It’s really a great, versatile pattern – and it whips up so easy! We dig it, and we think you’ll dig it, too. Most importantly, though – it’s so comfortable and easy to wear, your little ones are really going to dig it!

To the point: BRAND NEW LilyGiggle.com launched today! Very new look – a serious collaboration between Beth and me. Mostly Beth saying – this goes there and me saying “Yes, ma’am.” We’re excited to have a much more integrated shopping cart, instant downloads on EVERYTHING, including our fabulous and money-saving bundles. Ever want to get LilyGiggle patterns for 5 bucks each? Well NOW YOU CAN – with instant downloads. SWEET! We’ve got a lot more in store for LilyGiggle.com and LilyGiggle in general. We’ve got a couple of minor issues to iron out (the royal we…) but it’s up and humming and looking almost as good as my wife’s designs.

Secondly – you can get a blog just like LilyGiggle.com – FREE. Yes, that’s my favorite price, too. I’m launching a little side business – CraftyMamaBlogs.com. What you get is a great blog setup using the same software (WordPress) and an insanely awesome, feature-packed and easy-to-use theme of your choice – PLUS it has Ecommerce built right in. Sweet, right? The graphics, of course, are up to you* – but you’ll have a great looking site right out of the gates – and you can easily customize it and change it up to look just the way you want. It’s free, it has built-in tutorial videos and a lot of other great features – plus (I may have mentioned this) it’s FREE. All you have to do is sign up for a hosting account (you’ll need hosting anyway,) and you’re good-to-go, with accounts starting at $3.96 per month. I’ll install and set up everything, hand you the keys and away you go. You own your domain name, you have your own server, and you have your own awesome website. I’ll also be putting up some great how-to videos with marketing tips, website tweaks and some great business ideas and resources. You’ll have access to all that – for FREE! FREE! FREEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

These sites aren’t limited to crafts and mamas – they can be used for anything. Businesses, personal blogs, photography galleries – anything.

So – check out both sites. Let us know what you think. Buy some patterns, get your own site – and Sew Some Happy!

Beth has been hard at work on a few very cool patterns (and I say that as a man – the’re terrific) and they’ll be ready for release very soon. She’s really an incredible person, and I watch in amazement  (if you don’t mind me gushing for a moment.) She’s been working on a lot of other projects, maintaining our house and teaching and rearing our 4 (hundred) children. She works really hard, really long and she loves us all through it. She knocked out an awesome art-nouveau dress for a local art show – really, really cool. I’m super proud, obviously. You go girl.

On the website front (which is more of my realm,) we’re going to have some big updates, including instant downloads of our bundles. So – you can order our awesome, money-saving pattern bundles and have the ability to download instantly. We’re going to have more blogging, freebies and we’re going to start offering ads. Oh – and the newsletter will be rocking in March. Sign up – it’ll be really great.

So – what I’m saying is this: Stay tuned and check back often. You’re gonna like what we’re up to. Plus – my wife rocks.

Believe it or not, LilyGiggle was once in the business of selling soft soled baby shoes. In an effort, to keep this post from becoming a novel, I will keep the details of the transformation from shoes to patterns to a minimum, but shoes were my first love. I developed a pattern for them soon after the birth of my first daughter and LilyGiggle shoes was born in 2006.

Because of that, my friend, Asher, contacted me after returning from her life-altering first trip to Zambia in 2010 to see if I could help her come up with a shoe. She shared with me what she had seen over there and what she wanted to do about it. I was deeply moved. A simply horrible parasite, that the people call “jiggers”, has a simple cure…closed toed shoes. Asher’s dream was to put closed toed shoes on the feet of all those children. A shoe that would protect them from the awful effects of jiggers that eat away the skin and causes illness. I know that this photo is so hard to look at. What if this was your child’s foot? I can’t imagine.

I was thrilled to offer what little bit of shoemaking knowledge I had to help and, with a newborn baby on my lap, and our collective kiddos running amok, Sole Hope began as 3 mamas sat around on Asher’s living room floor surrounded by upholstery fabric and old tires. Many days were spent that way as we worked desperately to create the very first shoe.

Well, Sole Hope has come a long way, baby! From those first humble beginnings it has grown into an organization fueled by passionate, committed people who are, not only, putting closed toed shoes on African children, one pair at a time, but also helping African men and women by teaching them the simple trade of shoemaking. This gives them a sustainable income and hope for their future. After many attempts and failures we finally created a shoe design that works and is being made in Africa right now. Can you see why this excites me?

Last spring, part of the Sole Hope team made another trip to Uganda and Zambia. I made a handful of baby shoes from my old LilyGiggle shoe patterns for the team members to pass along to some needy children. It was good to make baby shoes again. This photo is so precious to me!

