I have a new friend and it follows me around the house wherever I go. And I love it.

I’ve always had a thing about radio; listening to the dulcet tones of Radio 4 in the morning and whilst I work or playing music whilst I cook in the evenings. I also love listening to podcasts, especially on Sunday afternoons or as I sew. My new VQ digital retro radio is perfect for all these things and more. It can run on batteries so I can carry it around with me from room to room (or you can plug it in) and I can also pull out the iPod dock and hook it up to my phone and play music from Spotify, which works perfectly when we have friends round. You can even connect it to your computer and the sound quality is great. Most importantly (obvs!), I think it looks great and the leatherette finish is really high quality. I really, really love it.

I love the retro styling and it works perfectly on my G-plan sideboard.

The stylish leatherette finish is beautiful (I couldn’t tell it wasn’t real leather).

I hate working in silence so this radio is perfect for my home office.

You can plug the radio in or run it off batteries.

This is where my radio spends most of its time – is there anything better than blasting music and having a dance whilst cooking?!

The lovely folks over at VQ are offering one of my readers a retro radio, worth £79.99, in a colour or pattern of your choice – see them all here. Wouldn’t it make a perfect Christmas present, too?

To enter the giveaway, which ends at midnight on Monday 7th December, all you have to do is complete the Rafflecopter below. We would love you to either leave a comment on this post, follow VQ on Pinterest here or pin your favourite radio from the VQ site here (or do all three to get extra entries).

Good luck and I will be back on the December 8th to announce the winner! Fingers crossed x

And the winner is…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations, Jules (I promise it’s not my partner!!). Pop me an email at katy@18.200.196.112 to claim your prize in time for Christmas! Thank you to everyone who entered and watch out for another amazing giveaway launching here tomorrow. x

T&Cs

– Giveaway open from Tuesday 1st December to midnight Monday 7th December 2015.

– Giveaway open to mainland UK only.

– Winner will receive one retro radio in a colour or pattern of their choice.

– Winner will be picked at random using Rafflecopter generator.

I have always wanted to be a better sleeper; I don’t have a problem getting to sleep but staying asleep is another matter. I have never, ever (not even as a teenager) had a proper lie-in because come 7am and I am pretty much awake, no matter what (and make that 6am if I have had a few drinks the night before – so unfair!). A few years ago I also had to have a couple of hip operations and all my joints are a bit out of whack so pain can disturb my sleep and the amount I get can also have an effect on my pain levels.

Over time I have learnt that the temperature of my room, the amount of light and the quality of my duvet, pillows and bedlinen are very important to the amount of sleep I get. We sleep with our balcony door open every night, I spent a hideous amount of money on properly lined curtains and I’m pretty sure that you have caught on by now that I’m keen on the best quality bed linen! However, when I bought our current flat nearly six years ago I scrimped on a fairly cheap mattress, far keener to spend money on more aesthetically pleasing things. After a while it became clear that it was a false economy and so I had to buy an expensive memory foam topper, which has done us well until now.

When Leesa got in touch asking us to review their ‘one size fits all’ mattress I didn’t hesitate. Leesa is an American company that launched here in July. They offer just one mattress design in varying sizes (at an affordable price from £390) which totally removes the stress of choosing an important purchase based on lying on it self consciously in the store for five minutes. In fact, Leesa offer a 100-night risk free trial to all customers for the very reason that it is simply impossible to tell whether a mattress is right for you after such a short time. Here’s how we (including Otto – obvs) got on with our mattress…

The mattress arrives in a small hassle-free box. Ours arrived just before we were lending our flat to friends for the weekend so we didn’t open it and left it in the corner and they didn’t even notice it. Once I opened the vacuum packed mattress it takes a few seconds to start filling up with air and it says on the box to leave it for an hour before it feels good. Back I came after an hour and obviously Otto had already made himself at home!

The mattress cover is lovely and soft and then there is a 5cm foam top layer, a 5cm memory foam middle layer and then a 12cm dense core support foam bottom layer. I was a little worried that all this foam would envelop me and I would feel like I couldn’t move around in the night, which I do a lot. However, it is surprisingly springy and I can move around with ease, not leaving an imprint. The dense foam layer is supportive and firm at its core.

Once I had got the dog off (he sits at the foot of the bed with his chin planted on the mattress to ask to come up) and I could make the bed it was very exciting to try it for the first time.

I have to admit that I immediately had a two hour nap once the hour we had to wait for the mattress to grow to size was up as it makes the bed so cosy and soft.

Having slept on the mattress for the last couple of weeks I am getting more and more used to it. Leesa say to give it 30 days before making up your mind about it as I think it is quite an adjustment from your standard sprung mattress. They also give the guarantee – ‘if you’re not sleeping better on a Leesa within 100 nights, we can donate your mattress to a local charity and provide a full refund’. You can’t argue with that.

I slept really well last night and now the mornings are so much darker I made it to 8am. Jules really likes the mattress and it absorbs his movement much more than a sprung mattress, which is another bonus. As for Otto, he can not get enough of it.

What do you do to get a good night’s sleep?

Katy x

P.S. Leesa is kindly offering my readers £50 off their mattress – just use the code APARTMENTAPOTHECARY50.

*This post was written in collaboration with Leesa.