Crazy Hip Blog Mamas are talking this week about their favorite hobbies.*

I work full time, have a kiddo to get to and from daycare, no extended family close by to lend a hand and, oh, did I mention my two-hour freeway commute? Not so much time for cross stitching.

I love my yoga class but that is more like breathing or eating — a necessity — than a hobby. And of course there is this here blog, which I consider more a means of keeping sane and in touch than a hobby, though it is a lot of fun.

That said, I do have a new almost-hobby: vicarious crafting.

Huh? In reading other blogs, I’ve discovered a number of women who stay home and abracadabra the work of their fingers into a crafty online presence. And I find that their websites make for great diversion and visual satisfaction.

Some are so ridiculously talented that their crafts generate (hopefully an adequate) income. Others are stay-at-home moms with endless ingenuity and reams of freshly potato-printed newsprint hanging from pegs in their laundries to dry. (Not to mention at least three cut-out-of-hand-stenciled-cotton-
but-not-yet-sewn sets of pajamas for each of their offspring.)

I’m being a bit facetious but you get my drift — they have the time to actually make things with their bare hands and watch them dry or be outgrown. As one who manipulates bits and bytes on a flat-screen only to slap them up on virtual networks in other cities, I find this refreshing.

I visit these websites to see what I might be doing if I didn’t want or need to go to the office each day. I visit to see the bright colors and textures, the one-of-a-kind expressions on the faces of their handmade creatures — soft toys so unlike those sitting on the shelves of your local WalMart.

I love that these women clearly love what they do, and I remind myself that most days, when I sit down at my keyboard and fire up a FrameMaker session, I love doing what I do too.

Here are just a few of my favorite online crafters — enjoy!

• Hawaiian My Little Mochi blows me away — swimming teddy bear cupcakes and an elephant pie no less! Click her Flickr link to the right of her page to see more.
• Luckybeans in Zambia comes a close second — love her organic sense of beauty, especially this perfect kimono.
• Kerflop’s Quiet Books for Kids (what a concept!) and a couple more of her Softies.
• My Paper Crane’s just-too-cute-for-words plushies. Scroll down the left side of her page to see her critters. Burnt toast and toilet rolls anyone?
• Finally, here is a link to Kiddley, the online family crafting site, currently on hiatus but brimming with the most incredible ideas contributed by its readers.

*I’m inspired by Drama Mama’s hobby posting. Makes me determined to go out and take that Flamenco dance class I’ve been talking about for years. Time to DO it.