Every Saturday morning, the Waukesha Farmers’ Market is bustling with people. Located at the sight of the former Transit Center on the Fox River in Riverfront Plaza between Broadway and Barstow, you can feast your eyes on a variety of farm fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, meats and cheeses, annuals and perennials, artisan breads and bakery, local honey, fresh eggs, household decor and more. As if that was not enough to fill your needs, this year ready-to-eat food vendors have been added in the market as well.

Erik

This post is a pictorial reflection of this morning’s market. All photographs were taken myself.

This Friday, the Waukesha YMCA is inviting the entire community to celebrate the start of summer and enjoy some family fun! At their free YBQ event, feel free to climb a rock wall, get your face painted, enjoy great BBQ food, challenge your family members to relay races and play yard games.

It is destined to be a great night out for you and your family! No registration or YMCA membership is required.

The Waukesha YMCA is located at 320 East Broadway, Waukesha, WI 53186. The event runs from 6pm – 8pm.

Every Saturday morning, the Waukesha Farmers’ Market is bustling with people. Located at the sight of the former Transit Center on the Fox River in Riverfront Plaza between Broadway and Barstow, you can feast your eyes on a variety of farm fresh vegetables, fruits, herbs, meats and cheeses, annuals and perennials, artisan breads and bakery, local honey, fresh eggs, household decor and more. As if that was not enough to fill your needs, this year ready-to-eat food vendors have been added in the market as well.

Erik

This post is a pictorial reflection of this past Saturday’s market. All photographs were taken myself.

Next weekend, the Waukesha Landmarks Commission will be holding a two-day event, that will take you back in time. Throughout the weekend, living historians will share some of Waukesha’s storied past through tours, presentations and exhibits of spring houses, historic buildings, fashions of the time and more.

A few of the events that I am looking forward to the most include:

• Open house and information session at Silurian Spring, and Downie Springs, where a historic firetruck will displayed. Saturday, 10am – 2pm.
• Walking tour and information session of McCall St. Saturday, 10am – 2pm.
• Open house of the Nelson House and Andrew Frame House. Sunday, 12pm – 4pm.

The only issue I see is that we will not be able to attend all of the session that we would like, as most of them overlap each other!

Erik

A full schedule of the weekend events is available on the Waukesha Preservation Alliance homepage.

Do you live in Waukesha’s Central City? That would be the areas around the Hospital, Library and Main Street. If so, you are invited/reminded to attend tonight’s meeting of the Waukesha Neighborhood Identity Project.

WHEN: Wednesday, May 9th, 2012
6:30 to 8:00 pm
WHERE: Waukesha Public Library Community Room
321 Wisconsin Ave, Waukesha

The meeting will identify and address shared neighborhood issues, determine your neighborhood’s name to establish neighborhood identity, and help create the framework for a strong and effective neighborhood organization.

I hope to be in attendance, it just depends on this cold I am fighting.

Erik

A last minute reminder/invitation that tonight, a “Working for Waukesha” discussion on BID Rain Barrel project needs, short-term objectives and a review of strategic plan draft, will take place from 6:30 – 8:00pm at Sprizzo’s Gallery Caffe (upper meeting room).

As you may remember from an earlier post, Waukesha County UW Cooperative Extension recently facilitated a “Community Change Circle” program at Carroll University. This experience provided a unique opportunity for public dialogue where citizens could work together to identify a neighborhood need or issue and then develop an action plan that leads to a more thriving community where people will want to live, work and visit. As a result of this program, “Working for Waukesha” was formed as an initiative to invite and welcome volunteers to help make the city of Waukesha a clean, safe and inviting community.

I plan to be in attendance, and hope to see you there.

Erik

I have to say, yesterday’s art crawl, sponsored by Mia’s Italian Cuisine, was absolutely wonderful. After being worried by the lousy weather during the morning Farmer’s Market, the sun came out, and so did flocks of people.

The crawl included seven music venues, 22 art galleries, a free trolley ride, live art on the street, great food, and so much more.

Just a few of our favorite’s of the day included listening to TIS perform while browsing Restyle Studio (pictured above) (I really, really, hope to see them back in Waukesha, they were great! Come on, they even played In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida!) and watching the live Trekkie art outside of Art & Framing 123 (pictured above).

There was even a sneak-peek of the Waukesha GuitarTown project at Martha Merrell’s Books. Three of the playable guitars were on display, and one of the 10-foot tall, fiberglass, guitars was sort-of on display (it was covered up when we were there… not sure if there was an unveiling later in the day that we were unaware of).

I have to say, the new glass garage door at Montecito Ristorante Lounge is wonderful. The door was open when we stopped by for some billiards, beer and appetizers, with the music of guitarist Peter Llanas bellowing out. Later in the night, the door was closed, yet it let in some great mood-lighting of the city surround.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful art crawl, and the downtown was still ‘crawling’ with people at 10pm.

Erik

There are just a few days left to be part of Hayward Williams’ most ambitious project to date; his 4th full length record, titled Haymaker.

I hope you recall hearing some of his authentic lyricism either in my past post, perhaps on Don’t Say Goodnight, or you’ve heard him perform live.

I know what you are thinking… the Kickstarter project has reached its goal (hell, the goal was raised within 24 hours), but with Haymaker, you have the chance to bring his music to others, and depending on how you contribute, you can even gain a personal cover or even a show at your home.

Take this opportunity, and be part of the biggest, brassiest, back-up singin-est, boldest, most-fun record for your ears!

Erik

On a wonderfully warm and sunny April day (low 70s), we celebrated our new home with a ribbon cutting ceremony. Present at the ceremony was the home builder Tim O’Brien and a few of his staff, Mayor Jeff Scrima, County Executive Dan Vrakas, Community Development Specialist Jennifer Andrews, Alderman Roger Patton, President of Couri Insurance Agency Jerry Couri, Sarah Pryor (or should I say HBR) from the Waukesha Freeman (here is a link to her great article that was published the following day), and countless others.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their time and effort in making our home transpire.

Erik

Apologies on the lateness of this post. I was hoping to get this follow-up posted earlier, yet with the website having a relapse from the hack a while back (FYI, we are all cleaned up now, and Google has cleared the site as well. Thanks for the emails letting me know about the issue.), and the big move itself, here we are a few weeks late.

I’ve learned a few things since I first started telling you about our house hunting adventures in Waukesha. There are a few great homes with historic charm for sale, there are so many homes that are in dire need of a flip, and there are tons of homes that make me just wonder what the original home builders were thinking.

Luckily, after a major disappointment, we found OUR house. We close in a week, and we couldn’t be happier. We happily decided to go for the first construction in the YWCA rehabilitation project, a house which achieved “Emerald” status under the National Green Building Standard certification program (the first house to do so in the State of Wisconsin).

We’re close to downtown, we’re close to multiple parks, we’re surrounded by some great architecture, and we’ll be part of what we hope will be a great up-and-coming neighborhood.

Today, at 4:30pm, a ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at our new house, and I invite all of you to join us, and celebrate our new home.

Erik