I’m No Longer Jealous, Just Green.

So I’m into week three of working from home. Thankfully I had a couple projects that Elijah sent my way. He’s been keeping me busy. This is the best way to live. Yesterday, because we finally had a nice day in Toronto, Eli and I bought some sandwiches and sat in a park to eat lunch. Then we went on a walk to explore the neighbourhood that I’ve never seen, because that’s what I wanted to do. I started thinking about the past three weeks and the things I didn’t have to do anymore; I don’t have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning anymore, I don’t have to travel for ridiculous amounts of time anymore and I don’t have to spend so much money on food anymore. Now I can do these things when I want to.

On that note, I’ve also realized that all these things that I don’t have to do anymore shrink my personal carbon footprint dramatically. (Well, except waking up so early, more sleep=more energy and that just makes me happy.) The more and more I think about, working from home is such an eco friendly way to live my life, and all I had to do was quit my job.

Eli and I have always talked about being greener and how we are going to live greener in the future. We have plans to build our own home completely off the grid. We’ve done things like only eat organic food, and local and organic fruits and vegetables. We’ve even cut meat and dairy out of our diets for the most part. We deal with Toronto’s horrible transit system, in order to hold off buying a car until we REALLY need one. We compost in our tiny apartment, even though we end up with fruit flies. We are definitely not martyrs, we don’t take part in protests or parades, but we definitely try to do our part.
Now that I’m working from home, I’m not contributing to the wasteful use of paper on a daily basis, or emissions from the bus that I took twice a day, not to mention the time I’ve saved myself. My commute now is from the bedroom to the office. And most importantly I save energy. Because I work by a big window, I have the luxury of beautiful natural light. I control the temperature. If it’s too cold, I just put on a big fat sweater. It’s an awesome feeling to have choice.

I’m still in awe of this new life. Every day I seem to be learning something, and I have always craved that. Living a greener work lifestyle is the perfect complement to the way we are living now, and it’s only going to get better. It makes me wonder, are people who work from home generally more eco friendly than their commuting counterparts? I’ve always been jealous of people who worked from home, little did I know that being green was such a big part of it.

Step One: Complete

So here we go.  I’ve just set up my new blog for my Interior Design interests.  Check it out veronicabutt.com.  Don’t try sounding it out for the hidden meaning, my last name is really Butt.  I can assure you that I’ve heard every joke growing up.  Nothing phases me anymore.

This is the first step on my way to developing my independent career.  On my new blog I can post anything from the latest green development in homes to how to live in small spaces, and hopefully be helpful to people looking for information or answers to their questions.  So if there’s anything that you need to know, I can help.  Elijah may be the authority on blogging and internet marketing, but I have my share of authority on colour co-ordination and space planning.

As well, hopefully this will kick the passion that I have for design back into gear.   Working full time has overshadowed the fact that I love what I do.  I must admit that I am fortunate to have a job that is directly related to my field.  There are many people I know, and more that I don’t know, who haven’t been able to work in their chosen field and are forced to work any job just for a source of income.  Having said that, although my job is related to my education, corporate mumbo-jumbo often hinders the ease and excitement in my work, and in turn I don’t take any pride in what I’m doing.  I don’t feel that I can be creative at all, and that is the reason I was drawn to design in the first place.

My new blog will quell these feelings.  I will be able to express myself and be a resource to people along the way.  The best part is that I’m learning more about blogging and managing a site.  It’s amazing how much I’ve learned since we started this site.  I think I’m catching up to Elijah, but don’t tell him I said that. 🙂