Birthdays are for the Birds

I'm not ashamed to admit that most of my creative pursuits are an extension of my vanity.  Still, sometimes I like to make gifts for people.  This is always somewhat of a challenge, as it requires thinking about what kind of whatnot would make someone else happy (as opposed to what kind of whatnot would make me happy and then hoping that it catches the fancy of some like-minded shopper).  That's how I came to embellish this paper mache trinket box with a felt owl motif almost identical to the one in my Fabulous Felt Night Owl Necklace:

The box is for my sister as part of her (admittedly mostly store-bought) birthday present.  She's a fan of the feathered ones, but not so much of the super statement necklace, so I needed to figure out how to bring the necklace design to a new kind of canvas.  And then it hit me: who isn't bonkers for boxes?  They add a kind of quaint, old-fashioned charm to shelves, dressers, and nightstands and are ideal for storing tiny treasures like polished rocks and cute hairpins and candy (just so long as you don't forget to eat it, as sun-sapped chocolate is anything but a sweet surprise once the ants have set in).  Indeed, this bird-bedecked boite has a question mark of its own masked beneath its mess of green tissue.

So, does the enthusiasm of this endorsement mean that I'll be mass-producing and posting these things?  Maybe.  But probably not.  Unlike my mania for making necklaces, I think that an excess of this enterprise would cause it to lose its luster.  Kind of like, to quote the infinite wisdom of Rupert Holmes' "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)," "a worn-out recording of a favorite song."

A girl can listen to only so much Top 40.