'Tis the Season

It's that time of year again, truly one of my favorites--- planting season! In a few weeks, my husband and I will be headed up past Lambertsville, NJ to pick up our organic hot pepper & tomato plants. Cross Country Nurseries is not only a gorgeous place to visit, but it boasts one of the larges selection of organic hot pepper plants I've ever seen - 500 different varieties! They also have 180 different types of tomatoes, and 60 kinds of eggplants. The nursery has been owned & operated by Janie & Fernando since 1993. It's only 1 hour north of Philadelphia, and 1 hour south of New York City- there's no excuse why you shouldn't pick up some of their plants in person, and experience standing in their greenhouses, oohing and aahing over all their gorgeous plants! We always end up getting a couple more plants on a whim, which makes it even more exciting.

Our plants from last year waiting to go back to their new home in Philly.


The varieties of basil they have would blow you away! They even grow Holy Basil here!





We like to grow some of the hottest peppers we can find. My husband, Neil, uses them to make the best hot sauce I've ever had. The Fatalii peppers (below) are my particular favorite for hot sauce.

Some "garden variety" hot sauce from 2011:

CLOSED: Pin to Win!

Announcing the "PIN to WIN" Giveaway for a chance to win a $50 Gift Certificate, good towards anything & everything in the Xenotees shop!

Here are the rules:
a) Pin any item from my Etsy shop onto Pinterest. Each post = 1 entry.
b) Then copy & paste the link to your Pinterest post as a comment. (A separate comment for each post please!)
c) Post this giveaway on Twitter for 1 additional entry.

Deadline is 10pm EST / January 22nd. The drawing will take place at 11:59pm EST on January 22nd and a winner will randomly be selected from all the entries made, so the more you Pin, the better chance you have to Win! Best of luck to everyone! The winner will be announced on Sunday, January 23rd. If you're interested on following my pins,I'm here.

You Sentimental Idiot: We are gigantic fans of Xenotees. Sharing a few ...

You Sentimental Idiot: We are gigantic fans of Xenotees. Sharing a few ...: "We are gigantic fans of Xenotees . Sharing a few shots of my daughter modeling her tees. She has practically grown up in them! We are a..."

Xenotees in France!

France 098, originally uploaded by annienicole.

Courtesy of my lovely sister, Annie! (She is fluent & helped to make sure the French was correct on the Pet Lobster Design!)

First Blueberries

First Blueberries, originally uploaded by Xenotees™.

I started growing blueberries in 2 containers last year. This year we have actual blueberries & they are delicious. Usually you have to wait a couple of years for any fruit!

Home Heartbreakers

Some of my favorite ceramic & glass home finds on Etsy. The Postcup™ has been on my list for a while (I'll be getting one soon!), and I just gave my mom that clever, gorgeous glass heart for her birthday. Needless to say, she flipped out over the design, the fact that it came from a Newcastle bottle, and even the packaging!

Listed in a clockwise direction:

• Transparent Heart by westernartglass (Love at first sight!)
  
• Porcelain Heart Magnets by NewMoonStudio (Wow!)
• Heart Shaped Bowl by ChrissyAnnCermaics (So elegant!)
• Postcup™ by BaileyDoesntBark (An instant favorite!)
  

Little Miss Metal

Any lady would be lucky to receive these for Valentine's Day. (hint hint, Neil!) I have the lace ring, and it's melded into my hand- when I'm not wearing it I feel out-of-sorts. I can imagine you'd feel the same about these other pieces! (Although you'd have to be a little more careful with the frond ring!) Oh how I'd love to add the other 3 pieces to my collection!

Listed in a clockwise direction:

• Infinity Ring by Sudlow (I have been coveting this one for quite a while)
• Skeleton Key Bottle Opener by Contrary (form + function, how could you NOT love that?)
• Frond Ring by BrillianceFound (incredible + so unique!)
• Victorian Lace Ring by theBlackSpotBooks (wearing it right now)
  
  
  

Xenotees is hot on Lookbook!

Thanks to Eve, who posted a look that is currently trending on Lookbook. She is wearing one of my newest additions to the Xenoshop, a striped French Pet Lobster shirt!

Fresh Mustard Seeds

Fresh Mustard Seeds, originally uploaded by Xenotees™.

from my garden...

Home grown fatali + jalapeño Peppers in a Wobbly Bowl!

Home grown fatali + jalapeño Peppers in my Wobbly Bowl!, originally uploaded by Xenotees™.

More Wobbly wares can be found at AtelierBB on Etsy. Love her shop!

20% Off Sale!

Use Coupon Code: TEETIME in my shop to receive 20% off your entire order!

First Fatali Peppers of the Year

First Fatalils of the Year, originally uploaded by Xenotees™.

Naming Names: monkeysalwayslook

With a name like monkeysalwayslook, how could you not be curious? Ever since the time I first discovered Allison's amazing Etsy shop, I wondered what the name was all about. Some weird zoo experience- an excerpt from a novel, or maybe it was a succulent I'd never heard of? What I really like about Allison, besides her body of work, is her teasing, joking sense of humor that she's not afraid to unleash on those she doesn't know that well, (in my experience at least), and it I found it totally refreshing!!

