Be Green

Small Change
1629 Washington Plaza
Lake Anne Village Center
Reston, VA 20190 (map it)
(703) 437-7730

Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 - 5

There’s nothing like a used children’s shop right next to a used book store to draw folks like us! I love visiting Lake Anne and recently shopped at Small Change. I walked in and found exactly what I needed with help from the staff. While there I noticed that they carry a lot of name brand toddler shoes in great shape, but as with any consignment store, it’s best to walk in without an agenda and let serendipity take over.

Please note: Small Change is currently closed and will re-open this July 15.

Campaign for Loudoun’s Future recently sponsored a local foods and farms celebration. American Flatbread, a new restaurant in Ashburn which uses some local ingredients for their pizzas, helped to host the event — which made it into The Post and Leesburg Today.

The kids and I stopped by the event, but I was too wiped out by the heat to write it up when I got home that night. Kudos to the many volunteers, local farmers, and animals who spent the day in the heat to expose the rest of us to some of our local food options. I’d like to say that we learned a lot, but the reality of visiting an event like that solo with two preschoolers is that we spent most of our time at the moonbounce and in the bathroom at American Flatbread. Regardless, fun was had, sheepskins were touched, and we found a new place to eat out. American Flatbread’s service was friendly and quick. You can see the flames in the pizza oven from many of the seats. My children kind of zone out while watching fires, so it makes them more managable in restaurants.

The words green and posh seemed a bit contradictory to me at first, but then I thought about the city of San Francisco and a little (energy-efficient fluoresent) light went off in my head and I got it.

Green Posh Moms is a forum being developed by two sisters, one of whom lives right here in Loudoun County. The forum is a new resource and its success is dependent upon folks joining and participating in discussions and sharing ideas.

Care to be one of those folks?

There are so many work-at-home moms out there doing cool things! One mom based right here in Leesburg, VA finds used clothes and turns them into something new for babies, hence her name — Recycling Babies.

Leesburg Farmer’s Market

Hours
9am-1pm according to the sign
8am-1pm according to the website
9am-12pm winter season (November-April)

The sign and website conflict, so you may need to wait a bit if you plan to arrive before 9am.

There’s not much I can say about the Leesburg Farmer’s Market that another local blogger has not already put into a lovely video on YouTube:

I do have a few tidbits to add, though. The location — Virginia Village Plaza near the intersection of Catoctin Circle and King Street — makes a trip to farmers’ market fit in well with breakfast at Deli South (whose breakfast burrito is better than their website!), the Saturday morning storytime at the temporary Rust library location, ice cream at the Razzle Dairy Bar, or a walk on the nearby W&OD trail. (Walk a few blocks on King Street towards downtown. If you turn right onto the trail you will come to a bridge and a little park with another bridge.)

The set-up in a parking lot may make it difficult if you are juggling lots of free range toddlers or have one of those two year olds who runs the other way when you call him or her to stay closer…. Consider yourself warned and plan accordingly!

It has come to my attention that I am not the only one who wishes we had a Trader Joe’s in Loudoun County. Apparently there is a grass roots effort to attract them to a new shopping center in Ashburn. Hooray! To join this effort all you need to do is fill out Trader Joe’s location request form.

You can fill out as you like, or complete as the masses have suggested:

City: Ashburn
State: Virginia
Comments: Village Center at Belmont Greene

5/26/08 UPDATE: Another local blogger has done some digging on this topic. Here’s what she discovered.

Active Family Services, LLC has been quoted in the Washington Post! I am tickled that our steam cleaning practices made the news.

Woodend Sanctuary
8940 Jones Mill Road
Chevy Chase, MD 20815
 301-652-9188

We love the Audubon Nature Fair, and look forward to attending each year. We picnic with friends, shop for gifts for upcoming events, meet bee keepers, learn about invasive species, find little creatures in the pond, make cardboard binoculars, enjoy performances geared at both kids and all ages and bask in being surrounded by such a wonderful crowd of folks.

This year’s fair will be held on Sunday, May 4, 2008 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the details are all online.

Some pictures from past fairs:

(oops! we’ll get some pics up sooner or later)