Happy 1 Year Blog Birthday!

HAPPY FIRST BLOG BIRTHDAY

TO ALL OF US!!!

Ruffles and diet Coke for everyone!!! LOL! It's true... can you see what I've been up to as I've been oh so very busy today? Oh make no mistake - I started celebrating early :) But hey, I've been working nonstop! Nonstop!

Oh my gosh...... SOOO much to tell! Yes, yes, I know I am SOOO late with my post today! YIKES! And I'm gonna save all the mushy stuff for tomorrow when I announce the winner of my GIVEAWAY! Because remember: you still have all day today to make a comment and enter! It's not too late! I'll be picking all the winners tonight at midnight! Yippeeeee! And for those of you who have already commented, thank you so very, very much. You're just the best readers and friends ever :)

So to say my Wild Child Arts store on Etsy has been slightly transformed would be an understatement. I used to have 4 sets of my notecards in it, so sad and lonely. Well take a peek in my right hand side bar to give yourself a little preview, and then go visit Wild Child Arts yourself! I've got something like 42 items in there now!!! And more are on the way!!! I've finally put together a LOT of AWESOME new notecard sets - all original photography by moi, moi, and only moi. And for the first time, I'm selling original photographs as well. And don't think for one second that I've forgotten about my 2010 calendars - no, no, nooooo!!! They are in the finishing stages! I'm really happy about everything. Actually, I'm ecstatic :) And...... my devious mind is already concocting more items to add, including my original artwork. As in paintings. Like on canvas and everything.

Okay, breathe Megan, BREATHE!!!

So for some birthday fun today, here are just a few examples of what just went into Wild Child Arts. Start perusing, because my winners will want to be choosing which set they want :)

Love and Friendship Notecard Set

Flower Power 3 Notecard Set

Crusty Notecard Set

Hydrangea Love Notecard Set

Quirky Notecard Set

But today wouldn't be today without remembering my humble beginnings here on Blogger one year ago today, and without telling all of you THANK YOU with all my ❤heart❤ for being so WONDERFUL!!! More than you know. Much, much, more. More mush tomorrow, without a doubt xoxoxo

Wild Child Arts on Etsy

Happy Monday and I hope you had a great weekend!

Notice anything different? My Etsy store, Wild Child Arts, is back on my blog! Over in my right hand side bar, there's lots of colorful thumbnails showing some examples of what I have in my store. Yay!

I've been a busy bee all weekend to get Wild Child Arts filled with cool things! So far I've uploaded something like 28 of my original photographs, ready for framing, size 5x7. Full of delicious color, they look great on their own or in a grouping! They're available in all sizes too, and I'm always up for custom orders :)

And now I'm all ready to list 13 - that's right 13 - brand new notecard sets! They're DONE and ready to rock!

And don't touch that dial, because soon after that, you'll start seeing my 2010 calendars appear! Yippeee!

So just for fun, here are some examples of my original 5x7's, including prints made from my original paintings:

P.S. JUST 2 MORE DAYS TO MAKE A COMMENT

ON MY BLOG BIRTHDAY POST

AND BE ENTERED FOR MY GIVEAWAY!!!

COME ON PEEPS! STOP BEING SO SHY :)

for the love of poppies

Oh red...... how I love you! Your warmth, your cheerfulness, your sass! And we all know how much I love Etsy. And we all know how much I love flowers. And we all know how much I love my friends. Well, today happens to be my friend Traci's birthday. Happy Birthday Traci! And Traci is a lover of poppies. Red poppies in particular. So for fun, I decided to do a search for red poppies on Etsy for her and for all of you, to see what wonderful things we could discover. And oh, did I discover! I have here a lovely little smattering of red poppies from all different types of media. Click on the links to see more - and most of all ENJOY!

"Poppies on Yellow II" giclee print by pattyabaker -

there is nothing as cheerful as the combination of red and yellow!

Set of four screen printed dish towels with red poppies

by MichelleBrusegaard - so sweet!

"Sweet Summer Dreams" poppy wristlet purse

by EightSeasons - is this fabulous or what!

Red Poppies personalized folded note cards

by sweetbellacards - these are just precious!

Photo titled "Take Another Little Piece" -

8x10 photo print by ascenicworld - stunning!

Bright red-orange poppies earrings

by jewelrybynatsuko - SO ULTRA COOL!

ceramic Poppy Flower Bowl

from PrinceDesignUK - absolutely adorable!

Poppies adorning the scenic Italian countryside

by Barbara Carter - so dreamy!

P.S. don't forget to sign up for my GIVEAWAY!!!

5 days left!!!

cuppa cuppa burnin' love

I am not a coffee drinker, but it's one of my all time favorite smells on earth. COFFEE........ MMMMMMMMMM :) I could smell it 24/7 and never get tired of it. When I was in college, I actually kept an open bag of chocolate infused coffee beans tacked up on the wall next to my bed. Fortunately, I had really great roommates that put up with all of my endless shenanigans.
So are you wondering where these awesome coffee art photos came from? I came across a great little blog that I just love. It's called Art In My Coffee! It just makes me happy. I love simple. I love special talents. I love art showing up in unexpected places. And I love little gems of creativity that makes people smile.
So go check it out. Coffee art creations are submitted from talented baristas near and far. Don't miss the second page either! Just a simple little site that will make you smile :) Art In My Coffee! Now that I think about it, I need another open bag of coffee beans around here.......... :)

***and for heaven's sake, don't forget to make a comment on my 1st Birthday post so you're all signed up for my fab GIVEAWAY! Five days and counting!

wild child's 1st birthday countdown ~ and GIVEAWAY!

