Yay! The official posters are complete and we’re getting excited about the upcoming Alphington Show!

Kalimna has been looking into booking the pony rides again (how cute were they last time) and we are firing up the BBQ and the CWA is cooking up a scone storm for devonshire teas …

If you are a local maker who would like to be part of the Makers Market you can book a stall here. Only $20 and we’ll have our fingers crossed for the weather (note it is an outside market).

And if you are skilled in the domestic arts (calling all jammers and preservers, bread bakers, flower growers and arrangers, sewers, knitters, crocheters, vegetable growers, olive harvesters etc.) PLEASE enter our show! The full list of categories is below. It only costs $1 to enter … and perhaps become a proud neighbourhood winner!

Download your entry form (with all the categories clearly listed) and see photos from previous years here.

This week we are starting planning for the Alphington Show.

We’re partnering with Alphington CWA to run this event that celebrates the ‘domestic arts’ … if you are into bread baking, jam making, preserving, knitting and crochet this is your chance to shine! The show also celebrates the home garden … admiring your most impressive vegetables, homegrown eggs and gorgeous flowers … along with celebrating your floristry skills … and cake decorating skills.

We’ll publish the full list of categories shortly,

But in the meantime … finish that beanie you started, dig out your family scone recipe and encourage your children to perfect their lemon slice (and cook their own snack for school lunch at the same time … win/win).

The Alphington Show will run on Saturday 26 March here at ACC.

Tonight (Sunday) ACC and Friends of Baucau catered the Music in Exile event at the Fairfield Amphitheatre that was put on by Yarra Council and Yarra City Arts.

ACC contributed to planning and made the main course - a grain salad with dolmades and dip and bread … and Friends of Baucau used catering from Taste of Timor for delicious Portuguese tarts and coconut steamed buns and samosas … and we also bought soft drinks and watermelon and zooper doopers … all the essentials for family summer catering!

It was a fabulous event with excellent music. Elsy Wameyo was particularly great (I thought).

Music in Exile is rolling across Yarra this month. If you are keen to attend you can find all the details here.

Thanks Olivia at Yarra Arts for organising such a great event and inviting us to be part of it!

Well, what a difference a month makes hey? Last time we spoke Covid was a distant thing … and now … well every person and their dog has it - or has had it - or has family and good friends who have it - or had it …

It really does seem to affect different people in randomly different ways for little apparent reason so we hope you and everyone you love and care about are doing okay.

As always if you need a hand we’re here to rally the troops and/or help however we can. Just call or email if you need anything.

For the first half of this year I (Leanne) will be in the office each weekday except Thursday, and Kalimna will be working onsite Tuesday and Thursday.

Our office opens at 9.30am each day.

We’ll be resuming programming as per our brochure which you can find here.

We’re delighted that despite all the ups and downs lots of things are nearly booked out.

Women in the Shed is full, there are just a couple of spots left across our five Book Clubs and our Visible Mending workshop is proving very popular (note we just added a couple of extra places if you checked earlier and it was booked-out online).

We still have spots available in Louisa’s Observational Drawing classes on Saturdays, Kristian’s Collage classes on Tuesday evenings and in our Furniture Repair workshop - another great opportunity for you to reduce the things you send to landfill by fixing them instead of throwing them out! Find out more and book in here.

We’ve also got the Alphington Show coming up - remember that? We’ll publish more about this slightly competitive neighbourhood celebration of the ‘domestic arts’ - baking, knitting, jam making, flower arranging, stitching etc. in the coming weeks. It’s an all-ages fun opportunity to show off your talents and skills - with prizes!

We’re looking forward to seeing you at ACC this year. Remember, young families can join our formal playgroup on Tuesday mornings or drop past Wednesday mornings for Playtime in the Garden … when they can also borrow from our Toy Library.

And we’re continuing our Arty Gardening program on Fridays - for anyone who’d like to join Katrina outside to learn more about gardening or volunteer some time to help keep ACC looking lovely … and then stay around for Morning Tea in the Garden at 11am (all welcome to morning tea even if gardening isn’t your thing - just pop past for a catch up).

See you soon!

The last few months have sped by and we’re now closing up shop for Christmas. We’re all taking a break from the office for the entire school holidays … we’ll be back on 31 January 2022 raring to go!

Coming up next year as part of our regular program we have:

• Ukulele on Monday evenings

• CWA on Mondays (monthly)

• Collage on Tuesday evenings (6 weeks per term)

• History Group on Tuesday evenings (monthly)

• Toy Library open on Wednesdays

• AAA Bowls on Wednesdays (6 weeks per term)

• Line dancing on Wednesdays

• Women in the Shed with Maylei on Thursdays (6 weeks per term)

• Choir Thursday evenings

• Arty Gardening on Fridays

• Morning Tea in the Garden on Fridays, and

• Observational Drawing with Louisa on Saturday afternoons (6 weeks per term).

Keen to join in? You can book (and pay) on our website now so you are ready to hit the ground running in 2022 …

And of course in amongst all this we have book clubs and playgroups, guitar lessons, ASRC food collections, counselling and … some weekend workshops and events (like the Alphington Show) that you should check out! You can find all the things in our program here.

We hope to see you in 2022.