My Urban Oven can now be found on Bloglovin!
I am over the moon with this site!
I follow dozens of blogs regularly, and some days it is hard to getting to them all. Which I am super disapointed about when I miss something big, like when I missed that Young House Love bought a new house, or Jenna from Eat, Live, Run got Engaged, or any number of the times I missed the Pioneer Woman’s Kitchen Aid giveaways.
It feels like being late to the party. And not in the good, fashionable late way.
This site allows you to pull together a list of all the blogs you read, then it creates a feed of all of the new posts for you. You have a one stop shop to keep up to date with all your favorite bloggers!
They even have an App! Which I love even more than the site itself.
Sooooo…… Follow my blog with Bloglovin
<3 Rachel
Happy Father’s Day to My Dad!
Happy Father’s Day my Grandpa, my Step-Dad, my Brother-in-Law, my Uncles, my Cousins, my Friends and all the Great Fathers out there!!
Every year I stumble around the mall, Home Depot, Menard’s and Fleet Farm looking for a gift for my dad for Father’s Day. And each year I end up buying him clothes or a tool that he ends up saying he already has. Or I call him and ask, “Hey Dad- what do you want this year?” and he responds with “A trailer.” Of course he would tell me something practical or anywhere in my budget.
I really don’t get it, how can one person be so difficult to buy for? A person that has everything they want already….
Don’t my Dad and I look so much alike? Yes- I fully understand that he is my Father and I should look like him. But we really do, you can’t mistake that I am his daughter.
Love this photo from my cousin’s wedding last fall too <3
The Boy couldn’t believe all the Ranch and Blue Cheese I put on this salad.
I wanted to add more.
You can’t go wrong with Ranch. Well, your waistline can go wrong with Ranch, but your taste buds can’t.
Do you ever eat meals at odd times?
We ate this dinner at roughly 10pm. After a long day, and having eaten breakfast, and lunch super late, we ended up being ready to eat dinner super late.
Saturday’s are notorious for weird eating times. Breakfast at 11am, Lunch at 3pm or 4 pm and then dinner lands at 10pm.
As promised- Throw back to June 2012!
I can’t believe it has been a year already!
Last summer my amazing best friend, Amy, married her other half on a beautiful August day. She was the most stunning bride. When you think of a fairy tale princess in her elegant ball gown, that was her. She had her hair in the style of a modern-day princess, Miss Kate Middleton. Amy was by far more breathtaking. I might be bias in all of this, but I am pretty sure her smile will make you agree with me.
Amy has a great love for London! She studied abroad there and could not get enough of the Kate and William wedding, so while planning for her Bridal shower with my co-conspirators, we decided on throwing a British inspired Tea Party Shower. Once we landed on the idea the creative juices just took off!
Partners in crime- Don’t hate me for this photo Pam and Deb, but this was the only one I have of you two together 
We knew we wanted to use pretty linens and China, serve mini bite size foods and fun desserts, and decorate with fresh flowers. We had high ambitions from the start, and were a little sceptical of if we could get it all together. However, I was determined to make it all happen and so were her mom and godmother!
This day was going to be perfect, no matter what!
The thing that gave me the most trouble in all of the planning was deciding on favors to give away to guests. I had seen many different ideas at other showers, but wanted to make sure it was creative and matched our theme. I landed on hand painted tea cups with british tea.
Now since we were expecting 30 guests and I didn’t want to break the bank. I landed on creating my own tea cups. I started with blank Ikea tea cups with saucers, bought some acrylic paint, and started creating random designs. I am by no means overly artsy, but the basics turned out really great. After baking them to seal the paint, I filled each one with 2 packets of tea, wrapped them in clear celo bags and tied them off with ribbon. Each one cost me less than $2.
As I have mentioned before, I am a hand mixer girl. For the last 8+ years, my partner in cooking and baking crime has been Hammy, my Michael Graves Hammilton Beach electric hand mixer.
Last week near the end of mixing up a batch of cream cheese frosting, Hammy mixed his last bowl of frosting.
Out of nowhere one of the beaters stopped spinning. A very odd sound followed, along with the mixer getting really hot. I knew Hammy was struggling. My frosting was done, so I thought maybe a break would help. After frosting my cupcakes, and cleaning the beaters, I tested the old man out again.
He was still sporting the gimp leg.
What does a girl do when this happens?
Cry….
Yup, really. True story.
Hammy and I had so many good years together, I was in utter shock. How would I survive without him and his years of grimy build up?
Rachel | My Urban Oven
