Happy 4th Birthday, A Barefoot Gal! + Pen Pal Themed Giveaway

Hello everyone!

Guess what today is! If you answered that it’s either my brothers birthday, Mother’s Day, Frog Jumping Day, or my blog’s fourth blogiversary, you are correct! Since, after all, this is on my blog, I will mainly be discussing that holiday but before we start here’s a little bit on the other holidays. Besides, it would be strange if I went straight to the point, right? I gotta throw in some random stuff first. ๐Ÿ™‚

Holiday The First:

Logan is the tall one with the double baseball cap. (GO NATIONALS! โšพ)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOGAN! My older brother turned… well, older (I can’t say his exact age) today. Logan is not really into any sort of blogging stuff so he’ll probably just raise an eyebrow or something if I tell him you said happy birthday, but you can still wish him happy birthday in the comments. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Basically all of my favorite music artists were found because of Logan and most of my baseball knowledge comes from him. Logan is quite educated in all things baseball. He also is great at speaking German. Well, I don’t know German, but when he says some German snippet it sounds convincing enough. ๐Ÿ˜› So there’s a bit on Holiday The First.

Holiday The Second:

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY, MOM! And happy Mother’s Day to my wonderful Grammy and Grandma too!

My mom does everything from teaching, to cooking, to gardening, and does all of it very well. ๐Ÿ™‚ She’s given me my love of flowers and gardening and told me numerous tricks and tips about this. Actually, that’s an understatement because I have basically learned every gardening thing from her. She also inspired me to start blogging when she started a blog several years ago. Happy Mother’s day to my wonderful mom!

Holiday The Third:

Megan 016

Happy Frog Jumping Day. Yay frogs! The end. 

Holiday The Fourth:

Happpyy birthday to blog! Happy birthday to blog! Happy birthday dear blooggg, happy birthday to blog!

Four years ago today I opened up a blog named A Barefoot Gal. I originally wanted it to be The Barefoot Girl, but that and almost every other version of the name was taken. So A Barefoot Gal it was! I had started three months before with dandelionsanddaisys.wordpress.com, but I didn’t like the name and the URL had a typo, so I switched. (That website eventually turned into WordPress Kid Blogs which you can now find at wpkidblogs.wordpress.com.)

You may or may not have heard that story before, depending on how long you’ve been reading my blog, but my stats are always changing so on to those! ๐Ÿ™‚ I’m scheduling this post so these are as of May 11th, 2018.

All-time views: 90,604

All-time visitors: 18,589

All-time comments: 20,195

All-time likes: 11,552 

Total posts: 525

Total tags (this one is somehow slightly embarrassing. XD): 1,383

Total followers: 1,436

Best views ever: 515 on December 14, 2017

Top referrer: afarmgirlslife.wordpress.com

Most viewed post/post with most likes: Garden Photography

I also have some pretty peculiar searches. The funniest ones have to do with being barefoot: “britt nicole barefooted”, “barefoot survey teen”, “i was barefoot on christmas” (wow, congratulations), “barefoot on barbed wire” (umm… ouch), “going to starbucks barefoot” (xD xD), “going to a fair barefoot”, “girl barefoot painfully cold” (WHAT ON EARTH), “barefoot twins”… you get the point. A lot of them are also from my Bing vs. Google post too: “is bing now better than google” (yup), “reasons why bing is better than google”, “bing better than google 2016”, “dancing puffins on bing” (yay April Fool’s homepage!), “bing is better than google 2016” (and it’s not in 2017 and 2018??),  and “is bing good” (UH YES) are some of them. It’s quite entertaining to look at all the searches.

All in all, it’s been a good four years of blogging! And to celebrate I’m going to do a giveaway for you all! It’s going to be sort of pen-pal themed, but you certainly don’t have to be a pen pal to enter. ๐Ÿ™‚

Are you wondering what I’m going to give away? My featured image may have spoiled some of the surprise, but here are the items in more detail.

What I’m giving away: 

  • a pad of 36 decorative cardstock papers
  • two watercolor leaf-y notebooks with a slightly random quote from Shakespeare on the front. Just pretend it’s not April.
  • ten kraft paper envelopes
  • one roll of doodle-y spring washi tape
  • a surprise item or two (aka something I forgot to take pictures of)

The scrapbook paper has some really pretty patterns in it such as the one above. My sister got the same kind for her birthday and I liked it so I decided to get one for this giveaway. ๐Ÿ™‚ The size of the paper is 6×6 (inches).

Next up are two really pretty watercolor notebooks. The first one has watercolor ferns with the Shakespeare quote in gold, and the second has watercolor tropical leaves and also has the quote in gold. Inside it has lined off-white pages with a section to write the date and little circles to fill in for the day of the week. I got two of these for myself and I was surprised how little showed through when I wrote on one side of a page with a pen!

Here are some brown paper envelopes I got from Hobby Lobby. These are nice and sturdy. I’ve gotten some in the past and they work really well. They are also a fairly large size which is nice for sending rather large letters!

Finally, here’s a cute roll of washi tape to use on envelopes or letters or practically anything else.

