Soft Dolls and Art Toys Archives - Page 5 of 50 - Ruffing’s

Posted on July 15, 2015 by Elizabeth Ruffing

A little stuffed slug toy shop update, and some gardens

I have four new Hug Me Slugs over in my toy shop at the moment. They are red, watermelon pink, bright yellow, and banana yellow fleece, in my 9-inch size. I will continue to add more. Even though it is July, I know the Christmas season will be upon me before I know it, and I hope to have more toys ready this time around.

I have also been trying to make a dent in the yard work I have to do here, more tree planting and cleaning up of gardens that have become overrun with blackberries and weeds and, in some cases, flowers that multiplied profusely.

I met a horticulture student, who showed me around Raleigh City Farm, pictured above and in the two photos below. I didn’t have a camera and so I took these from the Internet.

He has been out planting tomatoes in all the heat we have been having, and the people at Raleigh City Farm have been keeping it doing well in spite of this weather too.

The plants all looked healthy. I felt I should be able to do something more myself. So, I worked on cleaning out one of my garden beds, and cutting out some saplings that had sprouted up.

I don’t have vegetables like they do, which is too bad, because Oliver Bunny would enjoy some of the ones they had there, I am sure. They sell their produce to local restaurants.

I was also introduced to BBC’s show, Gardeners’ World, which is on YouTube. They have my favorite kinds of gardens, the old English cottage style gardens. The photo above, and the two below are screenshots from the show.

I think they look like watercolor paintings. Very beautiful and inspiring. I used to have our yard, where I grew up, planted with such pretty flowers, in big beds and borders, under trees and flowering bushes. I miss it.

I brought some of my plants with me when we moved. I want to clear out those beds before everything gets choked out. My irises have been getting smaller each year, because the blackberries have joined them and are doing much too well.

These are paintings of mine, of flowers I had growing in my yard, irises, blue flax, and foxgloves, some of my favorites. This is “Jubilee” above, and “Iris and Foxgloves” below. I have seen this orange and mauve one bloom by our back door in recent years, but this year I don’t think it did. I see it hiding in there with some other plants. I intend to dig it up and plant it in a new bed. I am sorry I wilt in the heat. Summers are my winters now, the time when I stay inside more. But, I am going to try to go out when I can take the temperature and get more done.

Posted on June 30, 2015July 28, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Yellow stuffed toy Hug Me Kitten

A yellow fleece Hug Me Kitten just joined my slugs. I will be posting my new handmade stuffed animal toys in our Ruffing’s shop. She, or he, has a rose-pink heart with lavender stars.

She has a curvy tail in back.

I have been spending my time sewing what I refer to as “slug butts”, all the circles that go on the bottoms of my toys. I chose to try to make my toy parts in groups, which, I hope, will mean more toys in the long term, even though it looks like fewer in the short term. I do have lots of Hug Me Slugs, in different sizes and colors at the moment, if anyone is looking for one that isn’t in the shop. I can finish them in any order.

The heat has been terrible, but we got a slight break recently. I was able to get one more tree planted late in the day. I also take our cat, Jude, on his walks around the yard, in the evening. There is no negotiating with him on this. Our cat friends next door like to join us for tree planting and cat walking. One even likes to watch me mow the lawn. Last night, I heard rustling in the bushes. I asked, “Who’s there?” and they each popped out. It is cute when they come over in a little pack.

When I put Jude back in the house, I give them some pets. Trouble asks me for treats now. So, I bring him some, which I put on the borderline, so our other neighbor’s cat won’t get angry. I take the bowl away as soon as he is done. I don’t want any kitty conflicts.

The long-haired gray kitty I was trying to catch has made a couple of appearances in the woods behind my neighbor’s house. I can’t catch him for now, as my neighbor doesn’t want us to trap there. I don’t want to lure his cats out of his yard with the food for the other cat, because I don’t want fights between them and my other neighbor’s cat, who hangs out on our front porch, which takes away my options for now. They would all show up for food. I am hoping the woods kitty is already neutered, and maybe belongs to someone on the other side of the trees. It is best for all the outdoor cats, if all of them have had their shots, and have been to the vet, and have been neutered and spayed, but I don’t want grief for trying to help. I don’t have any outdoor cats myself, but I want the others to be safe and healthy. We don’t want a colony to start either. At some point, my other neighbor will be able to set something up at her house, but they have renovations going on right now, to be followed by some construction, which makes the cats shy away.

That’s about it. Back to sewing slug butts.

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Happy Spring, Happy Mother’s Day

It looks like I’ve been missing since February. Happy spring and happy Mother’s Day!

I feel like I may have been lost in the woods for a while, but I have been busy. Winter was one medical visit after another with my parents, but thankfully, we’ve gotten through all of that. Hopefully, all will be well and we have that behind us.

I have been sewing and sewing, trying to get my Hug Me Slugs and Friends toy shop going again. After selling out of all my popular toys before Christmas, for two years in a row, I didn’t have enough toys partially done to keep rolling. I estimate I have about 180 bodies sewn now, in an assortment of sizes and colors. Not stuffed or detailed, but sewn. It’s a start.

I just recently added some 7 and 8 inch Hug Me Slugs to my shop. I hope to get my other characters together too, like my Hug Me Toads, Monsters, Bunnies, and Kittens and Cats, but first, I am doing more slugs.

I have so many pretty colors to try out, like this new Granny Smith apple green. It will take me years to sew all the fabric I have. If you are looking for a Hug Me Slug in a particular size and color, feel free to ask if I have on in the works. I’m doing my best to get everything up and running.

