What I Wore This Week

{Gap Outlet Tee, Kork Ease Wedges, Mossimo Shorts}

There was a mix up involving these shorts, they’re too big so I bought the smaller size down but then I put the too big pair back in the drawer and wore them instead of the new smaller pair and that’s my why my shirt looks too short. Whatever. This was fine, there are other things I like better with these shorts and this shirt. I desperately need a new white skirt, I had to retire all three of mine.

I

{Thrifted shirt, J. Crew Factory Bermudas, Havaianas}

This shirt was in the “Should it stay or should it go?” pile. I wore it all morning before realizing that the decoration on the chest perfectly aligns with my nipples, and then I discarded it in horror. It has gone. I think it made me look kind of boxy anyway.

{Target tank, J. Crew Factory Bermuda shorts, Havaianas}

I probably didn’t need another navy tank, but this was $10 at Target and reminded me of something that they’d try to charge $60 for at Anthropologie.  Plus it was really flattering and comfy and covered my bra straps. Win. But really, don’t let me buy any more navy tanks.

{Kohls jacket, Target dress, Kate Spade necklace, J. Crew wedges}

I bought this jacket for something like $14 after seeing Jenny wear it on Style All Over because it seemed like the perfect thing to throw over boring black dresses.  I really really like it. It’s very light and comfy, the color is lovely, and it really does fix a boring black dress right up.  Plus, $14, so you know, win.

{Gap Flutter Sleeve Dress, Target necklace, Toms Wedges} 

I just love this dress. It’s comfy, it’s light and summery, but it doesn’t look like a swimsuit cover up, and it’s a little different.  The sleeves are perfect and I don’t feel like it’s all “look at this flattering draping for the older woman in your life” or whatever.

Everyone always asks  me if these wedges are comfortable. No, they are not comfortable. They don’t fit on my feet right and they fall off  my ankles and they are hard to walk in and they squeeze my toes. Maybe it’s just me.

{J. Crew skirt c/o Kate, Gap tanks, Target cardigan, J. Crew wedges}

This skirt is PERFECTION. I got more compliments on this skirt than I have on almost anything I wore all year.  This has cemented my “A line skirts good, poofy skirts with tons of fabric not so good” skirt philosophy.  It was so flattering and cute and I LOOOOOVE it. You should all dream of a hand me downer as awesome as Kate.

{Lands’ End Fit and Flare Dress (last year’s color), Target necklace, Franco Sarto wedges}

You know how in some areas of Target, it seems like they’ve really figured it out? Like a few years ago they were sort of behind the times but now they have washi tape! and striped straws! and little girls dresses with zebras on them!

Well, at least at my Target, I feel like they need help in the jewelry department.  They get in an order of a tiny amount of stuff, it’s snatched up in three days, and then it’s not restocked for MONTHS. It’s really weird. Get with the program, Target.

Anyway, I have been looking for a long green necklace for months so when I saw that they had FINALLY restocked the jewelry at Target and this necklace was there I grabbed it.  It’s really cute as long as you don’t wear the clasp directly at the back of your neck, imho.  I want to wear it with a navy cardigan and some madras bermuda shorts, but I can’t find madras bermuda shorts ANYWHERE. But I love that it gives me another way to wear this dress (in the past I’ve always worn it with a red necklace and red shoes.)

So. Looking for: aline white skirt, madras bermuda shorts, hot pink flowy high waisted maxi skirt. Also a crew necked t shirt with VERY wide white and pink stripes or white and navy stripes. Anyone?

I Ordered Instagram Prints From Walgreens, Here’s What I Thought

So at the end of the year, along with a gift card and a flowery note extolling our gratitude for the fact that she taught 27 Kindergarteners for an entire year while pregnant and wearing four inch heels and without losing her mind, I really wanted to give Eli’s teacher a picture of him reading.  I harbor no illusions that she will keep this picture clutched to her breast for the next 30 years of her teaching career, but you know, she taught the kid to read. I thought it might be nice for her to have a picture demonstrating that fact.

The picture I had was in Instagram and I really thought it would be cute to have it printed out all Instagrammy – square with that white border.  It seemed more “fun inclusion in a card” than a random 4×6. However, school ends next week and I didn’t have time to have the picture printed anywhere online, so I had it printed at Walgreens, because right now I am pretty sure they are the only game in town if you want to print and pick up an Instagram pic in store.

