My Vacuum Obsession: My New Dyson, the Best Vacuum ever!

For the longest time, I have needed a new vacuum. My old clunker barely did anything and after vacuuming, I would need to use a swifter. And even though it was an upright, it would toddle at the most inappropriate times, and fall on my feet, or back, or crash and hit something.

I started research over two years ago(!) into a new vacuum and really fell in love with the Dyson television commercials. Also, probably because I work in the arts, I had also seen the yellow ball vacuums in design cases in design museums!

Trick is, I had to ask everyone I knew who owned one, whether or not they liked theirs.

A total of five people I know own a fancy (and expensive) Dyson,
but did they like them?

Here were my results, bad and good:

BAD (more like Complaints)

With the Dyson Ball Design vacuums (everyone I knew had one), the ball prevented you from reaching underneath furniture. This was the major complaint. 

Everyone complained about the weight. They are heavy...hmm, 40 pounds?

For those that had a detachable hose, the strong suction would cause you to fight against the vacuum hose, as the suction pulls you back. This was enough for the individual to say she would never buy one again because stairs were so difficult.

One complaint I read online was the suction was too strong in general and pulled carpet.

My cousin had one problem, but discovered it was only a dog hair clog.

GOOD (more like Worship)

My Precious: My Dyson Air Muscle Pet Machine

This sucker sucks. But the nice thing about my model is the four different floor settings: bare, low pile, medium and high pile. Terrific. Works fine on my rugs too. It works so well, it gets the particles of dirt out from in between the wood floor boards!

It is a tad quieter than my old vacuum. But apparently according to complaints online, it is loud. It's a vacuum - whaddaya expect?

This was the amount of dust after my first Dyson vacuum. I had vacuumed with
my old vacuum only a week before. Wowee! 

Washable hepa-filters and canister. Yay! I no longer smell dust while I vacuum and no bags! But a word of warning, you must wait before the dust settles before emptying the vacuum. I was too excited the first time....Oh and I have a sick fascination looking at how much I have sucked up.

It has a tiny beater brush for stairs (if I had any).

I use the thin attachment for dusting and love how it gets between the rungs of my radiators, behind furniture and the wall and the brush that can be lowered onto the thin attachment is super on lampshades.

Items of Annoyance (not really bad, just annoying)

Two out of the four attachments attach to the body of the vacuum but the one tend to use most doesn't attach so I have to lug it around the apartment as I vacuum. It pivots nicely and gets to the back of furniture easily. The suction is excellent for it being attached to an extendable wand.

The attachment I use most and has already taken a beating (scratches).

I had a major stroke of luck finding my vacuum for half-price at Future Shop (for $300) when it usually retails for $600. It is probably more than what I need for a small apartment yet one day when I grow up and move into a house, it'll be great. If I did stay in my apartment, I would recommend one of their cordless or smaller models.

Still scared by the price? Yes, they are cheaper in the United States than in Canada. Another alternative is to buy refurbished through the Dyson Canada website as one of my friends did.

Love it, love it, love it - vacuuming is my new sick hobby. LOL!

Natural Peanut Butter, Vegan Baggage and Cookies

In a rush, I grabbed the first peanut butter on the shelf. It was on sale. We needed peanut butter. I grabbed it...

Didn't realize until I got home, not only was it crunchy, it was natural.

I'm all for natural products. The less chemicals in my food, the better. So I thought, "What the hey" and stirred my separated oil and nuts.

Things I don't like about Natural Peanut Butter:

1. You have to stir it well. If you don't stir it well enough, you will find that when you get to the bottom of the jar it is oddly, freaky, crusty dry. 
2. There is less sugar and I like sugar. It is really noticeable in Natural Peanut Butter. To solve this problem I added jam to every peanut butter'd piece of bread I had.
3. I don't know if it is all those saturated fats but DAMN IT REALLY STICKS TO THE ROOF OF YOUR MOUTH.

I couldn't throw out the peanut butter. I resolved to bake with it.

UGH! You have to stir it before you even bake with it!

I scoured the internet for a new peanut butter recipe and found an interesting vegan one.

Vegan?!?! I just didn't know. Vegan? Tasteless, wacky, kale?  You see, I have vegan baggage.

A vegan stole my job. Another vegan I used to work with would insult me on a daily basis (I blame diet/lack of food). And the whole wool thing, honey thing really gets my goat.

But, I am open minded. I know of one vegan who is sane and a terrific person. There is hope. So I decided to try it. This recipe uses olive oil (I have never baked with olive oil despite how many recipes are out there) and good ol' natural peanut butter.

"If it doesn't taste good, I'll eat it!"

Did it work? Does it taste as good as a normal, regular, everyday peanut butter cookie?

YUPPERS! And there are very few ingredients: Maple syrup, flour, vanilla, salt, baking soda and peanut butter.

This is an important picture: the dough looks just like
a regular non-vegan recipe.

The final product: just wonderful!

A warning: Mr. B believes these cookies are dry, but I don't find them that way at all. They do stick to the roof of your mouth a bit more than a regular cookie. They are less sweet (which I remedied by sprinkling sugar on the top of them).

To try this recipe out visit the link at 101 cookbooks right here.