Mommin' It Up!

March 25, 2014March 24, 2014

Review: Shark Rocket Ultra-Light Upright Vacuum

A month or so ago, I got an email asking me if I wanted to check out the Shark Rocket Ultra-Light Vacuum.

I was like, “Let me tell you about the dog hair in my house.” (Dog hair is #2 on the Top Ten Things I Hate About Having a Dog list that I’m going to publish as soon as I make an underground shelter to hide from the angry mobs wielding pitchforks that are bound to follow.)

An eight-pound vacuum with the power of a full-size Dyson? That I needed to see.

I’ve used it a number of times now, and I must say – I am impressed. It is just as light as advertised, and the “swivel steering” makes it easy to get around and under furniture or whatever is in the way. It has two levels of suction – one for a deep clean on carpet, and one designed for bare floors or area rugs.

It also picks up pieces of broken balloon like it’s nobody’s business.

But get this – I went to Shark’s Facebook page tonight to find a picture to use in this post, and I came across this shot.

{Insert screeching record sound} Hold the phone. It does what?

I had somehow missed the fact that the middle section of the vacuum could be taken out. I had to try it myself – and sure enough, it snapped apart and right back together, and made vacuuming the stairs (something I hate only slightly less than dog hair) quick and easy.

Wanna know what else it does?

It becomes a hand-held vacuum.

AND it has a Dust-Away attachment that sucks up the dirt and debris you can see and a microfiber pad to get the tiny dust particles off your hard floor.

All that comes in the standard package, and there’s also a Deluxe Tool Pack with all sorts of crazy attachments – including one that sucks dirt from under your appliances.

Like I said, I am really impressed with the Shark Rocket, and I love the versatility. None of us needs 42 different vacuums around the house – we want one that can do everything, and do everything well. The Shark Rocket fits the bill, and it’s priced right at $179. The only slight asterisk in my “two thumbs up!” is that the canister is rather small – vacuuming my stairs filled it up. But (there was a ton of dog hair), it’s easy to empty.

To learn more about the Shark Rocket, check it out on their website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed.

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February 21, 2014

Review: The Ninja Ultima blender

It’s been a while since I’ve done an old-fashioned product review! I’m excited to tell you about the Ninja Ultima blender. This thing is sweet! But I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

First of all… look how pretty it is.

It’s lovely, but also quite functional. The base is very sturdy (read: heavy) and it doesn’t feel like it’s going to rocket off my counter when it’s blending at full speed!

Speaking of full speed – this thing has serious power. In fact, it has a 2.5 Peak Horsepower Motor (whatever that means) and can go as fast as 24,000 rotations per minute. That is a lot of blending! In addition to the sheer power, the blender works so well because it has two sets of blades – one at the bottom, where you’d find them in any blender, and the other in the middle of the pitcher itself. They call it Dual Stage Blending, and only the Ninja has it.

Of course, the way I first tested out this blender was with my famous green smoothies. I threw in spinach, cucumber, celery, parsley, apples, lemon, ice and ginger. I hit the “pulse” a few times and then turned the blender up to speed eight, and in less than a minute I had a seriously smooth smoothie.

Now, I’ve made a lot of green smoothies in the past couple of years, and I’ve used everything from another high-end blender to a stick blender, and while they got the job done, I ended up with chunky smoothies. No one wants to eat smoothies with a spoon, let me tell you. The fact that I could pour this concoction straight from the pitcher (using the handy built-in pour spout) was very impressive to me. Honestly, it was nearly the consistency of juice – but with all the fiber from the fruits and veggies that a juicer would have removed.

My next test was another of my favorite things – salsa.

Tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, garlic, lime – I threw it all in there, either whole (the tomatoes) or in big chunks (the onion).

Again, I pulsed it a couple of times and then turned the blender on, and within seconds I had restaurant-style salsa.

(As an aside, the Roma tomatoes gave the salsa the pinkish hue, which was weird. I won’t be using those again!)

Here’s another cool thing about the Ninja Ultima – it comes with two single-serving tumblers that you put directly onto the base of the blender. You get the full power of the Ninja, but in a ready-to-go cup.

I have been really, really impressed with this blender. It’s sturdy and safe, and really does an incredible job. It’s also dishwasher safe and easy to clean, which is of HUGE importance to me. Best of all – the Ninja Ultima blenders start at $199. While that’s an investment, to be sure, it’s about a third of the price of the only comparable blender.

I am already dreaming of making frozen drinks in it this summer!

To learn more about the Ninja Ultima blenders, visit their website, follow them on Twitter, and like them on Facebook!

January 13, 2014January 24, 2014

Diaper Pail of Dreams – giveaway!

Whisper Diaper Pail is providing this giveaway item and provided me with a sample to facilitate this review (which I’m passing on to a friend since I’ve officially got ZERO kids in diapers now!)

Isn’t it just *hilarious* that the world’s most perfect diaper pail was brought to market at like, the exact moment that I potty-trained my last child? Go figure!! Well, my loss is your gain – if you’ve still got little ones in diapers creating stinkbombs like it’s their JOB, that is. I’m happy to introduce you to the best thing to happen to diaper-depressed parents since the invention of the disposable.

It’s…the Whisper Diaper Pail!

This diaper pail is unlike anything you’ve ever used before. Over the course of nearly 10 years of parenting, we’ve had three different diaper pails, but over time they’ve all become stinky. As in, at some point the odor protection just STOPS WORKING. The Whisper Diaper Pail permanently solves the odor problem of dirty diaper after dirty diaper AND makes disposing of them as easy as can be. Here’s why it’s so great!

1) Layers (upon layers!) of odor protection. Not only does the pail have a lid like other diaper pails, it also has a trap door on the inside which offers another layer of protection and also hides the dirty diapers so you don’t have to look at them. Finally, the Whisper also comes with a built-in spray, the ODOGard Spray, that ATTRACTS odors as well as locks them away! And all ya got to do to release the spray is press a button on the lid.

2) Hands-free convenience. You use a foot-pedal to open the lid and you can drop the diaper right in even with a fussy baby on your hip.

3) No expensive refills! The Whisper Diaper Pail uses regular kitchen trash bags.

4) It’s local! The Whisper Diaper Pail was created in Cincinnati. By a PhD dad of 5 who has dealt with a lot of stink, and a bunch of other PhD’s. Woohoo!

Now that you know how GREAT this baby is, don’t ya wanna win one? Here’s how to enter to win your very own Whisper so you can eliminate the stank and camouflage the rank diapers your precious little one cranks out (relentlessly!!).

A) Leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite feature of the Whisper Diaper Pail.

B) Check out Mommin’ It Up on Facebook and leave us a comment letting us know you did.

C) Check out Whisper Diaper Pail on Facebook and leave us a comment letting us know you did.

One winner will be chosen at random on Monday, January 20th at 6pm EST.

Good luck!