So how does it work?  First, you download the Walgreens photo app onto your phone from the App store.  That was really easy.  Then you open the app, choose “Photo” and then you can either choose photos from your regular Camera Roll on your phone, or you can link to your instagram account and choose photos from your Instagram account. On Twitter, people said that the resolution is higher if you don’t use the Instagram account picture, but that was the only way I could get it to print in the 4×4 size. If I just chose the picture from my camera roll, the app didn’t give me the 4×4 option.

I printed three versions of the same picture to see what I thought.

The first annoying thing is that I had to place two orders.  You can’t order an instagram pic and then order regular 4×6 pics at the same time. Why? I have no idea.

The second annoying thing is that you never get asked anything about the paper, the finish, or borders. I wanted the Instagram pic to have a white border, but there were no border options.  So it’s easy to put in the order, but you get zero choices.

Thirdly, I placed my order at about 3:30.  I was told that the aproximate pick up time for the picture was 4:11, but that I’d get an email letting me know when they were actually ready.  The regular 4×6 prints were ready at about 4:45, but the Instagram pic (remember, I had to place it as a separate order) wasn’t ready until 7:40.  Which, ok, fine, but then don’t give me an estimated time of 4:11, maybe.

So this is, left to right: The regular 4×6 print off my camera roll, the 4×6 of the picture that had been instagrammed but was still in my camera roll, and then the picture that the Walgreens app used straight from my Instagram feed.  Each of the 4×6 pictures was .29 cents, the Instagram pic was .39 cents.

I am perfectly fine with the quality of these pictures, but I am super annoyed that the Instragram 4×4 doesn’t have the white border. I think to get a white border on the Instagram shot I have to re-Instagram the picture, add a border in Instagram, and then print it again, which 1. I don’t know how to do and 2. would require an additional trip to Walgreens, which is just the dirtiest store and I am not a fan, so in general, I don’t know.   I pretty much am hoping that Target gets on the ball and offers this service soon, and that when they do, they let you add borders when you place your order.

Questions? Holler.

Edited to Add: I figured out how to re instagram the picture, so I am going to add a border and order the picture one more time, just to see if it comes out printed with the border. Will report back.

 

What I Wore This Week: I AM IN NO MOOD FOR THIS

So for those of you playing along at home, I am trying to fix whatever Paxil withdrawal/Serotonin Discontinuation Syndrome/Possible Raging Anxiety Disorder Created By All This by 1. temporarily taking Xanax as needed and 2. verrrrrrry slowly building up to a very small dose of Prozac.  Right now I’m taking 1MG of liquid Prozac and I have had a low grade headache off and on for three weeks now, and then this morning I woke up with an involuntary facial spasm – my right eyelid won’t stop twitching.  Something about yet another weird side effect/the feeling of loss of control/the constant unknowns and uncertainty has just sent me over the edge. I feel very panicky and freak outy all over again.

I have emailed my doctor but this is very stressful and un fun and just all around sucks.  I just wish desperately to not feel sick, to not have to deal with shitty side effects, to not be at 50% all the time, to not wonder how I’m going to wake up feeling the next day, to not have to be so on the edge all the time. I feel so fragile and so totally done with all this and I just want it my normal  happy non sick life back.  This is for sucks.

Anyway, that’s what’s happening with that.  I’m trying to focus on other things and to just breathe. Just keep swimming, as they say.

I do have some good days! Mornings are better.  And the headaches are getting better! I am just…tired of being so – halfway.  And the unpredictability just screws with  my mind.

Yesterday was a good day! I thought things were on the upward swing.  And then I woke up with this eye thing and all my big plans for cute dresses seemed really unimportant and I just didn’t care.  But that’s why earlier in the week I am all tarted up in dresses.  I guess I should take this as a sign that things are improving.  They were really bad, they are improving, but not always upward in the same forward direction, I guess.

Here’s what I wore this week.

{Gap Ribbed Tanks, AE Artist Crops, Havaianas, Garage Sale necklace via my MIL}

I really loved this outfit. Especially once I added that crazy wooden necklace.

{Lands’s End Fit and Flare Patterned Dress, Havaianas}

I was a little worried this dress would run towards “mom frumpy” but Erik approved it. I like it – it’s very flattering and comfortable although it does make my books look huge.  Also, these dresses run so huge. This is a size small and it still felt too big in the arms. I have no idea what a person would order who actually wears a size small.

{Anthropologie skirt, Anthropologie Jacket, Marshalls T Shirt, Kork Ease wedges}

I think this would have been cute with a necklace, looking back it.  Anyway, I love this skirt.  Every time I wear it I think I should buy nothing but Anthropologie skirts for the rest of my life.

