Hi!
My name is Alessandra. I'm thirty-six years old, and I'm married to Alberto, who is two years older. You may say that we're a typical young couple from Milan.
Our lifestyle is 'young', too, thanks to a great extent to our two children: Filippo, a seven-year old walking disaster zone, and Giorgia, who is eighteen months old and seems never to sleep at all. Between them, they keep us young and in shape!
We met when we were at school together – the classic adolescent first love! Since then, apart from a few hiccups along the way, we have always been together.
So what can an IT engineer and a needle-and-thread expert have in common? On the one hand, algorithms, precision and order, on the other chaos, chronic lateness and a head in the clouds. And yet, we find that we generally agree about everything. Well, almost everything.
We're two "digital victims" (at least, that's what some of our friends call us). And in a certain sense it's true, we are both connected 24/7 via our smartphones, pcs and tablets, whether for serious stuff or for fun.
My husband has always been an engineer. I sometimes imagine him lying in his cradle, thinking up some incredibly complicated system that would, as he always says, "make life easier for everyone".
For him, work is almost a mission, and he wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Not even if they were to transfer him three hundred miles away and his wife had two small children and hated moving house. A few months ago, his boss offered him a new position near Florence, which put me in a panic. Filippo had just started school, and Milan is my city. And, as we all know, we "Milanesi" are strongly attached to our roots, the "Madonnina" atop the Cathedral, late-evening apéritifs, the frenetic pace of the city, the rush-hour traffic, and of course our somewhat unorthodox way of speaking...
But in the end my sense of "adventure/serendipity" took over, and suddenly I found the idea really exciting! My work allows me to live wherever I like, all I need is a PC, some fabrics, a sewing-machine and my imagination – so, why not?
Filippo loved the idea right from the start, perhaps because we turned it into a sort of game in which he would make lots of new friends and discover even higher slides and fantastic swings to play on! And so we began to look for our new home.
We sat in front of our tablets night after night checking the ads for houses. Our short list was actually quite long, because we were really undecided. But in the end we found what we were looking for!
Two comfortable bedrooms and a bright, airy kitchen with plenty of shelves and a large table on which to work and help the kids with their homework.
Actually it's much more than a kitchen, and it doesn't take long to transform it from a little clothing workshop into a playroom with a track for mini bikes and trikes. It's just right for someone disorganized like me, because it only takes a few moments to put away my work stuff and to stow the children's toys and games in their large boxes in transparent plastic and wood.
It was after my second pregnancy that I got the idea of combining my two hobbies – needlework and the internet – into a real job. I joined "A Little Market", a website dedicated entirely to Italian handicraft products, a vast community of creative designers working in a variety of sectors, and I opened my little virtual shop, selling children's clothing. I posted photographs of all my creations, and people began to contact me directly to place their orders. Even better, through the site I have met a lot of people who, like me, love to make things by hand, and we have formed a tightly-knit group. What a satisfaction!
And when Alberto comes home, the table, which a few moments ago had been strewed with scissors, buttons, kids' pyjamas and bibs, can be set for dinner and the whole house is permeated by the smells of freshly-baked apple pie or perhaps a lemon sponge cake. These are a must for our family treats!
"A little market" is a site dedicated entirely to Italian craft products, and brings the creators of unique, original articles into contact with potential buyers. It's a great way for small-scale craftsmen (and women) to display and sell their creations and to get to know other people who love hand-made Italian products.