OK, back to the name... I went to the source, of course of course:

Says Allison:

"I really wanted a name that embodied who I was. Which basically is a dorky goofball that loves to joke and tease the ones I love. I thought about a name for a really long time, mostly during work hours when I was working for a really mean horrible boss. I wanted something that was catchy, so people could remember it, and also made people smile. I also wanted to be generic in meaning so that I wasn't stuck with something like Hedge Hats: Pet Hedgehog Clothing and Accessories, since I wanted to expand my business in many different ways. Finally one day, like all brilliant ideas, it totally just popped into my head.

I was about 3 years old when I really remember learning and emulating the best joke ever! It was telling someone to look at something completely preposterous and unbelievable and when they looked over in the direction I was pointing I would scream MONKEYS ALWAYS LOOK!!!!!!!!! Not totally original or ever all that funny, but as a preschooler that was the best I had and I thought was the funniest thing EVER. My poor parents were the target of this joke for years until my sister Meredith (who is 5 years younger) came along. "

How many of us have those made up childhood expressions, those inside jokes, that few are privy too? One of mine is "Joy loves Keith", but that's another story altogether...

Well, in conclusion, I just love that she came up with the name of her creative empire in preschool- don't you?! Thank you Allison for cluing us all in!

More monkeysalwayslook here (or as she says Blah blah blah) :

Etsy
Official Website
Twitter
Blog
Facebook

next up: TBD

Fabulous Bookend Buys

Bookends - not only an amazing Simon and Garfunkel song, but an essential versatile gift idea! If you haven't picked out a Father's Day gift yet, make sure to keep these in mind! Here are some of m my favorite far-out bookend finds on Etsy:

Vintage Travertine From Death Valley Bookends, Antique Historic Specimen 1949 from VintageZen

Mugshot Bookends made from reclaimed oak by PegandAwl

A Pair of Dollhouse Bookends for 1/12 scale miniatures by BambisMinis

Vintage METAL Numbers from sweetshorn

Bookushions - ceramic bookends by Djenya

Naming Names: Nanouke

Ana of Nanouke is one of the first people I had the pleasure of meeting on Etsy. When you visit her shop, you'll immediately see how her beautiful & vibrant personality is reflected in her fabulous wire creations. One of the reasons her shop name spoke to me was that I once had a cat named Nunivak, named after an island off the coast of Alaska, so it seemed familiar and wonderful right away. I had to ask her how she decided on the name, Nanouke, especially since she's from Portugal!

From Ana:

"I wanted my shop to be called nanouk, it's the name of an Eskimo in a documentary (although for many years I though it was a polar bear name, so it was a little disappointing to find out that it was a man's name). But it was taken, by a girl that have this name! How cool to be named Nanouk!

Her shop name was bizoontee, so I asked her if she'd mind if I named my shop Nanouke and she was really nice about it, so.. here I am!

I was Boo for some years, but despite it looks really nice with my knitted bags and hats, I thought the knitted wire asked for a more fancy name."

Thank you for sharing the story behind your Etsy shop name Ana!

Mother's Earth Day

Some picks from a few of my favorite Etsy shops for Mother's Day! Since it comes so closely after Earth Day, I've chosen items that are all recycled into beautiful creations that would also make wonderful gifts for Mom. (The exception being Crafterall's wall topo - she gives all of her paper scraps to Greenpost, so they can be turned into plantable gift tags.)

Elm Leaf and Seeds Sterling Silver Necklace by WesternArtGlass, $72

Topography in Teal No. 5 by Crafterall, $25

Violet Floral Recycled Cedar Record Frame MAGNET BOARD & Magnets by Polarity, $30

Mama and Baby Polar Bears by littleloveblue, $80

Birdhouse Rustic Orange Quirky Vintage Faucet Wren House by baconsquarefarm, $20



GP Plantable Tags DAISY by Greenpost, $7.50

Introducing the Giant Fortune Scarf!

Remember the poll I had a while back? Where I asked you what fortunes you like the best? Well, here is the result! Giant Fortune (cookie) Scarves with the two fortunes that were most popular.

I have this one and one other in the shop right more, but I will be adding some more in the very near future.

BIG NEWS!

Official Xenotees shop is open for business!

Naming Names: 3Squares

When I first discovered Jean's Etsy shop, 3squares, I instantly fell in love with her jewelry and product photography. Sometimes when I come across a shop, I don't always pay close attention to the names of pieces- I take things in more visually. When I realized Jean had pieces called Eggs Benedict and Bananas Foster, I had a huge wake-up call. For some reason I had been taking her shop name too literally, think of three actual squares [] [] [] - NOT thinking of 3 square meals! Well, I instantly felt ignorant, but completely awed at the same time. Really, how clever and wonderful is that shop name + shop theme?!

Here is how Jean came about choosing this unique theme:

"I love to cook. I don’t know where that came from – no one in my family spends much time in the kitchen. When I was about 12, I started stealing my sister’s Seventeen magazines and trying the recipes. I still make that Chicken Cacciatore. But I digress…

One of the first pieces of jewelry I created was a square layered mixed-metal pendant with various holes. Swiss Cheese. Then another piece. Poppy Bagel. Yes, I noticed a definite pattern. When it was time to name my business, I wanted it food-related, but not too literal. The idea of three square meals a day came to mind. And since much of my work has a geometric sense to it, the name 3squares just felt right."

Make sure to check out her work! Her shop is better than a big basket of freshly baked biscuits!

Next Up: Nanouke

POLL: Need your input!