The Golden Rule for Being a Guest

​It’s November so you know what that means . . . the holidays are fast approaching!  Thanksgiving dinner, holiday parties, family gatherings and New Year’s celebration, it’s enough to make your head spin.  The golden rule for being a guest?  “Never show up empty handed!”  Don’t worry COTS has your back!

        COTS has the PERFECT hostess gifts and all at affordable COTS prices!

​Add any of these items with a bottle of wine or a plate of baked goods (Ssshh, don’t forget to take them out of the store bought container and put them on a cute plate before giving them away) and you’re set.

​But wait, I’m the hostess and I want these cute COTS gifts for myself.  Go for it, we won’t tell!

- Brenda & Julie

www.cranberriesontheside.com

https://www.facebook.com/CranberriesOnTheSide

OJB 2013 here we come!

COTS is headed to North Scottsdale for a one-day special event, OPERATION  JINGLE  BALL 2013.

It’s going to be a HUGE holiday extravaganza with vendors from all over Arizona and the best of the best Food Trucks will be serving it up.  One of our Farmers Market Foodie vendor friends will also be at Operation Jingle Ball, Mama's Dogs is bringing her hot dog cart with all the fixins and her AMAZING cookies.  Her style is a little vintage, sprinkle in some shabby chic, with a touch of sassiness and you get a whole lot of fun.  You’ll know her when you see her!

OPERATION  JINGLE  BALL  Saturday  November  2nd from  9 am  -  2 pm @Highlands Church, located at 9050 E Pinnacle Peak Rd , Scottsdale

We have a few new items we made special for the Holidays this year, and they will be making their debut at Operation Jingle Ball.  Bring on the shoppers!

COTS is ready to have some fun.  We're offering deals if you buy more than one with discounts on our Fab4.  We're not joking around, those are the facts.

Our Fab4 are our tea towels, wine stops, tile coasters, and dry erase boards.

Our Central Farmers Market dates for the remainder of 2013 are:  Nov 16th, Dec 7th, 14th & 21st.  Central Farmers Market winter hours are 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. http://centralfarmersmarket.com/

Until next time,

Brenda & Julie

www.cranberriesontheside.com

https://www.facebook.com/CranberriesOnTheSide

Happy Fall Y'all!

We’re baaaack!!!!!

Well, if we’re being honest, we never left, we just got a little busy and instead of making the customers wait for their items, we had to make the blog wait. We have continued to produce new COTS items and show them at the Farmers Markets and our online Etsy shop. COTS has very loyal customers that actually seek us out at the farmers markets, finding us in the farthest row, in the corner, just to buy one of our tea towels for a gift.  We love hearing from our customers with stories like that.

We’ve even had a farmers market customer tell us they buy towels “just like ours” in a local specialty shop (Poor Little Rich Girl), and continued to tell us how much she likes her  towels, and of course we let her finish her story. Yep, you got it, of course they were our towels.  Then came our moment of glory. We told the gal that we are the vendor that supplies the tea towels to that very store she was talking about.  DEEEVINE!  Pure music to our ears.

Our Farmers Market dates for Nov & Dec of 2013 are being scheduled so look for that update. OurOCTOBER DATES are 5th & 19th. It will be good to back on campus. http://centralfarmersmarket.com/

Also, COTS is headed to north Scottsdale for a huge Holiday shopping extravaganza in November, Operation Jingle Ball 2013 will be held at the Highlands Church on Saturday Nov 2nd.

COTS Calendar of Events:

OCT

5th​Farmers Market (Central/Northern – Phoenix)

19th​Farmers Market (Central/Northern – Phoenix)

 

NOV

2nd​Operation Jingle Ball-Highlands Church (9050 E. Pinnacle Peak Road - Scottsdale)

TBD​Farmers Market (Central/Northern– Phoenix)

- Brenda & Julie

Central Farmers Market Dates

Hey Locals - Mark your calendar. We just got our second quarter Central Farmers Market dates: April 6th, May 11th & June 15th. Starting next month, the night before our market date, we will post a "COTS quickie" via social media (we knew "quickie" would get your attention). Simply visit us the next day and mention the Secret Saturday Saying and you will get two of our most popular COTS items for the price of one! Yep that's right, you can get two tea towels, wine stops and tile coaster sets (or any combination thereof) for the price of one! Make sure to tell all your friends. Central Farmers Market is located on the southeast corner of Central/Northern in Phoenix and is open every Saturday from 9-1pm.

