Elizabeth Ruffing, Author at Ruffing’s Artist Dolls and Toys

Posted on March 12, 2011August 5, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 1 Comment

Menagerie

I was happy to see the sun shining today, not just because it makes me feel more upbeat than I feel on rainy days, but because we’ve been waiting to photograph Max’s new cat art dolls. Max made some smaller cats in dresses, while I’ve been making toys. I still have some Pixie Kitten bodies in progress that I need to finish, but I keep getting orders for toys, which has left Max at the sewing machine. We will be posting our new creations in our Ruffing’s shop.

The ducks enjoy rainy days, and will come visiting no matter. We enjoyed a visit from them this afternoon. They are wandering more, now that the weather has become warmer, the grasses are growing, and there is more to forage.

I finished this light yellow fleece Hug Me Slug today, while Max was busy working on the doll stories to go with the new kitties. I was on a sunshine theme, I think, or it felt like a good day for yellow.

Below is a sneak peek at Max’s new dolls, Zelda the tuxedo cat, Melody the Siamese, and Amy the white cat. They are about 7 1/2 to 8 1/2 inches tall. Max made their clothes. I did have a hand in resizing Amy’s pinafore, in between my making slugs. I think they are all very sweet. Once I am finished editing their photos, we’ll put them up in our Ruffing’s shop.

We had an extra assistant today, in the form of Santana the Peeping Tom Cat. Santana is well-known to my Facebook friends. He comes over to our house almost every day, to look in all our windows and doors. I’d never seen anything like that before. He has climbed up on garbage cans to get a look in the kitchen window. He lives one house away, and is apparently very curious about his cat neighbors. Today he was curious about cat dolls. He was even trying to get in the house.

Some of our cats do not enjoy his visits, but he couldn’t care less, from the look of him. He loves to taunt. He will stare in, or punch at, the doors or windows for as long as he likes. Here are a couple of videos of him taunting one of our cats.

Below is one of my favorite photos of Santana staring in the house from the back door. I love the look of determination on his face. What a character. Surprisingly, since Santana has been watching us, at least two other cats have shown up to look in the doors or windows too. All our cats, and Santana, are fixed, and so it isn’t due to anything like that. I had no idea we were so interesting. One morning recently, the ducks were on the deck looking in the back door too, in the dark of the early morning. I opened the door, and was surprised to find them there. Someday I may open the door and have a rush of animals run inside.

Tomorrow, I am heading out on another cat-catching adventure. This time we are picking up little Gyspy for his big vet day. Should be fun. I hope I can get myself up and awake early, with the Daylight Savings Time change!

Posted on March 8, 2011August 5, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Saint Patrick’s Day Slugs

In honor of Saint Patrick’s Day coming up, I’ve been making green Hug Me Slugs in my toy shop. There are more on my desk, in progress. I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in our Ruffing’s shop. This medium green fleece slug is admiring the first of our spring flowers,

as did his light mint green friend yesterday. The daffodils are in bloom here as well, but I haven’t weeded out the garden! Can’t have slugs posing next to dried leaves.

I was editing these earlier today, and thought this particular scene was amusing. My desktop aquarium screensaver took over when I got up to take a break, and the fish invaded my slug photos. The one slug looks very interested.

Right after I posted my light mint green slug yesterday, he (she?) was featured in an Etsy treasury of slug items! I think this is one of my favorite treasuries so far. Slug art, crafts, jewelry, even slug barrettes! And the baby hat…

I love this baby hat by xoLoveRosie on Etsy, and this photo. Even the name on the listing makes me laugh: “psycho slug alien baby from outer space hat.”

So much fun. My art toys and prints have been featured in a lot of treasuries lately, and our original one-of-a-kind art dolls are showing up in a bunch too. Be sure to check out our Ruffing’s shop if you haven’t already. We’re about to take some photos of new art dolls. I’ll get them posted as soon as I can.

Posted on March 7, 2011August 5, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 1 Comment

A new Hug Me Slug stuffed animal toy and hopefully more to come soon

It has been a long time since I put any new ready-made art toys up. I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in our Ruffing’s shop. I finished this 9-inch light mint green fleece Hug Me Slug. He (or she, I’m not sure) is posing next to our peach tree, which is beginning to bloom.

These three little slugs went out to their new homes this week.

I had a challenge in getting them ready, as I had some booboo’s on my fingers. I usually put sports tape on my fingertips to protect them from needles, but my Band-Aids kept making the tape fall off, which made me poke myself some more. I persevered and got the slugs stitched up anyway. My fingers are all better now.

This morning, I drilled and glued and paperclayed some doll stands into existence. This is not my favorite thing to do, but I felt good about getting them ready. Max has some new, smaller sized art dolls we need to photograph, and we needed smaller stands for them. I like feeling productive.

