Leesburg is getting ready to hold it’s popular “First Night” New Year’s Eve festivities again! Totally volunteer organized by the Bluemont Concert Series, the alcohol-free program is held in downtown Leesburg from 7 p.m. to midnight, and includes 100 musical and theatrical performances in 20 different indoor locations, and a ‘Grand Illumination’ at midnight on the courthouse green.
You can purchase a commemorative button which will give you admission to all the performances in advance at the Loudoun Visitors Center, Loudoun Museum, Leesburg Pharmacy, or from the Bluemont offices. Admission costs $8 per person, $6 for seniors, $3 for kids ages 3 to 12, and kids under 3 receive free admission. You can buy admission buttons on the 31st at admission booths on King and Market Streets.
They are still looking for volunteers to help out, both before and during the event. You can download the volunteer form off of their website here. You can also opt to sponsor the event, with varying levels of sponsorship; information on that is available here.
The lineup of performers hasn’t been released yet, but should be available on the Bluemont website by Christmas Day, so check back.
Happy Holidays!
Heather
Tags: Bluemont Concert Series, downtown Leesburg, First Night, Leesburg, Leesburg First Night, Loudoun, New Year's Eve festivities, New Years Eve, Virginia
Want to see one of the most spectacular holiday light displays in the DC/Metropolitan area? Head over to Bull Run Regional Park, in Centreville, to see the 11th annual Festival of Lights. Open every evening, seven days a week from November 26th to January 4th. Monday to Thursday, hours are from 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm, while weekends and holidays (Friday to Sunday, plus Christmas and New Year’s) they stay open until 10 p.m.
It’s a fantastic two and a half mile long drive through display of holiday lights (some of which arch over the road!) We took our kiddos last year, and they loved it. Weekday fee is $15 for cars or vans, weekends is $20. (Please visit their website for bus/van rules and pricing.) There’s a link on the site for a $3 off coupon for weekday visits, too.
There’s also a “Holiday Village” there with an ice skating rink, food, and carnival rides…and I believe you can also get your photo taken with Santa!
Just in case you haven’t visited before, here’s a map to the location:
View Larger Map
Happy holidays from my family to yours,
Heather
Tags: Bull Run, Centreville, Christmas lights, Festival of Lights, Holiday lights, Holiday Village, Loudoun, Santa, Virginia
At loose ends for Monday and Tuesday next week while the kids are out of school? Footloose Dance and Fitness in Purcellville is having a “Winter Blast Camp” from 9:30 to 2:30. Miss Cassie will also hold the camp on Monday and Tuesday the following week too. Call the studio for more details at 540-338-3668 !
She’s also taking registration for Swing Dance Classes for the four Fridays in February, for all ages, from 7 to 8 pm. Cost is $80 per couple or $25 for singles.
Call the studio for more details at 540-338-3668 !
Cheers,
Heather (who has coerced her hubby into taking the swing dance classes..)
Tags: Dance, Footloose Dance, Footloose Dance and Fitness, holiday break camp, Loudoun, Purcellville, Swing Dance, winter break camp
The Blog Brawl Winner from Andrew Kantor on Vimeo.
(Hint: It hasn’t actually been removed. Just click play.)
We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming of Loudoun County life and news tomorrow!
Cheers,
Heather
Tags: Blog Brawl, blogging, Heather Elias, Inman Connect, LoCoMusings, Real Estate, TinainVirginia, VARBuzz, Virginia
Thanks to all of the fantastic support from my friends, family, colleagues, peers, coworkers, twitter friends, and November moms, I have made it to the FINALS of the Blog Brawl! So this will be my last plea for votes, just one more time to get me through! The voting page is set up slightly differently this time (perhaps to further eliminate voting irregularities?) In any case, click on the link below to go to the proper page on VARBuzz.com, then below the video, click on ***click here to vote in the finals*** and it will open a new window for you to vote in.
Vote LoCoMusings just ONE MORE TIME!
I can’t thank everyone enough for the outpouring of support…it’s been fantastic and I’m eternally grateful! Voting runs until MIDNIGHT on SUNDAY, so don’t delay!
You might enjoy this video that a few of my friends made to ‘get out the vote’…
Cheers,
Heather
Tags: Blog Brawl, Heather Elias, LoCoMusings, VARBuzz
In what is becoming the longest running blog brawl in history (yeah, I know there have been so many classics it’s hard to pick your favorite…)….
