Product Review: Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair

I’ve been meaning to post about the wonderfulness of this product for several weeks now but I just keep forgetting. Something else I’ve been forgetting to do is actually use the product though so when I pulled it out last night and swept it over my sofa for the first time in few weeks and immediately saw the AMAZING results, I felt it was time to share.

As you know I have this furry little friend who loves to lay around and watch tv with me and cuddle on the sofa. However Ellie’s white hair plus a dark brown sofa:

is not the best combination.

When I first saw one of these products I was so excited. I thought “Wow! This is EXACTLY what I need! This will be great – how easy!”. I brought home the 3M Fur Fighter and got to work. It did the job but the teeth on the little sheets were just so thin. It didn’t really seem like the teeth were long enough to grab much or like the sheets would hold very much hair. I tried it a few times, luckily it had been purchased with a coupon, and then resorted back to just vacuuming the furniture every now and then. Not fun or easy.

So I was super excited when Pledge released their much improved solution to the pet hair/sofa problem – enter the Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair.

This product is the best thing ever! And so much better than the other version, sorry 3M. This one does a great job of picking up all the hair, lint, etc and then keeps it all in the little bubble thing on the top instead of it just being kind of ‘out there’ on the other one. Its got 2 rollers underneath with much better 'teeth' for grabbing the hair. Also, I’ve used mine several times and its nowhere near full. It’s a great thing to just swipe over the furniture before company comes over. I think it could even be useful if you didn't have a pet, just to clean things up a bit. I highly recommend it and you can click here for more information! (I was going to have you click there for a coupon but unfortunately its expired - sorry! I think its normally about $5 and so worth it!)

I know I'll be needing to use this tomorrow after Ellie and I watch Giuliana and Bill and the premiere of Top Chef Las Vegas tonight - yea! I really hope this is a fun group of chefs! I think it will be so much fun to watch them cook in all the fantastic restaurants in Vegas also. My friend Heather is going to Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill in Las Vegas this very weekend and I'm so jealous! Hopefully she will post a great review for us next week... The cookbook is amazing; I can only imagine what the food would be like at the actual restaurant!

This weekend calls for...Sangria!

{image courtesy of ibiza hotels}

Well actually probably not this weekend as I already have festivities planned that include champagne and margaritas for Julie's going away party. She's leaving us to head waaaaay across the state and start law school in a few weeks. Hopefully she'll be working here in the summers! But maybe your weekend plans call for sangria???

I made this sangria recipe a few weeks ago when my friend Lauren came to town for a girly weekend and to see The Fray in concert. I feel like I always see tons of sangria recipes, everyone seems to have one that they swear by, or one that is just SO easy. I've made a few and they always just seemed to be missing something. I ran across this recipe in a free neighborhood magazine that I ususally just toss in the recylcing bin but the promise of "cool summer cocktails" on the cover caught my eye this time.

As I read the recipe I saw one ingredient - that proves to be key - that I'd never seen in a sangria recipe before: frozen lemonade concentrate. My curiosity was peaked! (Plus I've been on the lookout for fun punch recipes ever since I finally gave in and bought one of those cool glass beverage jars...so this was just another excuse to use it.)

Luckily the meal I'd planned for that night would complement the sangria well so it seemed like the thing to do.

Sangria!

1/2 cup brandy
1/2 cup triple sec
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup frozen lemonade concentrate
1 (750 milliliter) bottle dry red wine
1 lemon, sliced into rounds
1 orange, sliced into rounds
1 lime, sliced into rounds
1/4 cup white sugar
8 maraschino cherries (optional)

There really aren't any 'directions' for this - you just mix it all up and enjoy! They did suggest you mix it the night before for best results but I did ours right before we drank it and Molly, Lauren and I thought it was pretty tasty!

I made a double batch of this and we used Yellow Tail Shiraz as the red wine - it was fantastic! I was a little leery of the brandy taste but it really worked out and the frozen lemonade concentrate gave it this little extra zing that I feel like is usually missing from my other recipes. It was refreshing and light instead of sickly sweet, which is how I feel about some others.

For dinner that night we had Cumin Dusted Chicken Breasts with Guacamole Sauce from Cooking Light. YUM! This was so easy and I highly recommend it with sweet potato fries. (the frozen ones are actually really good!)

Hope everyone has a fast Friday and a great weekend!

This week...

So not much has been going on with me this week. Work has been busy so that’s nice – love it when the weekends seem to get here more quickly! I did my duty as a Junior League volunteer on Monday night and helped make 1200 (yes that’s right twelve hundred) lunches to be delivered to the homes of underprivileged children on Tuesday and I have managed to do some form of exercise on both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. All in all a pretty good week!

Tuesday was another appt to Shred it with Jillian. I still do levels 1 and 2 back to back. I just can’t seem to get into level 3 for some reason…but 1 and 2 seem to do the trick and deliver a pretty good, sweaty workout. Wednesday I went to my parents house and used their pool to swim laps. I was really good about doing this in high school and the first fall/winter that we had the pool my dad even heated it for me so I could keep swimming as the weather got cooler. It was great! Sadly, that was the one and only fall/winter we kept the pool heated – in fact, I think we shut that heater off as soon as we got that first bill…it was nice while it lasted though! With this weather being so HOT I thought I’d try and take up swimming again and I’m really enjoying it. I’m not sure if I’ll be shredding it or swimming this afternoon but I am determined to do something and try and keep this habit of working out 3-4 times per week up for the next few months. I’ve got a bridesmaid dress to fit into for my friend Lauren’s wedding in October! (Side note so Lauren does not freak out: I’m sure the dress will ‘fit’ – I just want to make sure I look as good as possible in all of your pictures – yea!)

I’ve also fallen into the trap of a few more tv shows this week. One has been on for a few weeks and I’d been recording it but hadn’t watched any episodes until this past Sunday when I decided I needed to try it out and either keep it going or delete all of them. The show is on Lifetime on Sunday nights and its called Drop Dead Diva. Its actually pretty cute! The basic premise is that this shallow model girl dies and ends up switching bodies with an overweight super smart lawyer who was also shot at the same time – so realistic, right? So she can tell she’s in this new body and has all of her same memories of her former life but also has all the skills of this lawyer now. Its kind of cheesy but they try a case on each episode so that is interesting. It kind of reminds me of Boston Legal in a way. It’s a keeper for now.

The other show I am now adding to my regular reality tv rotation is Giuliana and Bill on the Style network. I watched the premiere last night and just LOVED it! They are so cute together! And I love how they compete with each other on things, all in a cute way. Very good show. I’m excited to see what all is in store for this season! (I’m also fairly certain I’m going to have a major crush on Bill Rancic by the end of the season….or the 2nd episode…)

Check back tomorrow if you’re in need of a really good sangria recipe – mine’s been tested and approved!