Alternative energy

During our science center trip, this poster caught my eye as it reminds me that there is hope in our world...for our beautiful blue planet. Last week I read in National  Geographic how we are yet not ready to land and live on the moon. It just made me think, my goodness-here we live in such an amazing  world already, where we don't have to worry about our heads exploding from space pressure or not having enough water or oxygen-it's all a matter of taking care of it so we won't have to move into another planet...argh...it's only we cared just a little more about our earth🙇

All things bright and beautiful...specially in the wintery time!

While the best time for the bright and beautiful things to admire is during spring and summer-at least for me, there really are some wonderful things to admire during the winter months in handmade markets all across Toronto!
I enjoy going out and finding special things that people make and supporting the economy of "made in Toronto" or "Canada".
I go also to become inspired by these same vendors who put their love,time and energy in making special and even odd items to sell. I leave some markets feeling rejuvenated and energized to recreate using my limited skills some of those ideas-not to sell but to feel accomplished. Believe me, nothing I make is worth selling but there is truly a sense of fulfillment in working with your hands and making something. Anyways, this post is for those of you looking for those special Christmas markets like the One of a Kind show but more or less as grand:
This Saturday November 14:
East end Rotary arts and Crafts sale

Friday November 20-December 20
The Toronto Christmas Market
 
Sunday November 22, 2015
Toronto Arts Crawl Christmas Market

November 26-December 6

One of a Kind show

Sunday December 6, 2015
The Post Market

Saturday December 12, 2015
The Toronto Etsy Christmas Market

I will keep updating as I become aware of more!:)

Happy browsing or shopping or just enjoying!

The true cost

The true cost
I am glad to have a Netflix account so I can get continuously informed about great documentaries! This film demonstrates the impact of not only the fashion industry on humans and the environment but also of the kids of flawed systems we have in our current economies. Our economies are apathetic ; profit is the factor everyone seems to aspire. It is a dreary talk and one that we hear over and over but the truth is we will continue on this trend until we all do something about it! We can do it-we all can- Someone wonderful whose contact I can not recall right now said that we have tools at hand to make change! We have friends we can talk to, we have work places to influence, in our neighbourhoods we can network and create groups that generate ideas, that can fundraise for billboards, that can write letters to politicians etc. We have social media to reach even strangers! The world somehow doesn't seem as big or dreary! Signing off until next time, D4sweetness!

Pinteresting your life

The past year, I got over my fascination with Facebook. I guess it was that I was in a search for my own personal interests, I mean, I love my friends, I love seeing the life events of my friends but I needed more. I found my self looking at blogs of people who were upcycling things and I became so obsessed looking at stuff that I was becoming tired of searching for posts or googling images-Enter Pinterest-Not that ,I hadn't heard about Pinterest but , honestly, with so many social media accounts, I had my reservations. However somehow, I clicked on an image and it took me to so many related images that I was hooked! Now, I'm constantly looking,searching for inspiration, always dreaming up, changing , modifying , rethinking my everyday life. As a teacher, it has helped me to reinvent, rethink, reorganize my practice...it's quite amazing! 

And a huge NO!!!! No, this is not a post to glorify or advertise Pinterest-haha-no one-or maybe one or two people somewhere in the digital world might read this- or maybe not- but for me this is a way of sharing my piece of mind instead of watching another whole series on Netflix ;-)
So here are some of my own creations for my Pinterest- these are some simple eco friendly ideas that I've been inspired to do. On the first one I used a shoe box cover to cover our mailbox from the inside. It prevents anyone from looking into our place and it gave the place a special "me" look. I love daisies so I wanted to add a touch of it in our place -so here it is :-)

April 2015 Toronto Clothing Swaps

It's been a difficult couple of winter months because of so many reasons....we've lacked vitamin D, we've struggled to work against wind, snow, hail, we have barricaded ourselves for much too long with so much stuff-But spring is here! Finally!! Yesterday, in Toronto we finally got some nice weather and today is also quite warm and sunny! One of the things I look forward to is searching for ways to get out and about during weekends and to do my part in greening my life and hopefully the world too. As one wise person said: "No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted" (Aesop) and to paraphrase it in an Eco sense: No Eco friendly activity, no matter how small, is ever wasted!
One way of doing so is by looking into our closets and getting rid of the things that we no longer need. But getting rid of them can be wasteful unless we are able to get rid of them in a virtuous manner- swapping might just be one of those wonderful ways to do so.

I have written on this earlier, it really is a gratifying act!

So to all the fashionable ladies in Toronto looking for a small Eco friendly activity to do-here are some swaps to look for this upcoming April 2015:  

 Vintage Clothing Swap- April 9th

Evergreen Works Swap -April 19th

All things vintage swap- April 23

Uber Clothing Swap -April 25

Every little idea counts

As the school days draw to a close for the summer, I am left with a sense of loss for the lack of breakthrough in my students understanding of their impact on our environment. It's a daunting task to motivate these youngsters but it is not impossible. I may lack many things as a teacher and mentor, but one thing I do have is hope. Don't misunderstand me, my students are very aware of my passion for the environment as well as have worked along with me to understand the important issues surrounding our environment. Still I can't help but feel that more could be done, more could have been said, researched, more ideas could have inspired in the kids. There are many things that I still want to do but know that it will be another year of ...Longing. Despite all this I can't help but think that these ideas of making and reusing will still impact my students to think about their use of everyday things. Eco crafting has been really big of late and this is evident in the shows and events happening in Toronto-

wherever young people meet. It's nothing new in many other places- specially in third world countries where necessity has sparked creativity. It's admirable to see wrappers converted to bags, wallets, coin purses, etc. or plastic bottles being turned into lamp decorations, or even into walls for shelter. Ideas are what can continue to bring hope into our world. I think for next year, I will try to inspire creativity amongst my young pupils so that they too can be filled with hope.

Thrifty and Green Events for this weekend

As usual, I'm always looking for great green events happening in my city- I just finished sharing it with a great friend of mine and thought well, why not share it with whoever happens to look at my blog...haha:)
Anyhow, sharing is caring and the more the events get talked about online the more chance that they will noticed right?
Here is it goes:

There are two clothing swaps happening this Sunday June 23, 2013-both from 1-4pm
http://swapdontshop.blogspot.ca/ (-it's $5 bucks but it's pretty cool because a lot of young and hip ladies attend:)

This other one is new-I don't know about the hosts or the place but it sounds good too-it's free:
http://www.3030dundaswest.com/blog/2013/6/7/sunday-june-23rd-12pm-4pm-clothing-swap-3030dundaswest.html


Plus this great annual garage sale that the National Council of Jewish women holds= really cheap stuff some stuff even completely new-I went last year and it was awesome! really good stuff for kids=that one begins from 9-1pm check it out:
http://www.ncjwc-ts.org/

They also hold a closet sale every Tuesday from 9-12pm-pretty cool deals like I said.

Well hope someone takes advantage of the information:)

Until next time sweet green people:)