Money Money Money

This photo is related to this post at Learning Photography with Neil Creek

My brother Dave (left) and my son Beau (right) playing monopoly .. anyone would think it was REAL money by the look on their faces :)

I just love a good game of Monopoly. You can find out a real lot about another person by the way they play this game I have found. ☺

It has been my families favourite now for a few generations. I was bought up on it and so were my cousins, uncles and aunts. I remember playing with my brothers when I was younger and I bought my boys up on lots of great family orientated interactive games .......... like when we all used to physically be there to play a game together and not against the computer or hitch hiking along the cyber highway.

Think I'm showing my age now .. lol ....... Ohhhh for the good old days.

Beatles Buddies

Beatle Buddies by Chrissy Downunder

Kim Shurman is a professional and very talented Chalkboard Artist in Perth, Australia. Kim also conducts chalk and pastel art classes.

This is one of his creations ... a chalkboard drawing of 'The Beatles' he gave Peter as a birthday gift in 2004. Peter is a big fan and loves this drawing.

They have been close friends for 43 years (1965) Best mates in high school they grew up together in Perth, Australia.

He is in Melbourne on vacation this week and popped over for dinner, a few drinks and a catch up with Peter last night.

The guys were having a drink while discussing this piece so I got my camera out and started clicking away.

Kim Shurmans personalised art gallery

Learning Photography with Neil Creek

Neil Creeks Blog

Clowns on Stage

Clowns on Stage
Chrissy Downunder

I love clowns. Here are a few of them.

I started collecting them around 20 years ago when I myself was a professional performing clown on the Sunshine Coast in QLD.

Looking at my clowns brings back fond and fun memories.

More about the history of clowns and clowning.

PS. I don't read Steven King novels or watch his movies :)

Learning Photography with Neil Creek

I liked how the composition of this photo turned out. I realise this pic is a little grainy and can't wait for my Canon! I used the window frame as a natural border and the curtains seemed to fit in well and make it look like they are on stage.

Neil Creeks Blog

Eyes Wide Open

Eyes Wide Open
Chrissy Downunder

Thinking about this weeks challenge 'Self Portraits" over at:

Learning Photography with Neil Creek

.... This is a fill in ..

I will be taking better pics for the challenge this weekend .. ☺

Neil Creeks Blog

My Cyber Abode

My Cyber Abode
Originally uploaded by Chrissy Downunder

This photo of my work space has lots of notes on it. Everything in it's place and a place for everything, all within arms reach too. I'm just a tad proud of my organisation skills sometimes :) It's practical, it works and it looks like fun!

Click on photo to view in original size if you want to have a real good sticky beak, It is unfortunately a bit grainy but you can still see everything much better. ☺

I Found Santa

♥ I Love My Santa ♥
Chrissy Downunder

My very own Santa Claus .. My Dad (Frank) ... Gotta luv his rosy red cheeks. You can't see all his hair in this photo as he has tied it back in a ponytail, but it is just as long as Santa's too. This is how I have grown up to know my dad all my life. A full white beard and long silver hair.

He started greying early in his life and by the age and by age 21 he was totally white. Of course throughout his life he is referred to as Santa by just about everyone who meets him Children often stop and stare .. I often wonder if they think he might be Santa as he just as jolly too. The only colour in his wardrobe is black, except for Christmas Days he puts on his bright red Santa T-Shirt for the day.

I love my Santa ♥

Here are some more pics of him in my 'Christmas Day' set.

Notes on Addiction

Notes on Addiction by Chrissy Downunder

The things we do late at night when we should be in bed. I took this photo as a reminder to keep working on my addiction of smoking.

It has been a battle for me throughout my life. I have given up many times often lasting anywhere from one hour to 8 years. Well I'm trying again .. I've tried it all: patches, hypnosis, gum, filters and gone cold turkey. All without permanent success.

