The sunshine has been MIA this week in the Big Apple but there's been no shortage of good green home news. 

 

I'll see you next week with dispatches (photos!) from the Design for a Living World exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and from the Brooklyn leg of the Renegade Craft Fair. 

 

The New York Times steps aboard the Waterpod, a 30-foot by 100-foot barge moored in Brooklyn. The Waterpod will serve as a temporary, eco-friendly houseboat of sorts to four artists as they examine methods of self-sufficiency for several months.

Dwell hits the lanes with a piece on Jim Malone’s CounterEvolution NYC, a company that makes gorgeous furniture made from reclaimed bowling lane wood.

Design Boom brings on the irony with the "The Water Stopping Water" sink stopper. 

Design Milk digs “Blade of Grass,” a Momma Nature-inspired LED and plexiglass outdoor light that won first prize at the International Outdoor Furniture Contest.

TreeHugger scoops out Maker Faire 09 and gives this blogger a serious case of shopping envy with a list of “Green Stuff I Wanted to Buy at Maker Shed.”

Inhabitat takes a seat in the Text-ile, a chair made from discarded computer keyboards.

Sunset plays gracious green hostess at its own modern prefab cottage. The super cool space features bamboo flooring, a vertical, low-VOC paints, and other eco features. Tour it in person this weekend as part of Sunset's Celebration Weekend at the mag's HQ in Menlo Park, California. 

The Los Angeles Times subscribes to Dirt Du Jour, a Daily Candy-esque daily email newsletter dedicated to greenthumbed gals (and guys) in Southern California.

The Wall Street Journal get its slideshow on with photo tours of three eco-friendly homes in the $1.3 to $1.6 million range. These big greenies are in Dallas, Chicago, and Julian, California. 

Ecofriend converts calories into watts with the EcoMill, a manually powered treadmill. 

Hollister Hovey takes a field trip to Chicago's Field Museum to gawk at the (stuffed) animals. 

Re-Nest announces — drum roll, please — “Best Green Cleaning Products 2009: Editor’s and Reader’s Home Lineups.”

Fast Company gets H20-crafty with a list of “Five Stylish Ways to Reuse Your Grey Water.”

Ideal Bite partakes in some retail therapy at a new NYC eco-home store, Green in BKLYN.

Planet Green has an idea for soon-to-be-graduates: “Talk To Your Roommates About Conservation: 40 Green Changes You Can Make Together.”