Stacerella

I promise you I’m not fishing for more great cake pans (I’m still riding high on the thrill of receiving my acorn pan, thank you!), but I do want to point out this new one from Williams-Sonoma.com that I just found.

It’s an Igloo Pan. How adorable is it?! OMG, It’s super cute and looks very straight forward decorating wise.

I’m thinking this would make a great gift for Joe’s niece this Christmas. Hmm… Hopefully I will remember to grab one for her when I hit T-Dot on Nov. 25th for my doc appointment.

Ooooh!! I’m also loving these Fall leaf piecrust cutters for her! Sweet, I just spotted something for the MIL, too. And something for the SIL. Hee.

Oh, no. I think Williams-Sonoma is going to do in our Christmas budget this year in one shopping trip.

We have ugly parquet flooring in our apartment, and recently when we were looking for homes to buy, we noticed we couldn’t get away from paquet flooring. We despise parquet. Like, loathe it. Our plan, should be be saddled with some in our first home (and there’s 99.9% certainty of that happening), we would take the time to lay down laminate or broadloom. Without question.

However, in the meantime, one the things I hate most about cleaning this small and weirdly shaped apartment is sweeping. And specifically with the broom choices that I had i my arsenal - including vacuums. Nothing seem to clean up the dust that seems to float up and fall back to the floor after sweep of the broom that area of the apartment. It felt like a never ending task and a futile one at that.

Enter Vileda’s newest straight broom, the DuActiva, that just hit the market not that long ago. I picked one up from the Home Hardware store that’s a few doors down from our store a week ago. Joe was skeptical and I could hear him tsk-tsk’ing me in his head for purchasing another broom I would end up bitter about. And to some extent, I had the same thoughts. But this broom spoke to me. Don’t laugh! I looked at the design and the sponge wedge that sits beside the bristles spoke to me. It said, “I will control the dust and drag it along with me wherever you go. I won’t let it escape.” So, being prone to listening to funny voices in my head, on tv and in home appliances, I brought it home.

The first time I used it, I knew I just spent the best $12 of my life. Seriously. It makes cleaning wood floors a simple task with minimal sweep strokes and minimal effort to get all of the dust. I normally put off sweeping under the bed as a chore I do a few times a year. The second I tested this broom, I moved the bed out and went to town. I even moved other furniture to sweep behind everything I could.

This is a shot of the dust bunnies from just the bedroom. It’s rather gross. No wonder Joe and I don’t sleep well at night. Who can if you have that much dust laying around? Allergies much?

I recommend getting this broom. It will shave a lot of sweeping time off your chore list per day and per week. I actually like sweeping now!