Tag: LED lights

School Bag Review: Futliit LED Backpack

We were sent a Futliit LED Backpack for review. All images and opinions are our own.

When my son started high school in September, there were many things I worried about, not least him getting himself to school and back safely. Now that the nights have drawn in, that slight anxiety I have has been compounded and I knew I needed to do something other than wrap him in reflective strips. I did buy him a small wind up torch to carry, but then I heard about Futliit LED backpacks, looked at the website and I was completely won over.

School Bag Review: Futliit LED Backpack

The Futliit LED Backpack is genius. It’s a normal looking backpack, a great size for school and an unassuming design, but at the push of a hidden button, LED strips light up, making you visible as you walk home in the dark. Futliit’s light up backpack has two bright white LED light strips, which give you several lighting options (two flashing modes, one constant light and off). The bags also have reflective panels which add an extra layer of visibility.

The bag itself is available in a charcoal grey colour and is an excellent size for carrying all the books and stuff you need for high school. It’s big enough for a laptop too. There’s a smaller front pocket which also has a key holder, which is an absolute must for my boy who has dyspraxia. He loves his key holder, which means his keys never go missing in the dark depths of his bag. There are also two side pockets for bottles of water, should he need them. It’s a very well designed bag.

School Bag Review: Futliit LED Backpack

I’ve been a big fan of backpacks since I was at school. I don’t drive, so I’m reliant on public transport or just walking to places, so it’s just easier for me to use a backpack. Because I use one every day, I am fussy about what I want in a bag. The Futliit LED Backpack is an excellent design, roomy, padded for comfort, and has lots of useful pockets, and that’s before you get to the LED lights!

When I first got my hands on the backpack, I didn’t know where the on/off buttons were. The design is so clever, you’d never know it was a fancy light up bag until it was actually lit up. If you put the backpack on, then put your hands on the adjustable straps and run them down until you get to the fabric triangles where the straps meet the bag. Inside the triangles are the on/off buttons for the two LED light strips. Press once and you get a rapid flashing light. Press twice it is a slower flash and three times, you get a static light. If you press it a forth time, the light switches off. It’s so clever.

I confess, when I first received the bag and had a good look at it, I was sort of hoping my son would hate it and I could use it myself. It’s ideal for me to take to work. It’s comfortable to carry and has everything I’m looking for in a practical backpack. Alas, my son also had very similar thoughts, and as it was technically for him, I’ve graciously let him keep it; though I will be asking Father Christmas for one this year!

If I could change anything, it would be to add a few more colours of backpack to the range. I suspect the charcoal grey is a colour that won’t get you told off at school.

School Bag Review: Futliit LED Backpack

I love this bag, the Futliit LED Backpack is such a clever design. Clearly made my people who understand what a good backpack needs to be great. The LED lights are clear, bright and will probably save lives as people travel home from work and school in the dark.

Good quality backpacks which are able to cope with the rigours of daily use and school life are not cheap. I’ve bought cheap before and regretted it as the bag often falls apart within a month or so. The Futliit LED Backpack currently costs £79.99 from the website, though deals are occasionally available. I do think you get what you pay for. Knowing how quickly my son burns through cheaper shoes and bags, I think this is an investment in something he will use daily and which will hopefully last him a year or two.

The batteries are also pretty easy to change and there are instructions on how to do this on the Futliit website.

I’m so impressed with the Futliit LED Backpack. I know my son will use it every day and while it’s dark coming home from school. It’s a weight off my mind knowing he is that bit safer out there with this bag on his back.

For more information about Futliit LED Backpacks, visit their website.

Review: Funky Polychrome Light from Paladone

Note: I was sent this light for review purposes. All images and opinions are my own.

Now that the nights are drawing in I’ve realised that I need better lighting in my office at home. So when Paladone offered to send me a Polychrome light to review, I knew it would be put to good use.

The light is a stylish light bulb shape with different mood settings. The light is powered by micro USB, although you can put batteries in it too. The clever thing is, when you plug it in to the USB it overrides the batteries, so they last a bit longer. It also means that when you unplug the USB you’re not suddenly plunged into darkness.

Paladone

The light has different mood settings. Press the the light down once and the colour changing light begins to change through a sequence of colours. If you find a colour you’re particularly fond of, you can press it again and it will stay on that colour. Press the light again to turn it off. Simple.

