We had a great night on Thursday with Alphington Arts. Elise Coughlin led a workshop on landscape painting - giving us lots of tips … and then we all had a crack!

As usual it is amazing to see how everyone approaches things differently. Everyone went home with the start of something … and I am sure with fresh eyes tomorrow and an hour or two more of painting they will evolve into masterpieces! Here are a few of the works in progress.

Super right? Thanks Elise. I think everyone learnt a lot!

Hi everyone, I hope you had a great school holidays and enjoyed the AFL Grand Final and are as excited as I am about daylight savings (I have been waking with the birds at 5.30am for the last couple of weeks aagh). I was down in Geelong heartland (Anglesea) for the footy - but there were enough ex-Fitzroy people at the pub to make it a fun day for lots of people … and they served up free party pies at half time which was a boon for winners and losers alike!

We’re back on deck this week. I called in on Friday and it was all looking great - the garden is going gang-busters. We had Project Stationery here for the first week of the holidays and Corrin was also around running her 6 week Introduction to Weaving course, along with a one day workshop for teenagers that looked super. Julie was also around co-working and some of our regular groups continued to meet. It is great to know that things have a life of their own and can continue on even when the office is closed.

This term is a busy one, kicking off with our next Thrift Seekers Op Shop Adventure on Thursday 16 October leaving ACC at 10am - we’ll be catching the bus over to Sydney Road this time to check out the op shops over there. Book in on our website. $5 includes morning tea (cake and coffee). On that night we also have Alphington Arts - for anyone who loves making art, this is a practical collective that shares skills and has a great chat. This time Elise will be teaching us some landscape painting techniques. Starts at 7.30pm. Costs $15. All materials are provided.

Then we have a Diwali celebration at Community Lunch on Friday 24 October. We’ll do some dancing led by Meet, feature some singing by Papu and have some yummy Indian food for lunch.

Then we have our AGM on Monday 27 October at 6pm. Join us for dinner and we’ll take a little photo trip down memory lane with Kalimna’s wonderful snaps, to look at all the great things we did in the financial year. It always amazes me what we can achieve in a year with such a small staff. Please contact us if you are keen to attend so we can guess at catering numbers.

Then we blink and it’s Christmas right? We have the Alphington Christmas Market on Saturday 22 November from 11am-2pm, along with the opening of Alphington Open Studios - which once again runs for two weekends across the neighbourhood.

Our annual Christmas Lunch will once again be hosted here in the garden on Friday 12 December at 12pm and Christmas Carols will run on Sunday 12 December at 7pm at the Alphington Bowls Club.

In amongst all this our programs continue. Community Lunch starts up this week on Friday from 12pm as does Alphington Playgroup on Wednesday from 10am in the front garden. Please note that Crunch and Garden to Plate start back up in two weeks.

So much on. I am exhausted thinking about it already! No … it is going to be super. Also, check out the posts below - some interesting things on in our neighbourhood that you might like to attend.

We look forward to seeing you at ACC this week.

Cheers Leanne

Adult Learners Week is here … and our nostalgic interactive community arts piece is now at Fairfield Library.

Lee installed it on Thursday afternoon and when I popped in Friday after work one of the librarians was stamping up and filling in a card - so I asked if I could take her photo.

The whole thing is pretty groovy and fun (Lee is a visual design wiz!) and we hope you take a minute or two to fill in a card yourself if you are there … your name, a book that is memorable and has ‘stayed with you’ and a description of what it was you learnt from it!

Happy adult learning! Both libraries and neighbourhood houses are a great place for it (in different ways).

Wow, I think we had over 100 people along on Friday night for the opening of the Winter Arts Salon exhibition - which was just super. We had over 50 artists exhibiting, and hung around 150 works - it was LOTS of work to hang, but the whole place looked amazing.

Thanks to all the artists who person-ed the gallery over the weekend, and everyone who came along. It all felt very neighbourhoodly!

I have included some snaps I took but will make a post with Kalimna’s photos next week!

Join us for an arty weekend! We’re looking forward to the upcoming Winter Arts Salon exhibition!

Works will arrive by 3pm on Thursday 21 August … and we’ll start hanging … the exhibition will open on 22 August - Friday night at 5pm. We already have more than 30 artist entries including people we know and also some new participants - so it is going to be great!

The exhibition will be open all weekend - Saturday and Sunday from 10am-3pm.

Put it in your diary and come along!