Something about the cold, dark winter days puts me in the mood to make things.  I’ve been knitting a scarf for myself out of handspun yarn made from wool, linen, and recycled antique lace that I ordered from SnowberryLime last year.  It’s amazing how a little time to knit and a good cup of tea can make being chased in by the cold feel like a luxury instead of a punishment (at least for a little while).

I’ve noticed in my search for links this week, lots of people seem to be feeling creative too.

Dianne is making honey butter.

Crafting a Green World has clever ideas for old t-shirts.

Books Lists Life made the most adorable castle out of an old card table.

Design Sponge has plans for a wall-hanging organizer made from recycled cardboard.

Crunchy Chicken makes mozzarella.

Are you feeling crafty?  How do you drive the winter blues away?

In an unrelated series of events, I recently decided to purge my sock drawer of any and all socks that I just don’t wear.  Either because of color, fit, or fabric, I would wager many of us have socks that just aren’t our favorites and, as a result, get worn very little.

But what do you do with used, but not used up, socks?

Although technically still wearable, I doubt there is much of a market for used socks.  And if they aren’t yet worn out, I hate to see them thrown out or, at best, relegated to a textile recycling center, especially when they could still work for a reuse project.

So after some google searches, I found a recommendation to make socks into reusable swiffer pads- perfect!  Although we gave up buying disposable swiffer pads years ago, we still have the sweeper around and the convenience of the thing is still very appealing.  Only problem was, I could find the suggestion of making socks into a reusable swiffer pad, but I was having far less luck finding actual tutorials for such a project.  The fact that etsy has these cool crocheted swiffer socks wasn’t helping my search, either.

So I came up with my own solution. Read more…

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Karen Ho Fatt.

Winter is a time when the sky can get hazy and infused with the heavy smell of smoke from burning leaf piles, controlled burns and, of course, from fireplaces. We all love the warmth and crackling of a wood fire on the patio, but if the fire is not built and tended to properly, it can produce a lot of unhealthy smoke. I have found a number of alternatives to warming up the backyard during winter, which helps to reduce my carbon footprint while still enjoying a great fire.  Read more…

Photo: Olivier Bacquet

For years I’ve made coffee the old fashioned way with a drip coffee machine and paper filters. I did get the brown, unbleached filters. I don’t normally drink any coffee during June and July when I don’t have to work, but that’s still hundreds of filters thrown away each year. This is especially annoying as I also drink tea, but I buy it loose so I don’t have the waste of a used teabag (and also the option to buy better tea). Why should I had to add paper to the coffee equation?

Read more…

I love those creamy, spicy, coconut milk-laden dishes you get in Thai restaurants and I wanted to make my own. I found this recipe on a site called Nutritioulicious, and I’ve tweaked it a little to my tastes and the contents of my kitchen. Serves four. Read more…

Please welcome today’s guest poster, Allen Green.

Image: http://gadgetsin.com/portable-solar-charger-integrated-4-port-usb-hub-and-flashlight.htm

I’m a huge fan of technology. It doesn’t matter what type of technology; it’s the fact that brilliant people come up with faster, better and easier ways to improve our lives, especially when it involves green energy.

With so much buzz about going green, survival options and clean energy, I wanted to take a closer look at portable solar-powered gadgets. I was fascinated by what I found and it posed a question:

Can tiny, portable solar cells change your life?  Read more…

Our readers sure do love a good giveaway. And why not? We give away some great stuff! We love passing along products that can green up your lifestyle, and we hope to have many more for you in the future.

Here are the most popular giveaways we held in 2011, by page view:

1. SheaMoisture Organic Raw Shea Butter products

2. Planet Shoes and Patagonia teamed up with The Greenists to give away a free pair of shoes

3. Planet Dog gave away 10 free Orbee-Tuff bones for dog owners

4. Surya Brasil gave away a free hair care product

5. Nellie’s Dryerballs gave away a free set of dryerballs

Even if you didn’t win anything from us this year, keep trying! We appreciate everyone who enters!

