St Peter in Chains

The Church of St. Peter in Chains in Rome is another church we visited in May.
It's very unassuming on the outside....
but it's gorgeous inside.
You should add it to your list to see!

And there is no charge to enter! Click here for more info.

(These are the chains that were used to hold Peter in prison in Jerusalem and the chains that held him in prison in Rome.... According to legend, when Pope Leo was holding the two sets of chains, they miraculously fused together.)

Michelangelo's Moses is there as well.

And probably what most people go there to see.

Because of the translation that was used originally, the appearance of Moses after 

receiving the Ten Commandments showed him having horns instead of a shining face!

Michelangelo did this sculpture between The David and The Sistine Chapel.

That's DH in blue shirt and our friends are sitting behind him on the aisle seats.

I loved this below....

You know the ceilings are incredible.

One way you can get there...is up these stairs.

We arrived there the long way (it's not far from the Colisseum).

But we did walk down these stairs when we left....

It's definitely not on the "beaten path"!

What We Were Stitching on the Trip!

I wanted to take something to stitch while traveling in Europe last month.  I wanted it to be simple.

So I went to Pinterest to get some inspiration.  It never fails me!!!  I found this wonderful woman!

You may know about her already.  I do not know how I've missed her for so long.
 I couldn't tell

exactly what her base was, etc........
so I emailed her and she wrote me a very nice email explaining!

You MUST go see her work.
 Her name is Penny Berens and her blog is Tanglewood Threads.
You can scroll down her blog and see some of what she calls her "daily scratching".
This post in 2012 really shows a great deal.

....

Sooooooooo, I cut some linen and I basted some cotton fabric to the back of it.
I gathered some floss and needles and a small cutter and took them with me.

I started stitching on the flight to Rome.
Below are pictures of Margaret stitching on it for me!!!
We were on a train in the Zurich area somewhere!!!

 

I love that she stitched on it.....  

She did a row of simple flowers.... 

just the straight stitches with French Knots.

 I guess I should've ironed this before I took a picture! ha!!!

But, it's a work in progress and it's very primitive.....

I'm continuing to stitch on it...
I just stitch whatever I want...
mostly just shapes, rows of certain stitches...

Then yesterday Margaret sent me a link that made me want to turn 

it into a lampshade cover!!!

Have you seen Marna Lunt's work?

Oh my goodness!!!

Index Card a Day 2014

It's ICAD time!

Last year I participated in Index Card a Day and loved it!

So this year I joined in again. 

If you are interested the details are here.

You don't really have to do anything to join. 

I can't seem to rotate the one above on the iPad and I'm too lazy to go get the laptop. 

          

       I do tend to make my index cards 

       Influenced by the online classes I'm

                               taking!

I don't use the prompts very often. But I did like the one staple collage prompt! Do you see it above (the elephant)!

          As you can see I'm current!

                        15 cards!

      (This is a June and July Challenge!)

                 (More travel pics to come!)

Orvieto, Italy

On the way from Rome to Siena, there is a little town named Orvieto.

We stopped there for a few hours and had lunch and visited their cathedral.

You wander through the little streets and all of a sudden you turn the corner

and are blown away by the beauty in front of you!

(This is true in every town we were in.)

Look at these stripes!!! Makes me think of Teesha Moore for sure!

It's alternating layers of white travertine with blue-grey basalt stone.

I loved it!!!

The Cathedral of Orvieto is a large 14th-century Roman Catholic cathedral.

(couldn't get the wiki link to work)

And a wedding had just taken place...... I should do a post just on weddings we stumbled upon while we were in Italy and Switzerland and London!!!

Love the bride! And the little flower girl was precious!

       More soon.............

A Few Days in Rome

                                 

  I spent a few days in Rome last month..........

no way to really capture it in just a few photos...

If you haven't been to Rome......... you definitely need to go!

So much history........ I loved it all.... go while you can still walk fairly well....

 

My husband and I went with another couple.........

 that's my friend, Melinda, with me outside St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

St. Peter's Basilica is breathtaking!

It was chilly when we started the Colisseum Tour that morning......... but we lost the jackets soon enough!

  and below are DH and I at Trevi Fountain.

We loved it all.

But I think one of our favorite things was dinner each night.

Our hotel (Hotel Ponte Sisto) was located close to the Tiber River and each night we walked

across the bridge and ate in Trastevere.

Loved seeing the parking over there!

I have a picture somewhere...

If I find it, I'll upload it later...

a random photo post!