{Gap jacket, Gap Dress, Kate Spade Necklace but via Ebay so you know probably fake as shit, J. Crew wedges}

I could not love this dress more. It’s so great. Also, jackets. You need some. Get some.  They’re the best.

{Macy’s Maxi Dress (in Petite it doesn’t drag on the ground), Gap Outlet Sweater, Sam and Libby for Target shoes}

{J. Crew Factory Bermuda Shorts, Havaianas, AE Polo Shirt}

This is my “Seriously? I am done with this shit.” face.

Sorry no links, it’s not a good day. If you desperately need something let me know and I’ll let you know where it can be procured.

Books I Read This Month: May

56.  This is What Happy Looks Like

This was utterly unoffensive.  I liked it. It was a quick read, but it was nothing earth shattering. It sort of felt like Sarah Dessen lite, to be honest.  But it was not BAD, by any means. It just felt a little…bland.

57. Me Before You.  Jennie sent me an Amazon gift card and told me to buy a good book, and I debated and debated and then I bought this.  An actual book.  First of all, I LOOOOOOOVED this book. I can see all the things that people will say are wrong with it, and I understand those things, but I LOVED it. I read it in two days and I just loved it.  It reminded of Bridget Jones Diary – how that book wasn’t going to win any intellectual awards but it was just so funny in a smart quick way and so easy and fun to read.  This was like…smart good chick lit before chick lit took a terrible dive for the stupid and badly written.  Anyway, after I finally finished it I came out into the living room sobbing and clutching the book and with tears dripping down my face.  It just scratched THAT itch, and it did it perfectly.

And it made me realize how much I miss buying BOOKS.  I loved having a copy of this book that was MINE to hold in my hands, I loved seeing what the cover looked like, and putting it on my bookshelf after I was done.  I love that can I loan it to people and have it forever.  It made me realize how much I missed that.  At 150 books (ish) a year I certainly do not have the funds (or space) to buy everything I read, but I have decided I will buy myself one ACTUAL book once a month.  Poring over reviews, deciding what to buy, waiting for it to come in my the mail, holding that actual book? I have really missed that.

58. If You Find Me.  I thought this was really well written and very badly plotted.  Just…none of this would ever happen. Also, full of sexual assault, so if you avoid that kind of thing, avoid this.

59. The Death of Bees.  Weird as HELL.  And GROSS.  But you know, I kind of liked it.  It was not the kind of thing you read every day, that is for certain.  But if you are not into reading about grossness as relates to dead bodies, I would not recommend you read this.

60. The Humanity Project.  I tried to like this but it was just SO boring.

61. Prophet of Bones.  The central premise of this book was just so stupid that I couldn’t take any of it seriously.

62. The Lucy Variations.  I felt like this book was written as if I was an idiot, and I felt actually insulted reading it. Also, older married dude really into a sixteen  year old will never not be a gross and inappropriate plot point, sorry. Not hot. Gross. This could have been easily solved by making the teacher character in the book a 17 year old.   There! I just fixed this book.

63. Maya’s Notebook.  This was like two different books mashed awkwardly into one.  One was really boring and the other one was violent and full of sexual assault, so I don’t know man, this wasn’t really for me.

64. The View From Penthouse B.  You know, this was a tidge boring, but once I got into it? It was way more fun reading about old ladies living together than I thought it would be. I think it was saved because it was actually kind of funny.  It wasn’t quite there – it was a star down from great, for sure, but it was…I liked it.  It had that nice thing that happens sometimes in books when you can tell that the author really likes her characters, and writes about them with much love.

65. Quintana of Charyn.  Half of me loved this book.  The other half thought it was just SO FREAKING LONG and had no idea what was going on 80% of the time.  I liked it more than Froi of the Exiles, but it did not begin to approach my love of Finnikin of the Rock.  And it was SO CONFUSING.  AND SO LONG.  I loved  the last 100 pages but it was a ROUGH SLOG to get to those last 100 pages.  It has the best reviews on Goodreads of any book I’ve read in a LONG time, so maybe it really was just me or else it’s just a very certain person who reads these books or something, but this was not five stars for me.  If I hadn’t completely run out of books, I don’t think I would have made it through.

What I Wore This Week: I Finally Ironed!