There’s also a mystery item as I mentioned before.

Requirements for entering this giveaway:

  • If you are under 18, you have to have parentโ€™s permission to enter this giveaway, because I will need your address to send you these things.
  • When you enter, please include a valid email in the email box because Iโ€™ll be using that to email you if you win. Your email will not be seen by anyone but me.
  • You have to live in the U.S. Sorry, but I’d prefer not to pay that much shipping if you live in a different country.

Bonus entries:

  • Pin the image at the end of this post to Pinterest. 2 extra entries
  • Tell a friend (or as many as you want, but you just get one extra entry per friend). 1 extra entry
  • Reblog this post/mention it in your post. 3 extra entries

How to enter:

Simply fill in this contact form!

THIS GIVEAWAY ENDS ON MAY 24. I will do a post revealing the winner on the 25th!

If you have any questions feel free to ask me in the comments!

Thank you all for reading my posts for four years. ๐Ÿ™‚ I hope you have a wonderful day!

which of the search terms did you find funniest?

favorite item i’m giving away?

PIN THIS IMAGE TO PINTEREST:

139 thoughts on “Happy 4th Birthday, A Barefoot Gal! + Pen Pal Themed Giveaway

  1. Happy Sunday Megan! Happy Motherโ€™s Day as well to your mom. Love the giveaway! Whoever gets it will be very happy. ๐Ÿ™‚ (Remind me to get a roll of washi tape myself.)
    And happy birthday to your brother and to your blog! Has it really been running for 4 years? Wow! -Jo

    Like

      1. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ Hmph… Now, one day, you need to go see a Blue Jay game, and then you’ll see!

        Like

      1. That’s true, I guess XD the Nationals aren’t doing too bad right now…

        Like

      2. Hehe XD Umm I don’t know, Johnny Cueto has been a pretty good pitcher for the Giants, but I wouldn’t say he’s my favorite player…. maybe Brandon Belt… I don’t know XD How about you?

        Like

      3. Okay! Cool! My favorite players are probably Daniel Murphy, Trea Turner, and Max Scherzer (all from the Nats). I like Anthony Rendon too. And from the Cardinals I like Tommy Pham and Jedd Gyorko because of their last names. XD

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Cool! XD XD How many games have you been to? I’ve only been to one ๐Ÿ˜ฆ

        Like

      5. Yeah. I kinda got more interested last year! I’ve always been a little bit of a baseball fan though ๐Ÿ˜‰ Ooh fun! I hope I can go to another sometime soon!
        How did you come to be Nationals fans? Did your parents used to live in Washington or something?

        Like

      6. Yeah, me too! I wasn’t really a sports fan at all until the middle of 2016, but I probably would have said baseball was my favorite sport if I had to choose.
        Nope! (They’re actually Washington DC in case you didn’t know. :D) It was because some friends came over once and we played baseball and then one of the friends was showing my brother and me a Nationals game that was going on that evening. So we kinda became baseball fans from then on and our favorite teams was probably the Nationals just because that was the first baseball game we “saw”. ๐Ÿ˜›

        Liked by 1 person

      7. Yeah! Same! Probably my second favorite sport would be football but I don’t watch that as much. OHHH *face palm* I guess I just assumed they were from Washington XD XD
        Ooh that’s cool! My family has always been baseball fans I just got more interested in it over time and as I got older. XD

        Like

      8. It is XD I don’t get it as much. Really?! My Dad and me (and sometimes my brother but he’s not very old so… XD I think he’s younger than Carmen but probably not by much) are! My Mom and sister sometimes watch but they’re not as obsessed with it ๐Ÿ˜› My Mom loves to listen to it though. A bunch of the rest of my other family is too.

        Like

      9. Yeah. ๐Ÿ˜› I have trouble thinking up ways that football is better than baseball. XD
        Cool! My younger brother will go us if we go to our friends house to watch baseball games (we don’t have cable) sometimes, but he probably wouldn’t consider himself much of a baseball fan. ๐Ÿ™‚ Do you have a second favorite team?

        Liked by 1 person

  2. Happy Birthday to Logan! Happy Mother’s Day! Happy Frog Jumping Day! But most of all… HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY, MEGAN! *throws donkey-shaped confetti* Four years is a long time, and your blog has grown so much since you started blogging! If it wasn’t for your blog, we would never have been pen pals. *faints at the thought* XD
    This is such an amazing giveaway! I’m going to enter as soon as I have a chance to share it on my blog. Congratulations again! Your blog is one of my top favorites! ๐Ÿ˜€

    -Clara โค

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I told him! He said “ah” or something like that. ๐Ÿ˜› Yep! Yep! YEP! YAY! *collects confetti* THANKS CLARA! I know, that is definitely a great part of blogging (the pen pals part)!
      Thank you! HOORAY! Okay, sounds good. Thank you so much Clara!

