Cozytown Linens Blog

For decades, electric blankets have been the mainstay of keeping warm on cold winter nights.  If you typically use an electric blanket, then you know how wonderful it feels to slip beneath its warmth.

Now imagine if you will, trading your electric blanket for something even better. “What could possibly be better than an electric blanket?”, you ask.  The fact is, a heated mattress pad is more efficient and more soothing than an electric blanket. Yes, believe it or not, it’s true.

As wonderful as electric blankets are, they warm only the upper side of your body, and since heat naturally rises, much of the heat escapes through the bed covers and into the room.

Alternatively, heated mattress pads radiate heat from below, surrounding your entire body with warmth and comfort.  As a result, heated mattress pads are more efficient and cost effective, saving you money.   As another added benefit, it’s hidden under your fitted sheet where it is protected from soil and wear. There’s no need to remove it in the summer months, so no matter what the season, it’s there whenever you feel chilly—just reach over and turn it on.

When it comes to keeping warm this winter, consider the benefits of a heated mattress pad over the traditional electric blanket.  You’ll be glad you did.

Your bedroom is an oasis, a place for relaxation and rejuvenation after a long day. It’s easy to turn your bedroom into a serene retreat by using a few easy and inexpensive decorating tips. Painting and carpeting can be costly and time consuming, but there are still ways to create a fresh, new, and inviting look.

There are two main areas to focus on in the bedroom when decorating: the bed itself and the accessories used throughout the room. Since the bed is the main focal point of the room, this is a great place to start when creating a new look. Accessories also provide a way to customize your bedroom on a budget.

1)  Use a plain comforter or duvet and dress it up with a variety of throw pillows and shams. Microfleece blankets are wonderfully soft and cozy and make a great coverlet.

2)  Coordinating pillow shams and bedskirts help to create a polished and elegant look. If you are handy at sewing, you can make shams and a bedskirt from a long curtain panel which can then match your window curtains for a fraction of the price of buying them finished. Curtains can also be easily made from other fabric you may have or from flat bed sheets.

3)  Decorative pillows placed on the bed or in a chair, adds a charming touch. Look for pillows that are on sale or make them yourself from inexpensive fabric. A variety of sizes, colors, and textures help to bring interest and color to a bedroom.

4)  Placing a coordinating throw across the bottom of the bed adds a touch of coziness and can help pull all the colors in the room together. It’s also nice to have a throw handy when you want to curl up and read or watch TV.

5)  Take a look at your bedroom accessories and choose a few things to change or add. For example, you can purchase a new lamp or even repaint an existing one. Sometimes by simply replacing a lamp shade (whether purchasing a new one or crafting your own) your lamp will look brand new.

6)  Wall art is also a quick décor change that’s easy on the wallet. Take an existing frame and put some pretty scrapbook paper inside. Paint or decoupage a wooden sign or stretched canvas for a new piece to hang on the wall.

7)  Choose a piece of furniture (perhaps from a garage sale) and make some changes to it. Paint it a fresh new color or just add some pretty new knobs or pulls to make it look unique.

It is possible to create a warm and welcoming bedroom with just a little bit of time, money, and creativity. Think about the colors, patterns, and styles that make you happy and then begin your adventure. Soon your bedroom can be cozy, comfortable, and a place you are thrilled to call your own. Most of all, have fun, relax and enjoy your finished project!

Linen is considered a vegetable fiber – a natural fiber that comes from the flax plant. It’s an excellent fabric for garments, table linens and bed sheets, but since linen is an expensive fabric to manufacture, its use is limited.  

Linen is one of the oldest woven fabrics in human history and was once considered suitable only for royalty. Purple linen was the material used in king’s robes – purple being the color representing royalty and linen, a finer quality lightweight fabric. This quality has made it popular in hot climates for thousands of years.

Today most flax planets used for fabric is grown in Western Europe and the fabric is manufactured there as well. Good quality linen is soft and free of “slubs” – the small knots that can be felt within the weave. Slubs are only found in lesser quality linen.

Linen fabric is an ideal choice for clothing and bed sheets because it is durable and wicks moisture away from the skin, however, the down side is that it wrinkles easily. Not only is linen prone to wrinkling, but it is more difficult to iron than other fabrics. In order to eliminate the wrinkles, you must either use a steam iron or spritz the fabric with water.

I can remember as a child, my grandmother dampening her linen towels, rolling them into the shape of a log and then placing them in the refrigerator to keep them moist, removing them one by one for ironing. It seemed as though she ironed for hours, but apparently it was worth it to have fresh, crisp, and beautifully ironed linens. When I was grown and started keeping a house of my own, I was given a linen dish towel. It was very absorbent and perfect for drying dishes, but it wrinkled terribly. I have to admit that I didn’t have the time or interest to stand and iron it as my grandmother surely would have done.