Do you ever have those things that you just don’t buy? You just make do or you forget EVERY time you’re in Target and you just never have one? Well, we went without an ironing board cover for five years, for some ridiculous reason, until I FINALLY just coughed up $15.99 and bought one.  You know what makes ironing suck a lot less? Using an ironing board with a cover on it. Yeah, I know, I’m pretty much a genius. A total genius. Anyway.  I started ironing things! Everything looks so much better! I feel reinspired. My “Get Rid of It Or Make It Work” pile is growing smaller! And I am very happy with how many things I have been able to keep.

I find myself sticking very closely to the uniform colors lately. I had been doing some branching out, but seeing what I am choosing to keep and what things I’ve gotten rid of, I really think sticking to my original color palette is something I should focus on. Those are the things that I like to wear most and that I have the easiest time mixing and matching. I just feel most like me in these colors.

{Merona tee, Anthropologie Skirt, Kork Ease Wedges}

This skirt is so comfortable and flattering and EASY. Every time I wear it I remember how much I love it. It’s the sweatpants of skirts.

{Loft Tee, Ebay necklace, Gap khakis, Target Sam and Libby Sandals}

I looked EVERYWHERE for a pair of “SHAZAM” sandals that did not go in BETWEEN my toes. I am not a fan of vast swaths of naked footage on display.  The only pair I found were these, and as lovely as they are, I think we can all agree that $415 dollars for sandals seems a bit…excessive.  Then I walked into Target and they had a whole new Sam and Libby section of sandals and for 1/15th the price I thought these were a pretty close match to the $415 sandals. I really really like they now that I’ve worn them in a bit. Very SHAZAM.

{Target cardigan, Banana Republic Factory Store Blouse, Old Navy Trouser Jeans, J. Crew wedges}

This made me feel very tall and skinny. This week has been really hard to dress for because the mornings started out COLD and then by the end of the day it would be hot as blazes.  Enter the cardigan, man’s natural solution to this problem since time began.

This outfit was ok, but it was kind of uncomfortable.  I’m pretty sure by the end of the day I was wearing shorts and a tank top.

{Gap Luxlight V Neck Sweater, Gap Ribbed Tank, Mossimo Shorts, Kork Ease Wedges}

I love the cut of these shorts. They don’t do that wide leg thing that makes your entire downstairs look wide and bunchy and terrible.  They are a tidge bit see through (like you can see the pockets in the front, but not your underwear if you wear white or tan underwear) but they’re white shorts, it kind of goes with the territory. Anyway, I loved this outfit. It just felt so classic and me and easy but still…like I had made an effort and looked nice and…purposeful.  I dug it.

{Gap LS Tee, Gap SS Tee, Target scarf, Loft cropped jeans, Target sandals}

All I remember about this day is how effing pissed I was that it was only 55 degrees.

{Merona skirt via Ebay, Gap tanks, Target necklace, J. Crew wedges}

I ironed this skirt! It made all the difference! Also, I LOVE these tanks.  This whole outfit was my favorite. It wasn’t too dressy, but it was cute, but it was casual, but the skirt pattern made it fun and sort of young, but it wasn’t too young, and the length which I was worried about actually looked ok with the tanks, and you can sort of scrunch up the tanks and it’s just one of my favorites.

 

{Loft Tee, J. Crew Necklace via Ebay, Anthropologie Skirt, Target cardigan, J. Crew wedges}

Inspired by this, loved it.  Favorite outfit of the week. And I ironed it! Go me!

 

You Say It’s Your Birthday

Dudes, my tiny smooshy baby is turning three! Unfortunately, I have absolutely NO idea what to get her for presents.

She isn’t the type of kid who doesn’t care about stuff or presents, so don’t be one of those people to tell me it doesn’t matter what I get her and she won’t care or notice.  I WILL CARE SLASH NOTICE AND SO WILL SHE. (AHEM ERIK). Actually, I don’t think she’d notice if we didn’t get her anything on her birthday (although how sad is that)  but she is definitely PRO opening presents and she will oooh and ahhhh over things she likes.

Part of the problem is that we just went through a massive toy clean out, so I am reluctant to add a bunch of junk that no one will play with to the piles of junk I just got rid of at Goodwill.

The other part of the problem is that she’s still sort of…she likes everything, but also very specific things.  Mostly she likes animals.  She’s obsessed with My Little Ponies, she really likes Diego, and she does enjoy girly things like dresses and poofy skirts more than Eli, for example.  But mostly she LOVES animals.  She will look at a book about snakes for hours and hours. She will choose to play ponies over any other thing.

