Nothing makes me smile like a few colorful, fat sea creatures:

I’m especially a fan of that blowfish at the top. Such a positively scary-looking thing has been made into cuddly form. And it’s awesome-looking.

You’ll find this plush at Zooguu. Zooguu was originally Sweetestpea on Etsy, and in fact, both stores are still open and sell plush. More stuff is in the Sweetestpea store for the moment, but it’s well worth it to check out both shops. The selection is vast — there’s everything from sea creatures to chicks to monkeys to one-eyed monsters and even this rice ball.

And there’s this cute elephant:

The roly poly style of all the animals is a fun one, and that just means there’s more to squish.

In addition to plush toys in different sizes (from tiny to extra large), you’ll also find ornaments, cozies and a pillow cover.

When it’s cold and you’re in need of some comfort, there’s nothing better than a stuffed toy. And I don’t care if you’re a kid or you’re an adult. We can all use something to hug, right?

Perhaps you could try one of these:

If you’re craving one of these plushies, you’ll find them at tiddlywinks. Each plushie is totally unique, and custom orders are available. There are plenty of animals and dolls, and a particular favorite of mine is the Awake/Asleep doll, which has a sleepy face on one side and an awake face on the other. What a neat idea!

There’s lots of brightly colored animals and some wearing fun clothes … whatever your fancy, you’ll probably find something that fits the bill.

This only serves to prove that you can crochet just about anything, and it’s even more awesome when it’s one shop producing the varied body of work.

Observe.

Here’s a cake …

And maybe after you’ve had your cake (say it’s your birthday …), you can wear this out if you like:

This is the work of lubee, a crafty fiber team based in Jacksonville, Florida.

It’s a pretty varied store. There are all sorts of yummy foodstuffs (don’t miss the donut bracelets … or the crocheted chocolate chip cookies). Or maybe the crocheted animals. Or the scarflets and other accessories. Or the handspun yarn, even.

If you have a fiber lover in your life, or maybe are looking for a host of eclectic gifts, it might be a good place to start!

I have an uncle who hunts big game, and he’s got a bunch of animal trophies around his rather enormous house in Idaho. Animal heads kind of freak me out.

But here is a less scary (and positively hysterical) version of the deer on the wall:

It’s just so much cuter and more cuddly, don’t you think?

Said deer is hand sewn from an original pattern by Girl Savage. Yes, there’s nothing like having fun with felt! Especially when it gets sewn into some colorful and unusual animals like pachyderms and jackalopes:

If you’re looking for a great decoration for your desk at home or the office, it’s worth a look. Because you know people would start talking if you had a jackalope on your desk. Especially a yellow one.

Do you ever wish you could take your favorite pet with you in a convenient manner? You know, like stashing him/her in your pocket.

You may never be able to shrink your Great Dane or your 20-pound Maine Coon cat down to pocket size, but you could carry a reasonable facsimile around (or another really cool animal):

Yay for cute animals!

These Pocket Pets are put up for adoption by Eskimimi. It’s a pretty neat thing. You purchase a pet, but you don’t know what animal you’re going to get. Seal, giraffe, monkey, squid … who knows? There are 150 different pets. You get a certificate of adoption, and each pet has a unique name.

And, as an added bonus, every one in six adoptions turns out to be twins! You could be the lucky one!

So if you’re feeling the need for a cuddly animal, this might be the way to go.

If chickens weren’t well, chickens, they could be superheroes. And maybe they’d look like this:

This wonderful character is actually called the Chicken Bandit. And he (or she, you never know) is the creation of Claire over at Absolutely Small.

If you like the Chicken Bandit, you might like this chicken-inspired ACEO as well.

Chicks and chickens populate the world of Absolutely Small, but inspiration comes from other animals too. Even imaginary ones. Like this fuzzy one:

It’s a liger! (Combination of lion and tiger — it’s a Napoleon Dynamite thing.) And it’s got chicken traits too.

You’ll find many whimsical paintings, prints and pompom animals at Absolutely Small, and Claire does personalized pet portraits too. So if you’re an animal lover, it’s a pretty neat place to look.

indie*galore is back from vacation, and bringing you some really, really cute animals to look at:

These roly-poly lovelies are the work of Laura from Cupcakes For Clara. Cupcakes for Clara is based in England, and you will find plenty of cute plush toys, all of which are made to order and individually numbered. The plush toys are limited edition collectibles.

