Hi everyone,

We had a great time last Thursday cooking up a Korean feast at Cook by the Book! Rob thinks it might have been our best collective cooking effort yet!

It was also super (if somewhat chaotic - because I forgot they were coming) to have Yarra Council staff along to do some video interviews about how ace neighbourhood houses are - for a loneliness week campaign they are putting together. We’ll share the material when they publish it! They also stayed for our yummy Korean lunch and it was great to have a chat with them.

Thanks so much to Jamie from Kew High who was here doing work experience with us for the week. He was a super conversationalist and worked really hard. It really was a pleasure to have him here!

This week we’ve got lots on including:

• Heart-Centred Breathwork on Tuesday at 7.30am (we’ve set up a weekly payment option for this now so you can come along and give it a try)

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

• Playtime in the Garden, also on Wednesday from 10am-12pm

• U3A Armchair Theatre on Wednesday from 1pm-3pm

• Cardboard Playgroup on Thursday from 10am-12pm

• Cook by the Book on Thursday from 11.30am-1pm

• CRUNCH on Thursday from 12.30pm-2pm

• Alphingtones Choir at St. Andrew’s Church on Thursday from 7.30pm-9pm

• Community Morning on Friday from 10am-1pm

To find out more and book in online, please visit our website at this link.

Cheers Leanne

Hi everyone,

We are running the first sessions of some of our new programs this week, including Heart-Centred Breathwork with John from the Men’s Breakfast on Tuesday morning at 7.30am - should be a lovely way to start the day! … and Cook by the Book on Thursday morning from 11.30am-1pm. Feeling super excited about these programs and seeing both fresh and familiar faces … if you haven’t yet, don’t forget to book in online here at our website!

On Thursday from 12.30pm-2pm we will also have our first session of CRUNCH for the term, and at 1pm-3pm we will have our monthly session of Embracing Life and Death.

Our novel writing workshop The Momentum to Write has been pushed back a week, so it will now be starting on the evening of Monday 10th of August - giving you an extra week to book in.

Looking ahead, we have an event with Dementia Australia coming up in August (read on for more…) and some events for Senior’s Month happening in October (info coming soon…). And we are getting ready for our Winter Arts Salon weekend running from the 14th to the 16th of August. Save the date! And encourage your arty friends to join in.

So we are busy, busy, busy - in a good way!

Cheers Leanne

Hi all it has been lovely to be back at work and see lots of people this week. We’ve been getting very organised - programs, admin, supplies, ideas … all the things! And thank you so much to Akimbo Bakery for their awesome donation of bread dropped off this week.

We’ve got one more week until all our short courses and such things kick off. So please enrol. Here’s some things to think about …

• Cardboard Playgroup - Thursdays 10.30am-12pm. Lee is in the process of making some cute things from cardboard for our Thursday playgroup session. Each week she plans to add something new - at least for a while. Come along and check it out.

• We’ll be doing printmaking this term at CRUNCH … how fun! All welcome. Join us on Thursdays for lunch at 12.30pm before we head out to the Community Shed for some creative fun. Only $75 for 6 weeks, including lunch - what a bargain! Book in online here.

• Cook by the Book - this term we are going to explore Charmaine Soloman’s Complete Asian Cookbook. It is a favourite of mine and has great recipes, many of which were written back when ‘all the things’ were not readily available in Australian supermarkets - so the recipes are delicious but are often made with a handful of staple ingredients and include ideas for how to swap things out if you can’t find them easily. Her recipes are sorted by country - so we’ll explore a different one each week. It is going to be super! And delicious. YUM. Book in online here.

• The Momentum to Write - have you got a story brewing in the back of your mind? This a great opportunity to begin the writing process, or if you have already started something, to get a bit of a boost. Fran is lovely and very talented. Book in online here.

Also of note … we’ve got Preserves Group coming up this week on Tuesday at 1pm … and with a donation of lemons from Wendy’s tree (thanks so much Wendy) we’ll definitely be making some preserved lemon. If you have any produce you could send our way please let us know … we love thinking that our preserves come straight from neighbourhood gardens! If you’d like to join in Preserves Group please come along!

Also … we’ve opened up the artist registration form for the Alphington Winter Art Salon at this link here. If you are an artist please enter some works! It’s a fun and friendly event open for anyone, and it showcases 2D and 3D artworks.

And we’re asking for donations of tiles for a new mosaic project (read the post below for the details of what we are after).

Hope you have a great week. See you soon I hope.

Cheers Leanne

Calling all artists!

Join in our Winter Art Salon show … coming up on the weekend of the 14-16 August.

It is FREE to enter up to 4 works.

Enter your works here.

Neighbourhood friends .. save the date and come along to our opening night … or pop in over the weekend!

Hi everyone

Welcome back to Term 3 at ACC. Over the holidays we had the Flukes, our Uke Group run a singalong on the first weekend - which my mum tells me was well attended (she came along, unfortunately I couldn’t make it as my middle child was heading to Europe with her university friends and needed my assistance for last minute organising and a lift to the airport). Thanks to everyone who participated. Great to see new community led initiatives get up and running successfully!

And then the Up Community were here for a week doing their fabulous recycling things - Project Stationary (recycling stationary) and Project Pair-Up (matching up the tops and bottoms of lunchboxes and plastic storage containers). It’s great that our space is in use over the school holidays - and for such excellent activities!

Coming up this term we have some new things on the cards:

• The Momentum to Write (Start your Novel) - Monday evenings for 4 weeks starting in August.

• Heart Centred Breathwork - for the early birds (starts at 7.30am on a Tuesday morning)

And lots of old favourites:

• Cook by the Book (a new version of Garden to Plate where we’ll choose a cookbook to cook from for the term) - 6 weeks on Thursdays from 11.30am

• Crunch (Creative Lunch) we’ll be focusing on printmaking this term using our new printing press - 6 weeks on Thursdays from 12.30pm

• Alphington Arts - from 7.30pm on the 3rd Thursday of the month in August and September this term

• Preserves Group - our next one is coming up on Tuesday 21 July from 1-3pm.

• Op Shop Adventures - save the date Thursday 10 September, we’ll head off for a day of op shopping and lunch from 10am-2pm.

You can book into all our upcoming programs here.

We also have our Winter Arts Salon Show coming up … please note that the original advertised date has changed, and it will now run on the weekend of the 14-16 August. We’ll be opening up our booking system mid week - please encourage any artists you know to enter works. The more the merrier!

Did you know you can hire our space for bithday parties on Sundays? We have quite a few birthday parties booked in this year, but there are still spots available in Term 3 and early Term 4. The price starts at $165 to hire our space for 4 hours which is enough time to set up, host and pack up your party … and all the kitchen equipment is provided. it is a great way for families to both minimise waste and avoid having to spring clean their own house for guests! You can check out the available dates and book here.

We look forward to seeing everyone back for Community Lunch and for our Community Morning on Friday this week. And to catching up with everyone who comes along for various activities throughout the week, including book clubs, playgroups, ukulele, toy library, line dancing etc. etc. etc.

On to bigger ‘world news’ type things … gosh the World Cup soccer has been exciting. So many great matches. I have been glued to the telly in the early hours of the morning most days. Lucky it all happened over the school holidays and is ending soon - so I will be able to concentrate on work again!

Cheers Leanne