The inspiration for Velcro came to the inventor after he’d spent too much time trying to remove burrs from his clothing and his dogs’s coat. Being a curious kind of guy, and having  a handy microscope nearby, he noted the hundreds of hooks on the seed heads that caught on anything with a loop. He had a light bulb moment and the idea of velcro was born. It took 10 years to come up with a design that worked; the first prototype was made from cotton and proved a dismal failure. The nylon and polyester fastener we recognise today was the result of much trial and error and was named by blending two French words; velours (“velvet”) and crochet (“hook”).

Today the ‘zipperless zipper’ is used for everyday applications as varied as shoe fastenings for kids ( and adults!) who can’t tie shoe laces, to fastening nappies and holding equipment in place in army tanks. A glass backed velcro is used in space for astronauts suits and to anchor equipment to stop it floating away. There is even a patch of velcro inside each helmet which is used as a nose scratcher.

And of course, velcro is an integral part of fastening our Easyblackout Blackout Blinds to window frames. Without velcro they wouldn’t be Easy at all.

It doesn’t matter if you are a frequent hotel guest travelling on business for a night, a back packer setting off on a gap year adventure, or a family setting off for a two week break from everyday life; all of these items are likely to come in useful while you are away from home.

1/ A small torch. Useful for checking in dark corners and during power cuts. Look for one that only needs one battery (take a spare) and gives hands-free light.

2/At least one pack of wet wipes. Not just for babies; these are useful for sticky hands and faces, for wiping suspect toilet seats, and even as toilet paper in an emergency.

3/A portable Blackout Blind to compensate for cheap thin hotel curtains, under dressed windows, changing time zones and jet lagged children.

4/A couple of ziplock plastic bags. These are useful for going through security if you are flying, to pop leaky toiletries in and will prove a lifesaver if someone in your party gets travel sick.

5/A sleeping bag liner. If your hotel bed or linen should look less than pristine, or you need an extra layer for any other reason, a sleeping bag liner will help you feel more comfortable as you sleep.  It will take up very little room so it’s not really a waste of space if not used, but can also be put to good use as a laundry bag.

I can just about use a hammer to bang a nail into a bit of wood, but I’m still traumatised by the time I tried to hang a picture in our newly plastered hallway and ended up with a 3ft crack running along it diagonally. I prefer to leave anything handy to someone else. I don’t really care who, just as long as the buck doesn’t stop with me.

So believe me when I say that Easyblackout Blackout Blinds are a piece of cake to install. No hammers, no screws, no need to make a hole in anything.  All you need is scissors and a measuring tape.

The time taken to measure and cut out the velcro and blackout blind material , then attach the velcro strips to the window frame and blackout blind will depend on the size of the window being treated, but will be typically less than 30 minutes.

You don’t even need to take down your existing curtains or blinds; the Easyblackout Blackout Blinds fit directly to the window frame with velcro, so sit behind snugly behind them.

And as an added bonus, the Easyblackout Blackout Blinds take only seconds to take down and put up. There are also no dangerous cords or attachments to worry about.

It’s one of those things that you probably never considered before your pregnancy, but as soon as you start working through the list of ‘baby essentials’  the pushchair is there, at the top of the list.  And then you’ll start to see them everywhere. You may even end up chatting to complete strangers about their choice of baby transportation.

I developed something of a buggy obsession when mine were small enough to still need them, and spent hours searching for the ‘perfect pushchair’. I’d need to use both hands and at least one of my feet to count the total of different models I’ve had. I still have three sitting in the garage somewhere.

So what do you need to take into account when buying a pushchair?

First of all, decide on a budget. Think about the most you are willing to pay for this bit of kit, and stick to it. Don’t let yourself even glance in the direction of anything out of your budget. When you are shopping with a bump, it’s very easy to have your head turned by stylish looks and pretty colours. Pregnancy hormones are not trustworthy shopping companions.

Secondly, ask yourself what does a baby want from a pushchair? When it’s tiny, all it needs is somewhere comfortable to lie and hopefully sleep.  So make sure the seat lies completely flat, or has a carry cot component. It’s also handy  if  a pushchair allows a car seat to clip onto it, so you can transfer your slumbering infant smoothly from the car to the pushchair.

Babies like to be able to see their parents while being pushed, so look for a buggy that allows your child to face you.  And make sure the pushchair has a hood, so that you can fit a Snoozeshade Buggy Blackout Blind to it. Newborn babies will normally fall asleep when they are tired no matter what, but as they get older, and more nosey, it will help to be able to block out the outside world to encourage them to take a nap.

Thirdly, What do YOU want from a pushchair? Are you going to walk everywhere , so need something comfortable to push for long periods? Or will you use a car and/or public transport frequently, so need something that will fold up easily? Are you going to walk on pavements or go off road? Will you need a decent sized shopping basket?  Try and put function and practicality before colour and style.