My doc and I are now having discussions about a new tablet out (It's not Zyban but something better, I have forgotten the name of it .. but will find out and post) He assures me that most of his patients who have battled with giving up have now done so with this new aid. I'm still mulching it over and researching it's properties, symptoms and side effects. In the meantime I am smoking my herbs and trying to rid my body of it's nicotine addiction. Wish me luck.

Taken with Ricoh Caplio R4 .. Happy with the shadowed effect of my hand taking a photo of my addiction .. and my daily note list seemed to fit in well. I did need to sharpen, crop and brighten the pic a little.

‘The gift you gave me’

This is something I wrote a few years ago to my eldest son Jai for his 21st Birthday. I couldn't be with him on the night as I was living on the Sunshine Coast in QLD. Jai was attending 'The Academy of Performing Arts' in Ballarat, Victoria. This was read out at his 21st birthday party which was held in Melbourne.

‘The gift you gave me’

I am sending these thoughts, feelings and reflections to you with all my love.
Although I could not be there tonight with you in the physical sense, I am with you tonight as always in spirit.

Let me try to describe the gift you have given to me,
It will be a major task, since it is difficult to describe in just a few words. I will try my best.

Your arrival 21 years ago was marked with anxiety and apprehension.
The journey you were about to embark on, was not one of which had been planned, but was without a doubt ‘meant to be’.

By far, the finest creative gift I could have ever have dreamed of … was you.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON MY 'GATHER'

My World in Photos on WAYN

WAYN
'Where Are You Now' is the fastest growing travel and lifestyle social networking community website. WAYN is present in 193 countries and membership is over 11 million today. Check it out

Thankyou to everyone who has viewed, enjoyed, rated or commented on my photos. I love taking them and get a real buzz knowing that they are enjoyed and appreciated by others.

I seemed to have developed quite a collection of photo's on WAYN .. with many more waiting to upload into more albums, so I thought some direct links to my albums here would be easier to access.

CHRISSY MY TRAVEL PHOTOS FRAMED & NAMED FAMILY & FRIENDS IN MY GARDEN FLOWERS AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS & BIRDS AUSTRALIA - BADGER CREEK AUSTRALIA - TASMANIA AUSTRALIA - HEALSEVILLE SANCTUARY AUSTRALIA - MELBOURNE MY ART

I'm currently using a Ricoh Caplio R40. When I visit my Dad I love using his Canon EOS 400D Digital.

Dad lives in Tassie and is also a member on WAYN Click his name ..MYSTICFRANK .. pop in and say hi.

I try to visit all my WAYN friends on the site when I can .. browsing around their profile's I thoroughly enjoy looking through their photo's ... there are some pretty amazing places around the world out there and it's so great to be able to see where my WAYN friends live, work, rest and play. Thankyou all for sharing.

We Luv The Blues - Jimi Hocking

Peter and I enjoy dining out in a variety of restaurants in and around Melbourne. We love seeing live bands particularly blues. We love to get out and about ... dancing, drinking, mixing with friends generally raging the night away at one of our great little clubs, taverns, hideouts or Live Blues venues.

'Jimi Hocking' is one of our absolutely favorite blues performer, we would even consider ourselves to be groupies :) ... love his music and have been seeing him and his band 'The Blue Machine' play in Melbourne regularly (at least once a month) for the last 3 years. If you love blues .. you will adore Jimi's music, he is a great act!

He not only rocks you with his music, he will have you raging out on the dance floor, he tells some funny lead in stories to his songs which will have you laughing. He a very entertaining artist and it's always a fun night out.

Extract from Jimi's Site: "I've posted a free MP3 from each album that's still in print, so you can get an idea of the flavour of each recording. These are hosted by the good indie folks over at Somersault Music, and they'll ask you where you're from before you start downloading. You don't have to say, but I like to get some idea where in the world my music is going. And in these global, downloading days I mean that literally"

Just click a song title below to download the MP3s - if you like what you hear, swing over to Somersault Music to pick up copies of the albums.