Among my many other projects I am in the process juggling, I am going to be making clothes for my sock kittens. I want them to fit the standard 18 inch, commercially-available dolls too. I had one Daisy Kingdom Pansy doll, in that size, from twenty years ago, the little girl doll on the right below, and so I went on eBay to collect her three sisters to model doll clothes for me.

I like their vintage look.

I also went on my first feral cat trapping adventure! I tagged along with Marie and took lots of photos of the Trap-Neuter-Return process, or the trapping and returning part. I put up a mini-photo-documentary on Facebook, showing the trapping and the returning, step by step. The rescue incorporated it into a PDF, which further explains TNR, and talks about the spaying and vaccinating of the cats as well.

That’s Gypsy above. I kept him occupied with food and attention, while Marie set up the traps. Gypsy is a stray, living with a feral cat colony, in a very nice senior lady’s yard. She has possibly twenty feral cats living in her barn, and under her house that need to be spayed/neutered and vaccinated, which is more than she could afford to do herself, even if the cats were tame and she could catch them herself. Alley Cats and Angels is stepping in to get the situation humanely under control. As the cats receive vet care, they will be returned to their home, where they will no longer reproduce.

This is the safety trap, with food, and a feral cat inside. Marie put canned chicken inside, and once a cat steps on the trip plate, the door to the trap closes behind her. The first priority was to trap the female cats that were seen to have been in heat already.

They are tricky to catch. When a cat won’t go into the regular safety trap, a drop trap is used. This one is a wooden frame, covered with netting, with a door on one side. A stick props it up, and a rope is tied to the stick. A plate of canned chicken was placed inside.

This is one of the high-priority girls entering the drop trap. Marie was on the other end of the rope, waiting.

Once the kitty settled in for a snack, and was all the way under the box, Marie gave the rope a tug, and the trap came down, with our girl inside.

I ran over and held the trap down with my foot, while Marie covered it with a blanket to calm the cat down. She then put a regular safety trap butted against the drop-trap door, and opened both doors. Our girl walked into the safety trap and was ready for her trip to the vet. Both of the high-priority girls were captured using the drop trap. You can see more details over on the rescue page, where you can view the rest of my photos in a slideshow, by clicking on the first one and then clicking through to read the story.

This is a short video of our returning the cats to their barn. They were happy to be home. Two of the girls waited for their friends to come out of the traps. They seem to look after each other.

We’ll be heading back for Gypsy. Since he is tame and friendly, he will have a separate vet day when he will be neutered and vaccinated and returned to his home as a pet.

I will try to keep getting more toys and art dolls up online. If you haven’t already, please “Like” Ruffing’s on Facebook to see updates. I’ve got a lot to do. I have some charity toys to make and I’ve been asked to contribute a Hug Me Slug or two for a counting book for children, by a professional photographer. I am looking forward to seeing them in some beautiful photos with kids. I’m not sure exactly when Cathie Fillian’s new kids’ craft show will come out, but they are supposed to make an appearance there, during the opening or the credits, as well. It’s going to be fun to see them here and there.

Posted on February 17, 2011August 5, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

A sock kitten and a sleepy slug

This is Feral Cheryl‘s sock brother, Cody II. They came from the same cotton tweed family. Cody II left for Arizona this week.

Cody II is named after the real cat companion of a very nice lady who collects sock monkeys. She couldn’t imagine her life without her beloved kitty, and so she thought it was only fitting that her sock monkeys should have a kitty companion too. I think that is an excellent idea. I’m sure Cody II is going to have great fun with his new sock monkey friends.

Cody II also had many Hug Me Slug friends. I had a rush of custom orders for Valentine’s Day, including two Hug Me Slugs for the sons of a friend from way back in high school. She sent me this fantastic photo, taken at bedtime. Slugs need rest too. This one looks very cozy, all nestled in with his new friend. I love this photo.

I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in “our Ruffing’s shop“.

I am still cleaning up from the Valentine’s Day rush, and still eating chocolate. I love this quilted fabric-covered candy box. I am saving that.

I got some wonderful presents. Above is an original, hand-painted pillow by Sandy Mastroni. I love her kitties especially. The pillow is beautiful, and the extras that came with it are adorable. How cute is that hang tag? And the bookmark too.

I also received “Francis Violet” designed and made by Sarah from Bit of Whimsy Dolls. She is the sweetest cat-girl. I got a couple of patterns too, so I can make her a dress and maybe a sister or brother. It is so nice to have handmade work by other artists and craftspeople, and see all the love they put into what they do. I hope everyone will think to try a handmade gift when the time for gift-giving comes around. There is something really special about giving and owning something unique, made by people who are invested in what they are doing. It’s inspiring.