You will also find stationery and finger puppets in the shop. But the animals — they are quite irresistible.

One of these days, I would like to live in Heidi Kenney’s plush world.

Heidi is the fabulous gal behind My Paper Crane, home of all sorts of unique plush toys. If it can be made into plush, Heidi has probably already made it.

Heidi makes plush toast, used tissue, and houses.

She also made these trees and vegetables:

That was just a small portion of the My Paper Crane table at Bazaar Bizarre! She even had plush tampons, which just proves plush toys aren’t only for kids anymore (so a sign said at her table).

If you want something one-of-a-kind and whimsical, definitely check out My Paper Crane.

Across from the Sacramento Craft Mafia’s booth at Bazaar Bizarre this weekend was a lovely plush seller with a family of owls. You may recall seeing the family of owls in the original post about BazBiz (scroll down a little bit).

The owls were made by Devon Industry, run by Devon, a sweet girl from San Jose.

Not only did Devon sport some seriously cute plush at the show — she’s got birds, elephants, dogs, whales and owls, oh my! — she also had some art prints.

I bought this lovely whale named Humphrey:

Devon’s work is really whimsical, cute, colorful and fresh. It made me feel happy.

Maybe something you like from her Etsy shop will make you feel happy too.

I am — unabashedly — a meat-loving girl. I’ll take my slab of prime rib medium rare, thank you.

But meat can be a problem. It can make you fatty. It spoils. You can only dry age a rib roast for so long.

When you want meat without the calories, there are always these tasty options:

Ham, anyone?

Mmmm, slab o’ ribs.

Can’t forget the T-bone.

These delectable delights are from Meat is Sweet. All their plush pays homage to meat. There are even stuffed sausages. And mini meats that serve as catnip-filled toys.

Meat is Sweet was just across the way from the Sacramento Craft Mafia booth at Bazaar Bizarre this past weekend. Several of us at the booth admired their meats from afar.

Alas, there wasn’t a mini hambone. But the plush was cool, nonetheless.

Oh, and there is even a stuffed tofu block for the non-meat eating folks. Sweet.

Mushrooms are wonderful things. They are good in pasta and pizza. They can be cute, kind of like Toad from Super Mario Bros. or those cool red power mushrooms and green 1-up mushrooms from the game.

They make cute toys that are guaranteed to brighten up some shelf in your house:

Now, you probably don’t want one of your really little kids or your dog/cat/otherwise possibly violent pet messing up this Mushroom Cottage Playset from Fantastic Toys. (It’s $75.) Besides, there are small parts that could prove hazardous, like the accompanying gnome finger puppets. But it is bright, cheery and unique … and it even has a mushroom outhouse. Yeah, that rocks.

There are several other whimsical plush characters available at Fantastic Toys, including birds, gnomes, deer and even a grumpy mushroom. It’s a great site for lovers of unique plush toys and collectables.

In a perfect world, all animals would be cute and squishy, kind of like this:

These toys were made by Lauren over at laurensmash @ Etsy. Lauren was one of the fantastic folks I met at the Pleasanton Craft Mafia show last week (and my other booth neighbor).

She creates all sort of cute animals besides the cat and pig above. She also makes kangaroos, skunks, monsters and some people. What’s great about her plush toys is that she names each one and attaches a tag to each that tells the toy’s story. Some of them like coffee and help elderly ladies across the street. The animals are whimsical and just plain fun!

You can tell your kids to do that with this play set:

This lovely felt creation can be found at Little Boy Blue Boutique (where they’re not just partial to boys … there’s stuff for girls too!).

All the play food is wrapped up in a cute tote that also serves as a reversible tablecloth. There are even felt folks and spoons!

Not feeling like eggs and ham? There’s a dessert version, too. Donuts, eclairs, cake and pie … yum!

There’s more than just fun felt toys at Little Boy Blue Boutique … there are also cute baby shoes (made with felt too) and other lovely baby gifts.

Mohair is a nice thing. It makes nice scarves/hats/sweaters, is soft and all-around fun. And it can make cool things like these:

You can’t tell from that cropped picture, but it’s a mohair bunny! And it’s made by Missy Ballance at Mohair Circus.

Missy makes all sorts of stuffed mohair animals. You can see the bunny in his floppy-eared glory on her site. I just liked the carrot bag — that’s a really nice touch.

(As an aside: Missy is also a fellow member of the Sacramento Craft Mafia! Woohoo!)