It may be that the pushchair you buy for your newborn turns out not to suit your toddler or older child. Don’t worry, there is a thriving market in second hand buggies. If you sell a fairly new, well looked after buggy, you will be able to get a good chunk of the purchase price back. With any luck you’ll get a good enough price that you can start shopping for pushchair number 2 imminently.

Good luck and have fun!

My first baby slept through consistently  from the age of 6 weeks, and of course, I was convinced it was all down to me. My baby was a good sleeper therefore I was a good mother.

Then my second daughter came along and wiped the smug smile off my face.

I did all the same things with her as I’d done with my first born, but the reality was that she was just a completely different human being, with completely different needs. She slept through when she was ready, at about 6 months of age.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution so it makes sense to try a few different things. Nothing is going to make a baby sleep through before they are able to, but there are things you can do to give them the best chance of sleeping thorough as soon as they are ready.

Implement a constant bedtime routine from about 3 months. We always did upstairs, bath, pyjamas, feed then bed but you should do whatever fits in best for your household.

Try not to feed your baby to sleep all the time. Let them experience dropping off to sleep somewhere else rather than in your arms and if they squawk in the middle of the night, don’t rush straight in. Wait a little bit and see if they can settle themselves back to sleep; you can always attend to them if they are becoming distressed.

Try and make their nursery as conducive to sleep as possible. Limit noise, although it’s amazing what babies will sleep through when they have to. And install a decent blackout blind that allows complete darkness to be maintained during sleep times.

This was great when we were all single and childless, and relying on the alarm clock to wake us up in the morning. We may not have welcomed the lighter mornings, but we all enjoyed the evening sun.

These days many of us don’t even need an alarm clock as our little darlings wake us up as soon as the sun peeps its shiny face over the horizon. And after a busy day child wrangling, we parents need a good nights sleep too. Even if your children aren’t affected by the early sunrises of summer, then the chances are that you may be.

There is nothing more disheartening than finally having children  old enough to lie in on the weekends for a bit, than finding that you can’t sleep in yourself because of the sunlight streaming into your bedroom at 6am.

Light tells your brain to wake up. To sleep well, you need darkness and quiet. The darker and quieter, the better.

Black out blinds can help everyone sleep better. They are not just for nurseries and children’s rooms; try them in your bedroom and beat the sun at its own game.

You’ve flown to California for a two week holiday. In tow, a three-year-old and a one-year-old. It’s summer. After what feels like three days of flying with a change in Orlando, you get a cab to your hotel. You and your partner are exhausted as are the kids. You all flop into bed and the entire family instantly falls into a deep sleep around midnight local time. Around 5am, you’re awoken by a sound. It’s the one-year-old, wide awake in the sunny hotel room. This wakes the three-year-old, who is understandably cranky. Now you’re all awake and all cranky. And jet-lagged. And have foolishly planned a coach trip to the Mojave National Preserve that afternoon. Holiday Hell just arrived!

If we rewind to the night before, we can save these poor souls from certain doom. Instead of going to sleep straight away, you can spend five minutes fitting a travel blackout blind like the Go Anywhere travel blackout blind kit stocked on this very website! Now, their hotel room stays dark. The one-year-old sleeps until 8am along with everyone else. The trip to the Mojave is saved!

It’s such a simple thing, too. When fatigue sets in it’s easy to throw caution to the wind but anyone who has stayed in a hotel will notice the gossamer-fine curtains that barely cover the huge East facing windows. Just a tiny bit of forethought can save you a huge amount of stress. Well-rested children make for a good holiday, cranky sleep-deprived ones? Well…once you’ve been there, you’ll suffer a chill down your spine just thinking about it!

Your child’s room is, I would wager, a beautiful space. You’ve taken the time to arrange their furniture, hang sweet pictures on the walls for them to look at and placed their toys and books around the room with love and care. It’s not just for your peace of mind, it’s also to engage your child and make them feel safe and happy in that place. For all the good, there is of course the side effect that sometimes your child will want to play in their room when they should be asleep! Without blackout material keeping their room dark, that bookcase of books or chest of favourite toys is like the oasis in the desert of boredom; they can see it shimmering and they want to dive on in. In the summer months, or in a city or town with bright street lighting, it’s going to be hard to keep them in their beds or prevent them spotting a toy they want to play with at 3am. Blackout curtains mean you can essentially hide their toys in plain sight.

Another benefit to blacking out windows is that you can turn your child’s bed into a tiny island in the darkness. They’ll feel safe and secure wrapped up in their covers with just their nightlight and a teddy (or twenty) for company, instead of having a shaft of orange streetlight casting an eerie shadow from that otherwise innocent looking dolly sat near the window!