Barack's Speech--The American Promise

For those of you who are new to Sandbox Threads, we're a small business based in North Carolina, and while I now live in NC, I am still a Tennessee boy, born and bread. Being a southern boy, I was raised and continue to live in a "red state," but I'm a true, blue Democrat. Many of my friends are Republicans. We disagree. We argue. And in election years, we try to avoid politics all together. But my Republican friends are good people. They love America as much as I love this country. And at the end of the day, we still love and care for one another.

So for those folks who happen to stumble upon Sandbox Threads and see our many left leaning designs, and our unapologetic support for Barack Obama, you may not like all of our designs. You may not agree with our backing of Barack Obama. You may not agree with political baby shirts in general. But we still know, you're good people, and I bet if you take the time to look around, you'll find a design or two that you like.

Also, I want to elect Obama, and I'm going to, in my little way, try to help spread his message. I drank the kool aid and the kool aid was good. Watch if you like or go on shopping if you've already seen the speech, but liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican, we're just a small American business living the American dream.

If you missed it, here's Michelle Obama

My dad owned a small business for over 30 years, and he told me that I should refrain from talking politics or religion with customers. Normally, I would agree with him, but with all the misinformation that continues to float around the internet about Barack and Michelle Obama, I cannot just sit by without trying to stop the spread of rumor and innuendo, and replace the distorted (highly edited) clips with unedited clips. How better to get to know someone than to actually listen to that person's story first hand rather than through someone else's eyes?

The "right" has done a good job of painting the Obama's as un-American. I believe that if you take the time to actually get to know these guys, and listen to what they have to say, then you will see that they have a lot more in common with you than you may currently recognize. The Obama's aren't nearly as "scary" as you might think. I know how worried I was driving our son and daughter home from the hospital (see Michelle's remark near the end of the speech). Can't you relate? And checkout the smile on Barack's face and pride in his eyes when he sees his girls, you can't fake that smile? That's a father's smile at his kids. Now, I know for sure, that you can relate.

And if after you watch, you decide that you're now a Mama for Obama or a Pop for Barack, then Sandbox Threads has the shirt for you (well, a shirt for your little Obama supporter that is). And if you still support the other guy, we do have a Republican Elephant design that you might like, but watch again just to make sure.

I Am Not a Scrapbooker...

...but I do like the "scrapbook" look for websites including Sandbox Threads. What I mean by "scrapbook" look is the vintage/retro layers on top of layers with handwritten notes, doodles, pictures, tape, photo tabs, etc. And while in not way does our sites look nearly as good as the constantly changing Free People, we're also not a multimillion dollar business with full-time web designers. It's just me, the Dad of Sandbox Threads balancing the many hats of SBT and being a stay/work at home dad. I think overall, our site looks pretty darn good for someone with zero web design experience prior to opening SBT.

I did find a really cool site today that does the hard scrapbooking work for you though. It's call Scrapblog, and the above picture of Maya (isn't she a cutie?) was done from a template on the site. I just added the picture and changed the text. It's really very easy and they have tons of templates to choose from. Thought you guys might like the site. Enjoy!

New Colors for Fall

With the temperature outside in the 90s, it makes me hot just thinking about long-sleeve shirts, but that's what I'm here tell you about.

Sandbox Threads has just introduced two new color choices for fall. In the above picture, Johnny Cash in printed our new "rust" colored t-shirt, and the "yet to be introduce" owl design is printed on our "lavender" onesie. Not pictured are our rust onesies and lavender/purple baseball style raglan shirts.



We hope you like the new colors, and check back soon for new designs to go along with these new color choices. Have a great weekend!

Funky Finds Likes Us Too.

Apparently, it's a big review day for Sandbox Threads. Funky Finds has also featured Sandbox Threads in a nice write-up. It's funny, but we can go months without anyone writing about us and then over the course of a few days, we have several sites posting all at the same time.

Regardless, we thank the good folks at Funky Finds.

Mamanista's Follow-up Review

One of the many cool things about running Sandbox Threads is forming "cyber-relationships," and although my wife and I actually did meet through Yahoo! Personals, that's not what I mean by "cyber-relationships.

I've met a whole bunch of people (a few thousand) since Sandbox Threads opened, but I've only met (in person) a handful. The folks that I've met have watched as Sandbox Threads and our family has grown. And I have watched as their kids have gone from wearing a 3-6 month onesie to a 2T shirt. These relationships are my favorite part of running SBT.
One of the folks that I've met along the way is Candace over at Mamanista, whose family is also about to expand, and whose daughter Lilah has grown-up very fast. You can see Lilah on one our slideshows sporting our Milk & Cookie, BFF shirt. And you can see her today, as Mamanista does a follow-up of Sandbox Threads, wearing Janis Joplin on our baby rib dress.
Thanks Candace and Mamanista for helping us build more "cyber-relationships"! And be sure to check out the review, you might just receive a discount on your order.

The Responsibility Project

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the We Can Solve It initiative, and as part of that post, I mentioned the Liberty Mutual Commercials where one person helps out a stranger who in turn helps the next and so on.

After that post, something pretty cool happened. I received an email from Liberty Mutual thanking me for my post, and pointing me to their new project, The Responsibility Project. How they found out that the Dad of Sandbox Threads blogged about their commercial is beyond me, but they did. The project is a pretty neat idea, and I think you might enjoy taking a look.

After you're done over there, be sure to come back and take a look around Sandbox Threads too. We have some pretty neat stuff too.