Peeps! I have no idea how it snuck up on me, but wild child's very first birthday is fast approaching! And what a year it's been. I can hardly begin to put it into words. I'm not sure I'll even try. But I'm sharp enough to know that this milestone deserves a big celebration! And you blog readers know what that means... a GIVEAWAY! I've never done a giveaway before. I've always shied away from them, thinking I'd mess it up somehow :/ But I truly have so much gratitude in my heart for all of you wonderful readers who have been so awesome this first year... it's a great time to give some heartfelt gifts from me to you. Because after all, my blog readers totally rock!!! You are the best!!! You make my day!!!

So here's the scoop - put your thinking caps on, okay? My 1 year birthday is next Tuesday, October 13th. That gives you SIX full days to LEAVE A COMMENT ON THIS POST. Tell me your fave thing about wild child - and feel free to make a suggestion of what you might like to see more of in the future. Make sure you leave your NAME and E-MAIL ADDRESS so if your name is picked, I can get ahold of you! That's all you have to do!

Here's the fun part. There will be 3 winners chosen and 1 grand prize winner, all chosen at midnight on October 13th. The 3 winners will each win one set of my hand-made notecards, all featuring my original photographs. They are so new they're not even in my Etsy store yet! And they're awesome! The grand prize winner will receive my hand-made 2010 calendar. This is my first year selling them, and I'm only making a limited edition of 12 for my Etsy store. And they are way cool! *I'm restocking my Etsy store now, so stay tuned :)

Good luck, best wishes, and I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Now start posting your comments :)

And if you're not yet FOLLOWING wild child?

Now would be the time to sign up!

scroll down the right hand side bar where it says

"subscribe to wild child"

patchwork tray

Well, you know how much I love color and how much I adore quilts. Here is a fun project I'd been wanting to do for some time, that gave a blah old wooden tray a lot of fun color with a patchwork look to it. I love how it turned out!

Here is the tray in original form. It was all right, but I felt like it needed some cheering up!

I spray painted it a bright white. This is just the first coat - I did 3 coats total.

I wasn't worried about coating the inside of the tray because I knew it would be covered with decorative paper, but I took special care to make sure the sides and edges and inside the cut-away handles were coated properly.
I chose all the paper that I wanted to use (6 sheets was plenty), and gathered my materials - Mod Podge, a brush, and scissors. Later I used a pencil to trace the cut-away handles and a damp paper towel to wipe Mod Podge off the tips of my fingers! Oh - and don't forget your diet Coke! LOL!
After that I just had a good time snipping and fitting and playing around with all the paper. I started with the sides and then filled in the bottom. I would lay one piece of paper down at a time, painting the surface with Mod Podge first.
As soon as all the pieces of paper were finally in place, I painted the entire surface of the tray with a few coats of Mod Podge, letting the first coat dry in between. I could have wet-sanded also but I'm much too lazy for that!
Since this tray will more than likely come in contact with drips and drops of liquid here and there, I will make sure to spray it with an acrylic before putting it into heavy duty service! (aren't you so proud of me Amy? lol)

So colorful & fun! It needs some Ruffles & diet Coke on it! :)

14

Yesterday my baby officially turned 14 years old. The nerve! How did this happen? Where did that time go? Why wasn't I consulted? Who does he think he is?

Well, he is my precious Matthew - better known to everyone as the Mouse - and apparently, he is very excited about this event. Which means I have just as much growing up to do as he does. I've eluded to this before in other posts, but it still never ceases to amaze me how you think it will never happen to you. This is the 3rd time one of my boys has turned 14. I've always been so thrilled for their milestones, right along with them. But I have to admit it. There really is a difference when it happens to the last one - the "baby". It gets you right in the pit of your stomach.
So here he is after school on Friday. I asked where he got that cool bracelet in all those shades of green and black. He said his friend Kendra made it for him for his birthday because she knew green was his favorite color. Remember his dance partner Kendra? Wow, that was really nice! Yep, it's girl time too. Whenever his cell phone rings, I know it's usually a female on the other end... (and does his ring tone have to be "Fat Bottomed Girls" by Queen???)
So I'm pretty sure that gone are the days when he'd sneak into my bed and go to sleep all snuggly and cozy-like. Just look at that fuzzy little Mouse, so sound asleep :) I miss those sweet days a lot.

And gone are the boo-boo faces that he perfected and executed with great skill. Sigh.

Okay... shake it off Megan, and get back to reality! Sheesh! Back to the big day! We cruised down to City Walk outside of Universal Studios. See Matthew there under the ginormous Hard Rock Cafe guitar? We ate there a little later on - it's one of our favorite places. Yum!

We went and visited Spidey in the video store :)

But here's the REAL reason we were there: so Matthew could FLY in the wind tunnel to simulate sky diving! He's wanted to do this for a long time, so we took him to iFly and he finally got his chance to FLY! It was SO COOL! He did GREAT! And he had an absolute BLAST! I'll let the following pics speak for themselves!

Way to go Matthew - you did such an awesome job!

Now if you know the Mouse, you know his life wouldn't be complete without a new airsoft gun. I know, I know... but I've completely given up. Yeah, Mother of the Year - whatever. He has wanted this particular gun for a long time. It's one sweet airsoft gun, I have to admit. And you can tell he's just slightly excited to finally have it.
We also found out it was about 10 times louder than we thought it would be. Our neighbors will love us even more than they already do. Great. And of course, after the gun was tried out and there were holes in our entire back yard, we had to have pumpkin pie. Because Matthew would rather have pumpkin pie than a birthday cake - so every year, we chow down on pumpkin pie! HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!! You are a terrific guy at any age! I am so proud of you! I know you'll make the world a better place, and I love you with all my heart.

Even though I'll probably always see you like this ❤

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