Making Money

A great article about how to make money when you're living a self-sustaining lifestyle–even in an urban setting.  Frugally Sustainable is such a great website:
http://frugallysustainable.com/2011/10/how-to-make-money-when-living-self/

DIY Rain Barrel

So apparently Canadian Tire has these here DIY rain barrel kits:

All the parts are are included in the package and it's really not that expensive. $30 gets you all the pieces to convert any large bin or container into a rain barrel!  Strangely, I've never seen rain barrels cost less than $100 to buy outright.  Considering you can use a free, unused old garbage can–I think you can get yourself a pretty good deal!
Rain barrel building, soon to come!

Clothing Sustainability

One of the best skills I ever learned as a teenager was how to sew.  I was just generally interested and made up a lot of stuff in high school (ooooh boy Grade 10 fashion show!  There were handmade wings...  That's all I need to say, I think, haha). I did at one point do a short 6 week course at a sewing store to learn some basic sewing machine technique and my mum taught me some basic stitchwork.  Needless to say, I'm no professional seamstress but I've saved a lot of time and money doing my own alterations.  The only things I generally take in is changing zippers (so finicky!  but totally doable) or alterations on really fancy clothes.  I think I'll put some basic stitchwork on here soon...  To be continued...

Paid Gardening Work!

My quest to rethink my ideas about money came to a test when I realized that I might need to get a part-time job to supplement my teaching income.
I considered going back to my old job at the little independent tea shop I used to work at, but then reconsidered.
Why not work at something that doesn't seem like work?
That is one of my passions and will also allow me to grow my skills?
And I fell into working at the Backyard Urban Farm Company.
www.bufco.ca
It will be part time and subject to the amount of clients they get this season.
But I will learn.
Meet others excited about urban farming.
Develop a support structure.
Expand my awareness of available resources in the city.
I'm excited.

If you're also excited, they're currently raising money to build a greenhouse to grow seedlings in, keep a pop-up shop open for the season, and build and staff a demonstration garden to spread the word about urban farming.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-backyard-urban-farm-company-s-pop-up-garden-shop-and-greenhouse?c=home