If you love the coolness, luster, and strength of linen fabric, and don’t mind the extra work involved to keep it looking fresh and crisp, then linen is a perfect choice of fabric for you.

You might be asking, “What is a buckwheat pillow? What are they like and why would I want one?  Those are all good questions. Although buckwheat has been around for hundreds of years, buckwheat pillows have become increasingly popular in the last couple of decades. If you’re in the market for one, here are some interesting facts you should know:

1)  Buckwheat is in fact not wheat, but a fruit (fagopyrum esculentum) related to rhubarb. Buckwheat hulls are what fill a buckwheat pillow. The hulls are the husks that protect the buckwheat kernel. The hulls are not just chaff, but are a highly sought after product that is usually more valuable than the buckwheat kernel.

2)  Natural buckwheat pillows seem to harbor fewer mites than synthetic pillows, possibly due to the buckwheat hulls natural usage as an organism barrier.

3)  Sleeping on a buckwheat pillow allows your body to rest in a natural position, and since snoring is often caused by an unnatural alignment of the neck, a buckwheat pillow, with its ability to maintain proper support, can reduce or eliminate snoring!

4)  Buckwheat pillows work well with all types of beds including memory foam, waterbeds, and air mattresses. The pillows can also be adjusted for firmness and loft by adding or removing buckwheat. (Most quality buckwheat pillows come with a zipper so you can do this easily.)

5)  The hulls allow air to circulate freely through the pillow, acting as a natural thermostat ~ warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It helps keep your head dry and comfortable and ensures that your head remains at a constant normal temperature. It’s a perfect choice for those you tend to perspire in their sleep.

6)  On average, buckwheat pillows last about ten years. Although it is reported that the hulls do not actually break down but become polished like sea glass over time, the fact is that after several years of use the pillow will lose a bit of its fullness. With that, if you remove some of the hulls to adjust for comfort when you first get the pillow, save them for future use so that you can add them back into the pillow to maintain the same level of comfort. Most quality pillows are made with a zipper for this very reason.

Whatever type of pillow you decide to use………As Lawrence Welk used to say,

“Good night, sleep tight and pleasant dreams to you.”

We all experience stress every day of our lives. Whether it be from work, school, family, friends, or that old woman that drives 30 MPH in a 50, we all have stress in our lives. You may be wondering what you can do to eliminate some of the stress, but the truth is, it is how we deal with that stress that makes all the difference. Here are just a few helpful tips to help you deal with the irritating situations in your life.

1) Listen to music: listen to your favorite songs. It has been proven that listening to music can reduce stress and have a positive effect on overall health.

2) Journal: Writing in a journal even once a day is a great way to stay focused, process emotions, and solve every day problems.

3) Laugh: It is scientifically proven that laughing really is the “best medicine”. Laughing exercises your diaphragm muscle and heart, as well as your abdominals, leaving them feeling more relaxed. Laughter also distracts us from negative emotions, possibly better than any other mere distractions.

4) Reduce Caffeine: Reduce your caffeine intake throughout your day. Caffeine tends to bother sleeping habits at night, leaving you feeling tired and cranky in the morning. Feeling tired throughout your day is just what the body needs to be easily stressed.

5) Take up a hobby: Even though life may already be busy enough, it’s still important to take time to do things you enjoy such as reading, playing an instrument or sport, crocheting, scrap booking, etc. An enjoyable break is much needed and good for the soul.

These are just a few examples of how to reduce stress, and you probably have a few techniques of your own.  Whatever works for you, place it high on your priority list. Take the time to relax your body and your mind so that you can enjoy every moment of every day.

Did you ever purchase a hand towel, dish towel, or bath towel that felt soft to the touch, only to discover that it’s not that absorbent?  Here are a couple of important tips to keep in mind the next time you shop for towels:

Look at the fabric content and consider towels that are made of 100% cotton. Cotton terry cloth towels are the most absorbent. Cotton along with a terry cloth weave are a perfect combination because cotton can absorb up to seven times its weight in water and the terry loops act as small sponges. The highest-quality terry products consist of more yarns used in the background fabric and very close loops packed into the pile. The more loops there are, the more absorbent the towel will be.

Avoid velour towels.  Although they look and feel beautiful, they have limited absorbency due to the shorter pile.  Velour towels are produced in the same fashion as terry, but with an additional process that shears the terry loops to a shorter length on one side.

