Down Travel Pillows: a great gift for flyers & all travelers

Do you fly frequently, or know someone who does? One of the most important factors for getting some good sleep on a long-haul flight is having a quality pillow, especially one that is familiar to you. Airplane pillows can be fairly good in the premium classes, but even so the texture will be different and this can disrupt your sleep. If you fly in economy then the pillow situation is dire indeed--that is, if you can even find a pillow! Moreover, some airlines have stopped offering pillows and blankets entirely due to health concerns motivated by the recent flu outbreaks.

St. Geneve has made the perfect travel accessory for those of us who take sleep seriously: the down travel pillow. It folds up into a small stuff sack (included) so you can take it where ever you go. It's a great pillow for the plane, the car, and even in hotels. The pillow is high quality, Canadian-made and treated by the ZURGUARD system to be guaranteed hypoallergenic for three months from the date of purchase. With your own travel pillow, you won't need to sleep on a public pillow ever again!

Cloth napkins add a gracious touch to every meal

There's something about using a fine cloth napkin that always makes me enjoy the meal a bit more. Some of us do a lot of entertaining, and certainly cloth napkins have their place in fine dining settings. However, good quality linen napkins can be an everyday luxury too.

Consider Sferra's Festival line of hemstitched table linens. These are 100% linen tablecloths, napkins, placemats and runners at a very reasonable cost. Heirloom-quality, these napkins will last for years and years if you take care to not over-dry them in the laundry.

Come visit Laughlin Designs today and see our entire selection of fine cloth napkins for every occasion.

New Throws from Pur Cashmere

Things are warming up these days but there's still a light chill in the air around here, making a lightweight cashmere throw the perfect thing for keeping warm. Here at Laughlin Designs, we have two new throws from Pur Cashmere: the Camboo Woven Throw and the Nantucket Basket Weave throw. Both of these products start with the finest cashmere from Inner Mongolia, soft as can be. The Camboo throws are made by blending cashmere with natural bamboo fiber, resulting in a fabric that is soft, smooth, and hand washable. The Basket Weave throws are 100% cashmere in a classic style. As with most Pur throws, the ends are finished with generous, extra-long fringe -- six inches, in fact!

Matelassé Bed Covers

My favorite bed covers have a bit of weight to them so that they give you that cozy feeling when you're in bed, holding down sheets and blankets to keep out the drafts. A very popular type of bed cover is made of matelassé fabric; matelassé means "quilted" or "padded" in the French language. Typically made of heavier material, matelassé fabrics are stitched or woven to give the appearance of quilting although there is no actual padding within the fabric. The resulting product is perfect for bed covers!

The Laughlin Designs selection of matelassé bed covers spans a range of styles and colors, from classics by Sferra to very stylish modern patterns from SDH. All of these are made of 100% cotton, and most are made of the finest 100% Egyptian Cotton.

Save your linens! Le Blanc Linen Wash

Fine linens are a major investment in one's quality of life, and it only makes sense to care for your linens so that they last as long as possible. For washable linens, the two most important things are a) don't overdry them and b) use a good laundry detergent. (A fuller explanation is available on our Caring for Luxury Linens page.)

Many standard, store-bought laundry detergents contain harsh chemicals designed for cleaning heavy soil out of everyday clothing, along with bleaches and brighteners. Unfortunately, these chemicals steadily degrade fine linens and shorten their lifetime, which can be several years or more with proper care.

Le Blanc linen wash to the rescue! Le Blanc products are specially formulated to preserve and clean all washable bed, bath, and table linens. They clean very effectively while being gentle on the fabric. Different formulations are available to wash linens, regular laundry, silk and lingerie, down, towels, and children's linens.