And this one made me just plain cry when I first received it. To think that a darling little toddler in a land that still only exists for me in my imagination is wearing a pair of shoes that will keep her healthy…and that I made them with my own two hands. How cool is that???

After their return, it was decided that we would make more baby shoes. The original design was tweaked and sewn up several times until a fresh new look was created. This new shoe became the Sole Hope Baby Shoe and is now sold online and in boutiques around the country to raise funds for the organization. Made mostly from recycled materials, including a recycled rubber sole, each shoe is unique. They are handmade right here in the U.S. (creating jobs right here at home) and they are loaded with personality! I cannot even begin to describe how amazing it feels to know that the simple little shoe pattern that I made to put shoes on my first sweet baby girl has now been given new life and is generating income to help sustain such an awesome dream!

Here’s my newest baby girl, Hope, modeling the shoe for you. No, I did not name her after Sole Hope (she was born and named Hope just a few weeks before Sole Hope began) but it may make me like Sole Hope even more because of the name.

Look at all those cute shoes!

Okay, so why am I telling you the story of how I became involved with Sole Hope??? Well…so glad that you asked!

I want to give my readers an opportunity to act. It feels SOOO good to give. “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”–Mother Teresa

Although, Sole Hope has grown by leaps and bounds it still has a long way to go in fully accomplishing its goals. Its potential is enormous but, like any non-profit, it needs money to get there. Right now, it has been given an AH-mazing opportunity to be awarded the money it needs to build a facility in Ndola, Zambia through a contest sponsored by Cultivate Wines. The money would go towards a building in Ndola, Zambia to serve the community there. This building would store sewing machines, materials, and finished shoes as well as provide the space needed to teach shoemaking and sanitation classes.

So what “small thing” can you do to help this cause so very dear to my heart? Well, first of all you can vote. The opportunity is a contest so Sole Hope needs votes to win. Now, the contest is full of great causes so you may find one there that you would rather vote for. I know many of you have your own worthy causes dear to your heart. What I’m asking you to do is just to go check out Sole Hope for yourself, watch the video and decide if you think it deserves to win $50,000. If you do, then, by all means…vote for it! You can vote every day until March 30th. That one minute out of your day has the potential to create long lasting effects for many people and for years to come.

Sole Hope Promo 2012 from jason garris on Vimeo.

If you have read this far…THANK YOU!!! I know this was a long post but I really did my very bestest to condense it as much as possible. I have SO much to say on this subject. Thanks so much for letting me share this with you.

You can vote by going here.

This dude, Jimmy McBride makes these incredible quilts of stellar objects – with the “Pillars of Creation” pictured – and I am IN LOVE.

At 12 large a pop, I probably won’t be sleeping under one of these bad boys – but I can certainly dream about it while I’m snuggled under the beautiful (if somewhat tattered) quilt my Aunt Elaine sent us many moons ago. It’s cosmic in it’s own way…

Check this dude out on Etsy – and check out his blog. It’s got lots of photos of his process, recipes for pickled eggs and tons of sufficiently geeky stuff. Sweet Monday! Have a great week!

Just a few more tweaks to the tutorial and it will be ready to go…yay!

HooLovesYouBaby Winner is….
JENNIFER (3rd Comment…don’t have your last name) !!!

Next up is the Bullfrogs & Butterflies Winner…
JESSICA MARKEN !!!

The lucky Nikki, In Stitches Winner is…
MONICA (25th Comment…don’t have your last name, either)!!!

Who won the Dancing Freckle prize???
SARA UPSHAW !!!

Who gets a Facebook Fan Page Makeover courtesy of my very own super hubby???
SONJA PERTEET !!!

And finally…who gets all those upcoming patterns from me???
IANA !!!

A super great big THANK YOU for all of you who took the time to enter and share…I really do know how incredibly blessed I am to have such amazing customers and LilyGiggle fans. You all are THE BEST!

I will be sending each winner an email so if your name is listed as a winner be on the lookout for it!

Good night…

Each sponsor is in a separate post so that you can choose which ones to enter or go ahead and enter them all…I sure would if I could! I will be adding more as we go along so keep checking back! When I hit 1150 fans I am going to start drawing names…oooooh….gonna be so fun! Guess what? The winner of each prize also gets to pick out a FREE pattern from my own shop as a special bonus…any pattern they want.

Now, we need to get the word out about this awesome Giveaway so that LilyGiggle gets to that magic 1150 number and the prizes start going out SOOOOOO let’s spread the word. The winner of this prize will win EVERY NEW PATTERN I MAKE FOR A YEAR! How do you win this prize??? First you must “like” LilyGiggle on Facebook and SHARE this Giveaway on Facebook to get an entry. Share this Giveaway on your blog and get an entry. Share it on both and get 2 entries. Just be sure and let me know by commenting below! The winner gets to be the first member of the LilyGiggle Pattern Club!