Stroller, Salad, Spoonflower!

My dream stroller is here!!!
With four kids 5 & under, having the perfect stroller seemed like having a house that stayed clean forever. = impossible dream. Weeelll... I am the type to read reviews for months before I (maybe) buy the item I'm looking for. This time, I had been wishing I had a better stroller for walking the oldest to school. After reading & watching endless reviews, I decided the Bumbleride Indie Twin was my dream stroller, but it doesn't come at a dream price. Or even close to MY dream price.
Craigslist came to the resuce - once again!!
I spent more than I'd planned, but now I have two nice strollers to sell to make up for it!

 Posting this as an ode to my best-stroller-ever. (cheeesy!)

The stroller is designed for siblings, not just twins. This makes for an extremely well-balanced stroller. If I lean the seats all the way back, I can actually put the youngest two in the back, the older two in the front, and it's still a breeze to push & steer!! (Not kidding. I had to one day when running late to school. And I managed to jog like this!)
So the seats sit ALL STRAIGHT when at the most forward position. A must for my kids, who haaate to lie back & relax. Most joggers have seats that are tilted back. In these strollers, my kids sit leaning forward trying to see the world.

And then the canopies! Look at them! They are huuuge, cover the kids almost all the way down to the bumber bars! They also unzip in the back so you can tilt them even further forward. Extremely smart.

Here are the middle two kids enjoying the stroller. The kids want to ride in it all day, every day. And for the first time in years, I actually WANT to take them out for walks/stroller rides! Yay for bumbleride!!

Sooo... Fall has arrived. It's really not the beautiful, colorful fall you'd expect at this time of the year, and this week is supposed to hit the 80s again (!), but it's crisper & nice outside & I am loving it.

This is not the season you'd pair with yummy fresh salads, but that's what I've been into lately.

I had a super good simple cucumber salad at my friends a while back, and since then I've been making myself salads for lunch every day.They all start out with cucumber & feta cheese, then the ingredients change from day to day depending on what's in my fridge.

Today's salad was such a hit I thought I'd share it with you.

(Any ingredient can of course be substituted or skipped altogether, but I loved this combo)

 

Romaine Lettuce

Cucumber

Feta Cheese (crumbled natural)

Apple

Roasted almonds

Fresh basil

Fresh squeezed Lime juice

Salt

Pepper

I really just mixed all the greens & feta, squeezed half a lime over it, added the roasted almonds, salt & pepper & tossed. Mmmmmm.... An apple chunk that's got lime juice all over it - unexpected & delicious!! The basil adds the best flavor, and with feta & lime juice this salads does not need any dressing at all. Juicy & flavorful!

On to my favorite hobby.... Spoonflower! The contest this week is Jack-O-Lantern Plushie. I can't imagine something less interesting to me than Halloween, so it's a huge surprise [for myself] that I  even entered! I got an idea and went with it, and I'm liking the result so I entered it.

http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/763713

The pillow pattern I designed is something I'd love to use myself - with different colors/patterns. Would be a neat decorative pillow. I'm picturing with a button in the middle, kind of like this. (Crazy - I did a search for round pillow button, and found this one. Looks like my idea isn't very original)

Besides designing & pushing stroller around, we've been travelling this weekend. We went to eastern Washington, and I am so in love with the nature there! Makes me feel like I'm in the midwest. LOVE it. Peaceful fields, rolling hills, and an enormous blue sky...

Leaving you with this:

Image from:

http://farol.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Eastern-Washington/5006668_GJk2xd/1/301178410_W4zzN#301178410_W4zzN