Ring in Spring Stylishly with COTS

I’m going to be honest with you, I “acquired” this blog entry title from a recent Rue La La e-mail but it sounded so cute that I couldn’t help it!  There is nothing like springtime in the southwest!  This time of year takes us back to a more simple time. Especially in the Phoenix Valley home of COTS headquarters.  When we say “simple time” it’s not in a Little House on the Prairie simple way, but envision The Wonder Years, a simple sort of small town way. I think it’s the spring baseball training games, seeing families walking their dogs, children playing outside and, since Easter is around the corner, Easter egg hunts.

Speaking of Easter (do you like my smooth transition?), we have outdone ourselves and have fabulous Easter and spring tea towel designs available at www.CranberriesOnTheSide.com.  If you’re not already following and/or liking us on Facebook, Twitter, Etsy, and even an occasional Instagram pic into our personal lives, you are missing out because our fans get a sneak preview of our latest designs and we’ll toss out a discount code every now and then to our faithful followers.  Don’t forget our tea towels make the best hostess gifts so if you are invited to Easter dinner or an Easter egg hunt, don’t show up empty-handed!

The first quarter of our Farmers Market appearances are now over and we should be getting our schedule any day now for the next quarter.  We’ll make sure to pass those dates along to you.  We can’t tell you how excited we get when we have repeat customers or people that tell us they received a COTS item as a gift and just had to check us out.  We’re starting to see the rewards of our once tiny idea and inching our way closer to building the COTS empire. When we say “empire” it’s not in a Laverne & Shirley moving to Cali empire way, think bigger, think Mrs. Fields cookie empire or Martha Stewart.

Until next time,

Brenda & Julie

Anniversary

It’s that time. We celebrate our first year of learning, creating, making, selling, and all that comes with getting a new venture off the ground. The commitment we made to each other to get this passion up and running was one year ago. It’s A LOT of work, and it takes a ton of time. You know, we could really use a little more time in the day to make tea towels, or more time to get out to the Farmer’s Market. But since we cannot control that kind of time, we thought about our customers and their precious time. As anniversaries go, the 1^st Anniversary is traditionally celebrated with the gift of PAPER, or the modern gift for year one is a CLOCK. At least this is what Hallmark tells us. Hmm, neither one of us  recalls receiving either paper or a clock on our 1^st anniversary. Next month will be 20 years, and I’ve already checked out the gifts for that kind of investment. Yep, looks like I won’t be getting the traditional or modern gift for year 20 either….china or platinum.  

As a thank you and to celebrate COTS’ year 1 with you, our fabulous customers, we want to save you a little time, and money of course. We do not have any paper or clocks for sale (at least not yet), but we do have deals on the perfect gifts and you won’t need to waste time shopping. Mention “Happy Anniversary” to us and get 2 of the same item for the price of 1 on our most popular COTS sellers. This offer is a 24-hour quickie.  It is good in person this Saturday at the March 2^nd Farmers Market http://www.centralfarmersmarket.com and our Etsy internet boutique http://www.etsy.com/shop/CranberriesOnTheSide on March 2^nd only. Here’s the fine print - The available 2 for 1 items for our anniversary special are our top selling products only: tea towels, wine stops, and coasters. That’s a $10 savings for all you couponers out there!

Happy Anniversary Baby got you on my mind!

Hey, that’s a great line for a song.

Farmers Market Dates

Hello Everyone, I hope your week is going well! We just got our FM dates for the rest of the first quarter and COTS will be there on February 9th & March 2nd. So if you're local, come stop by from 9:00 to 1:00 p.m. at the intersection of Central/Northern in Phoenix. There are wonderful fresh produce, local artists and yummy food trucks. Mmmmm!