March 2011 - Page 2 of 2 - Ruffing’s Artist Dolls and Toys

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

Camo Bunny! Camouflage Hug Me Bunny stuffed animal rabbit toy

Friends have been encouraging me to make camouflage Hug Me Slugs. My friend Marie suggested they would make great gifts for people in the military and their families, who could use an extra hug, and everyone who was chatting about the Camo Slug idea agreed. I was working on them today. Suddenly, I had to take a detour. It may be Saint Patrick’s Day today, but that only made me think of Easter, my favorite holiday. And Easter made think of bunnies. I stopped sewing, drew a little picture, and then drafted a pattern. Within an hour or two, Camo Bunny was born!

Camo Slug will join Camo Bunny. I am making some custom Hug Me Bunny stuffed toy animals too. I can make them in any other fleece color that I have on hand as well. I’ll be adding more ready-made toys. I have a pile of them that I am working on. I will be adding my new handmade stuffed animal toys to our Ruffing’s shop.

Camouflage fleece makes a great cat bed, apparently. My assistant settled right in while my back was turned for a few minutes. Perhaps he was hoping I wouldn’t see him, surrounded by camouflage. He was cooperative about getting back into his own bed, but the fleece won the cuddly contest.

One of the ducks was missing this weekend, and I was very worried until my mom found her…sitting on about twelve eggs! She built her nest, hidden behind a group of trees. I’m so glad she is okay. I was certain she was a he, and so that was an extra surprise. The other boy ducks tried to chase her off last year, when she was less than a year old. The one that is the dad used to snap at her when they came for corn snacks. He’s the big duck we brought to the vet, to have a fish hook removed. They are both survivors, and so we all hope their ducklings will be too.

Speaking of survivors, and hiding, this is Frosty. Frosty came from a feral colony and is very shy. She is staying with Marie, but she has to have one of her canine teeth removed. One is growing straight out. That’s what gives her lip a slight curl in the corner of her mouth. We’re going to visit with her for a little while after her dental, while she recovers, before Marie gets back home from work. She is such a beautiful girl.

I tagged along with Marie again, on a trip back to Rochelle’s house, to pick up some more cats to be neutered/spayed and vaccinated. This time it was Gypsy’s turn. He is tame and the others are feral. He stayed with us, in a carrier, so he wouldn’t go eat all the food in the safety traps. We took him to Kentucky Fried Chicken with us, to pick up some smelly chicken. The cats went right in the traps, once the chicken arrived. Gypsy seemed to enjoy the car ride, and the chicken…of course.

The cats stayed in their traps at Marie’s house, the night before their surgeries, and then they went back to Rochelle’s house. Gypsy enjoyed being in the house. The feather toy was new to him. He may stay with Rochelle, or, if someone would like to adopt him, he may go to his own home. He may need a little potty training, since that may be unfamiliar to him too. So, that is a wait-and-see situation. We had a cat who was outside in his early months, who was successfully potty trained, after not knowing about litter boxes, and Gypsy seems like a smart boy. He may take right to the idea, since he’s been neutered, without any training. No one knows yet. I added the rest of my photos to a photo-documentary, if anyone would like to read the rest of the story.

Please join Ruffing’s on Facebook, if you haven’t already, and visit our Ruffing’s shop blog. We will be posting our new creations there.

And Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, everyone! As you now know, I am thinking about Easter instead. I am thinking about Christmas also, stocking up on toys, but I don’t want to miss spring either. Everything is starting to look very pretty.

I took my camera with me on a walk recently. Here is a spectacular forsythia bush, and a yard full of little purple flowers in the grass.

Our peach tree is full of blooms.

The trees are getting their leaves.

And I even saw a dandelion! I don’t care what people say about them. I’m happy to see their bright yellow heads popping up.

I have so much to do. I hope to have more to show you soon.

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.