This isn’t the kind of light you can use to read under, but it does create some lovely, calming ambient light. I have it on a side table next to my desk which my son can see from his bed at night, he’s told me that watching the light helps him to fall asleep.

paladone

Although it’s not a light for working with, I do enjoy having it in my work room. It does cast some lovely shadows and it has helped to increase the light levels in my office to a level I can work with. Every little helps.

It’s a really innovative light, stylish and a real talking point. It would work just as well in a child’s room as a nightlight, as in a contemporary office space or a teenager’s bedroom for example.

The Polychrome light costs £19.99 and is available directly from the Paladone website and from selected retailers. I have a discount code for the Paladone website which is valid until 31st October 2016. For 20% off enter SHOP20 at the checkout.

Brightening up the house with LED branch lights

After Christmas my house always looks extra dark, no twinkling lights on the tree to brighten the place, no beautiful strings of pretty lights illuminating the dark corners of the house. The dark evenings and the sudden change from light and festive to just normal and slightly drab do not help this, and somehow this adds to the gloom.

Unwilling to let the seeping melancholy overtake me, I got some LED branch lights from LED Hut with the intention of perking up a drab corner and perking me up too.

They arrived really well packaged. I opened the box and they were just ready to be used. They come with a small battery pack which uses 3x AA batteries (which were included), there is a small on/off switch, so you just switch them on and put them in a suitable vase or container. To switch off, just take the lights out and switch the battery pack off. Easy.

LED branch lights

I chose these really pretty  lights; ten LED branch lights which are inside decorative white mesh pods. They are on white branches which are made of metal so you can move and position them however you think best.

These work really well in my home which was (hastily) painted white when we moved in and has both modern Scandinavian (mainly Ikea) and traditional furniture. They suit the crisp contemporary whiteness and the cosy traditional look we also have going.

I’m quite in love with these lights and haven’t as yet decided where they will finally end up. At the moment they are in a vase on a bureau in the lounge, but I think they’d be lovely on the landing windowsill, in my office to pretty it up a little bit, or maybe even in the downstairs loo. I can see me getting a few more sets of these pretty LED branch lights.

These lovely LED branch lights give off a pleasing warm light, not bright enough to read by or do fine needlework under, but enough to brighten a gloomy corner. I like how the light shines out from the mesh, casting attractive patterns against the wall. There’s nothing I don’t like about them, even the price is reasonable, they’re just £11.99 from LED Hut, and much safer than the candles I normally burn to cheer the place up on a dark winters evening.

Note: I was sent these LED branch lights free of charge for review purposes, all images and opinions are my own.

Review: Christmas Lights from LED Hut

December is a dark, dark month, but it would be so much darker without our homes being festooned in Christmas lights. We’re not the kind of people to be putting the tree up and switching on the fairy lights on the first day of December, we tend to save that for the weekend before Christmas, but there’s something very cheering about having Christmas lights up, so we often put up a few lights at the start of advent to start getting us in the Christmas spirit.

I love simple white lights, they go with any scheme and I just find their brightness against the dark outside visually appealing. I ordered some LED Indoor Christmas Curtain Star Lights from LED Hut this year, as I wanted something new to light up our window. These curtain star lights have 64 stars on eight lines which hang from one top strand.

They are quite lovely when they’re lit up and I like the way the light reflects on the window. I think these will be a lovely cheery sight to walk past come December. I love having lights, but I confess I am a bit of a Christmas light snob, there are no neon flashing lights you can see from space on my house, bah humbug etc.

LED Hut

These lights look to be good quality and are easily put up (we have some hooks in our window for Christmas lights, so they just needed hooking over) and easy to switch on. We tend to put Christmas lights on timers which saves us having to think about it, plus it makes it extra nice to come home when its dark and see the lights on.

These lights would look lovely running down a banister, with each stand wrapped around a different spindle, but I think these are destined for our front window, simple, elegant, classy and festive, I love them. LED Hut have  a huge selection of Christmas lights to choose from, both indoor and outdoor, in lots of different styles and designs.

These curtain lights come from LED Hut and they offer a 2 year warranty on these particular lights and a 30 day no hassle returns policy. They cost £23.99 which I think is a good price for the number of bulbs, the amount of space they cover and the quality of the product. I can’t wait to put them up this Christmas.

Note: LED Hut kindly sent me these lights for review purposes, all images and opinions are my own. Visit their website for more information.