Dear mummy, I know how much you like taking photos, the thing is you take too many. I blame the blog, social media and your constant hoarding of images, too scared to delete them off your hard drive incase you forget the memory. You worry that without a visual jog the pictures in your head with diminish and fade.

However, you never print them out! You just store them online which is infuriating for friends and family. This is mainly because we haven’t got enough wall space and you’re fed up of printing out photos and storing them away in albums. You started looking for alternative solutions just before Christmas you stumbled across a British company called Bags of Love.

Bags of Love was set up in 2002, by a similar type of mum who spent her days taking photos of her young family then wanted a unique and interesting way to display the photos involving handmade luxury gifts, which could be personalised with your own photos. Bags of Love has come a long way since that mums great idea and now has websites in 8 languages countries, and currently 100 staff.

Bags of Love are based in the West London, where they print, manufacture and dispatch all of their lovely products directly to customers. They even offer same day delivery for many products within the U.K. or you can pick them up yourself from their factory. Trust pilot recommends them as ‘excellent’ so that’s reassuring based on thousands of other customer reviews.

We ordered one of their photo blankets (£34) and it was perfect for snuggling up on a cold winter night. My mummy actually fancied it for a throw for the sofa, but I loved it so much the past couple of weeks its been on my bed as an extra layer. I love pointing to the pictures and describing the photos. My folks talk to me about the days the photos were taken on to see if it jogs my memory (and theirs). You could see how the blankets would make a great focal point for family and friends visiting and opportunity to prompt memories and start-up a conversation.

The personalised photo blankets are UK made in quality fleece, printed and sewn to order. You don’t have to just use photos either, you can also design your own fabric at their factory too! We had fun designing our photo collage blanket online. It’s such a cuddly blanket with the highest quality print, thickest fleece, lovingly made and a long guarantee of 10 years as it uses permanent print. It can be used as a custom baby blanket which inevitably becomes a lifelong memory to treasure. We just wish we thought of this for my Christening! There are 5 sizes available and we chose the smallest blanket size around 100cm x 73cm (perfect for a toddler bed). It’s hand stitched and double layered too and you can choose the background colours.

The blanket is produced on a good quality fleece with really vivid colours and we were actually surprised how well the photos rendered for print onto this blanket. You see, my mummy is a graphic designer and always keeps an eye out for low resolution and poor print quality. She was amazed at how well her standard quality Instagram & Facebook pics reproduced onto the fleece material and it looks really good. Recommend washing is 30 degrees washing inside out and a low tumble dry, which is good for us!

Another great thing about Bags of Love has to be the user interface on their website, it’s so easy to use that even I could do it (I’m nearly 4yrs you know!). The connectivity of the preview and the social media channel you are importing your photos from is seamless and it took us less than 10 minutes to upload and sign off our photo blanket.

There’s a whole host of options too, for changing sizes, backgrounds, colours and positioning which makes ordering super user-friendly. The delivery wasn’t bad either, it turned up in 48hrs by Royal Mail, however we were out so missed the first delivery – Doh! I was so excited to open the bag when it turned up, but slightly worried that the package was so small. But looks can be deceiving the blanket was tightly folded and packaged to keep it in mint condition when it arrived.

As you can see from the photos, it looks rather impressive. Just like a patchwork quilt we love the montage effect and my folks and I spent ages looking at it and reminiscing about the good memories from this year. It would make a great Christmas present and the value is outstanding for what you pay for. We’ve had loads of comments on it for visitors already.

A really practical and thoughtful blanket, this is going to stay with me forever. It’s so nice that we are going to reorder our ‘year in photos’ every year.

With over 450 cool keepsakes and gifts which you can find on Bags of Love website the only dilemma is choosing what to go for next! With offers on too its a real bargain (Buy 2 Add 1 Free), visit http://www.bagsoflove.co.uk/photo-blankets to find out more!

What do you guys think of this photo blanket?

Love Bella x