots out to try to catch the massive amount of water coming from the ceiling.  We got the water up and the floors dried in about 3 hours.  Steve made a run to Home Depot for new pipes and got busy on replacing the broken one last night.  By bedtime, we had water turned back on in the house, no hot water in the bathroom sink, but at least the shower had water.  

This morning, the ceiling looks even worse than it did last night but at least the room has been dried and put back in order…. So much for my new daily routines!  They got thrown out with the dishwater yesterday afternoon…. Back to work on forming my new habits today….

Hershey the Cockatiel!

I would like to introduce you to our newest member of our flock! Hershey is a cinnamon split to pied cockatiel. I’m so pleased with her coloring. It is a dark cinnamon that has a hue of chocolate in it. Not only is she a beautiful baby but she is so sweet! Hershey had a rocky start and some bumps the last couple of days in the journey of growing up to be a Patchwork Parrot bird.

On December 7, she was hatched to Babe and Sunny in our aviary. The first 11 days of her life, things went very well. Then on the morning of December 19, I found her and a sibling very cold in their nestbox. Sunny & Babe had decided they didn’t want to do this parent thing anymore. Grabbing the babies up in my hands, I went running into the house yelling for Steve to come help me. Imagine the look on his face when I pushed this very cold, naked baby cockatiel into his hands and screamed, “Blow!” It took a few seconds for it to sink in that I wanted him to cup his hands around the baby and blow warm air over it to start bringing up its body temperature, but he did a great job!

Later that day, we lost Hershey’s sibling but Hershey persevered. Christmas went off without a hitch even with a naked dinosaur looking baby on top of my refrigerator. No one even seemed to notice she was up there snug and warm on that heating pad.

This past weekend, Hershey gave me a little scare. Her crop filled with air to the point she looked like she had been inflated. I’ve raised birds for 13 years and never had one look like this! I got on the internet and started posting questions and pictures about this condition. I got tons of great advice, lots of caring notes, and support while I did everything I knew to do to help Hershey through this. Was it yeast? No typical symptoms of that. Ruptured air sac? No, not the typical look for that either. What was wrong with Hershey?

After receiving a very supportive and encouraging email from Bridget Aylward of Upsan Downs Aviary in CA, I followed her wonderful instructions on flushing and emptying Hershey’s crop. I was so nervous! I had done similar procedures on humans during my nursing career, but this wasn’t that large a creature! This tiny little bird was depending on me and I wasn’t sure I trusted my abilities. With a lump in my throat, and a prayer (literally) on my lips. I gave Hershey the baking soda/water solution then flipped her upside down and proceeded to push the fluid from her crop. The whole process took a few seconds but it seemed like an eternity. The danger here is to clear the baby’s mouth so no liquid gets sucked into her lungs. Aspiration in cockatiels is deadly! Afterwards, I cleaned Hershey up and gave her some Maalox and pedialyte and tucked her into her warm brooder.

By 5 am this morning, I was through tossing and turning, I wanted to see how Hershey had done through the night. There she was… snuggled up to her whompie, warm and cozy. (image placeholder)What a day! I wouldn’t trade raising birds for all the tea in China!

Creativity overflow!

My goodness! It is the New Year and with it has come an overflow of creativity and inspiration!

I made a birthday cake, chocolate/vanilla swirl with white icing, for our pastor today. Brother Mike is an avid fisherman so I put a fisherman and a clever fish on his cake.


This weekend is the 2nd annual mystery quilt online retreat, sponsored by my studio. This quilt pattern is an original design that I will have published in a pattern later this year. I started doing this mystery quilt retreat last year for my yahoo group members.



Click to join patchworkparrot


I’ve noticed through the years that whenever my creativity starts flowing after a stagnant period that I seem to also be busier in other areas of my life. It leads me to think there is a definite link between the creative flow, or lack of thereof, and depression. This year, I plan to be more creative, more content with my life, and to tend to the important things and ignore the rest.

