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ABOUT

Hi there! I’m Di.

I'm a 40 something mum living in the suburbs of Melbourne trying to balance the needs of my family, work and spending time on my various passions.

I was born in Norway and raised in Australia. I've always been fascinated with my Scandinavian heritage, especially the baking.

My mum taught me how to bake a cake – the best life skill possible! I'm now teaching my own daughter. We love entering baking contests and have both won prizes.

My Nanna taught me to knit when I was a kid but I never mastered it. At 40 I taught myself how to crochet using YouTube videos.

At high school I learnt how to use a sewing machine and loved it. Of course, not having my own machine, I didn't keep it up. When my sister asked me if I wanted her old Janome, a light switched on and I've been a keen sewist ever since (albeit a slow one).

Growing my own veggies is so satisfying and I love being part of a gardening group. Springtime is my favourite season; planting out seedlings with the promise of homegrown tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchinis.

A backyard plum tree introduced me to the art of jam making and preserving. I'm now the proud owner of two Fowlers preserving units and happily collect jars for jam & pickles. I just finished my second season of home cured olives and I have a sourdough starter called Barry who gives us delicious bread every week.

With so many competing interests, its easy to let things go from time to time.

But that's the dance of life.

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My blog is making me fat

Temptation lurks everywhere. It’s official. My blog is making me fat. It’s also keeping my house messy since I started prioritising writing and baking over vacuuming and putting away laundry. In fact it’s happening right now – I’ve slept in because I stayed up to watch the new Kennedy’s drama on ABC and then wanted to ‘quickly’ check in to see if there were any new messages or comments. Before I know it its really late and that coffee I had after lunch has kicked in, giving me caffeine-induced heart palpitations, delaying sleep even further. Mr Di-licious (bless him) allowed me to sleep in and delivered a latte to my bedside. There’s a bowl of porridge waiting for me on the kitchen bench, ready to be reheated while I turn on my laptop and think about my next post. I used to get up early and go to the gym before breakfast but lately I’ve just been too tired. You know you’ve been MIA when you get notified about a trainer leaving and you’ve absolutely no idea who they’re talk

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Recipe rant

This is not a macaron Donna I did something yesterday that I'm not very proud of. I ranted on Twitter and Facebook about a bad recipe experience and named and shamed the culprit. This morning I felt a little ashamed for my lack of manners.  But then I got some feedback from friends and fans that they too had had a bad experience with the recipe and agreed it wasn't up to scratch. If the situation were reversed, I'd be mortified.  But then again, I'm a little voice in the blogging net-osphere. The magazine/author I targeted is a household name with 10+ years standing. I guess what really gets my goat is that the magazine blatantly promotes the fact that they test and retest the recipes to make sure that they're perfect. I followed the recipe to the letter and even I could see that the wheels were coming off early in the piece.  But I was following their recipe and I persevered. In the end I ended up with flat, grainy meringues, not beautiful macarons.