A new winner!

The winner of the Tim Horton's Giveaway has been selected! Please go to the Everything Up Close Winner's List to see if you were chosen as the lucky winner!

A big thanks to all of you who took the time to enter!

Disney's Lady and the Tramp Giveaway!

 

I talked a couple of weeks ago about my love for Disney and more particularly the story of Lady and the Tramp. The *NEW* LADY AND THE TRAMP Diamond Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack was just released on February 7th and contains a ton of great new features:

Blu-ray Bonus:          Disney Second Screen: Inside Walt’s Story Meetings*

Audio Commentary: Inside Walt’s Story Meetings

Diane Disney Miller: Remembering Dad

Three Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes

Never Recorded Song: “I’m Free as the Breeze”

Classic DVD Bonus:

Ø  Lady’s Pedigree: The Making of Lady and the Tramp

Ø  Finding Lady: The Art of the Storyboard

Ø  Original 1943 Storyboard Version of the Film

Ø  PuppyPedia: Going to the Dogs

Ø  “The Siamese Cat Song,” Finding a Voice for the Cats

Ø  “Bella Notte” Music Video

Ø  Trailers

Ø  Excerpts from “Disneyland” TV Shows

DVD Bonus:              Diane Disney Miller: Remembering Dad
                                         PuppyPedia: Going to the Dogs

Digital Bonus:           Diane Disney Miller: Remembering Dad
                                         Three Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes

                                         PuppyPedia: Going to the Dogs




Disney has also released a special Lady and the Tramp Read-Along storybook and CD - ‘Experience the magic!  Read along with the characters from the film with this storybook and CD!’

Here is a sneak peek from the LADY AND THE TRAMP Diamond Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack:



I'm excited to be able to offer one of my readers the chance to win a special prize package to add to their own Disney collection!

*GIVEAWAY*

How many winners are there? One.

What can you win? One winner will receive a “Lady and the Tramp” prize pack, which includes:

- 1 Lady and the Tramp Diamond Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack & 1 Lady and the Tramp Read-Along storybook and CD.

To enter, tell me your favourite Disney movie OR which feature you are most looking forward to on the new Lady and the Tramp Diamond Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack.  This must be done 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 a separate comment for each entry:
- Adding the Everything Up Close blog button to your blog or website.

- 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 1x a day.

Enter to #win a #Disney Lady and the Tramp prize pack @ihchicky. Ends Feb 24. http://bit.ly/DisneyLandT #giveaway #canada

- Following me on Blogger / Google Friends Connect (publicly).
- 'Liking' Everything Up Close on Facebook.  Please leave your name (First name and last initial) that is shown on Facebook for verification. 
- 'Liking' Simply Beautiful Beginnings 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.

- 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. 2 ENTRIES!
- Visiting Simply Beautiful Beginnings and commenting on one of the posts.  Please tell me the name of the post and the name (or email address) you used to comment.
- Telling me about a topic you'd like to see covered on Simply Beautiful Beginnings.  Suggestions must fall into the scope of Simply Beautiful Beginnings to be considered as an extra entry.

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 Friday, February 24th at 11:59pm (Central Standard Time). After the giveaway has ended, the winner will be picked randomly using random.org and the winner will be posted on the Everything Up Close Winner's List.  The winner will have 1 week to send me an email with their complete mailing address (the winner's information will be verified - please email using the email address you used to enter). If you do not contact me within 1 week, a new winner will be chosen.  

This giveaway is open to residents of Canada only (no Quebec)!

Good Luck!

**Disclaimer** I was NOT compensated for sharing this giveaway with my readers. All the opinions shared in this article are my own.

Customizable Granola Bars - A Great Addition to Your Child's Lunch Bag!

Recently I've been trying to make a lot more items that I commonly find in my pantry from scratch.  The main reason being that usually the items I make are much healthier; I know exactly what is in them and there is less added sugar, preservatives, and refined ingredients - how many times have you read the ingredient list on your favourite snack and asked...What is that?  Plus, I am easily able to adapt recipes to fit my family's desires (e.g. more whole grains, etc.) 

Granola Bars

Ingredients:

• 4 cups oatmeal (I use a porridge mix that contains oats, oat bran, wheat bran, and flax seed, but plain quick oats works just fine!)
• 1 ¼ cups white flour 
• ¾ cup whole wheat flour 
• 1 cup coconut
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup oil (vegetable, canola oil, olive oil, etc. work well)
• ¼ cup applesauce 
• ¾ cup honey 
• Customizable extras: chocolate chips, dried cranberries/cherries/raisins, seeds, nuts, etc. 
•  

Directions:

1. 1. Mix dry ingredients together well.
2. 2. Add wet ingredients.
3. 3. Mix well with your hands until it is well blended and sticks together. Mixing with a mixer or a spoon won't get the same results; they'll turn out crumbly.
4. 4. Add customizable extras.
5. 5. Press firmly into a cookie sheet or a jelly roll pan
6. 6. Bake at 375°F for 15 minutes. The granola bars will look a bit puffy when done.  Try and take them out before they brown to ensure they are the right texture (not too hard).
7. 7. Cut into squares or bars shortly after you remove them from the oven.
8. 8. Enjoy with a cup of coffee, or wrap in wax paper and send them to school with your kids in their bagged lunch!

Using Steel Cut Oats in Bread (a recipe)

A couple of weeks ago I tried Steel Cut Oats for the first time, using the Steel Cut Slow Cooker recipe listed here. I really enjoyed it and it is definitely something I will make again in the future.

Today, I am trying another recipe that calls for steel cut oats: Bread Machine Honey Steel Cut Oats Bread (found on http://www.beemaid.com/recipe/bread-machine-honey-steel-cut-oats-bread) - sounds yummy and perfect for breakfast!  Since I enjoyed the steel cut oats the first time and have been enjoying my bread maker recently, I thought this would be a perfect recipe to try out!

How else do you enjoy steel cut oats?