stuffed-toys Archives - Page 7 of 26 - Ruffing’s

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 January 14, 2015 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Reslugification and surgeries

I have finally added some Hug Me Slugs to my Etsy toy shop. The 12 inch slug has been adopted, but the 9 inch and 7 inch slugs are currently in my toy shop. I am trying to restock, which has been a struggle for a long time. I have days when I want to stop altogether, because I feel like I am not getting ahead, but I am trying to hang in there.

A customer sent me this wonderful photo of her three boys with their Hug Me Slugs. This is the kind of thing that keeps me going. I love how the guy in the middle is trying to eat his. Another customer told me that slugs make good teething toys.

One of our kitties, Zoomie, has been wanting to cuddle and sit in our laps whenever he gets the chance lately. He even got into my lap with Oliver Bunny, who wasn’t sure what to make of that.

Zoomie is 17 1/2 years old, which the vet says is the equivalent of being a 95 year old man. He didn’t seem to be feeling well, and my mom noticed swelling on his chin. So, we took took him in to the vet right away.

He had an abscess in his mouth, of undetermined cause, which has now been drained. He also had some growths removed from his forehead and side. The vet removed some of the tissue around the growths, to try to be safe. We discussed this with the vet, and we opted not to find out if they were cancerous. At the beginning of last year, Mr Bear had a tumor removed from his neck, and we found out shortly after that he had more tumors, which were inoperable, inside. The vet said if anything else is going on inside, there most likely wouldn’t be anything we could do. There was nothing that could be done for Mr Bear, as much as we tried. We are happy to have Zoomie with us, and were very much relieved that his condition improved with surgery and medication. The kitties and the bunny want to look at him, which bugs him a little.

We are home today, because we had to cancel my mom’s eye surgery. We had ice this morning, and didn’t want to try to get to the hospital, which is fairly far away, in the bad weather. She was very upset about this, as it is stressful gearing up for it at all. We haven’t found out yet how long the wait will be to reschedule.

This is one of my neighbors’ cats who comes to visit. I made catnip toys for Christmas for our cats and for our visitors. I also brought some over to the cats next door, who come to visit as well, but sometimes get chased off the porch by this orange fellow, Santana. I think they may be learning to play together. I hope they will.

I was working on a Christmas card of carolers, two of our kitty visitors, Santana and Trouble, and Oliver Bunny, singing. I didn’t get it done on time for Christmas. I opted to work on the catnip toys instead, and not rush through the picture, which got more ornate than initially planned. I think I may need to go back to painting, to feel better, but I tell myself I need to use the fabric that is taking up my workroom. It has been awfully dreary here. I think we would all feel better if the sun were to come out again too.

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Slugs, zip ties, and baby gates

Those have been my projects today. First the slugs. I have three at this moment, in my Etsy toy shop. The light blue one in this picture has already left the building, and is on his way to greet someone on Christmas morning.

I forgot to mention that my mom had her first cataract surgery done, and can already see better. Her vision is still blurry, but she’ll have the other eye done soon. My dad has to have both of his eyes done as well. He saw the photo of my Hug Me Slugs, above, and asked me who that was. He thought it looked like a married couple. Not a married slug couple, but a married human couple.

The slugs do look like they could be getting married, with the light blue one officiating the ceremony. That reminds me I was going to make bride and groom slugs. I even bought lace.

This dark purple little slug is one of my 7-inch tall Hug Me Slugs. He has an orchid heart.

This honeydew green slug is 9 inches tall. I have changed my pattern sizes so many times. The newest 9 inch slugs are a little bigger than the last generation. I’m going to price them accordingly, and so if I have different prices on the “same” sizes, that is why. It will eventually even out, and the difference is only a dollar on some.

Here are the same Hug Me Slugs at the computer desk. I color correct my photos before posting them. Note the cat comb and nail scissors in this picture. I need those at my desk for kitty assistants who show up. One in particular gets very insistent about being combed, and others always come running if I pick up the comb. The kitty nail scissors are self explanatory.

My bunny assistant has been so naughty, chewing through his baby gates, that my other project for today was to zip tie pieces of cardboard shipping boxes over the holes he made in the baby gates. He was shocked when he saw what I had done. In time, he will find a way around my latest move.

If he doesn’t find a way through, one of the cats is sure to find a way to push the gate so he can escape. He had a blast yesterday, after tearing a hole in one of the gates, running around my bedroom, scooting under my bed when I came in to get him. I had to unplug everything for his safety.

He has chewed though three gates, and so I attached cardboard pieces to all of them. He hasn’t tried to bite a hole today. He’ll get to it.

This is his dandelion salad. I spend a lot of time catering to my bunny. I gather these out on the lawn. Today, we had freezing rain while I was doing this. I was laughing because he won’t eat the ribs on the leaves and spits them out. He won’t eat ribs on lettuce either. If he were a kid, he would want me to trim the crusts off his sandwich bread. And I would, because that is the way I am.

I had a crazy idea today. I thought I should ask everyone I know, or people I kind of know, or people I don’t know who know me, if they would like a Christmas or holiday card, make the cards, and send them out. I have been feeling sad lately, and I know a lot of people feel sad around the holidays. I don’t have any Christmas cards, and it is possible I don’t have stamps or enough envelopes either, but this sounded like a good idea to me. I thought I could ask for addresses through Facebook or my blog. My mom pointed out that the mail probably wouldn’t reach most people by Christmas at this point. I did this in high school a couple of times, made Christmas cards for everyone I could. I’d run out of time and not get to everyone, but I tried.

By the way, I set up a new friend page on Facebook with my toys on it. I’m not sure how useful that is. I tried to wish someone I knew, who had a shared birthday with me, a happy birthday, and my message got shuffled to her “other” folder, where she will probably never see it, since I am not connected to too many people on that page. I think it is probably easier to send me messages on the Hug Me Slugs and Friends Facebook page, if anyone goes through Facebook. I will remember to check my own “other” folder now. If you need to, you can also contact me on my website or on Etsy.

Thanks to all the visitors who came over from Facebook to read my birthday blog post, and thanks for the nice comments. I was surprised. I guess people like to see me doing what I do. I’ll try to get some more photos another time of me doing things, but I need help with that!