Hello folks!
You might have noticed that we are a little less active on the blog this week. We have quite a good reason for it: we are at a place where the internet is pretty darn slow, and however frustrating it can be, it’s actually teaching us to embrace a little bit of the authentic “slow life” in the beautiful region of Tuscany.
Being in a new place and finding ways to adapt our routine around it is really fun! It’s not so easy and it might feel uncomfortable at first, but I’ve already mentioned in this post how I believe that changing your routine is essential to sparking up creativity, and it’s really the case for us right now. We are currently staying with our family in an old house in between lush green hills and finding a really lovely balance between work and play.
Here’s how we spend a typical day:
08:00-11:30
The first thing I do in the morning is practice a short yoga session and then when both of us are up, we head down to the kitchen, prepare some oatmeal for breakfast. We then turn on our laptops and spend a bit of the morning replying our emails and progressing on smaller project-related things such as designing prints or making adjustments to some websites we are working on. Check out this one which we just recently designed & launched for showroom.lu! I will be posting more about this project pretty soon.
11:30-16:00
We then go out with the family and explore Tuscany from lunchtime till the afternoon. So far we have visited Siena, Greve, Montepulciano, San Gimignano. All of these places are so charming and I was so positively surprised by this region’s food culture. The stuff we have eaten here is so simple yet so hearty and delicious. Some of my favourite dishes include Ribolita, which is a delicious tomato-based soup made of cavolo nero kale and “reboiled” beans. It’s also quite hard to resist the cheese around here: we’ve had some really tasty pecorino cheese and homemade cheesy pasta dishes like Pici Cacio e Pepe (a local thick spaghetti with cheese & pepper). And the wine… don’t get me started! If you are a foodie, this is definitely a place for you!
16:30-20:30
We are usually back from our adventures in the afternoon. We simply prepare a little cup of tea, relax for a bit, update our snapchat with the random things we filmed during the day… And since we only have dinner much later at home, we use this available time to do our second work-shift. The long hours of the afternoon are a perfect time to do some more focused work like brainstorming, or working on brand styling. I’ve personally been doing quite a lot of hand-lettering during this time as we have been working on plenty of hand lettered logos and elements lately (check out this one which we designed for blogger The Louve Story!)
21:30 and on
In the evening, after dinner, we prepare our to-do list for the next day, then relax. We either read books or watch a movie on netflix if the internet connection is not to spotty. Lately we especially like to watch Trailer Park boys, it’s just SO funny.
I feel so blessed that we are here, being able to do our job and yet being able to play the happy tourist in between! Haha! It’s not a vacation, it’s a workcation, and this is how we personally find balance. It helps us feel productive yet relaxed and able to enjoy life’s little gifts.
If you can, then I highly recommend that you too, take your own workcation. Where to? Well, Tuscany is a good place to get started, if you like nature and food like we do! Just make sure you have a better internet connection than we do, and you’ll be just fine 🙂