It’s always fun to look back at the posts we’ve written in the past year.  Here are a few of our favorites!

Stefanie – Cleaning Your Burner Bowls the Easy on the Arms Way – “I’ve written enough posts about natural cleaning methods that I really shouldn’t be surprised anymore when the simplest of solutions is actually an effective one. And yet? I still find myself now and then trying a new, non-toxic way to clean something and saying, “Holy cow. That actually WORKED!”

Melissa – Green Guilt: Just Let it Go – “Last night, I threw out a glass spaghetti sauce jar. The day before that, I bought two new Pack & Play sheets (buy one, get one – plus I had a 20% off coupon) without checking Craigslist first. Last week when I went grocery shopping, I didn’t buy any organic food AND I bought generic Dawn instead of my usual Seventh Generation. Oh, and I’m currently using Tide instead of a natural brand of laundry detergent. Are you shocked yet? Gasping for air and shouting to yourself, “And you call yourself a Greenist?” Well, I do call myself a Greenist…and yes, I’m experiencing a lot of green guilt right now – that feeling of I know I can do better. I know I can do more. But allow me to explain . . . It came down to money.”

Howling Hill – Miss the Train - ”Not having a car in NYC isn’t a big deal. There’s lots of public transportation to get you to and from work and you walk to your local grocer to buy groceries and take a cab to see your grandma. You don’t think much about the lack of car while booking your trip to New Hampshire after all, you can take the train. Right?  Wrong. There is no way to get from NYC to Dorchester, NH via train. As a matter of fact, you cannot get to New Hampshire from anywhere via train because there are no trains in NH.”

Courtney - How to Clean Your Car Headlights the Natural Way - “The last time I visited my parents, I pulled into the driveway and my dad immediately said, “What’s wrong with your headlights?” I got out to take a look, and sure enough, they were filthy. But it wasn’t just dirt that was causing the plastic casing around the headlights to turn cloudy; it was all kinds of road grime and other gunk that was making my lights not shine as brightly as they should. (Apparently it’s pretty common. Chalk that up to car maintenance issues I’d never considered before!) A simple car wash wasn’t going to fix the problem, so I started looking for possible solutions.”

Allie – An Interview with Ayla Kell of Make It or Break It - “To be completely honest, I’ve gotten a little jaded by celebrity greenies.  Sometimes the token gestures they put forth into the green world feel more like a way to get good PR than a genuine effort.  But I wanted to chat with Ayla because I love her on Make It Or Break It and I thought it would be fun to talk with her.  I figured I’d be able to walk away with at least a few PR friendly-tips to pass on to readers, and I could slip in a TV-geek question or two for good measure.  But Ayla doesn’t spew sound bites.  Her interest in conservation and the environment is genuine and passionate.  She actually taught me a thing or two about going green.  It was refreshing and inspiring to talk with her. ”

Jody – Barefooting and Environmentalism – “ Not only do these shoes use less material than standard running shoes, they also need to be replaced far less often (mine lasted 2 years while training for a marathon while my husband went though 3 pairs of standard running shoes).  And when they do finally need to be replaced, it isn’t due to an unseen issue like “the cushioning has worn out despite the fact that the shoe looks brand new” like you see in most thick soled running shoes.  Nope, these shoes only need to be replaced once you see your foot poking through to the pavement… and even then replacement is merely a suggestion.”

Jacob – Death to Your Lawn!- “I hate yard work. This is not the normal hate that you feel toward a food you don’t like or a type of music that represents a group of people with which you don’t identify. I hate yard work with a seething rage that churns out ill will and bad thoughts with an efficiency to match that of some machine that’s really good at making something.  Unlike my brain with that simile, obviously.”