For a few months, I have been struggling with feeling sad, and tired, and overwhelmed, but I feel like I am doing better now. I’ve been trying guided meditation, which has helped. I have CD’s from Roberta Shapiro and Belleruth Naparstek, which I would recommend to anyone wanting to try it. Both have CD’s available online.

When I meditate, I always envision a forest. I decided I needed more trees, and so I have been planting lots of them. I hope someday, there will be a forest outside for me. Or more of a forest. There is a wooded area here, but I want it to be bigger.

These are my neighbor’s cats, Gumbo (black and white, above) and Scooter (gray and white, below), following me, and above is Jude, my cat I take for walks on his purple leash. They all like to see what the others are doing, even though Jude makes a fuss when the others walk up to him. That doesn’t stop him from heading over to see them. I cat-sat for Gumbo, Scooter, and their brothers, Fish, and Trouble for months. Scooter always asks me for treats. He likes pets too. They all do, although Trouble is shyer about the pets.

Recently, all four brothers and a stray they befriended, all came wandering over to see what I was doing in the back yard. I didn’t have any treats. They wanted attention. I think they were lonely.

Sometimes, I go say hello to them, and Scooter runs ahead of me into his garage, begging for snacks. I decided to fix a couple of their toys I found there. They had a ripped-open catnip chipmunk and this lobster whose Velcro closure wouldn’t close up again. It made such a hit here, while I was trying to close it, that I am wondering whether I should try to make a pattern for one, or buy one online. The Velcro pouch was too small and didn’t work, and so making a new pattern would probably be better.

Oliver Bunny prefers to play with toilet paper rolls. I have saved a ridiculous number of these. If anyone stops by, they are going to think we use an awful lot of toilet paper.

Bindi brought Oliver her favorite squeaky bunny toy, but he isn’t sure what to do with those. He does like to toss the kitty jingle balls around.

This is our other neighbors’ cat Santana, on one of his favorite napping pots, his pizza box. We can’t throw it away. I think it is funny that the box says, “100% Satisfaction Guarantee” because he looks 100% satisfied.

He guards our porch, but falls asleep on duty. He doesn’t like other cats to come up on our porch, which he sees as his personal sanctuary. A couple of them come anyway. One also looks in our door when he wants treats. The other runs away when Santana chases him. We don’t leave food out. We seem to have a social gathering location for cats.

Thanks for stopping by.

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Seven, eight, nine…stuffed animal slugs

My title has my brain playing Feist’s 1,2,3,4 now, even though the song is missing both a seven and an eight. The connection makes sense in my head.

There is also a Sesame Street version that only goes up to four.

Speaking of counting, for some time, I’ve been donating portions of my toy sales to help animals. I was curious to see what it amounted to. I added it up, and I’ve reached $597.60 so far. Some has gone to The House Rabbit Society, Alley Cats and Angels, Kitty Bungalow Charm School for Wayward Cats, The Whiskars’ Syndicate, Protective Animal Welfare Society (P.A.W.S.) in Kansas, Care For Bear, and our friend Cheryl’s feral cat fund to care for community cats here in our area of NC. It doesn’t seem like a lot each time, and so it was nice to see that it adds up.

I’m adding back a size in my Hug Me Slug plush toys, for anyone who likes to make slug families, with little, middle, and big kids. Those are the 7, 8, and 9 inch Hug Me Slugs above. I have 12 inch ones too, or I usually do. I am making more. I’ve had people get those as parent slugs to the smaller ones. You can find my stuffed animal slugs over in my Etsy toy shop. Some of these have been adopted already, but I still have some available there at the moment.

These two 7 inch yellow Hug Me Slugs went out as gifts. They were named after their Girl Scout counterparts. One was called “Candy Corn” and needed a candy corn heart. I painted the heart with fabric dye. Since she was for a big kid, it was okay. Babies put my slugs in their mouths, and so I wouldn’t do that for a baby, to be safe.

I had these up as Valentine’s Day slugs, but they happen to still be around for now, waiting to be adopted. They are 9 inches tall.

These three above are the 7 inch size, and you can see I am adjusting the sizes of my patterns. Oddly, the purple and the light blue are the new size, from the same version of my pattern. The light blue guy got a little chubby instead of tall. That happens. He’s already gone out as a new baby gift. Apologies for the redundancy in my photos between my blog and Facebook page. I’m behind with my blogging, as usual.

I just got through sewing 50!! of the new 7 inch slug bodies. Next up, they get stuffed, and then detailed. I’m trying so hard to get restocked, but it takes so long. I machine sew the first seam, and then it is all hand sewing from there. That seems crazy sometimes, but I prefer the way it looks. I’ve never been happy with machine-sewn details. I think the hand sewing gives them more character, makes them seem friendlier, and is more personal.

It gets overwhelming at times, trying to get toys finished in any number. We’ve also been running to doctors’ appointments and more eye surgeries here, and doing rounds of eye drops, which I kept having to get up early to do for my dad. We’ll be starting more for my mom. We have appointments and another surgery this week.

As you can see, I curled up in the middle of the kitty pile the other day. The weather has been cold and miserable, but I know, nothing compared to up north. I am relieved when the sun comes out. The drear is getting me down. I feel so sad sometimes. Today was at least warmer, but it went back to gray later.

Santana, our neighbor-cat, finally accepted my invitation to nap in Mr Bear’s house. It has been unused for a year almost. Mr Bear would have wanted his friends to have it. I told Santana this, and he seemed to understand. I put a catnip pouch in there for him, and recycled a few more for the porch.