Have a marvelous week!
hugs & smiles,
Leigh Anne

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing you a rainbowFor sunlight after showers

Miles and miles of Irish smiles

For golden happy hours

Shamrocks at your doorway

For luck and laughter too,

And a host of friends that never ends

Each day your whole life through!

(an old Irish blessing. author unknown)

hugs & smiles,

Leigh Anne

Christmas Fun!

Christmas is such a fun time here at the Haygood's! We both love decorations so getting Steve to help me decorate is easy! About the only thing I can't get him to do is help me decorate the tree. It seems now that the children are either grown or a teenager, that decorating the tree has fallen to me and Casper, the 14 year old Persian cat. Course, Casper doesn't do a lot towards hanging the ornaments on the tree. He supervises from one of the chairs in the living room. His most vocal opinion is likened only to a loud snore. Casper and I do a pretty good job though, don't you think?
I participated this year in a yahoo group called Christmas Notebook. It is a very helpful group with Rhonda leading us to an organized Christmas plan. While I didn'tÂ’t complete all my assignments this year (I will be working on the notebook throughout this year for next Christmas!), my Christmas went so much smoother this year. I got the decorating started the weekend after thanksgiving, went on vacation, then came back and finished up the decorations, gift wrapping, and baking. My Christmas shopping was almost completely done by the time we left for vacation. We had both sets of our parents here, all the children, grandchildren, and SteveÂ’s grandmother here for Christmas dinner. My daughter, son-in-law, grandson, and my parents stayed here for the weekend. What a fun holiday! This house was meant to be filled with people laughing!

Family started arriving here Christmas Eve in time for chili supper. Connor, with a little help from Lala, found the chocolate covered pretzels.













Mom, Jennie and I combined forces for Christmas breakfast preparation. We feasted on breakfast casserole, fresh fruit, biscuits, and coffee. Then it was time to pop the ham in the oven and dress before everyone else arrived!








Poppa and Connor discussing Santa, riding the tractor, and the Teddy Bear Tree.




Granddad and Cole sharing a cup of cappincino as they contemplate why Cole's mommie and daddy do not want him to whip those cocker spaniels.

Santa came to see Connor at our house this year! What fun to have a toddler experience Santa! Steve and I were the last ones to get into bed with our nightcaps and almost the first ones up Christmas morning. With a camera in one hand and a Christmas coffee mug in the other, we let Connor into the den to see what Santa had brought!




















Connor showing his daddy how that trunk works! Look, Daddy, a real screwdriver and wretch in the trunk!














Jennie is sitting quietly among Santa. I think she is planning where in the house she is going to put it all!

















The gang is starting to gather for dinner.






Here's Pete (my husband's grandmother) laughing and enjoying the children. By the way, Pete is 92, lives alone, maintains her own home, keeps a small herd of cows, and picks peaches every day during peach season. We think Pete is awesome!







Christmas dinner was served buffet style here. I really think this is the way to entertain. Put out the food and watch ‘em go after it!

















Snickers was found sitting at the coffee table, wishing someone would help him go through the buffet line.













After dinner, Brenton, our 16 year old, donned his Santa hat and passed out the presents. WOW! The wrapping paper in our den would have wrapped Mt. Everest twice! While Brenton was wearing the Santa hat, Grammy was doing the "Mouse"!


























Aunt Jennie & Madison spending a couple of quiet minutes in the midst of Christmas Hoorah!















This is my son, daughter-in-law and new granddaughter. They look like they are having a family conference discussing how to handle next Christmas when Madison is 13 months old! heheheWon'tn't it be fun?!?














Lala explaining to Madison that Christmas is really fun! I also promised this newest member of our large family that she could have a turkey leg next Christmas if she wanted it!




After everyone had hugged and said their goodbyes, Steve and I sat down in the after glow of a wonderful family filled day! I love Christmas!
Merry Christmas all!

