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In The Night Garden Fleece Blanket
by houseofberries
My little boy came to own this Iggle Piggle Fleece Blanket a couple of years ago in his Christmas Stocking.
Iggle Piggle is a character from the much loved children's television show 'In the Night Garden'. He's a big fan and shrieked with delight when he received the blanket and I held it up to show him the massive Iggle ... Piggle and started dancing around the living room singing the Iggle Piggle song. He's loved it ever since (I don't think his blanket love was related to my Iggle Piggle dance though).
**The Blanket**
The blanket is a sofa feeling fleece, it's bright red with a printed blanket stitch pattern around the edge. Iggle Piggle is printed in the middle cuddling his own famous red blanket (he carries around a red blanket in the program).
It's a lovely big size at 125 x 150cm perfect for snuggling on the sofa or an extra layer in bed. In our house it's also been a super big superhero cape, put over chairs to make a den, hung over the side of the bed to make that into a den, used to make a nest when little one was pretending to be a chicken...the list is pretty endless. Needless to say this blanket is well loved.
**Keeping it Clean**
The blanket is 100% polyester fleece, thankfully it's machine washable, the label indicates at 40 degrees. It can also be tumble dried on a cool setting, although I've always hung it up to dry, being fleece it tend to try within a few hours which is a bonus.
It's now a couple of years old and is starting to bobble a little, it's still nice and soft though and the colours haven't faded at all - which is amazing for the amount of times it's been through the washing machine.
**Availability**
The Iggle Piggle blanket is widely available on-line on E-Bay and Amazon. Prices range from £7.00 - £12.00.
**Recommended?**
Highly recommend this blanket for fans of In the Night Garden. Perfect for cooler days snuggling on the sofa. It washes fairly well with no colour loss and has bobbled a little which is actually quite impressive for the amount of use it's had.
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Homescapes Luxury Goose Feather Duvet
by Holland1
When we first moved into our house, and were in the process of renovating, we just couldn't get warm. It was the end of winter, and despite having new windows and heating installed, there were so many draughts and leaks, we seemed to lose heat straight out of the roof and walls. We decided to use some Amazon vouchers I had at the time, ... to invest in this goose feather duvet from Homescapes, so at least we would be warm when trying to get to sleep. That was a couple of years ago, and I have to say it's one of the best purchases we made in our new home.
The duvet is made by Homescapes, and is currently available on Amazon for around £67. They were a bit cheaper when we bought ours, around £55, so it's worth keeping an eye on them in case they get reduced again. When I say "duvet", I am only telling half a story, as this is in fact two duvets, which can double up to make one big super duvet. The duvets have the tog ratings 4.5 and 9, and obviously when these are used together, they have a rating of 13.5. Toasty!
The duvets are "100% cotton anti dust mite fabric" and the filling is allergen free and hypoallergenic. This gives peace of mind to anyone with sensitive skin or allergy issues. The filling is 15% white goose down, and 85% white goose feather. The filling is high density which gives it a superior feel, but also prevents any feathers escaping. In two years, we have never had any filling escaping from the duvets. They are also machine washable, so you can wash them at home, although they will need to be separated and I'm not sure they'd fit in a "normal" sized drum as our washing machine has a larger drum.
So, how do they work in reality? The duvets have poppers around the top and bottom, which allows you to pin them together. When using both duvets together, in the midst of winter, this does make the duvet very thick, so it'll more than likely take two people to make the bed. I really struggle to do this by myself, and if I don't ask my husband for help I tend to end up fighting with it and getting in a bit of a mood. Once the bed cover is on, the duvet sits proud on the bed, looking a little like a puffy cloud which sinks down if you sit on it. It's very enticing, and to be honest it's so comfy it makes getting out of bed a little bit more difficult.
Sleeping with the double duvet is fairly problem free, apart from the odd occasion I'm having a restless night and end up tugging the duvet all over the place. This can cause the poppers to come undone, and then the duvets start separating inside the cover. This only tends to happen if I've had a particularly restless night, or just before the sheets are due to be changed anyway. It can also be quite heavy to pull up high enough to cover you fully, which isn't an issue for my husband or myself, but I can see how it could cause issues for weaker people, and again sometimes pulling it around the bed can lead to poppers becoming undone.
From a comfort point of view, I just have to comment that my previous (limited) experience of goose feather duvets was that they feel quite cold due to the external material. Although I must admit this feels a little cooler initially on entering the bed, as soon as you start to warm up, it is warmer than any duvet I've known. We use the two duvets together when the weather is at its coldest, and then we downgrade to the 4.5 tog in summer. I don't think we've ever used the 9 tog on its own, because I'm such a big fan of being warm, as soon as the weather threatens to get cold I insist on having both duvets on the bed! The summer one is warm enough to stop any chills, but also doesn't make me overly hot as I at first feared.
One downside with these duvets is that if you're only using one at a time, you have to store the other one somewhere, and with them being quite bulky this can be a bit tricky. They arrived in a zip up bag, however, so we just cram ours into there when not in use, and they do fold down a fair bit when you squeeze the air out of them.
These duvets are absolutely amazing, and I would definitely recommend the investment as a good night's sleep is such a luxury in these busy modern times. Ours are still in good condition after two years continual use, with the filling still having a good "oomph" to it, and those nights you get into bed with clean sheets after having a soak in the bath are a truly pampering experience.
(Review may also appear on Ciao under the username Gingerkitty)
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