Day 4 – Inspiration

So now that I’ve told you a little bit about my products, you’re probably wondering why I started this business in the first place.  My background is actually in contaminated land site investigations and remediation which came in handy when building our house but not directly related to designing and selling amazing everyday living aids – that inspiration came from my gran.  Nonna (who was Italian) had an amazing personality and always had a constant stream of people coming and going for a cup of tea or more importantly, espresso.  Friday afternoon espressos with Nonna, mum and my sisters (at her house obviously) was something of a ritual for many years.  Sometimes dad would pop in, sometimes my sister’s dog Sizzle would grace us with an appearance and over the years there were a string of babies, who became toddlers and then young children that would add another dimension to our Friday coffees.

Until, slowly, we noticed things getting a bit harder and more challenging for Nonna – it started with us filling the espresso pot, then pouring the coffees, then carrying the tray and so it continued.  To be fair, you should have seen the size of Nonna’s old espresso pot, it was mahoosive!!!  But I digress, with her cognitive abilities declining it became obvious that Nonna would hugely benefit from some mobility and everyday living aids in general.  Given the importance Nonna placed on informal family and friends gathering it made sense to look for an everyday aid that would give her (and to be honest, us) more confidence in continuing with drinking independently.

That’s when we started looking for 2 handled mugs.  Mum mentioned that she couldn’t find anything that came anywhere close to being both practical and importantly for Nonna, that looked good!  To be honest, my sisters and I didn’t believe her and thought that she wasn’t looking online properly.  We bought one of the predominant ceramic styles but Nonna couldn’t hold it whilst empty never mind with any fluids in it.  We then bought some of the commonly available plastic 2 handled mugs but whilst they were lighter in weight, they looked…well, like a plastic beaker.  These mugs really seemed to highlight the issue in hand (pun intended) and seemed to strip away Nonna’s dignity which was the opposite of what we were hoping they’d achieve. 

Hugely frustrated with what was available on the market, I decided that that was it – there had to be more to life than these mugs!  So I set about designing and selling my own…and so Rosa Lifestyle was born!

Sarah x

Ps I can’t find the photo I took years ago of Nonna’s large espresso pot so I’ve included a general photo of Bialetti coffee pots (the best kind of espresso pot!) – look at the 12 cup pot, that’s about the size we’re talking about…