My first idea is that even though she probably won’t really get that this is a present is that on her birthday we will take her to the zoo and this will count as a present.  I bet she loves that.

So that’s idea number one: The Hated Zoo Trip.

Idea Number Two: I already bought this dress, even though it’s a little high on my frippery scale, because we spent two hours in the mall last Thursday and this was the thing that made her stop in front of the window and say “OOOOOOOOOOH”.  I defy you not to buy the thing that makes your smooshy curly haired baby girl stop dead, pause, and gasp in front of it.

Other things I am debating:

This Princess Celestia Doll.

Now I think we can all agree that no My Little Pony Collection is complete sans Princess Celestia, but the problem with this is that this is the “Promised Huge Thing You Can Get If You Pee On the Potty” and I don’t know what to do about that if I give it to her for her birthday.  Make no mistake though, she would LOVE this.

I have also been eyeing this horse barn thing, because I’m wondering if she could use to carry around her ponies.  She does seem to love a good horse.  Fyi, we already had the Melissa and Doug Folding Up Barn and we gave it away because no one gave two shits about it in this house.  It’s sort of boring though.  It’s no Princess Celestia.

Then I am wondering if she’d like a Cozy Coupe.

I’ve always wanted to buy one of these (maybe “I” want a Cozy Coupe) but we have a large selection of ride-on crap that no one rides on, and I don’t want to add a giant pink piece of plastic to it.  However I like the appeal of being all “LOOK AT YOUR BIG PINK PRESENT OOOOOH!” but you know. She might never use it after that. So I’m waffling.  (We have a tricycle. No one rides it.)

The last idea I have is this Cinderella doll and carriage. It appears to be plastic junk, it’s probably going to ruin my child’s life by giving her some kind of weird princess complex, and yet every time she sees the commercial for it, she asks to watch it over and over again.  Hmmmmm.

So these are my terrible ideas of what to buy a three year old for her birthday.  Anyone have any better ones?  We have art supplies up the wazoo. We do not need books, we can barely contain the ones we have. I am not buying any more stuffed animals.  She has a doll house, she has baby dolls, she has play food, we have wooden blocks, she had a toy kitchen that she never played with, she has tons of dress up clothes, she has a water table, we have loads of train tracks, god these kids are spoiled.

In Which I Finally Learn to Spell “Vacuum”

So get ready, because I’m about to write way too many words about vacuum cleaners.

So for many years I owned a Miele Callisto canister vacuum.

I…did not pay for it myself, let’s just put it that way. If you want to know the actual story I’ll tell you but it’s not that interesting, however I cannot put it on my blog. Let’s just say that it fell off a truck.

Anyway, when we got it, it came without the carpet doohickey, and to buy a carpet power brush nozzle thing for the Miele was some outrageous price I didn’t want to pay so we just used it with the hardwood floor attachment and ran it over our area rugs that way, which sucked but did the job. It got the hardwoods gleaming clean, though.  It was a lovely lovely machine, aside from the fact that vacuuming the rugs with it was a miserable experience.

So the Miele died last week. It was pretty obvious that it was the motor and to replace a Miele motor is something in the neighborhood of $150-$200 dollars so I decided I would just buy a new vacuum cleaner, preferably one that worked better on area rugs.

The first thing I bought was this Shark Upright Professional Lift Away Vacuum, which came highly recommended on Twitter and Amazon and which I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATED with the fire of a thousand suns.

Now, to its credit, it did get the area rugs in my house CLEAN AS HELL, and look how fun it looks in that picture, but other than that? It was not for me.  It was SO LOUD and SO HEAVY, it wouldn’t go under my couch or around my furniture and it made a high pitched whistling noise, it felt plasticky and gimmicky and the part that came with it to clean hard wood floors felt stupid and badly designed. It kept falling over and even though it was supposed to be so cool that you could detach it and carry it around with you, I really didn’t want to…carry a vacuum around with me. I wanted it to roll behind me and not fall over all the damn time.  And I could never get it to go back together when I was done having it fall over all the time and wanted to click it back on. Also, I thought it would be cool not have to buy vacuum cleaner bags all the time, but it turned out that I actually dislike emptying gross canisters full of dust and grime into my trash more than I care about ordering vacuum cleaner bags.  I like the bags, actually! Everything is nice and contained and when I get down to the last one I order more on Amazon Prime and store them in the closet and it’s no big deal and I am not dealing with big piles of dusty dirt clouds and dumping out gross canisters of dirt.

