Ferragosto in September

Today was the Ferragosto celebration in the Arthur Avenue neighborhood of the Bronx. What is Ferragosto? Well, in Italy, Ferragosto is on August 15; it is a national holiday, & basically the entire country closes from this date until August 31st for vacation. Seriously, it's the worst time to go on vacation in Italy, as all the ITALIANS are on vacation, so every vacation spot is crowded, crowded, crowded. Here, in NY, the Italian section of the Bronx, known as Arthur Avenue, has an annual festival, complete with local foodstores selling their delicious wares on the streets, including outrageous sausage & pepper sandwiches at my cousin's meat market (Vincent's Meat Market), gelato from another cousin (Morrone's Pastry Shop) & of course zeppole from another vendor (imagine, not a relative!). The weather was splendid after an awful rainy, gloomy Friday & Saturday, so the crowd was full of smiling faces. There was street music, including bands & DJ's, playing do-wop (this was Dion's old neighborhood, after all) & Italian favorites. An excellent time was had by all....

Oh, wait. Did you want to hear about some needlepoint?

Here are my two most recent items, back from the finisher. We have a teeny mitten & a teeny sock. These are part of the series from Fireside Stitchery that I've been working up. Last week, I showed you some of these that I finished myself. These two were finished professionally.

There actually was some stitching that went on this weekend as well (there had to be, it rained all weekend, so my plan to spend a little more time at the beach was foiled). I worked up another teeny sock this weekend, with a Santa face & fantastic beard. I am going to try to do one or two more teeny canvases before the Christmas finishing cut off. Then I will refocus on Ponza & the Whatever canvas. And the ANG Kimono. And my SNS project.

Sigh. Not enough stitching hours. Always too much work.

Ah, the Fall TV season approaches. Maybe I can get some stitching done then ;)

Denise