      Liked by 1 person

  3. CONGRATULATIONS MEGAN!!! That’s awesome! Happy birthday to your brother XD XD I would tell my Mom Happy Mother’s Day, but…. she’s still sleeping ๐Ÿ˜›
    Also Happy Frog Jumping Day??? XD
    Sounds like an awesome giveaway! Hopefully I can enter, I’ll ask my parents soon! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Like

  4. Yay, I’ve entered! I shared it with 5 friends via email, pinned it, and reblogged it. ๐Ÿ™‚ And I did fill the form. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Congratulations on four years!! I hope you’ll continue blogging for many more, because you are sincerely one of my very, very favorites out there. โค
    My favorite search term was either "I was barefoot on Christmas" or "barefoot girl painfully cold." Just…what?! XD
    I have no idea which item is my favorite – they all look amazing. ๐Ÿ˜€

    Like

    1. Hi Enni!
      And yes, Enni and I are Besties (we go to the same Church). She has told me SO much about you, Megan!

      Like

  5. CONGRATULATIONS, MEGAN! Oh, wow. You’ve come SO far! I can’t believe it’s been four years! ๐Ÿ˜ฎ๐Ÿค— Happy Birthday to your bro, Happy Mother’s Day to your mom, and YAY for frogs!!

    I wish you many more fruitful years in the blogging community! โค๏ธ

    -Bekah ๐Ÿ’•

    P.S. I think I’m going to enter the giveaway, but I’m going to ask my parents. I’ll be sure to let you know what I decide!

    Like

  6. HAPPY BLOGIVERSARY! *throws confetti* Also HA HA this post was very entertaining to read, and I won’t be entering the giveaway since I’m your sister and all, but it looks great! ๐Ÿ˜€

    Liked by 2 people

  7. Happy birthday, Logan and A Barefoot Gal! I love decorative paper and journals but can’t do giveaways. ๐Ÿ˜ฆ How come May 25th is getting more and more events happening for me?? It’s kind of weird but exciting. ๐Ÿ˜€

    Like

  8. Happy Birthday to your blog, and to your brother! And Happy Mother’s Day to your mom, and happy frog jumping day (LOL!)! Hahaha ๐Ÿ˜›
    I’m so excited for the giveaway! I entered everything, although I can’t post about it till the 17th when I’ll do my next post, but you receive emails about my posts so if I include it on my post on the 17th, will that count for the extra entries? ๐Ÿ™‚ Also, the image at the end, it wouldn’t pin…but I pinned your post so I hope that works!!!
    I”m so excited, isn’t it funny, I don’t know if you saw this but my post I did on my blog last night was “6 ways to make your pen-pals day” and then you did this, so cool!
    I love you blog so much, thank you for doing such an incredible job! ๐Ÿ™‚

    Like

    1. Thank you! Haha!
      I’m excited you’re excited! Okay, that will work! And pinning the post works too. ๐Ÿ˜‰
      Oh yeah, I did see that! Haha! That is funny. ๐Ÿ™‚
      Why thank you Livy! I’m glad you like it. I always enjoy your comments!

      Liked by 1 person

  9. WOOOOHOOOO MEGAN! *throws confetti* HAPPY FOURTH BIRTHDAY TO A BAREFOOT GAL! Wow, that’s a long time. O.o Well, relatively. I chuckled a few times reading this, Megan. XD Also EPIC giveaway. I entered. Oh and happy birthday to Logan, too…I STILL don’t know why he likes Red but I guess he and I shall have to hammer that out next month. XD “barefoot girl painfully cold”? Well sometimes. How often DO you go barefoot, Megan? I’ve always wondered…

    Like

    1. THANKS ARIA!! I’m going to need to vacuum my blog after this with all the confetti throwing going on. BUT THANKS! It is a long time. GOOD. XD I’m glad you like my epic giveaway! I almost got some of the notebooks you gave away in that giveaway I won. Yes you shall have to hammer that out. I don’t believe I’ve even ever mentioned anything about being painfully cold, so I’m slightly puzzled about that one. Excellent question! I go barefoot pretty much all the time I’m not in public in the spring/summer (unless we’re walking through the woods or something – then I’ll often wear shoes) and occasionally in colder seasons, but usually only briefly. *nods*

      Like

      1. Dear dear, yes indeed. YOU ARE WELCOME. *bows* oh THAT’S RIIGHT! I completely forgot you won my giveaway back then! Man, that was a long time ago. Heh heh, yeah, that is surprising. I go barefoot all the time inside but I put shoes on outside. I’ve already had such trouble walking into barbed wire and protruding bolts and such that I wouldn’t want to step on anything like that. O.o I go barefoot all the time inside in fall and winter too AND I wear flip-flops in the winter outside. XD That information was just in case you were interested. *nods*

        Like

      2. Yep! I’m still using one of the notebooks. Yeah I’m barefoot inside except sometimes when I was wearing tennis shoes so I wear them for the rest of the day. Yes, punctured feet are the downside of walking barefoot. Thank you for that information. XD

        Like

      3. Wow, those lasted a long time. I go through my notebooks fast. Especially when I used them for school. I took over two notebooks just for history. Ha ha, you are welcome. Also ouch.

        Like

Leave a Comment! (Please, keep it clean. No "OMG" or cursing/swearing/taking God's name in vain please.)