“Hi, I’m Danya. I live in Sydney, Australia with Mr Banya, our two daughters JJ (5.5 years old) and Bee (3.5 years old), our cat Charli, puppy Snowflake, Goldie the goldfish, Snaily the pet garden snail, and Squishy and Brushy the ring-tailed possums who camp out in a tree in our backyard. We like to play, create, laugh and love. I write about us on www.danyabanya.com.”
Danya Banya is a personal blog about everyday life as a Australian family with young kids. We do lots of easy kids’ art and craft, and come up with fun things to do and games to play. Sometimes I pull out my sewing machine or hot glue gun to make some DIY toys and gifts. I also share some of our home recipes, and the occasional titbit of parenting advice and reflection.
Danya huh???
My name is Danya. My parents made it up. I often explain it is like Tanya with a D – perhaps because my parents are terrible spellers. 🙂 As I was growing up, my big brother affectionately nicknamed me Danya Banya. He still calls me that sometimes! I’m a stay at home mum first, and blogger second. I like fascinating facts. I enjoy bushwalking and studying nature. I’m rediscovering my creative side. I love really corny jokes – the kind that you find in Christmas crackers…
Front and centre of this little blog are my two munchkins JJ and Bee. JJ is 5.5 years old, and has just started Year One. She is sensitive, kind, rambunctious and my first. Her favourite colours are deep blue, purple, aquamarine and occasionally pink. She likes funky short hair and leggings under dresses, even in the middle of summer. She loves animals and sport and listening to stories for hours and hours and hours.
Bee is 3.5 years old and my cheeky one. She talks non.stop.all.day.long, then does a little twirl, and starts talking some more. She likes blue and green, all the colours of the rainbow, and two more. She loves ballet, gymnastics and having an audience. She’s my Miss Independent, and wants to do things her own way, all by herself.
Mr Banya prefers to stay behind the scenes on the blog, but he is very much in the forefront of our family life. He is an IT geek turned stay at home dad, who loves school drop offs and volunteering for numeracy groups. Lucky for me, one of his passions is cooking, and he is mastering sous vide for the home cook.
But enough about us, you are what makes this little site a blog instead of a diary. I love reading your comments, hearing your feedback, joining your online community. I love thinking that someone on the other side of the world might be inspired to make some play dough or stamp with toilet paper rolls. You inspire me back. Fist bump.
If this is the first time you’ve been over here – welcome! Sit back and have a browse… And then if you like what you see, sign up to our newsletter so you can play along too.
I’d love for you to join us!
xx Danya
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Hello
Mum of 1 here fr sydney.
3yo little girl.
Just want to say , I’m glad to find a local blogger.
I like your site. I love your
Honestly being you and as a mum.
Keep up the good work for many mums like us, full time, stay at home. This helps us in many ways.
Take care
Hazel
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Hi Hazel, so lovely to hear from a local Sydneysider! I'm so pleased that you are enjoying reading, it's really motivating for me to hear that, and it validates all the late nights sitting blurry eyed in from of the laptop. I'll do my best to keep posting often! xx Danya
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I found you as I was searching for advent calendars on Pinterest. She wanted to say "hi" and that my name is also Danya! I am from the U.S. and I live in Catoosa, Oklahoma. Oddly enough, I went to school with two other "Danyas" and there were five total in our town! It is such an uncommon name, and I have never met a Danya outside of my small town. My parents also thought they made it up!.
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Hi Danya!! Wow, five Danya's in one town, that's got to be a record! My parents thought they made the name up too, and I've only met two other Danya's in real life. But, once upon a decade ago when the internet was still young and companies still had guest books on their sites, I found a company called "Danya.com". I can't even remember what they sold, but of course I went to the guest book to say that it was my name (!), and was amazed to find that dozens of other Danya's had already done so! Ha! So there must be quite a few of us around…. 🙂 (PS, hope you liked my advent calendars. My kids are busting to open their first number tomorrow!)
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Hello Danya,
My name is Alyssa and I have a DIY inspiration site for moms at http://www.simplycreativemoms.com and I am writing to let you know that I am linking to your Rose Scented No Cook Play Dough post if you don't mind. You are welcome to submit your ideas at my site if you would like. Thank you.