…… all about how to make your Alphington Show contributions shine! Our official criteria for the most highly-regarded and prestigious competition in all of Alphington.

For Scones:

Cut with plain cutter, no frilled edges

Free from excess flour; especially at the bottom

Brush lightly with melted butter when hot

Even baking top and bottom

For Bread:

Crust golden brown in color with crisp and even thickness.

Well shaped even surface and crumb is spongy to feel.

For Relish:

Bottle clean and the relish is bright with good flavour and consistency.

It should not be dark, bubble or have blemishes.

For Olives:

Olives are fresh and unbruised

No trace of bitterness

Attractive presentation

For Scarves:

Sides even (slip first stitch)

Even tension - no tram lines, no joins

Fringe to be even

For Patchwork:

Construction precise

Corners and points matching

Stitches do not show unless a feature

Seems are secured

Patches should be cut with the grain and sides be of even length

We can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Lots of good things coming up this week.

Preserves Group - Join Kalimna in the kitchen on Tuesday for Preserves Group. From 1pm we’ll be cooking up some tomato chutney and some summer fruit jam. In between chopping and stirring we’ll stop for an afternoon tea break - coffee and a sweet treat, so it’s not all hard work. From 1pm. Also …. if you have small clean jars to donate we’d love some more! We’re cooking up in preparation for sales at the Alphington Show (coming up on Saturday 21 March - a date for you diaries).

Day of Action - on Wednesday our office will close for a couple of hours around lunchtime as we head into the city to campaign for better funding for neighbourhood houses on the steps of Parliament. If you’d like to support this we’d love your company. Just email us here and we’ll let you know the details (we’re catching the train in!).

CRUNCH - Join Lee and Leanne for lunch and a creative arts activity at ACC on Thursday from 12.30pm. Only $10 this year. Book in on our website here.

and/or ….

Alphington Arts - on Thursday evening at 7.30pm for more arty fun! A lovely opportunity to meet other creative folk in the ‘hood, chat and create. This time we will be doing collage, inspired by Gustav Klimt. You can start your work with a photo of someone you love (bring your image along) or choose a random person from a magazine. We’ll be using mixed media - ink, paint, markers and paper to build our works. Thanks Lee for organising this session. You can book in here.

Community Lunch - we have the Deputy Mayor from Yarra Council joining us on Friday, along with some of our Council colleagues. It is always great to have Councillors and staff come along and see our space in action! All welcome (of course).

Hope to see you soon!

Cheers Leanne

Next week on Tuesday the 17th of February we’ll be back with our first Preserves Group of the year! We’ll be making seasonal jams and tomato relishes… mmm delicious … hopefully we will be able to restock our supply in time for the Alphington Show next month. It’s free to come along, please book in online here to let us know you’ll be joining. See you Tuesday from 1pm.

Local arty folk … join us!

On the 3rd Thursday of each month at 7.30pm we run Alphington Arts, where anyone with an interest in exploring art can come along to try something new.

Lino printing, watercolour, life drawing, landscape painting - each month is different. We tap into the skills that locals bring along .. or we find something that we are interested in learning more about collectively ... and give it a creative crack.

And it is all very casual - we have a drink and some snacks and get arty … and a laugh!

It is creative and friendly and lots of fun.

If you’d like to join in this year you can book in on our website.

The first session is running on Thursday 19 February, from 7.30-9.30pm and in this session we will be creating pieces for a shared community clay sculpture that we plan to install in our front garden.

Hope to see you there!

Week 2 already …. and it really is good to be back! It had been super to catch up with so many of you already, and to have wrangled the leaves (oh the leaves, the leaves) into order and gotten the rest of our organising (that we didn’t get too at the end of last year) organised.

And yes, our brochure is finally out. Check it out here.

And so it is the perfect time to book in online to our programs for this year!

AAA Art (Friday 1pm) and Artful Painting and Drawing (3 classes on Monday and Tuesday) will both be starting back this week with the wonderful Clare. You can contact her directly to book into Artful Painting and Drawing on 0423453160 and call our office on 9499 7227 to find out about AAA Art.

Book Clubs are back! There are still some places available this year - so book in online. Our Thursday evening Book Club starts this week. Get in quick as these groups generally fill up fast!

And this Saturday at 8am we will also be running our first Men’s Breakfast for the year - you can book in on our website or call John on 0439899352 for more information. See the post below for more details …

Also running this week will be:

• CWA on Monday night at the Gleeson Centre in Darebin Parklands

• Alphington Playgroup and Toy Library both Wednesday and Thursday mornings at 10am-12pm.

• Line Dancing at Alphington Scout Hall on Wednesday at 10am-12pm.

• U3A Armchair Theatre on Wednesday at 1-3pm.

• Alphingtones Choir at St Andrews on Thursday at 7.30pm.

• Our Community Morning on Friday from 10am, and Community Lunch Friday at 12-1pm.

Looking forward to seeing you here at ACC.

Cheers Leanne