Friday 30 April 2010

Mozilla Firefox browser problems

During the past two weeks some customers have been having problems paying for their orders using paypal at the checkout on the Rag Rescue site. I stress that it is only some customers, others have had no problems at all. We thought that this was an intermittent fault somewhere but after numerous investigation and with the help of some wonderful customers testing the site for me, we have found the problem, but at the moment not the solution, unfortunately.
It appears that the problem lies with the latest version of the Mozilla Firefox browser that some customers use, myself included. It would appear that there is a bug in this latest edition which is not allowing access to various sites. There are numerous questions and complaints on the Firefox forum.

Please note that FireFox browser customers can still order from Rag Rescue. 
Your orders will still come through to me and items will be placed on hold. At the moment, until Firefox resolve this problem, I will send you a paypal request for payment manually, shortly after I receive your order as you will find that you are unable to load paypal from my checkout.

An easy solution to pay by paypal automatically from the Rag Rescue site.

If you use your INTERNET EXPLORER browser to access the Rag Rescue website you will not encounter any problems for automatic payment.

I can only apologise for this problem but as you probably realise it is out of or control at the moment until we can get a solution from Firefox.
We are working hard and long on this problem.


Thursday 29 April 2010

Vintage fabric squares day tomorrow at Rag Rescue


Eight more vintage fabric squares being listed tomorrow 30th April at

I can't tell you how exciting it is to find lovely vintage fabric, but there is a downside to it as well as I found out again today. At auction this week I bought amongst other fabrics a lovely pair of curtains c. 1940s. I normally hand wash all of my fabrics, I tested them for strength and as the curtains were large I decided to put them in the washing machine on a gentle wash. I know what you are thinking and you will be correct. When I opened the machine and got out the curtains, to my horror they had large holes everywhere. The holes were in exactly the same part of the pattern right throughout each curtain. The floor and drum of the machine was covered in little pieces. I could have cried. Oh well that's one less to iron, so you can never tell until fabrics are washed.

Wednesday 28 April 2010

Vintage fabrics and vintage items at Rag Rescue tomorrow


All being listed tomorrow at 7am BST at
RAG RESCUE WEBSITE

Well loading this picture has taken me 15minutes. It appears that blogger have changed the format for loading pictures and mine just wouldn't load. After going into help I managed to follow someone's suggestions and go back to the old editor. What a drag, now I can get on with sorting out more fabrics for next week.
I managed to win a great lot of haberdashery yesterday at aucton. there are lots and lots of wonderful old sewing silks, pre 1960 cottons, Victorian packets of press studs etc etc. I'll start listing them soon

Saturday 24 April 2010

Vintage fabrics and Rag Rescue news

It has been rather a busy week here at Rag Rescue. I've managed to wash and iron a lot of the vintage fabrics I bought recently and get them listed for next week. I've also spent a day with my granddaughter Molly and together we made peanut butter cookies which she enjoyed sharing with all of her friends at the various playgroups and nursery group she attends.
It was also a rather sad week as although baby Oliver has got over the illness he had the previous week he is in the wars once again. My daughter had to take him for a hip scan only to discover that he has hip dysplasia and he is now in a body harness for seven weeks. On Thursday my daughter was ill so I went over for the day to help out and saw Oliver in his harness. Actually he has got used to it very quickly and doesn't seem distressed by it, I think his mum is more distressed by it than he is. I did discover how long it takes to change a nappy though, as the harness has to be removed at the bottom end. We had a great tug of war with the thin strapping when trying to attach it again as he kept stretching his legs out everytime I tried to get the poppers in. Hopefully this will enable the hip socket to develop correctly, apparently when caught at this early age the outlook is very good for a total recovery.
On the subject of children I have got a wonderful old childrens alarm clock going on the site next week.
It is the Tale of the Hare and the Tortoise.
The face is amazing. Each hour is marked as miles for the race, with little pictures in between, of animals and items found in the countryside. The hour hand is represented by a tortoise, slowly moving around and the  the minute hand by the hare.

The caption reads:-
The tortoise creeps round once, how slow!
Twelve times as fast the hare will go,
But watch the tortoise, watch the Hare,
At twelve o'clock you'll find them - where?
Isn't it great?

Thursday 22 April 2010

Vintage goodies

Sorry this is later than normal but have been babysitting the grandchildren all day and I'm whacked. All as usual can be found HERE tomorrow.

Monday 19 April 2010

Mother of pearl sewing items

at Rag Rescue tomorrow.


Of all the sewing items, silk winders are the most beautiful. They were intricately carved both in ivory bone and mother of pearl.
Often sailors from the poorer families brought back mother of pearl gaming tokens and gave them to their sweethearts to wind their silk around.
In the past, embroidery silks were very silky and catchy so the skeins were wound around thread winders to stop them getting tangled.

The tapemeasure is a valuable aid to needlework.
Early measures, up to the mid 19th century were marked in 'nails', a measurement of 2 and a 1/4 inches, later the normal inch was used.
The earliest ones were wound into the container by a handle as in the one shown above.

Sunday 18 April 2010

New Stock tomorrow at Rag Rescue

What a busy week it has been with a great number of sales, thank you to all of my customers who sent in orders last week.
Tomorrow is the start of regular daily listing again. I have concentrated this week on vintage goods all found at the international antique fairs I went to at the beginning of the month. There will be five new items each day Monday through to Friday.
Yesterday and today has seen me beginning to hand wash vintage fabrics. With the fabrics I obtained prior to the fairs  combined with those purchased at the fairs I have over 70 new fabrics to wash and iron, measure and cut. I will start listing them at the beginning of next week.
 