Luckily I bought the stupid Shark at Bed Bath and Beyond and to their credit they took back a week old used twice vacuum cleaner without batting an eye.  I give them mad props for this and I will try to buy whatever I can from them whenever I can because seriously, most places don’t just take back your used crap you don’t want that you don’t like.  MAD PROPS BED BATH AND BEYOND.

So then I started thinking harder about what I wanted and didn’t want in a vacuum cleaner, and I decided that for this house, which is mostly hardwood with two large area rugs, I did not want an upright vacuum. I did not want to clean my carpets with something then clean my hardwoods with a swiffer sweeper. (NO THANK YOU I WANT TO BE DONE IN ONE PASS.) I wanted it to roll behind me, I wanted a retractable cord, I wanted a power head to clean the area rugs, I wanted it to be able to switch to a hardwood mode but I ALSO wanted it to come with a floor brush with dust bristles on it, because a carpet attachment, even set to “bare wood”, does not get hardwoods REALLY dust free clean.  (This is the problem with buying an upright for mostly hardwoods.) I wanted to spend around $200, and I wanted it to take readily available vacuum cleaner bags, I wanted on board attachments, and I wanted to be able to clean area rugs, my car, my couch, and my hardwood floors with it.  So I needed a canister vacuum.

What ended up coming up in this range over and over are the Panasonic vacuums.  Essentially all Eureka, Kenmore, and Panasonic vacuums are made by the same company, but the Kenmores are only sold at Sears.  They’re all basically the same thing, although some people think the Panasonics are better for various reasons regarding branding or something. I don’t know.

I looked for a long time at this Panasonic, but if you look closely at the handle, it had a weird gimmicky looking claw part that matched a Kenmore one at Sears that people complained about as being annoying.  I did not want gimmicks and weird attachments, so I went with this Panasonic Canister Vacuum, which is SO BORING looking but which Eli has named “Rosie” which more than makes up for the lamish color.

I used it today for the first time and so far I am very happy with it.  Observations/Pros and Cons:

I think it’s louder than the Miele.  IF you are burning piles of money in your yard, and you need a vacuum cleaner, I’d still recommend you get a Miele, because they are quiet and they make a lovely vacuum cleaner, but the $300 model doesn’t come with a turbo head,which you need for area rugs. To get a  Miele with a turbo head (which means a head that has rotating electrically powered bristles to clean carpets) you have to spend something in the range of $650, which to me is excessive for a vacuum cleaner.

However, the Panasonic cleaned as well or better than the Miele ever did.  The carpets are easy to clean with the power head.  It does veer to the right a bit on one of my rugs (which people complain about it in the reviews on Amazon), but not so much as that I’d return it.  I love that you can turn it on and off on the handle (this is an improvement over the Miele.) The actual wand is a little short, is probably my main criticism. I am 5’2″ and even I think it’s a little short.  Not sure what that’s about, but it might be worth it to test out some Kenmores in a Sears store to see if they come with longer wands.

It has a 360 degree rotating swivel for the vacuum tube, which I LOVE.  That’s also an improvement over the Miele.  No more uncoiling the wand!

People have complained about the latching for door for the on board tools. I can see this complaint, but you pretty much just have to pry it open and slam it shut, and I had this exact problem with the Miele so I can’t complaint too much about that.

I LOVE the easy release for the turbo head. To get the head off the Miele I had to stand on it and yank with my entire body weight. I love that the actual tube is made of metal, and not plastic, even though it does not telescope.

I also think it’s a bit larger than the Miele, but it’s lighter.  It doesn’t really matter to me how big it is because as long as it fits in the closet, I don’t care.  But it is not compact, let’s be clear about that.

Also, it rolls VERY easily, I think more easily than the Miele.

The one thing I will say is that the on board floor brush is nothing special.  Instead I used the parquet brush that came with my Miele, but I am planning on ordering this large floor brush for $8.95 and I’ll just use that.  The upholstery brush worked great on the couch though.

Overall, I’m very happy with this vacuum cleaner.  It fit my $200 budget and for a house that’s mostly hardwood, it’s basically perfect.  I shall report back if it lights itself on fire in three months.  Otherwise, I’d recommend.

{I hope it’s obvious but no one bought me this vacuum cleaner or gave me this vacuum cleaner or gave me money to write this post about this vacuum cleaner. I paid for it with my own money, bought it on Amazon because they didn’t sell it at Bed Bath and Beyond. Those aren’t even affiliate links because I don’t know how to do those. Just so you know.}