It's been a productive year for us. Between knitting and cupcakes, we've been crafting up a storm. Our favorite new craft has absolutely no function other than looking cute. We're talking about softies, soft homemade toys that may not be all that functional but are certainly fun to make and coo at. For inspiration head on over to My Paper Crane, where master softie maker Heidi Kenney has an incredible gallery of softies for sale. Flickr of course has a great gallery of softies as well as some fabulous pictures of amigurumi. Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed toys. These beauties take a little more skill and time, but they're certainly fun to look at.

We made our first softie this weekend and although it took most of the afternoon, we're going to blame that on our hangover and not the skill level required to make a softie. A cupcake may have been a bit ambitious for our first hand sewn toy, but it made a cute birthday present and Richard seemed to appreciate its homemade appeal.