Thank you again to all of you that have contacted me about my baby grandson. I am pleased to announce that he is much improved and well on the way to recovery.


Friday 16 April 2010

More new items which will be listed next week.

 


I would like to thank all the customers and bloggers for their prayers and well wishes for baby Oliver. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that he is on the road to recovery.

Thursday 15 April 2010

Baby stops play.......

I had every intention of writing another post yesterday with a few more photographs of the items I bought at the fairs. As the title states I just couldn't get around to it. Unfortunately baby Oliver, 4 weeks old, my latest grandchild ill. On visiting my daughter yesterday I discovered that he had been vomiting after his feed, all day and night. I suggested the health visitor should be called and he then went to the doctors who sent him to hospital. The poor little mite had a racing heart beat and an uneven breathing pattern. I had to step in to look after Molly the 4 year old whilst mum was at the hospital. Fortunately they were able to bring him home later in the evening as he had kept a small feed down. On returning today with Molly I heard that he had still vomited during the night, so it is still a worry.
Any way I have been able to catch up with all of the orders today, so a big thank you for those customers who have been very patient.
Here are some more items that will be listed next week.

Vintage card boxes, mother of pearl thread winders and vintage fabric scrappy parcels.

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Preparing new listings

I've been taking some photographs today in preparation for next weeks listings. As well as buying a huge amount of vintage fabrics I also bought a lot of vintage goods. I've decided to list the vintage goods next week, starting on Monday. This will give me time to get the fabrics washed and ironed. The image above shows just a few of the pretty vintage goods I bought.

Sunday 11 April 2010

Rag Rescue website open for orders again.

Well the fairs are over for another two months, what a good time we had. The weather was lovely and warm and the customers so friendly as usual.
I am now taking orders once again.

Friday 2 April 2010

Sorting out creative displays ready for the fairs.

I've been thinking the last couple of days on how to set out the Rag Rescue goods at the Lincolnshire Fair. Last October the whole fair moved from Swinderby where I stood inside a huge marquee. At Lincoln I decided that I needed more space and I wanted to be outside but under cover. I ended up inside a shopping arcade with a perfect spot just outside the main doors of the large Epic Centre. In December of last year they opened up the other hall at the end of the shopping arcades making a walk through for the customers. However the shopping arcades are long and narrow and I decided to have Rag Rescue on one side and the antiques on the other. It is easy to create height with antiques as I have lots of pictures and large objects but the Rag Rescue items all seem to be in flat boxes so that customers can sift through them. As April is one of the busiest fairs in the year I decided to put on my thinking cap and found in the garage an old shelving unit which had sometimes been used for the smaller antique pieces but discovered that it wasn't really suitable as it was rather unstable. I had put it away in the garage after it rocked with the weight and a pile of brass door knockers fell on my head whilst I was arranging the display. Yesterday it was painted  up and this morning I decided to have a trial run to see what and how I could display it.
What do you think?
I placed it on my working desk in my office as it is a similar height to the fair tables. It is the white one in the centre.
 
As the weather is a little warmer, I've decided to take some larger fabrics this time. I whole array of French and German 1930s floral fabrics.
As I only had three bags of vintage fabric scrappies left, I decided to make some more and as I am taking them to the fair first I decided to make scrappy parcels each with 20 pieces in for just £6.00
Vintage strip rolls and lovely old wooden silk wound French tassels in gold.
A beautiful antique child's bonnet and below a maids bonnet marked E. Couper c.1860 will stand proudly on the top of the shelves.
I also have a lovely long sari length to drape across the horrible plastic sides of the marquee and some costume pieces to hang up including a University of Cambridge cap and gown.
Well I must get on, no more playing as I must get the Rag Rescue, boxes, bags and tubs packed up so that I can do some housework, like hoovering and ironing. What clothes to take at this time of the year is always a difficult one, especially as at the moment the weather forecast for next week seems to be changing daily. Yesterday Lincoln weather was for heavy rain all week and now Mon, Tues and Wed. show no rain at all. I think I'll have to get everything ironed up both, wet weather clothes and dry weather reasonably cool clothes, just in case.

YOU WILL FIND ME (RAG RESCUE AND ODDITIES ANTIQUES)
ON MONDAY 6TH, TUESDAY 7TH AND WEDNESDAY 8TH APRIL
LINCOLNSHIRE SHOWGROUND
SHOPPING ARCADE 2
AND ON
THURSDAY 9TH AND FRIDAY 10TH APRIL
NEWARK SHOWGROUND

IF YOU ARE IN THE AREA THEN WHY NOT STOP BY ANY OR BOTH OF THESE FAIRS.

Thursday 1 April 2010

Last day for buying at Rag Rescue before the break

Tomorrow everything at Rag Rescue will be packed in boxes and bags ready to go to the fairs.
As this is supposed to be one of the busiest fairs of the year (weather permitting) I have decided to place a stop on orders whilst I am away.

As of midnight tonight the website will be for viewing only
BUT
will re-open again for orders on Monday April 12th.

All orders placed today before 12 noon will be posted today and if placed between 12noon and 12 midnight will be posted on Saturday.

If you haven't got anything arranged for the beginning of next week then why not visit either or both of the two largest Antiques and Home shows in Britain.
I will post details of these fairs here tomorrow