one year + a giveaway

I'm not sure if you know this, but one year ago today I started this blog. So today would be my one year blogiversary! I went back and reread my very first intro post and it kind of made me laugh because I feel like I sound kind of serious. No photos whatsoever, just a few paragraphs trying to explain myself and my current career switch so that my life might make more sense to anyone willing to read. :)

Oh, remember when this was going to be Halloween Treat Week? Yea, here's something you should know about me.. I'm a great planner, but not always great at executing those plans. After a few flopped recipes that didn't seem blog worthy, I threw my hands up and decided that as good recipes came along, I would post them randomly. So that's where that is.

So today, for fun, I have some stats about the blog from over the past year. Then, I have a little giveaway for you because I want to thank you for making this an amazing year for me. My lil blog is still in its growing phase but I think I've come a long way from feeling like I was talking to a wall for months, to actually having people comment and carry out conversations with me!

But anywho.. the fun part. These are the most popular posts from my first year. It may even be how some of you found me!

Top 10 most viewed blog posts..
made in the 80's
chronic bitchface
ball jar jack-o-lanterns
hair dye fever
summer thoughts
gingey
pumpkin pie spiced coffee
homemade hot chocolate
caramel buttermilk loaf cafe
stuff i love

My thoughts on this.. if you want to drive more traffic to your blog, write a post about 80's clothing. Totally kidding, but you would not believe how many people have come to this blog from looking up 80's costumes and such. Crazy! I bet some of you reading even got here that way! ;)

Also, I'm glad many others related to me on the chronic bitchface front. Kris Atomic is a damn genius for finally giving that plight a name. I'm glad you guys found me cause we bitchfacers gotta stick together! :)

I'm not going to go on about all of them, don't worry ;) but I was surprised to see my jar pumpkins shoot up there so fast! I love those little guys so I'm glad to see them get their time to shine.

I also had a lot of people find me from looking for hair dye tips, mostly about bleaching and putting light colors over dark colors and such. If anyone would like to talk about that at any point, feel free to email me, twitter me, whatever, cause if you can do it to hair, I've probably done it, and I'm not bald yet. ;)

So that's probably enough reminiscing.. onto the giveaway! This is my very first giveaway so I tried really hard to think about the majority of my readers' interests and this is what I kept thinking.. a Tenpenny Splendid reader is a lot like me.. we all like to make lists, obsessively even ;) ..most of us are artists or aspiring artists or experimenting with new crafts and techniques.. and we like to be very planned and organized.

So..

One lucky reader will get a Moleskine gift pack!

{source}

Giveaway is closed! Thanks for entering!

What comes in this you ask? Well that depends on who wins! We'll talk about your current interests and creative needs and I will set up a pack for you. The possibilities include planners, sketchbooks, watercolor books, pocket journals, etc. Hopefully some of you are into this idea so I don't end up just shopping for myself. ;)

To enter..
1. Follow Tenpenny Splendid on either GFC or Bloglovin, and let me know you're doing so in the comments.

Additional entries.. (make a separate comment for each)
2. Follow Tenpenny Splendid on Twitter.
3. Tweet about this giveaway.
4. Write about the giveaway in a blog post.

That's it! I'll have the giveaway open for at least a week but maybe longer if it's sad and no one enters. ;)

Good luck and have a great weekend!