Grayman & wrapping station

I don't think I have ever talked about Grayman very much. The camera scared him so he wouldn't stop moving, hence the fuzzy photo. He is our parrot, actually he is Paul's parrot that I "adopted" upon marriage. I was very anti-bird before I met Paul and I almost didn't go on a second date with him when I found out he had a bird. I was worried he'd be one of those weirdos that sat and watched tv with a parrot on his shoulder like a pirate or something. Thank goodness he isn't like that. So now I am a bird mommy. I clean up after him, his breed is the messiest of all birds, seriously. He throws his food all over the floor and he takes a "bath" in his water bowl just about every day giving me more to mop up. I feed him, pet him, hold him, buy him toys, and put up with his constant talking and squawking. He talks to me all the time, in fact when he is at the bird sitter before trips, I kind of miss him. He speaks in my voice and Paul's, mostly mine. He giggles like Zoe, he says "woo" when I turn the music on, he starts squeaking as soon as the sun comes up, kind of like a chicken. He says "bye bye" when I get the keys ready, he makes a pop can opening sound when I get one out of the fridge. He yells at the dog (again, in my voice), he calls for me if I go upstairs. He says "go Buckeyes" and "go Wildcats" and sometimes he just screams. He says lots of words and makes countless sounds, I once made a list and stopped when I got to 100. Repairmen get freaked out because he can mimic cell phone rings and beeps. He makes a ringing phone noise when I talk on the phone, most people tell me I can "get my other phone" when I am talking to them. He got outside before we were married and we spent three days looking for him, hanging posters around the neighborhood, we found him and he had learned to caw like a crow, hanging with the wrong crowd you know. His wings are regularly clipped now, no more nights out with the boys for him. So he's my companion, my alarm clock, my buddy, for the next 50 years or so. Truly amazing since I seriously had a bird phobia before I met him.

Now on to some organizing stuff....
I have envisioned a gift wrapping area for-like-ever! Right along side my giant scrapbooking/crafting room with built in cabinets and shelves and giant counters in which to spread out. OK, reality, I have a desk and some shelves for my hobbies and this tv armoire. This used to be the tv where the kids watched movies. Now we do not have a VCR or a DVD player for this tv so the drawers were stuffed with stuff and it just bugged me. They had videos and some other junk in them (see my cookbook holder- what the f? how did that get there?) I moved the DVDs and put the videos in the Goodwill box... (those are Tanner fingers, just itching to "help" me)

And now I have this! Nothing fancy, just basic stuff in one place. I used to have to run to the basement for wrapping supplies and then work at my desk since I like to add bows, ribbon, tags, etc. Now I am super excited to have it all in the same area. Why didn't I do that sooner? I have tags, ribbon, small gift bags and tissue paper in this drawer, in baskets and boxes I already had. The other drawer holds gift bags (not pictured, just boring). It forced me to purge my gift bag collection, a much needed task and I was able to take stock of what I needed to get for the upcoming Christmas wrapping season. By the way, rolls of wrapping paper are hidden in the corner by my scrapbooking shelves, no one will even know they are there. I don't keep a lot of these so I don't mind putting them there. Ahh, bliss, everything in a container and ready to go, I just love it!