sock-cat Archives - Ruffing’s | The Little House of Cats

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Hug Me Sock Cats, dressed!

I am still fighting insomnia, and woke up at 3am again. I woke up at 1:30am a day or two ago. All week, I have been up too early. But, I am working my way through it.

At long last, I finished those sock cat doll skirts I said I would finish a year ago! Wow, I had someone who was going to write an article about them then. I will have to contact her and see if she remembers me! As I said in my last post, I have fallen behind this past year. I am taking steps to rectify that!

These Hug Me Sock Cats, dressed in coordinating skirts, are all currently over in my Etsy toy shop, hugmeslug.com. They each come with a personalized hang tag, with room for a personal message on the back of the tags. I am happy to send a gift note along too, if anyone would like to send one as a gift.

I had such a nice thing happen this week. A repeat customer ordered a Hug Me Slug as a gift for a baby, but had the address wrong. The person who received the package took the time to look me up online, wrote to me, and offered to drop the package at the right house, if it were nearby! I thought that was so kind. I emailed her and my customer, and we arranged for my customer’s husband to pick the box up. I was touched that they all made the effort to do that. It worked out great.

I edited the first of a series of anthropomorphic cat prints by Max Bailey today. We are very pleased with how it came out. I will be posting it over on our Ruffing’s blog and in our Ruffing’s Etsy shop soon. I will probably be working on getting those edited, printed, and posted this coming week and a half or so.

I also ordered and have already received another bunny cage for my workroom. This one is on wheels, and will allow me to remove a big table I have in there right now, making way for my shelves and a new worktable, which will come together eventually, I hope! I have a lot of packing to do, and then building, and painting furniture and walls and trim. None of those appeal to me terribly! I never finished redoing my bathroom due to my lack of enthusiasm for these kinds of projects. I’m going to do the best I can, and tackle it all a little at a time. I have gardening and tree-planting projects on my list that never ends as well.

Everything sure would be easier with a few nights of sleep. I hope I can get back on track with that. I have to accept that I have to stay away from people who upset me, or who treat me in an uncaring way. I always want to understand people I let into my life, and I tend to want to help them, even when I can’t. If people I care about are distressed, I absorb it, and I’ve been trying to understand someone I dated, who I can see is depressed and doesn’t seem to want to seek help. I talked to him, and it sounds like depression is something he has been struggling with for a few years, at least, and I can see obvious causes for it that he doesn’t seem to want to see. Instead, he wants to be left alone, and I’m not sure he even recognizes that he is depressed. I know it is just my perception, but nothing adds up any other way. For my part, I have to stop trying to figure it out, and focus on the things I need to do.

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Hug Me Sock Cat with a skirt, and a new gang of Hug Me Slug stuffed animal art toys

I posted the first of several stuffed animal sock kitty cats with skirts over in my Etsy toy shop toy at hugmslug.com. This one is gray with blue, light green, mint green, and light turquoise polka dots, and a mauve pink fleece heart. Her skirt is striped with blue-purple, light turquoise, yellow-green, magenta, purple, gray, and white. Her skirt is 100% cotton and has an elastic waist. It is fully finished and is removable for dress-up.

I also recently posted a dozen plush fleece Hug Me Slugs for adoption too. I have some 12 inch tall ones and some 9 inch tall ones, in assorted colors. If you happen to be on Facebook, and haven’t yet, please come “like” Hug Me Slugs and Friends’ page. I try to post my new toys there at the same time I post them on Etsy or on eBay.

I have four more sock kitties waiting for me to finish their skirts, and I have just finished two Hug Me Puppies. I just need to draw their puppy dog portrait for their hang tags and then I will be posting them.

Posted on May 18, 2013July 5, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing — 2 Comments

Trap-Neuter-Return sock cat, Feral Cheryl II

This is Feral Cheryl II, the sock cat. She was custom made for a nice lady who does TNR, or trap-neuter/spay-return for cats, and who volunteers with her local no-kill animal shelter.

She saw Feral Cheryl I, loved her, and wanted a Feral Cheryl of her own. Don’t tell Feral Cheryl I, but I think Feral Cheryl II is even cuter.

Feral Cheryl looks innocent, but she has claws,

and fangs.

She also has a tattoo. This one reads “TNR”, as requested by her mom-to-be.

She’ll be going to her new home on Monday. I like to hug her, even though she has those teeth and claws. She hasn’t scratched or bitten me yet.

Posted on April 30, 2012July 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Three more festivals for this Saturday

My toys were at the Cleveland Strawberry Festival in Clayton, NC this past Saturday. Here are some pictures of the Alley Cats and Angels booth. Thanks, Ashley and Laura, for spending their whole day there, and for organizing the event, and to everyone involved.

It was very crowded and busy when we came by. I got lost, and it took me a couple of hours to get there, being unfamiliar with the area, and getting the wrong street from my Internet map. NC is fond of naming two streets in the same area, the same thing, even when they are not connected. There are two Technology Drives in Clayton. I was way off! My parents came along, and my dad patiently asked about five people for directions before we happened across a lady who had just been there. Then we walked the whole length of the festival before finding the booth on our fourth pass through. I got lucky and found a security guard who had been by the booth earlier and remembered seeing it. I was glad when I finally found it and was able to get some pictures. It would have been terrible to go home without finding it!

The rescue is going to take my toys along to this coming Saturday’s events too. They’ll have booths at three festivals, Peak Fest in Apex, Meet in the Street in Wake Forest, and Out Raleigh in Raleigh. Please come if you are in the area. They’ll all be on May 5, 2012.

In truth, I am nervous having the toys away from the house! I’m used to doing everything from home, and I fret that something will happen to them. This takes some adjusting.

Aside from finding the booth, I was glad to get some more catnip cigars. The kitties love them, as you can see. Proceeds go to help the rescue.

Here’s Phoebe enjoying her nap in the sunshine after an active morning of playing.

Today I finished some more 7-inch Hug Me Slugs. I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys inour Ruffing’s shop.

I am still sewing through a pile of toys I have stuffed, but not yet detailed. I’d like to try something different soon, for variety. Doing the same task for hours can be productive, because I get used to what I’m doing, but it can get boring.

I feel encouraged when my workroom gets emptier. It feels good to get the toys finished and put away. For months, I’ve had a large number of toys all around me in there.

There is slightly more breathing room now, but still plenty more to go.