The semifinals of the VARBuzz Second Annual Blog Brawl are being re-run because of voting ‘irregularities’. I’m not sure whether there were straw voters involved, hanging chads, miscounted absentee balllots, or what happened, but I’ve risen from the ashes like the Phoenix of mythological lore. (and this post is certainly confirming that writing blog posts on heavy doses of Dayquil makes for interesting reading.)
Ahem. In any case, please take yourself over to VARBuzz for me and vote LoCoMusings, please!
Click here to vote for LoCoMusings!
(You have to pick LoCoMusings when you get there, and hit “Submit”…
Thank yeew for your (continued) support…
Cheers,
Heather
Tags: Blog Brawl, LoCoMusings, VARBuzz, VARBuzz.com
Thanks to the support of my friends, colleagues, and readers, I’ve made it to the semifinals! Voting is open NOW, and runs until 2 pm on Tuesday. Please stop by VARBuzz.com one more time for me and cast another vote for LoCoMusings! I appreciate your help, we are in the home stretch now!
You can vote by going here:
http://varbuzz.com/virginia-real-estate-blog-brawl-semi-finals-voting-is-open/
and stop by the Facebook event page here to see which real estate celebrities are endorsing me in this brawl:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=35987838502#/event.php?eid=35987838502
(If I’m not connected to you on Facebook yet, send me a message while you are there and let me know so we can link up!)
Thanks again for all your help!
Cheers,
Heather
Tags: Blog Brawl, blogging, Heather Elias, Inman Connect NY, LoCoMusings, Real Estate, VARBuzz.com
According to the Loudoun Extra section of the Washington Post, the Purcellville Town Council and the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors have finally reached an agreement that will allow the construction of a new western high school to proceed, and open by fall of 2010. You can read the article for all the details, but it looks like the settlement between the two sides calls for the county to give the town $5.78 million for transportation improvements, and the town will annex the site, extending water and sewer utilities to the new school. (Yes, that does mean both sides have items to complete for the process to proceed. Fingers crossed that this works smoothly!)
There will be a joint public hearing of the Town Council and Purcellville Planning Commission on December 16th as part of the process; the Board of Supervisors and the Loudoun Planning Commission will hold their session on December 18th.
As a parent of children who will be directly affected by the construction of this school, I am ecstatic that this struggle may be over! This agreement, which should finally start construction of Woodgrove High School, came after two years of legal struggles. News articles last week quoted school officials as suggesting without the new high school, the newly constructed Kenneth Culbert Elementary in Hamilton may have been used as an adjunct middle school campus with Harmony Intermediate; while Blue Ridge Middle could have been used as a satellite campus to Loudoun Valley High school. If the new high school opens in fall 2010 as originally planned, that should eliminate the need for such hopping around.
I’ll certainly continue to watch this process closely. (My twins start middle school at Blue Ridge next fall.) I’ll post updates as news develops.
Cheers,
Heather
Tags: Blue Ridge Middle School, High school, Loudoun Board of Supervisors, Loudoun County, Purcellville, Purcellville planning commission, Purcellville town council, western Loudoun County, Woodgrove High School
Thanks so much to everyone who voted and helped me get through round one! Round Two of voting is open!!! I’m the first blog you can pick! We only have until Thursday night at 11:59 pm, so don’t delay!
http://varbuzz.com/virginia-real-estate-blog-brawl-round-two-fight/
Please pass this along, I need all the help I can get!!
Cheers,
Heather
Tags: Blog Brawl, contest, Heather Elias, LoCoMusings, Loudoun County, Real Estate, VARBuzz
I don’t usually toot my own horn (much) but I was most excited to find out that I was featured by Mike Price over at the MLBroadcast blog this week! He picks real estate related blogs to write about when he finds one that is compelling for him. (For those of you that aren’t familiar with MLBroadcast, the good folks there produce professionally narrated podcasts of listings for us real estate types, and do a daggone good job of it, too!)
So stop by and take a gander at his writeup. I have to say I was tremendously honored and flattered at the same time!! Thanks Mike!
Cheers,
Heather
Tags: blogging, featured blog, Heather Elias, Kudos, LoCoMusings, Loudoun County, Mike Price, MLBroadcast, MLPodcast, Real Estate, Real estate blogging
