In the past I’ve made no secret of the fact that birds sort of terrify me, what with my ongoing irrational belief that their primary objective in life is to swoop down out of the sky and yank a vein out of my neck.

I mean, have y’all ever read that short story called “The Birds”? And did you notice the fact that THEY DON’T MESS AROUND?

But ever since our last beach trip – the one where I took pictures of birds and lived to tell about it – I’ve grown a little more attached to birds. And I’ve especially grown more fond of products that feature birds, because when birds are inanimate they cannot in fact put me in any kind of grave physical danger, and quite frankly I appreciate the mental and emotional comfort that their lifelessness affords.

I’m sure that in some way my bird fascination is connected with a trend that I refer to as the decorative resurgence of the owl (a phrase that I’ve grown to adore and, I might add, overuse annoyingly). But owl accessories are everywhere, people. And they’re DARLIN’. So you can put that little tidbit in your pipe and just hooty-hoot-hoot all the way home.

(I just mixed about four different metaphors, by the way.)

(In case you’re keeping score at home.)

Anyway, over the last couple of weeks I’ve channeled my growing aviary affection into a couple of lively Etsy searches, and OH, the cuteness that I’ve discovered. In fact, a few days ago I thought that if I ever have another baby I might even decorate a nursery with a bird theme, despite my concern that I’d wander into the hypothetical nursery in a sleep-deprived state and somehow a sweet little robin in a mural would suddenly look more like a predatory hawk, and I don’t really think it’s comforting for a hypothetical infant to hear a hypothetically exhausted woman screaming at the top of her lungs in the middle of the night and then falling underneath a hypothetical crib in a completely spastic version of stop, drop and roll.

So let’s scratch that hypothetical bird-themed nursery idea. Let’s just focus on Etsy birdie cuteness instead:

– This wallet
– This purse
– This print
– This print (SO tempted to order this one for myself)
– This tote bag

See? Aren’t the birds adorable?

And by the way: did I mention that owls are in the midst of a decorative resurgence?

I seriously can’t get that phrase out of my head.

Now do have a lovely Tuesday.