Wife, Mother, Vacuum Repair-woman

Let's see, we moved up here January 2010 which means our vacuum cleaner hasn't been used in about 16 months! Yikes!! Then again, we have ALL laminate flooring - even in the bedrooms, so it's not like our floors haven't been clean. Our couch on the other hand.... well, let's just saying trying to sweep it out isn't nearly as effective as vacuuming! See, we basically did MAJOR cleaning right after Christmas 2009 which means our vacuum cleaner was put into overdrive with trying to get ready for the move. The suction pretty much disappeared by the time we vacuumed our way out of there {Good riddance! That place was spotless and they took ALL of our cleaning deposit. Grrrr.....} but it didn't really matter because I knew I didn't have any carpets to vacuum in the new place. So our vacuum cleaner has sat in our hall closet, untouched, for over a year and I finally decided to try and clean it out because I was desperate to vacuum out the couch. Long story short, I had to disassemble part of the unit to remove all of the pine needles and dust that was PACKED into it. As soon as that was done, it worked like a charm!

See that gray sorta S-shaped part in the first picture (right next to the drill) - ALL of this (above) was packed into that!

And this was our couch before. Disgusting!! See? I was desperate.

And our couch after. Much, much better.

I even got Ethan to pitch in and he vacuumed the recliner.

Now... I just need some new pillows!! I am so sick of these. The two with the 90s pattern upholstery came with the couch and the other 3 we've had since we first got married. We've had this couch for 4 1/2 years and I'm ready for some color!! I love me some neutrals when it comes to furniture, but enough is enough! Any suggestions? I'm thinking cobalt blue and off-white.

I love these pillows from Target (the blue is brighter in person) but Sean hates them. Thoughts??