How about something that's both temporary and freelance? There are plenty of work-from-home schemes (some more legitimate than others) to keep someone busy until they find a better job or go back to school. Just find one that appeals to you and commit yourself to it.

Non-profits, 501corps, news-papers, temp agencies, church, libraries, ......

If you want to do something simple and quick, sign up for Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk (at mturk.com). You can pick out fairly simply and short tasks to do and earn money.

There are a lot of options when it comes to job searching but in terms of temporary work, employment agencies and websites like craigslist are great. Employment agencies often get job leads that are never even advertised and large portion of those jobs are for temporary and consulting assignments. If you're thinking of freelancing (http://www.filife.com/stories/four-tips-for-those-considering-a-freelance-career), you should narrow your search to find gigs within your field. Besides craigslist, you can try elance.com where you can bid for jobs.

The best place to look is with a former employer. Assuming that you were dependable and good at what you did, you're an easy temporary hire, You already know the landscape and how to navigate the turns, and they already know you can do the work.

There's a way to exploit this logic. If anyone who reads this answer wants to know how to do that, send me an e-mail Virginia@BrilliantJobSearch.com or, if there's enough interest here, I'll write a post on the subject.

I'd suggest creating some business cards (you can get free ones on Vistaprint), mapping out industry networking functions and mixers, and selling yourself and your service at the events. Sites like guru.com are good places to pick up freelance projects. However, on those sites you will typically make less money as you have numerous freelancers trying to underbid each other just for the job.