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Kaila is coming on board as a writer!
Some of you maybe aware that this blog has not been an individual effort. Kaila (or @AliaK_) has been my partner in crime... the power behind the throne... the puppet master. She has been the orchestrator of blog design and creative planner of content. After a year of getting me organized, she is finally going to step into the limelight herself (well what little limelight we have thus far at LDNeighbours) and be a regular writer as well.A little background on our friendship- Kaila is my sister-in-law (for all intents and purposes). When I moved back to Toronto in 2011 we became as thick as thieves. In Toronto we spent much of our free time hunting down great places to eat, obsessing over British television and you-tubers, and hatching many a scheme involving social media, blogs, Etsy stores, and ethical fashion companies. We've got the dreaming down pat, but we always seem to fall slightly short when it comes to start-up capital (if anyone wants to step-up in that regard, please let us know!). We were in the middle of one such scheme (involving a lot of t-shirts, bleach and foam letters as I recall), when I landed my placement in Tanzania.
So putting crafting aside, Kaila gave me a crash course in social media and blogging and LDNeighbours was born.
In the back of my mind, I always wanted this blog to go beyond my internship and transition into an ethical living blog. At first we both assumed this would happen when I returned to Toronto, but it quickly came apparent that I was most likely going to be based in London. Since I have moved, we have had many a skype conference and we've finally reached the oh, so logically conclusion that the joy of a blog is that we don't have to be in the same place to do one together.
If fact, we think it will actually be interesting that we are in two different places. We are both facing a similar challenge. We both would like to live ethically but we live in big metropolitan cities we struggle to live in our budgets. This is especially hard when surrounded by the temptation to eat out, go out and shop the latest trends. Can we live our values, not blow our budgets and still enjoy the wonderful, cities we live in?
So you will now get to read about two people doing this! Its like a really great two for one sale. We will give you at least two posts at a time on the same theme but from different city (and different continents for that matter). This is more ethical living content all in one place! (As I'm writing this I'm imagining it said in the salesman style voice... you should too)I'm really glad that Kaila will be writing with me. Its been kind of lonely doing this all by myself. And I am also excited to get to read how she's managing and how things are working for her. Even though we aren't together to share adventures and photo shoots, it will be like getting to catch-up with one of my best friends every week. Her first post will be coming up on Wednesday so start getting excited!
I certainly agree with the fact that we sometimes are blind to the things around us. How many times have we gone down a familiar street and suddenly noticed a house that we didn't see before. There are so many diverse neighbourhoods in Toronto which is what makes the city so interesting. To hear the many languages, see and taste different foods and watch the different cultures intereract, shows how everyone can live in harmony if they accept and treat one another with respect. What a bore it would be if we were all the same. Good luck with the blog and I look forward to seeing future articles.
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