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!

Love is in the Air

     Okay be honest, how many of you can hear the groovy 70’s song in your head now? But really? Already? You can’t go to any store (umm, including ours www.cranberriesontheside.com) without seeing some sort of Valentine’s Day decoration or candy. Retailers were starting to put it out before Christmas! Sheesh, I’m still trying to recover from Christmas. But here at COTS there is no rest for the weary. Although, we’re not as fast as the major retailers, which is probably a good thing, we have come up with some “oh so fab” COTS tea towel designs for you, your friends, your lover, and don’t forget your mom, who was probably your first-ever true valentine.

     You can continue to find us Saturdays at the Central Farmers Market once a month (see our scheduled dates below), and of course look at our website and shop online at our etsy boutique. Brand new items are waiting to be shipped to your door step today.

     So as you can see, Love is in the Air!



Ring in 2013!

Oh what a year 2012 has been for COTS!  If you have been following our story, you know 2012 was the year it all began.  It has been a year of creativity, learning, laughs, hard work, late nights but most of all, a lot of fun!  What can our faithful customers expect for 2013?  . . . More great designs for COTS’ classic tea towels, tile coasters and wine stops, faster posting of our items on Etsy and a couple more “popular” items to add to the COTS classic designs, just to name a few. 

Before we ring in 2013, I’m sure many of you will be wrapping up 2012 by putting away the holiday décor.  I will admit that I loath dragging out the holiday decorations. It’s more of a love/hate thing. Hate the thought of the actual “dragging” of bins, boxes, and bags, but love the moment when it’s all lit up and you can actually see the finished product. The in-between prep work is a blur!  There’s something so unnatural about “fluffing” up a Christmas tree but I just gave in to the notion that it was an Arizona thing to do and why is it always a struggle to get all the lights working?  After all the work is done, the end result is so beautiful!  Lights, garland and ornaments everywhere, one can’t help but get into a festive mood.  Until Hallmark makes the holiday season a year long celebration, all the beautiful decorations do need to be put away.  Here’s my holiday clean-up tip for you.  Go to your local grocery retailer and get a wine case box to store your ornaments (or if you’re like Brenda and me, wine is purchased by the case so you already have a box or two).  These boxes will hold TONS of ornaments.

Finally from Brenda and me, thank you for helping COTS become our little success story for 2012!  The master plan is that this will be our 1^st success story of many. Not one to make resolutions, but rather reflect and continue to make progress to move towards next year’s success story. We’ve met repeat customers and have received wonderful feedback and support.  We are grateful and will continue to do what we love and that’s Cranberries on the Side!  (Update from our last post:  Our website is up and running hooray!  www.CranberriesOnTheSide.com)

Grand Opening!

I think since I last blogged, we were busily trying to get the last minute things done to open up our online boutique (www.etsy.com/shop/cranberriesontheside).  Our goal was to open in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  We managed to do that and had three sales before the end of the weekend!  Woohoo!!!  Naturally, we aren’t able to retire from our day jobs and run COTS full time but, let me tell you, dreams of cranberries were dancing in our heads.

Of course we’re still working on some major details such as getting our main website up and running - yeesh what a nightmare for the tech challenged.  Once the dust settles, we’re hoping to have our online boutique, blog and website in one location.  Keep your fingers crossed that happens soon.

In the meantime, we just love this time of year and never think there’s enough hours in the day to get it all done.  I have half of the Christmas decorating done, baking still to do and, of course, filling all the COTS orders we’re getting either online or in-person.  If you’re local to the Phoenix Valley, we’ll be back at the Central Farmers Market on Saturday 12/1, 12/8 and 12/15.  We have the BEST $20 and under gifts for everyone on your list so check us out and tell a friend.

Through all the holiday hustle and bustle take time to enjoy each other and the sights and smell of the season. 

Merry Christmas!

Brenda and Julie

Countdown

     Oh my goodness there is so much to do to get a business up and running!  There’s test marketing to find out which products sell, licenses, website, photos, blogging, social networking . . . of course you can’t have a business if you don’t have a product and I know I have must have forgotten something. Luckily, I’m not doing this alone and have a fabulous business partner.  Brenda and I are like most of you, we both have demanding jobs and family (not implying that our families are demanding, well not all the time) and we both have our own successful business.  Why in the world would we take on this endeavor known as Cranberries on the Side?  We just love and believe what COTS is all about.  It’s about life’s little accessories that puts a little special something to what you and/or your children are wearing or have around your home while still making it all look effortless.  Will things always be perfect?  We’d like to think so but there is only one of us and just 24 hours in a day, and besides, the universe (specifically our husbands) can only deal with one invisible crown wearing perfectionists at a time.  Therefore, we may not blog as often or have our fabulous products in as many boutiques (although our towels are currently in three locations thanks to Brenda) our promise to you is that we will never ever skimp on quality or passion that we have for COTS!  So we invite you to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, pin all our cute accessories on Pinterest because although Brenda and I have each other, we can’t do it without you.  That’s right, we’re counting on you to tell your friends where you got that great COTS bag, tea towel with the cute saying, one-of-a-kind wine stop and coasters or precious baby onesie . . . just to name a few of our great items.  You know what I find exciting about this whole endeavor, is that like fine wine, it will only get better with time.

     Brenda and I send our thoughts and prayers to everyone affected on the East Coast by Hurricane Sandy.