Yank It Up
The Golden Rule
Skinny White Boy
Do You Know My Name
Always In Between
Concrete Shoes
The Broken Arm Song

Check out his gig guide here.

I will be adding some reviews to cool places to eat .. drink and rage out at soon."

Mr Benny Percy

Mr Benny Percy - Our pet budgerigar.

He came to live with us when my father (mysticfrank) moved to Tasmania last November. Benny is a 10 yr old Australian Budgerigar with very striking colours. I have taken a lot of photo's of him over the last year. He has quite a great little personality and hopefully I have captured this in some of his pic's. Peter (my partner) and Benny have developed a wonderful bond as you will see in some of the other photos I will be posting.

Click here to see a slideshow of Benny on WAYN

The Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus) nicknamed budgie, the only species in the Australian genus Melopsittacus, is a small parrot belonging to the tribe of the broad-tailed parrots (Platycercini); these are sometimes considered a subfamily (Platycercinae). In the latter case, the Budgerigar is sometimes isolated in a tribe of its own, the Melopsittacini, although it is probably quite closely related to Pezoporus and Neophema.

Read the full article here:
Mr Benny Percy on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

My Live Spaces

My Live Spaces Profile



Here you will be able to find out a lot more about the things I get up to.
Slideshows, Favourite Links, Music Lists, Jokes, Photos and more.

Occupation: Self employed
Age: 47
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia



Interests:

Photography, Nature, Rainforests, Australia, Sunsets, Humour, Creativity, Magic, Love, Romance, Dreams, Fantasy, Rain, Misty Mornings, Graphic Arts, Drawing, Pastel, Charcoal, Art Guitar, Keyboard, Writing, Animals, Pets, Puppy Dogs, Poetry, Songwriting, Natural Therapies, Herbs, Massage, Reiki, Aromatherapy, Scrapbooking, Cooking, Anything with Cheese, Meat Pies, Recipes, Bush walking, Bird watching, Billiards, Pool, 9Ball, Crafts, Hats, Dance wear, Scarves, Business Networking, Coffee n Chat, Dancing, Movies, Cinema, Music, Concerts, Nightclubs, Performing Arts, Restaurants, Eating out, Traveling, Wine tasting, My Garden, Conservation, History, Traveling, and finally Tree Hugging

View profile details
Chrissy Downunder

Our Garden of Paradise

We call it our very own 'Garden of Paradise' which is set on a lush green acre of land in Melbourne, Australia.

My partner Peter and I moved here nearly three years ago during springtime and the whole property was simply bursting with colour.

We both fell in love with the garden the moment we saw it.

On our first inspection of the house and property we were told by the real-estate agent that the previous owner had operated a nursery from here for many years.

You can read the full article here:
'Our Garden of Paradise' - Gather

'Love Is A Moment'

It is Saturday Night and tommorrow is the first day of winter here in Australia .. usually Peter and I are out raging the night away with friends .. dancing .. a few drinks etc .. but at the moment we both have a cold .. 'sniff sniff cough cough' .. and both feeling a little average .. so we are staying in .. having homemade chicken soup, sipping on lemon and honey drinks .. then we played our favourite love songs while sipping on red wine and catching up with our internet friends, blogs, forums etc.

It is so good when you are with someone who is happy just to be there in the same room without having all the chit-chat at times.



I started thinking about how comfortable we both are with just each others company and the love we have for each other. So decided to write a little article about some of our special moments together.

Read the full article here:
'Love Is A Moment' by Chrissy Downunder — Gather

More About Me

More About Me - The Detailed Version

I live on amazing lush green property surrounded by trees and filled with flowers, ferns and native bird life with my partner Peter in Melbourne Australia.

All of the photos of the garden and flowers are from our very own 'Garden of Paradise' (as we call it). Peter and I are nature lovers and tree huggers. We go bush walking regularly and love being outdoors.
We both work from home, which is simply the best way to work :)

Full article here:
Chrissy Downunder