Top 7 Best Booths at Loudoun Earth Day 2011

Sunday I had a great time at the 3rd Annual Loudoun Earth Day Family Festival.  The festival was held out at  Willow Creek Farms in Broadlands, Va, just 10-15 minutes South of Leesburg.  Broadlands is the 25th community in the nation certified as a Community Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

Having grown up in the woods of Connecticut I like to attend and support events like this, and because as you know they're not making any more land so we need to preserve the natural resources that we have. 

There were exhibitors to suit most every ones fancy.  Here are the Top 7 Best Booths at Loudoun Earth Day:

First, I love to shop and Susi DuPuis from Artsy Farsy Jewelry did not disappoint.  In fact I purchased this beautiful brooch made of recycled plastic materials.  When you look closely at it you can see that she has taken pieces from products we all use everyday and snipped and wired and twisted them into this really creative piece of fashion art.  I have visited her website and found many more pieces I have to have in my jewelry box. 

Other booths included;

Catherine Smith's from Trashion Fashion now that's a cool name for a business.  Catherine takes used aluminum soda cans and by cutting them up and backing them with what looks like polymer clay she creates shinny, trendy and unique jewelry.  Take a look at her Etsy website and you will find that her pieces are fun and exciting.

I recently planted fresh herb seeds like basil, chives, cilantro and others so they'd be on hand.  They haven't started sprouting yet, but soon.  I would like to grow more fresh vegetables as well so I was pleased to come across a booth that inspires and teaches people how to creatively grow their own food.   That last phrase is actually Linna Ferguson's tagline.  Linna is a motivational food garden speaker.  You can visit her FoodScraper site and check out her Food Garden Profile.  Linna showed me a really neat way to grow a garden in small spaces by planting in a garden box and raising the garden up off the ground.  Another tip was to use support stakes to grow things vertically.  There are some really helpful books on her site that go into great detail on how to successfully employ Square Foot Gardening. 

Being a new Grandma, I am always on the look out for new and exciting books for kids.  Tamatha Hollingswoth has released a new book for kids titled Taye and Cora Save the Earth.  The book follows the adventures of two children as they embark on a plan to take what they've learned from a school field trip and use it to save the Planet Earth.  That sounds like a lot of fun, and can encourage other children to do the same.   Her book is available on her website and coming soon to Amazon.  Awesome!

I'm also a collector of elephant items.  So, I was thrilled to come across Karin's booth.  She crochets many things, but the children's elephant cap caught my eye.  Crochet by Karin has a store on Etsy and she can ship her items for you.

The last booth of the day for me had the slogan Live Green! We all have to clean house, inside and out and with Spring cleaning season upon us we should be doing everything we can to clean safely for our families and environment.  Craig Harrison of Melaleuca had a awesome display of eco-friendly household cleaners, body soaps, hand lotions and much more.  I tried a sample of the hand lotion and noticed that it only took a small pea size amount to soothe and remove the ashy dryness from my hands, where as the conventional lotions take so much more the achieve the same desired results.  So rather than using the harshness of the standard brands you may be used to using I recommend checking out the Melaleuca site. 

There could be a new license plate design to choose next time you renew plates.  Have you watched the "The Bee Movie" with Jerry Seinfeld and Mathew Broderick.  Well if you have then you know the important part bees play in the agricultural well being of our planet.  Actually I'm sure you know the importance of bees without watching the movie.  Bees and other pollinators that help produce much of the food we eat and healthy wildlife ecosystems are in trouble, and scientists point to habitat loss as a major cause.  Visit PollinatorPlates.com for more details on how you can help and to find out how you can get the new plates for your vehicle(s).

Well that was my Sunday morning outing! It was such a joy meeting people and learning new and exciting ways to conserve resources by reducing, reusing and recycling items we use everyday.  

If you didn't make it to this years Loudoun Earth Day, well I hope to see your there next year.  In the mean-time check your local paper for other Earth Day festivals going on in other counties.  Alexandria Earth Day is on April 30th!  


Deborah

Old Dominion Concierge

"We Run Your Errands"