Bird Audit

This hilarious clip from IFC's new show Portlandia has made the blog rounds over the last few months. Of course, when I saw it, I chuckled and thought, "So funny, but that's not ME!" And then, when March 1st rolled around and I changed the month on my adorable PaperSource letterpress desk calendar that Elle gave me for Christmas, I saw this:

So, here side-by-side on my desk, we have not just a few birds, but unintentionally MATCHING birds! Those two lovely swallows on my calendar look like 2D cousins of my little salt & pepper shakers (yes, I keep them on my desk rather than in the kitchen, because I think they are just too darn cute to keep hidden away in a cupboard). Perhaps I'm a slightly more guilty of indulging in the bird trend than I had previously thought? I concluded that a "Bird Audit" of my home and belongings was in order - and the results were more than a little shocking to someone who had no idea she was buying into this trend: Bird on a candle holder. Innocent enough - I bet I'm only going to find a few more "bird items"...

Origami crane, saved as a memento from my dear friend's wedding reception - she folded a THOUSAND of them. It's meaningful, not too cutesy - this bird is quite welcome around here, but I'm probably not going to find any more birds in my house...

Oh, except for that REALLY obvious one sitting right there in plain sight...an adorable "wren king" print from Elle. Maybe she's to blame for all the birdy-ness around here?

Well, there's really no one in particular to blame for these juice glasses (yes, roosters count as birds!). They were orphaned in my apartment by a departing roommate, and I've grown to love them as my own.

Ok, surely we're getting close to wrapping up the bird hunt, right? It's not like I have clothing with birds on it or anything...

Just one of my favorite t-shirts ever.

And some of my most frequently worn earrings.

This is starting get a little embarassing. How could I be this bird-obsessed and not even know it? At least most of these items were gifts - I would certainly never go out and buy actual bird figurines or anything crazy like that.

Busted! What? He was only $10 - I couldn't resist (sorry, he's no longer available, but I picked him up here). Plus, he does an excellent job of watching over my fabric stash in the craft room.

Busted, again. These little lovelies had to come home with me from a post-holiday discount sale. If you've made it this far with me on my bird hunt, it should come as no surprise that I want to hang them up somewhere permanently, rather than stashing them away for holiday decorations as I'm sure they were intended. Believe it or not, I found even more birds that I'm not even going to bore you with here. But more importantly, I realized that I've been buying into the bird trend and not even aware of it. What about you? Any trends that have managed to work their way into your home while you weren't paying attention?