Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Welcome to Queendom Website's New Castle

Here's a new URL that will take you directly to the New Castle:

www.GayAnnRogers.com/index.html

www.GayAnnRogers.com  will also work.
If you type the URL and your computer adds '/site_2.html' you need to eliminate this.


You can also visit the Old Castle by going to www.GayAnnRogersAnnex.com

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MacSoph and I have a TON of work to do still and you could help me greatly.
If you visit Queendom Website, will you click through the pages and let me know if you encounter any irregularities? And I will welcome any suggestions.

The New Castle is a work in progress and I am learning as I go.

Well, it has been a long 10 months, and it has certainly had its ups and downs, but we're here.
Whew!!!

Gay Ann

Monday, June 18, 2012

Update on My Move

For the time being my website is down and it looks like it won't be up and running for some days.
Sometimes things just don't work out as one plans.

Gay Ann

Update: Moving Day for My Website

I just heard that you cannot now access my website at all, neither the old one nor the new one.

I thought I would post my progress here, that we have moved my domain name but it isn't yet pointing to my new site. This may take a few hours; it can also take 2 days.

I am going back to Apple for more help this afternoon and will report in this evening.

Gay Ann


Saturday, June 16, 2012

Queendom Website will Move on Tuesday, June 18, 2012

Moving day is almost here: MacSoph and I plan to move Queendom Website on Tuesday, June 18, 2012.

That's our pan, but you know how the best laid plans go.

If indeed we succeed in moving on Tuesday, Queendom Website's URL will change slightly and this will influence people who have bookmarked the site.

Whatever happens on Tuesday, I will immediately post news here, on my blog, including an updated URL.

Will you keep your fingers crossed for us that all goes well? Whew, I don't know about all this technology at times, but we'll hope for the best.

Gay Ann

Thursday, June 07, 2012

More on Thimbles

After my last post, I started a new page on my website for fledgling thimble collectors.

I set about looking for good quality thimbles at very reasonable starting prices on eBay and I've posted the listings on my website. I don't have any financial interest in the thimbles, in almost all cases I don't know the dealers, but I love trolling for thimbles and other needlework tools.

Last week I found a pair of very pretty and very good quality silver thimbles with tiny landscapes on the bands. Little miniature scenes so carefully worked out on the tiny band of a thimble. Each thimble had reached the final day of its listing with no bids, at $9.99. Almost scrap value of the silver!

So I posted them on my website and thus began 'thimbles for fledgling thimble collectors'.

Yesterday I posted a series of excellent quality thimbles with starting prices of less than $15.00.

As I have written number of times, thimble prices have tumbled in the last few years, so that many great thimbles are now about 25% of the price they were 20 years ago.

I am by nature a contrarian collector, that is I like to collect something not at the height of fashion, and now is a perfect time to look again at thimbles. In fact, in the last year and a half I have bought a small stash of thimbles I've long admired but never thought would come my way. At the top of the list: a very rare Untermyer Robbins thimble that went begging. A delight indeed!

Yes, the prices have fallen, but the thimbles haven't changed. They are still tiny trifles of a bygone era, beautifully worked and a delight to the eye. I have always thought of them and the other beautiful sewing tools as a needleworker's jewelry. Go and have a look at the little thimbles on my website page and see if you don't agree.

For quick reference:
www.GayAnnRogers.com
click on 'Thimbles' on the yellow navigation bar
then click on the red button 'thimbles for fledgling collectors'

Let me know what you think of them.
Gay Ann

Sunday, June 03, 2012

Thimbles!

In the last year and a half my interest in thimbles has revived and slowly I have bought a small number of thimbles I thought I would never own.

Since the heyday of thimble collecting in the 1980's and 1990's, thimbles have tumbled in price. In the years since I wrote 'American Silver Thimbles' I hadn't followed the prices of thimbles. I hadn't realized quite how far they had fallen until I stumbled on a thimble listing on eBay, followed it and discovered oh how the mighty have fallen!

Being a bit of a contrarian, the fall in thimble prices revived my interest and  I started following and posting eBay listings for thimbles on my website. Each time I have followed listings on eBay I have been surprised at the reasonable prices that some of the great American silver thimbles fetched. Of course, there are still the thimbles that fetch over $1000.00, but this week, for example,  I found a handful of wonderful collectable thimbles that look as if they will fetch only a fraction of what they were worth 20 years ago.

And for fledgling thimble collectors, I just found two very pretty American thimbles with little scenes. Their auctions end today and so far the price for each is $9.99. One has a single bid; one has no bids. Given the quality of each of these little thimbles, the price is very reasonable if they go anywhere close to $10.00.

Is it a smart financial move to collect something that has fallen so much in price?

I don't know about the financial end of it all, but I do know that these are wonderful little collectables from a bygone era and they are suddenly affordable again after a long spell where they cost a fortune.

So here I am again, watching thimble listings on eBay and hoping that a few more come my way.
It's great fun to revisit a hobby I thought was long dead for me.

So wish me luck this week. I have my eye cast on two thimbles in particular and the rush of the hunt is well under way.

Gay Ann

To visit some recent prices for thimbles, visit my website, www.GayAnnRogers.com and click on 'Thimbles' on the yellow navigation bar.

I have some recent listings, but I have also posted pictures and  prices that collectable thimbles have fetched over the last year and a half.