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!

We didn’t get to publish the beautiful photos that Kalimna took from our fun community weekend last week because we had a technical computer hitch … but we’re back up and running now.

So thank you to the Alphington Open Studios artists who we worked with for the Open Studios weekends. It was fabulous to have a shared opening night that everyone could come along to and just super to have works by all the artists in our space. Yarra Council provided us with some funding to activate our inside hanging space which supported this project.

And then thanks to our stallholders who made wonderful produce and goods for the Christmas Makers Market on the Saturday. And thanks to all the community who came along to shop and enjoy our lovely neighbourhood. I know I made a good start to my Christmas present shopping … and I am sure lots of others did too.

A special thanks to Ivanhoe Rotary who personned our BBQ. It makes such a difference to our centre to have these sorts of community partnerships and we value them so much. And my mum Cheryl who ran the kids activity - she’s a gem and the trees were very cute. And finally, finally Elaine who volunteered on our craft stall. She’s an amazing knitter and community giver as well.

Thanks to everyone who came along for Christmas lunch. It was a funny old day - sunny ☀️ one minute and cloudy ⛅️ the next - but we shared a lovely meal together - cold meats and salads, including lettuce from Sandra and Jim’s garden, nasturtium flowers from ours, pickles made by our preserves group and a delicious Gusto passion fruit sponge kindly donated by Anne.

Manu came along early to help us set up - thanks Manu! Jim won the lucky door prize and shared his chocolate winnings.

Well that was fun! And exhausting!

Thanks to everyone that came along to the Alphington Open Studios opening on Friday night, our Christmas Makers Market on Saturday, and/or popped in to the Open Studios salon show at ACC right across the weekend. We had great weather and it was just fabulous to see such a cross-section of our community enjoying our facilities.

I will quickly add some pictures below … and include some more next week, with some detailed thankyous etc. then.

But don’t forget the studios are all open this coming weekend as well! Saturday and Sunday 11am-6pm. You can collect a map from ACC this week (or when our salon show opens again on Saturday morning). Isn’t it just great to collectively celebrate our lovely, creative, arty community … it warms the cockles of the heart!

Locals Annie and Silvana have booked a stall at our upcoming market featuring plants and seedlings … to raise awareness of Kinfolk. All off their own bat.

Which is fabulous … because we actually have a partnership with this organisation and have Kinfolk meals 🥘 in our freezer for anyone needing food support.

Here’s the pitch Annie asked us to share about their stall …. Wonderful!

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Walk away with a fabulous FREE plant from the Makers Market on Saturday 27th. We have plants that are perfect for the balcony, plants that withstand the harshest conditions - the salvias, the succulents and simple daisies. We have plants that flower - button daisies, bush daisies and more. We have herbs.

Every single plant has been grown with love to raise awareness of Kinfolk’s Food Relief Program.

As we emerge from lockdown, we're feeling grateful but not completely unscathed, and we know we're not alone. For many businesses in Melbourne, the impact of necessary but commercially damaging lockdowns has been serious, and the profits few and far between.

Kinfolk are a Melbourne social enterprise, providing in-house capacity building to people from all walks of life, and essential food relief to people in hardship or escaping family violence. Like many in the hospitality industry they are struggling, and need our help to bounce back.

So that’s why at the Alphington Christmas Makers Market, we're inviting you to #PlantForKinfolk🌱!

Pick up a new plant for your post-lockdown garden and check out the pantry re-stocks, staples, and dinners that this wonderful social enterprise and its volunteers keep coming to women in need.

Look forward to seeing you on the day! And look out on Instagram for #plantforkinfolk🌱