Alphington Open Studio Weekends are back! For the last two weekends of November, we will be one of a number of locations around Alphington showcasing some fantastic artists from our community.

We are very excited to feature works from Fiona Currie, Francesca McNamara, Sharon West and Jane Haussegger, and for the workshop Clare Mannion will be running on 29th and 30th of November!

We’ve just got in the new brochures for this event, so pop by soon to pick one up and find out all the details (including a handy map of where you can find all the artists). Come show your support!

A date for your diary.

It’s that time of year again… the weather is warming up, the magpies have nearly finished swooping, and our very creative community are working hard to provide another classic Christmas Makers Market. This year it will be on Saturday the 22nd of November from 11am - 2pm.

We’ll have a whole lot of great stalls selling things by talented locals, including the CWA, and our own jams and preserves, a sausage sizzle (obviously) and fun Christmassy kids’ activities.

Get in some early Christmas shopping and enjoy the (hopefully) lovely weather, and catch up with friends in the local community!

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

Thanks to everyone who came op shopping with us on Tuesday. We dodged the rain showers (mostly) and had a lovely time in Abbotsford visiting two op shops. We also stopped for Vietnamese for lunch on Victoria Street. Everyone bought something - Linda bought a footstool (which was tricky to carry around), Marie-Louise a dress, Monica some tea … and I can’t remember what the others got (I bought 2 jumpers and a long sleeve t-shirt).

Thanks to Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank for supporting this adventure - it was really inspiring to go op shopping on public transport. Truly. So relaxing.

This last week it has been great to usher in spring - whilst Thursday felt like the depths of winter, Friday was sunshiny and lovely … and it was amazing to spend time in the garden! It is looking so fantastic and Clare and Corrado and Jenny - and everyone else who comes along on Fridays and contributes should be super proud. The wicking beds out the front, along with the delivery of fogo compost that we spread around, have transformed the bed outside our fence. Thanks to Yarra Council for helping us purchase the beds and for delivering the compost for free. On Friday Clare picked a huge amount of produce (our bokchoy was about to go to seed) and so we have lots of lovely home-grown vegetables ready for cooking this coming week.

Speaking of coming up this week we have all the usual things - our food programs, line dancing, book clubs, choir, music lessons, sound healing - along with two exciting workshops on the weekend. Weaving with Corrin starting up for a 6 week course (book in here) and Spoonmaking with Maylei - a one-day workshop (book in here).

We hope to see you at ACC soon.

Cheers Leanne