NPW – Planet Shoes – “ I’m all for companies providing environmentally-friendly products, but I don’t mess around about shoes. I have high standards and my shoes need to meet certain criteria. These flats do all that, plus have the added bonus of drawing compliments from everyone middle school students to my mom.”

Mickey – Less is Less - “Here at The Greenists we’ve been trying to come up with one thing, just one perfect thing, one big important-yet-elegantly-simple thing to ask our readers to do on Earth Day, for Earth Day. Which is Friday. Tomorrow. Well I thought of my thing, and I don’t think it needs to wait until tomorrow. Or maybe I just don’t like to give away post ideas. Here’s my one big Earth Day request: Use less.”

Deborah – Are You a Green Sinner? – “My son recently mentioned that he finds all this environmental awareness activity amusing. He remembers when the other kids made fun of him because his family recycled. “They thought we were weird.” In just a few years, we Greenies have gone from being on-the-fringe treehuggers to being the most guilt-ridden members of society. Why? Because now that everyone is doing it, we feel as if we never do enough.”

The Modern Gal – Are TOMS Shoes All They’re Cracked Up to Be? – “For $54 a pair, I expect my shoes to last far longer than two weeks, and how green can they be and how useful are they to children in developing countries if they’re falling apart that quickly? I did what I do anytime I have questions like this, I turned to The Google to see if others had asked and answered similar questions. What I found were mixed reactions.”

Ashley S – Staying Green While Moving - “Moving is typically synonymous with filling several dumpsters worth of things you don’t want to take with you and sending it all to a landfill — but it doesn’t have to be.”

Jamison – What Kind of Environmentalist Are You? -  ”On the surface this may seem like a silly question, but the motivations that leads a person to environmentalism can be extremely different. My wife and I are perfect examples of this. Being a Greenist, she comes to environmentalism from an extremely different approach.

Like all bloggers, we love it when you leave feedback on our posts. Whether you agree or disagree with the post, whether you have a useful green tip to add or just want to weigh in on how you can use the information we give you, we appreciate it every time you leave us a comment!

Here are the posts that got the most comments in 2011:

1. SheaMoisture Organic Raw Shea Butter Lotion (and a Giveaway!) with a whopping 157 comments, by Courtney

2. Free Shoes? Maybe. Read On with 38 comments, by Mickey

3. Planet Dog Giveaway! with 22 comments, by Allie

4. Surya Brasil Review (and Yes, Giveaway!) with 19 comments, by Stefanie

5. Local Eating — the Coffee Connection with 15 comments, by Deborah

I guess it’s no surprise that most of these are giveaways! We hope to have many more of these for you in 2012.

And just for fun, let’s take a look at our most commented posts of all time!

1. Allie’s post from 2008, Make Your Own Kitty Litter, still reigns supreme with an amazing 202 comments and counting!

2. SheaMoisture Organic Raw Shea Butter Lotion (and a Giveaway!) comes in second, with 157 comments

3. Another Allie post from 2008, My Dog’s Microchip May Have Given Him Cancer, has 40 comments

4. This one from 2009 — Help Me Choose an Eco-Friendly Mattress — has 38 comments

5. Free Shoes? Maybe. Read On ties with the mattress post, with 38 comments.

Thanks again for all your feedback! We love our readers!

This has been a great year for The Greenists.  We had 187,823 absolute unique visitors this year, and we appreciate every single one of you!  Thank you so much for reading, for sharing your experiences, and for taking small steps toward making life a little greener.  This week, we’ll be taking a look back at our best posts from 2011.

Today, we’re taking a look at the posts that got the most page views for 2011.

1. How to Clean Your Car Headlights the Natural Way by Courtney
2. What to Do With Old T-Shirts by Jody
3. Make Your Own Daily Shower Spray (a.k.a. keep your shower clean the cheap and lazy way) by Stefanie
4. Are TOMS Shoes All They’re Cracked Up to Be by The Modern Gal
5. How to Make Your Own Home Spa Products by guest poster, Bailey Harris