New Birds

New Birds

Harley, LemonHead, and Tweedy have joined our flock this week. While we were on vacation last week, my daughter’s mother-in-law called me. Her first question was, “Leigh Anne, do you still love the animals and birds?” Would you be interested in taking three birds from a friend of mine at work?” Before I even knew what species of birds, I quickly said, “YES!” At that point we had just gotten off Mission Space in Epcot. My husband thought I was still spinning around the planet Mars. I quickly told him the plan of picking up the birds on Saturday after we got back from vacation. Then Linda told me what kind of birds I was going to pick up --- a Harlequin Macaw, a Double-yellow headed Amazon, and a Jardine. Now I know I’m spinning around Mars!

LemonHead having a taste of peanut butter on a spoon!


Saturday I was up and at ‘em fairly early. I had to figure out where the three cages were going to go. They are not going to be small cages since these birds are not small birds. They have to be quarantined away from the rest of the birds and babies for a few weeks so that means they are going to be in the house –somewhere. Keep in mind, this is the Saturday before Christmas and almost our entire family will be here for Christmas weekend, the rest would be here on Sunday for Christmas dinner. Also keep in mind that the Martha Stewart, type A hostess mode, kicks in with me the week before an event is going to happen! Steve is starting to panic. Not only are three more LARGE birds coming

into this house with their cages, but Martha will be riding in on her broomstick at any moment!

LemonHead sitting on top of his cage,waiting for a cookie!

Harley, hanging out on the back of Poppa's recliner.

The birds, squawking in their crates, and I arrived back home about 10 pm Saturday night. The two smaller cages were easy. They were in the back of the Tahoe assembled. The macaw cage, on the other hand, was in a pile of pieces. Poor Steve. He just wanted to start thinking about going to bed and I have arrived in full Martha mode, with three large birds, their cages, and have to decide tonight where they are going to be set up, get them setup and no, they cannot stay in those carriers overnight.

Tweedy - "but why can't I eat the candle?"

Well, the birds have settled into daily life with us! We love them very much. They have such individual personalities. LemonHead is an independent cuss who says, “come heeeerre.” We have learned the hard way, not to go when called like that. Tweedy, the jardine, is just a cutie pie. She talks her way through the day and give wolf whistles like I have never gotten before and all for a cookie! Harley, the macaw, is the sweetest bird! She talks softly to herself. I think she could escape from a padlocked box with a chain around it. They all love animal crackers which they call cookies.

Christmas is for sharing and I love sharing our home with our birds!

Murphy, our 12 year old B&G macaw, explaining to Harley, why he is getting the first cookie!

Trip home

Trip home

Today was a long trip home. Our usual 6-7 leisurely trip from Orlando (this includes eating, stopping to shop if we want, and bathroom stops) took us 14 hours! We stopped to visit an online bird friend in Ovida before stopping by another good friend’s house to pick up two sun conure babies. Of course, we had to stop along the way at two shopping strip malls, Cracker Barrel for a breakfast supper. We had such fun when we realized that our wireless modem was picking up wireless connections along the highway so I was able to check email and work on Steve’s website as he drove.

Vacation is always great but knowing how glad the dogs, cats, and birds will be to see us, makes it very easy to head home.

Now the Christmas panic can start…..

The end of vacation is near!

This is our last full day at Disney on our vacation. This always puts us a little down-in-the-dumps, but we went back over to Epcot today so we could ride soaring again! What a ride! Soaring is the new ride at Epcot. It is a simulated hang gliding experience. The weather was beautiful again! Tonight we will watch fireworks as well!

I've gotten quite a bit of inspiration on this trip. I've really enjoyed taking pictures with the new camera too! We have great souvenirs and both of us are ready to go home.

Monday! What a way to start a week! VACATION!

The rain has stopped! My inlaws had to leave this morning. I'm so sorry they didn't get severalpretty days in the parks. Maybe next time.

This beautiful garden is located in Epcot right outside the Canadaian restaurant, LeCellier. I took them while we were waiting for our lunch table. We were seated in front of the fireplace which put us in the direct view of the chef's view. The kitchen staff voted us the cutest couple in the restaurant!