Now that the heat of summer is in full force, it’s sometimes hard to get a comfortable and restful night sleep.  We all know that the best way to keep cool is with an air conditioner, but even if you don’t have one, there are some things you can do to help you cool down and rest up.

1)  When you know it’s going to be a hot and humid day, start early in the morning by keeping the window curtains, blinds and/or shades drawn to keep out the hot sun. Although it’s uplifting to be in a sun-lit room, the rays of sun actually increase the temperature in the room.

2)  Before climbing into bed, cool your body down with a refreshing shower.

3)  Just as you dress yourself with cooler clothing on a hot summer day, dress your bed with cooler linens, such as cotton or bamboo sheets. Each are an excellent choice because the fabric is breathable and absorbs moisture, keeping your body temperature cooler. Avoid bed sheets that contain polyester because they tend to be hot. And believe it or not, a wool mattress pad not only keeps you warm in the winter, but also helps to keep you cool in the summer by wicking moisture away from your body.

4)  If the air temperature is cooler outside than inside, place a fan in a window facing outward. Open another window on the opposite end of your room, if possible. The cross ventilation will help to create more of breeze than by having just one window open and the fan will pull out the warm air and allow the cooler air to flow through the room.

5)  If possible, invest in a ceiling fan for your bedroom. They provide great air circulation and can make you feel up to 4 degrees cooler even without an air conditioner. In the summer, the blades should rotate in a ‘reverse’ counter-clockwise motion.

Pima cotton is a type of extra-long staple cotton (ELS) and is one of the highest grades of cotton in the world, ranked right behind Egyptian cotton. It is grown in select areas of the southwestern United States where the cotton is fully irrigated and benefits from a longer growing season in a hot, dry climate.  Pima cotton has long threads similar to Egyptian cotton and can be woven into a soft dense fabric. One of the advantages of Pima cotton is that the thickness of the cloth it weaves creates a very durable fabric. Due to its strength, softness, durability and absorbency, it is primarily used for sheets, towels, and clothing.

When referring to bed sheets, what exactly does ‘pocket depth’ mean?  Many people get confused between ‘mattress depth’ and ‘pocket depth’. Simply put, the mattress depth refers to the thickness of a mattress and pocket depth is the length of the corner seam on a fitted sheet.

In order for sheets to fit properly on a bed, the fitted pocket depth needs to be only one to three inches deeper than the depth of the mattress.  Many fitted sheets in the stores these days are made with very deep pockets to accommodate all mattress depths.  The standard deep pocket sheets work well for the very deep mattresses, however with the new trend of shallow mattresses now on the market, with some being as shallow as six inches, the standard 15” to 18” fitted pockets are too loose and create uncomfortable bunching and wrinkling in the sleep surface.

If you have experienced this problem, believe it or not, there is a solution.  Cozytown Linens offers fitted sheets in one inch intervals ranging from 6” up to 25” deep.  It’s a one-of-a-kind custom service at a non-custom price, allowing you to choose the pocket depth that best fits your specific mattress.

When you think of Bamboo, what probably comes to mind is the unique Bamboo plant with its rigid bamboo shoots (stems),  but did you ever think of Bamboo as a soft and luxurious fabric? It may be hard to believe, but Bamboo fabric is often compared to cashmere because is it so soft and smooth. It is a natural textile made from the pulp of the bamboo grass and has been growing in popularity because it has many unique properties:

1)   Bamboo fabric which is a blend of bamboo and cotton, is naturally anti-microbial, which helps to reduce bacteria that thrive on clothing and bed sheets, causing unpleasant odors.

2)   The bamboo plant itself  has natural anti-bacterial agents that make it unattractive to pests. Additionally, because it grows in such dense forests, it naturally inhibits weeds, eliminating the need for chemical herbicides.

3)     Bamboo fabric is woven from a very renewable resource and is fully bio-degradable.

4)     One great quality of Bamboo fabric is that it is cooler than cotton and wicks away moisture up to nine times faster, making it the perfect fabric for people  who experience hot flashes or tend to perspire in their sleep.

5)      Another great quality of Bamboo, as far as textile production, is that it is one the fastest-growing plants on the planet.  Because it can grow 75 feet in 45 to 60 days, this amazing plant can be harvested annually and will then regenerate itself from the roots, replacing the crop naturally without the need for re-planting or crop rotation.

So, if bamboo sheets are really that great, you’re probably wondering why we haven’t heard of them before now. The answer is simply because fabric made from bamboo is a fairly new invention.  Although bamboo bedding products have been around prior to 2003 in the United States, there are few U.S. companies actively promoting this wonderful product in the market place.