I’ll be starting a weekly blog for HuffingtonPost mid-February. Please come check it out in the LIVING category.

Dear Annie,
I am such a fan of you and your wonderful books! I do have a question for you….in the Clean & Green book, you suggest the Auro Organics brand of boiled linseed oil for some of the recipes in the book. I have had a difficult time getting in contact with this company, so I “goodsearched” “raw petroleum free linseed oil” and found the following product/link. I am hoping to find out if you are familiar with this brand, and if it would be a good choice…..or if there are any other brands you could recommend. This site Solvent Free Paintoffers the raw & boiled lineed oil.
Thank you for the good work you do & for your time!
–Christy B.

Dear Christy,
Wowza, I am so excited about that site! Thank you *SO* much for the reference. The site is fascinating, such as that their paint is “zero waste” and that organic linseed oil actually gets better over time. They write, “In old time painter manuals you could find recommendations for the painters to store the cold pressed linseed oil for 2 years before it was made into paint. Linseed oil is basically like fine wine, it gets better over time.” I personally adore the nutty smell of linseed oil soap, which they also offer. I am really grateful for the information about this product line. I am going to try their linseed oil exterior paint. Thank you! The company seem to search the world for manufacturers of old-time, chemical free formulas that work.

Dear Annie,
When I saw this lamp, I thought of your work space. As your friend and colleague, I know the area where you write your books, articles and blogs is bathed in natural light and abuzz with activity during the day. Since I write about green home design (see below), and like you, have no stake in the products that I sometimes write about, I thought you might want to share this product with your readers. The lamp is just about to hit the IKEA stores. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to harness all that illumination for the cool spring evenings?

This lamp is designed by Nicolas Cortolezzis and is called the SUNNAN .It features solar cells to transform sunlight into electrical energy. It requires no electrical connections. The lamp runs on solar cells that transform sunlight into electricity.

Annie, I know you and I do everything in our green power to save energy and reduce our family’s environmental footprint. I like the whole idea of this lamp because LED light consumes 70% less energy and has at least 4 times longer life than incandescent bulbs in similar decorative lighting.

Here’s the kicker…It is $19.99 and comes with two rechargeable AA batteries for solar cell driven products! The recharging time is 9-12 hours in sunlight, but over 12 hours on a cloudy day.

The colors are eco-chic enough for you and I, and the price is right for our kids on a college budget. Just think about how cool they would think we were if these lamps landed in their college postboxes!

What do you think?
–Ronnie, Author of EcoNesting blog

Dear Ronnie,
Wow! I think the lamp looks great and surely eco-friendly. While the lamp isn’t a replacement for natural light, natural light power’s the lamp, and that is great. Thanks for giving us the heads up about this.