Did i mention that we never get out of our room until around noon? Being self-employed the morning hours of vacation are spent working! Also all through the day, we are answering our cell phones. Steve's shop phone is forwarded to his cell phone and the house phone is forwarded to mine, so we even work between shows and rides! Here you will see Steve hard at work before we went into the Living Seas Aquarium.






Steve gave me a new Canon digital camera as an early Christmas present! I had so much fun in the aquarium taking "under water" shots!












Because we always get a late start, we always stay in the parks until well after dark. While the rides and exhibits don't differ a lot between daylight and dark, the lights are spectacular at night! It's Disney magic at its best! We also love Disney during the Christmas season because they know how to decorate with lights!

The Epcot ball and fountain are just so pretty at night!
Epcot always has this lighted archway as you enter or exit the park. The archway does a light show that is breathtaking! The lights change colors and patterns every few seconds in time with the christmas music playing throughout the park!

In front of it is the Christmas tree which is very large! The lighted topiaries are on the other end of the archway.

Sunday of Our Vacation

Today we went to Animal Kingdom lodge. It was raining cats & dogs! We were hoping for pretty weather so we could really show Ruth & Dan all the magic of Disney. However, even with the rain, we saw more animals on the Safari ride than I think we have seen in all the previous trips combined!

Tonight was our night for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party too! The parade is spectacular, the castle fireworks are just awesome, and the hot chocolate & Christmas cookies are tasty!

First Day of Vacation

I guess I should have posted these pictures yesterday with our arrival at Disney's Boardwalk Resort but we really were too tired to even enjoy the lobby much less take any pictures of it. But here is a sample of the beauty that welcomes us home when we come to Disney. The horse chandeliar is just massive centered at the front door. The decorations adore a beautifully decorated victorian beach style lobby. Everywhere you look there is eye candy to behold!


This is one of the many garlands that hang throughout the resort.

This elephant is one of the everyday pieces but I happen to love elephants so I zoomed in on him and snapped his picture. You might be seeing him in a future quilt design.














Below is a picture of part of the lobby as you come through the front doors. Boardwalk is one of our favorite Disney resorts. It is always beautiful, but during the Christmas season, it is absolutely gorgeous!

Onto the rest of the story....

First Day of Vacation and the rain continues….
We woke to rain Friday morning, but decided to have a magical day anyway! We ate breakfast in the room, dressed, worked for a couple of hours then headed out the door. We walked through Epcot and caught a bus to Wilderness Lodge to check it out for a future trip. After a wonderful chili and fruit lunch at the lodge, we explored that lodge like it has never been explored before. Steve and I could just visualize the children and grandchildren in that lodge.
Here's a few photos of Wilderness Lodge. As I said, it is very rustic but very comfy and cozy.

The pool at Wilderness lodge is so pretty! There's rocks and shrubbery all around so you get the feeling of being in the wilderness but with a heated pool! The pool even had steam coming off it. I tried to get the duck's picture while he was swimming in the pool but some kids moved in on him before i could get his photo.




Another guest was hanging out in the lodge when I was taking pictures of Steve in front of the Christmas tree. She offered to take our picture together. We don't look too bad considering we had been exploring in the rain all afternoon!


Here's Steve in the long hallway that leads back up from one of the little sandwich shops to the main lobby in the lodge.




This is the totem pole in the lobby.
Once again, a very nice cast member saw me taking pictures of steve with the topiary Mickey. He had a extremely large load of luggage but stopped and took our picture together.











Did i mention the gorgeous decorations at all the Disney resorts? This was in a very cozy little nook in Wilderness lodge. This particular nook had a very cozy sitting area around a fireplace with game tables set up for chess, checkers, and backgammon. Steve & I have decided that we will be staying at Wilderness lodge the next time we come down....

This was the scene we saw as we waited on the bus to return to Boardwalk. I love our "explore and hangout" days when we go down to Disney World. We usually have at least two of these days during our week. It's a nice break from the Parks! What a nice way to end the day!