Cat art dolls, figurines, stuffed animal plush toys, miniatures, sculpture, fine art, doll clothing
My “The Fairy and the Dove” print was featured in this “Don’t Blink” Etsy treasury today. Thanks Denise!
One more day on my birthday countdown, and I’m doing okay. No more carrying on. And I’ve got my rain check for dinner later too. So, time to cheer up.
My mom and I went out today. My birthday is in less than a few days, and I tried to find something I would like as a gift. I’m being such a big baby this time around. Every year I resolve to take my birthday well, but this year I must have the birthday equivalent of PMS…PBS? It’s so embarrassing, and definitely not my norm. Everything reduces me to having a sob fest. Boo-hooing while at the mall, while walking down the street, while reading my email. I’m hoping that I will become philosophical about it within a few days, or that this will just pass. I can remember, back in high school, my French teacher turning red, wiping away her tears, and trying not to cry in front of us over her birthday. I felt bad for her but I didn’t really understand back then. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the time.
So, I wasn’t a good shopper today, but I did get a new book on crocheting, the crochet version of the knitting book I just got and liked, 200 Crochet Tips, Techniques, and Trade Secrets by Jan Eaton. Unfortunately, I also tried to get a “rain” check for a date I had tonight, earlier, by email, because I felt too awkward for a phone call and wasn’t sure of the details, but he called later from the coffee shop where he thought we were meeting, having never gotten my message. I’m glad he didn’t sound angry, and I’m glad I didn’t cry! Hopefully, tomorrow I will enter a cry-free zone and things will be normal again. I don’t want to become like Holly Hunter’s character in Raising Arizona. It’s too ridiculous.
I’m on a finish-what-I-started mission, at least when I can fit it in. The way I jump from one project to the next, that could take years to accomplish, but I’m trying to make more of a focused effort. These little slugs have been waiting for their embroidered parts for a long time.
This group is made of baby blue polar fleece, which is soft and cuddly. Their fuzzy hearts are each different shades of pink and red.
I gave them all French names. Why? I don’t know. Does it give them an air of sophistication?
I almost named them after The Brady Bunch after arranging them in these composite photos, but then I couldn’t think of enough Brady Bunch names. I didn’t really relate to that show as a kid, but then I was an only child. They seemed pretty strange to me.
I positioned their pupils so that they would be looking this way and that. I find the upward-glancing ones particularly amusing. They are either rolling their eyes, or praying for assistance. I’m not sure which. Both maybe.
The others seem very curious about everything. This group is a pear green color. They are also French.
I modified their hang tags to say they may be spot cleaned with cool water. Poly fleece seems to do better with cool water. They can be set to air dry if necessary. I prewashed and air dried the fleece I used to make them. They should not go in the dryer! Yikes! They would be scared, but that is also bad for fleece. It melts with heat.
I am listing my available soft dolls and art toys here on our Ruffing’s site. I’ll be listing fleece “Hug Me! Slugs” in my Etsy shop as well, with some options for naming your own slug too.
We are still putting together our first original folk art cat doll collaboration too. I don’t want to give away any surprises though. Time to go catch up on some more stuff…
This is a cat doll-sized sweater I have been knitting. I might try to crochet on a collar. I adapted the pattern from a Fuzzy Mitten cardigan pattern. Barbara Prime has so many adorable knit animal toy patterns. My knitting skills are very basic, and so I also got myself a helpful book, 200 Knitting Tips, Techniques, and Trade Secrets by Betty Barden.
I had a couple of knitting and needlework books that just had drawings in them, and some of the techniques just weren’t clicking for me. The photos in this book helped me compare what I was doing to what I was supposed to be doing.
My Grandma G. was an avid crocheter. I had wanted to learn how to knit and crochet when I was younger, but I was too shy to ask her to show me. That’s her above with my dad and my aunt. You can see she had her hands full with them back then.
Grandma G. used to crochet, and possibly knit (I’m not even sure), ponchos for me, like these two. That’s me above in a ship my dad made for me from a refrigerator box. I’m searching for land with my kaleidoscope-telescope. My mom made the hat.
One time when Grandma G. was babysitting me, she secretly took several of my dolls who had lost their outfits. The next time she came over, she replaced them on their shelf wearing all new crocheted dresses, while I wasn’t looking. She never said a word about it either. I just discovered them there.
These are both of my grandmothers at Christmas time. When my Grandma F., on the right, used to babysit for me at her house, we would sew. I learned to sew from my mom mostly, and a little from Grandma F. too. Grandma F. and I would make doll clothes together.
She would use her sewing machine, and I would try to sew on her tiny antique Singer sewing machine. It didn’t work very well, and I would usually end up sewing my doll clothes by hand. She gave it to me before I moved here. I just unwrapped it to photograph it and it still smells just like her attic, where we used to sew.
This is Grandma F. with my grandpa. Grandma F. is still doing pretty well. She’s become more lucid since she’s moved to the home, where they can regulate her diet for type 2 diabetes. My grandparents had all been incorrigible sugar fiends. Grandma and Grandpa F. would eat like little birds at meals, and then they’d snack on cake and brownies with gingerale. Grandma G. would keep a bag of candy in her purse.
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