There was a time when I thought all soft toys were a bit rubbish. I mean what are they for exactly? It seemed like for the most part my son, then a toddler, felt the same way. He wouldn't have anything to do with them. Fast forward five years and he can't go anywhere/to sleep without his penguin, parrot, teddybear, and Remy from Ratatouille.

There's something just so comforting about them, and lovable. And why not have a little bit more love in our lives? Which is why we were interested when Hallmark told us that they were launching  a new interactive toy called Abigail (£19.99).

Abigail is part of their range of interactive Story Buddy soft toys. She's a soft, brown bunny and joins Watson the Racoon, Cooper the Bear and Jingle the Husky Dog.

The blurb on the website describes her as a real 'girl's girl', which might be the case but this soft little thing also turned out to be a real boy's girl as well. At least in my house.

Abigail comes complete with her own story book, ‘Abigail and the Balance Beam’, which follows the chatty bunny trying to make her mum extra proud of her by performing gymnastics.  As passages from the book are read aloud, Abigail springs to life and joins in the story!

So that's the story behind Abigail. What was she like in real life? Read on to find out.

I know it's not October yet (but almost); I know the clocks haven't gone back and that Halloween hasn't even been yet, let alone gone.

And I KNOW it seems hard to believe that 1 December is a mere nine weeks away when, today, we're basking under clear blue skies with temperatures of at least 26C but Christmas is coming, I promise you, and it's time to start getting organised.

Hallmark sent us a Story Buddy, along with some samples from their new Belissma greeting card range, which we sent off to Theresa, one of our PlayPennies mums, to review on our behalf.

Hallmark Cards are celebrating the third birthday of their online personalised card service by giving away 10,000 free cards. Today and today only, you can claim your free card by visiting their site and entering the voucher code outlined below, but hurry, stocks will stop at the 10,000 mark!

• Click here to get some freebies from Hallmark

The voucher code you need to get your awesome free card from Hallmark is FREECARD2011. Just enter this code at checkout and you will enjoy a lovely free card. You can use the website to design, create, and personalise any card you like.

The site offers you the chance to add in your own images, tailor make your personal messages, and create a bespoke design for your cards. It is rather impressive what you can do and usually costs a fair bit, so if you fancy a free designer card, then this is your freebie!

Your card will be either posted immediately or sent to you, or you can send it up to one year in advance! There are the usual conditions such as one card per account, postage is not free, and the deal is valid until midnight 27 September 2011.

Hot on the heels of a series of articles about how people spend loads of money on end of school gifts for the teachers comes this fabulous idea from Hallmark. So if you are feeling a little worried about your wallet then these cards will do nicely at around £2.

• Click here to get started with Hallmark

It was a story on GMTV that sparked this debate across parental channels where research revealed that a third of parents feel under pressure to buy their teacher a gift. These range from chocolates to ornaments to expensive perfume. I’ll be honest here, I appreciate that teachers have a tough time of it sometimes but I can’t afford to keep them in designer jewellery!

SO! What better way to say thank you than with a carefully crafted and personalised card that says thank you in all the right ways. You can create your card in seconds, or you can spend loads of time really crafting a special note.

Just visit the site, personalise the words on the front and inside of the card, pay securely online and your card will be posted to you. Grab yours now, get it sorted, and be ready for the end of next term. Hey, you can even get a small pressie in all the sales leading up to Christmas so your wallet isn’t groaning after the Christmas costs.