Rome at Night - Truly Magical!

By the time our night tour of the Vatican had ended, it was pretty late.  The city was quiet and there was a very light rain falling.  We took a train back over to our side of the city.  We hopped out near the Coliseum.  We wanted to make sure that we saw it at night - and there were gelato places still open!  We had gelato everyday at least once (and sometimes more than once!).  It is a treat we loved from Lygon Street in Melbourne - so very eager to taste the truly real deal!  It did not disappoint.  We did manage to get pictures of everytime we ate it, but most were taken on the phone, so not easy to add right here. I would have loved to remember all the flavors we ate - so many!  But the bustle, the walking, the heat and just enjoying the moments won out.....

Inside the Vatican and Vatican Museum

If you are in Rome in the summer and wish to tour the Vatican - doing a night tour is something I would highly recommend.  Rome can be really crowded and pretty warm!  Touring the Vatican in the evening cuts down on both of these.

 There are a few things that are closed off during the evening. However the trade off of actually being able to see the rest crowd free is worth it.  You can see from the pictures that there are not that many others there while we were.  Bonus that jet lag was setting in so we could look at our leisure and not forced to move with the crowd.

 Artifacts from the building with Nebuchadnezzar.  It records his building activities and was made around 650 BC.

This sculpture is called Sfera con Sfera or Sphere within a Sphere.  There are a series of them located around the world.  One is also at the Christian Theological Seminary in Indy - right down the road from us.  I would love run over there and take a picture of that one!

Just down under the canopies is where we had our pizza that night!

Vatican City is located near the center of Rome - from here we could see over toward the Forums - the Vittoriano is especially easy to see. 

Rome May 2015

It was a chilly and rainy day to arrive in Rome.  It took a bit of time to get our rental car as we were really hard pressed to find ANY car that would fit all 3 of us and our bags.  Good thing we have manual drivers! We checked in to an adorable bed and breakfast just down from the Coliseum. 

 We had tickets for one of the few night tours you are able to do at Vatican City.  Luckily we had time for a quick nap!  This was our first meal in Italy - you know it had to be pasta or pizza!

 Here are a few pictures of the area just outside Vatican City.

Tada - It's the 2016-2017 Catalog!!

I have not had a lot of time to play with new catalog things - but what I have - I have enjoyed!  Here are 3 of my own creations!  Two of them are projects we will be making this Friday at the new catalog camp!

If you are in the Indianapolis area and want to join  - simply message me!  If you are not - but still need a new catalog - message me that too!  I would be happy to get one to you.

These samples feature some of the new In Colors, new background papers, new washi tape, copper embossing powder and what is sure to be one of this years best sellers - Swirly Bird.  I used it to cut the fun circles on the bottom card!

A few more samples from my phone clean out!

I never added these because they really needed to be photographed again - they were taken on a gloomy day in March.  Though the picture quality is not great, it should give you enough for ideas.  Again, they are an assortment of now retired items - but some can still be purchased.  You know there are not matching LETTERS for the numbers!  WooHoo!