Hi, my name is Rachael and welcome to Made From Scratch! Below is a little bit about how I started blogging, created my own business, where Made From Scratch began and of course where I would love to take it to one day. Thank you so much for being apart of my journey and for supporting me over the years, it truly means the world. x

The Made From Scratch story

For as long as I can remember I have loved to bake and of course share it with friends and family. I learnt how to ‘bake by touch’ and rarely follow a recipe by spending most of my childhood next to my Grandma in her kitchen in my home town of Rockhampton, Australia. Still to this day my ‘happy place’ is to spend a day in the kitchen, either just hanging out with my Mum drinking wine and taking, dreaming up new recipes, and of course baking my favourite recipes time and time again and sharing them with my loved ones. Baking is all about sharing for, and it’s one of the core values of Made From Scratch too.

In 2004 my family and I moved from Australia to Auckland, New Zealand. I met my husband to be a few months later, and from 2008- 2009 traveled around the world on our big O.E. For two years we we’re ‘offline’ and it was a really special time.

I had no idea what a blog was, why people were online or why anyone even used Facebook! So while in Vancouver, a friend took me to the Etsy markets. I’d never heard of Etsy and of course wanted to go, because I’ve always enjoyed markets. I’d never, and still haven’t, seen anything like this market. It was incredible and I instantly fell in love with this world. I collected, and still have, every business card I could get my hands, talked to the stall holders and said I would follow their blog and their beautiful small business. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, or still even what a blog was, and I loved it.

We arrived back home in Auckland, New Zealand towards the end of 2009, we started planning our wedding for October 2010 and during that time, I started baking again. A few months before our wedding Ben suggested that I start a blog to share the recipes that I’d been baking and also to share our upcoming wedding. I thought he was completely mad, and told him no one would ever read what I had to share, and why would I blog. He completely ignored my worries, and by the time I’d finished cooking dinner Made From Scratch was born. I now had a blog and I had to start the next day. So the fear completely set in, I can still remember my first few posts and how exciting and liberating it was to be able to share something - even if no one read it, it was my little slice of the internet and it was just so exciting.

From then on I started blogging every day, emailing everyone and anyone who also had a blog or small business, sharing bits and pieces from our wedding and of course recipes. And from there is just grew, our wedding was featured on a few international blogs, my recipes starting appearing on other blogs and bit by bit it just got bigger and bigger. Social media also wasn’t big then, so all there was to use was emails, Facebook and Twitter. I was lucky enough to somehow get a invite to a beta site called Pinterest and I just loved the simplicity of it, it’s been so lovely to have used a platform since it started and, it’s odd, but I now get most of my traffic from there. So it’s lovely how it all turns out.

2012 - 2013

Made From Scratch continued to grow day by day and it was around then that I decided to rebrand for the first time in 2012. Shortly after I decided to take the terrifying leap and turned Made From Scratch into a small business. From then I started hosting baking classes in my home and other beautiful venues (these quickly turned into a weekly events and will forever be some of my favourite memories), social media classes, workshops, baking wedding cakes for beautiful brides, styled shoots and of course blogging. 2013 was a complete blur for me personally and professionally, as I merged my two loves into a business - blogging and social media consultancy and it in a way I think was the turning point.

At the start of 2014 we decided to do a full rebrand of Made From Scratch with de-construct. I wanted to take Made From Scratch to another level, push some very large boundaries and really create a beautiful site that any woman at any age could find something that they love. Be it interiors, baking, weddings, lifestyle, travel and places to visit or of course find inspiration from one of my incredible contributors. The reaction of the launch of the new site last year was just amazing and not something I had prepared myself for at all, since then it’s just continued to grow, there are more people looking at the site daily and I’m forever just in awe that anyone even wants to follow what I do. It’s just so generous, and I’ll forever be so grateful by the supportive I have had.

And then it all changed. In May 2015 my husband left me. He didn’t come home one day, he told me he had been cheating on me for a long time and in a split second everything I knew, loved and cared for vanished. It took 8 weeks for me to loose my husband, home and life as I have know it for the past 11 years, it was the most intense and heartbreaking time of my life. And yet, with the unwavering support of my close friends and family, I’m ok. I somehow survived everything, had an amazing and much needed holiday in Paris and Munich and I am now slowly getting the strength and courage back to start my life again. I have absolutely no idea what the future will hold, it’s incredibly scary and beyond daunting to have to start again, but for the first time in a very long time I’m rather looking forward to what I can do by myself. I am creating my Fresh Start bit by bit, and would absolutely love for you to join me on my new journey. And of course, see what 2016 brings when I move to Paris for a few months in April. Thank you all so very much for your support, love and incredibly generous kindness over the past year, it hasn’t gone unnoticed and it truly means the world. Here’s to a wonderful, happy and beautiful life. xo

If you want to get in touch, please don’t be shy I would absolutely love to hear from you. You can email me at; hello at madefromscratch dot co dot nz or fill out the form below.

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Made From Scratch is a lifestyle blog that follows my interests from year to year and features everything from home decor, baking, fashion, weddings and other celebrations. My favourite part about blogging is sharing work from other bloggers, stylists and creative folk - I’d be so honoured to share your work with my followers. Take a peek at the info below, and if there is anything I can help with, please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

WHAT TO SEND:

Weddings: Please include up to 30 photos for weddings, engagement or styled shoots – ranging from detail shots, bride and groom, ceremony, reception, flowers, etc without watermarks and the links to your website and all vendors details when submitting your work. As well as a little about you and the day.

Products: Please include between 10-20 photos of your product without watermarks. And, of course a little about you and your work.

Recipes: Please include 5-10 photos of your delicious recipe, clean styled photos are best, along with your recipe and a little story about you and the recipe. If you would like to submit a recipe for me to make and photograph for you, please let me know in the email.

THE NITTY GRITTY:

Please send your email to hello(at)madefromscratch(dot)co(dot)nz with the subject “My Submission”, please note the images must be high res and no smaller than 780px wide. Also note that not all items submitted are guaranteed to feature, I will contact you to confirm if your work will be submitted to the blog. Submissions can come from brides, photographers, any wedding vendor, home bakers and foodies as well as physical or online shops. The copyright for the work must be held by you or you must have permission to use the material you submit.

Thank you so much, I hope to hear from you soon!