Halloween Photo Contest!

One of my previous review and giveaway sponsors, Le Petit Bébé is holding a Halloween Photo Contest on their Facebook page!  To enter, just visit Boutique Le Petit Bébé on Facebook and post a picture of your little one all dressed up before November 15, 2011 at 8:00pm. 

Good Luck!

Winner Announcement!

I'm excited to announce that the winner of the Le Petit Bébé Giveaway has been picked using random.org! The winner is comment #39 - Amy C.  The winner will be receiving a Pregnancy Bola Pendant from Le Petit Bébé. Congratulations!

If you were the winner of this giveaway, please make sure to respond to the notification email in the next 48 hours to claim your prize. If I don't hear from you within the next 48 hours, unfortunately, I will have to pick a new winner.

Thank you to all of you who entered! If you didn't win this time, please try again next time. Remember...you can't win if you don't enter! More great giveaways will be coming soon.  To keep up to date on the latest giveaways, make sure you follow Everything Up Close on Twitter, Facebook, or by email or RSS feed.

Le Petit Bébé Review & Giveaway

Being Canadian, I enjoy supporting and sharing news on Canadian companies and products.  Also, being that my husband's family is french, I took particular interest when I stumbled across an cute online boutique called Le Petit Bébé.  Le Petit Bébé is a online boutique that caters to families: moms, babies, and children.  They carry an assortment of quality products that will appeal to people with many different tastes.  Le Petit Bébé takes pride in the products that they currently sell and is always on the search for new and interesting products to provide you with an even greater selection.  At Le Petit Bébé you'll find products ranging from pregnancy, to nursing, to changing & potty time, to toys for babies and older children, and more!  Le Petit Bébé also carries a number of natural or organic products, including cloth diapers.

Review
Susie, owner of Le Petit Bébé, offered to send me a product that she sells in her online boutique to try out for myself.  Since I'm currently expecting, I was excited to discover that Susie would be sending me one of her pregnancy bola necklaces / bola musical pendants.  When I first received her email with the suggestion of this product, I admit that I had to do some research; I had never heard of a bola pendant. 

After doing some research online (various websites, forums, etc.), I learned that bola pendants originated in Mexico and are used during pregnancy because of the calming chiming sound they create.  The Le Petit Bébé website explained that the pendant is typically worn as a necklace pendant that rests on the mother-to-be's lower belly, providing a soft chiming noise as she walks and moves around.  Many women start to wear bola pendants during mid-pregnancy, when babies can hear sounds outside the womb fairly well.  After birth, women can continue to use the bola pendant to soothe their baby.

Le Petit Bébé sent me one of their plain silver bola musical pendants to try out.  Although, I received the plain silver bola to review (not pictured on the website), Le Petit Bébé currently sells four artistically handcrafted bola styles.  I received the bola in a small organza sack that can easily be reused to store little treasures or to wrap small gifts.  When I first received it, I noticed that it was actually a bit bigger than I was expecting it to be.  Each bola that they sell is approximately 20mm or 0.8 inches in diameter.  As I wore the bola several times, I got more used to the size of it.  The bola is not very heavy and is comfortable to wear for longer periods of time. 

Each bola comes with a 60" lightweight, unbreakable, black cord that is simply tied in a knot; this allows for the length to be adjusted and more comfortably fit a range of sizes.  Although I am not large, I did wish that the cord was a bit longer to allow for a bit more self-adjustment if needed.  I currently have the cord tied at the largest point (with about 0.5 inches of cord left at each end).  When standing up the bola pendant sits around 1.5 inches above my belly button; when I sit down, the bola pendant sits just below my belly button.  People who prefer a different length or a different style of cord can easily use one of their own existing necklaces or pick up a cord at their local craft store.

While testing out the bola pendant, I didn't notice any drastic changes in my baby's activities.  However, I personally enjoyed the chiming noise and found it to be quite calming.  I am looking forward to using the bola pendant with my baby once he or she is born and seeing the reaction.

 *GIVEAWAY*

How many winners are there? One.

What can you win? One winner will receive a silver Bola Necklace from Le Petit Bébé, just like the one shown below. (ARV $35.99).

To enter, Tell me another item you like in the Le Petit Bébé online store. This question must be answered to gain an entry in the giveaway.

Each of the following will give you one extra entry in the giveaway (unless stated otherwise). If an entry option is worth more than one entry, please leave the according number of comments.  Please make sure to leave a separate comment for each thing you do to gain the proper number of entries:

- Telling me one of the things you enjoy most about your pregnancy, a past pregnancy, or what you are looking forward to most with a future pregnancy./
- Telling me if you would like to win for yourself, or a friend/family member.
- Following Le Petit Bébé on Twitter (@lepetitbebe)
- 'Liking' Le Petit Bébé on Facebook.  Please leave your name (First name and last initial) that is shown on Facebook for verification. 2 ENTRIES.

By 'liking' Le Petit Bébé on Facebook, you will be eligible to enter their 1000 Fans Giveaway - featuring over 15 prizes from a variety of sponsors.  For more details and to enter, please visit their blog: http://boutiquelepetitbebe.blogspot.com/

 - Subscribing to my blog via email or RSS feed. 

- Adding my main button to your blog sidebar.

- Following me on Twitter (@ihchicky) and tweeting about the giveaway with a link to this page. Please leave a link to your tweet or your twitter name. You can tweet up to 2x a day (at least 6 hours apart).

Read my review & enter to #win a Pregnancy Bola from @lepetitbebe & @ihchicky ! US & Canada #giveaway. Ends July 9. http://bit.ly/Pbebe

- Following me on Blogger / Google Friends Connect (publicly).
- Entering one of my other giveaways (one bonus entry per giveaway entered).
- 'Liking' Everything Up Close on Facebook.  Please leave your name (First name and last initial) that is shown on Facebook for verification. 

- Blogging about this giveaway on your blog. Please leave a link to your blog post in your comment. 2 ENTRIES!

- Talking about and linking to this giveaway in any public forum or on Facebook. If you do this, please leave your user-name and a link to the post. 3 ENTRIES!

Important Entry Details: The above entries (main and bonus) can only be submitted once per person (except for the tweet entry, which can be done daily). Please do not use more than one blogger account or add additional anonymous comments to gain extra entries. This is not fair to everyone else and this practice is strictly prohibited. If a person is found to be using more than one account to enter the same giveaway, they will be disqualified from that particular giveaway, as well as all future giveaways.

This giveaway will end on Saturday, July 9th at 11:59pm (Central Standard Time). After the giveaway has ended, the winner will be picked randomly using random.org. EMAIL RULES: In order to win, you must provide a valid email. I will be notifying the winner by email only. Please make sure your blogger profile includes your email address and make sure that it is visible. If you do not have a blogger account, please make sure you have included your email address in your post. If there is no email address provided, to contact the winner, another person will be chosen. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to the winning email notification with their complete mailing address (I will be forwarding all this information to the sponsor), If this information is not received within 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen.  

This giveaway is open to residents of the US and Canada!

Good Luck!

Do you see something you like on Le Petit Bébé? 
Enter the code upclose during checkout to save 10% off any order over $25.

**Disclaimer** To complete this review and post this giveaway, Le Petit Bébé sent me a bola musical charm free of charge to allow me to conduct a first-hand review of the product.  Receiving this item did not in anyway alter the information which I discussed in this article; this review is 100% my own opinion.  I did not receive any other type of compensation for this review/giveaway.