No rain, thunderstorms or tornado warnings today.  It was a perfect afternoon to take a pic of Bees by Melissa out in the yard today.  It's my favorite finish for the year.  It's in the den, so I walk past it a lot every day and each time I see it, it makes me happy.

While I was rummaging under the magnolia trees looking for the "perfect" dead leaves (to put in the gecko and snake enclosures....I'm not as crazy as I sound lol) and hunting for sticks (I have a lovely stick collection....for knitted pumpkin stems....I proudly wear the crazy crafter label...haha!) I saw this beautiful butterfly.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

 Along came a (red back / Australian black widow) spider.  

Well known Aussie song, if you'd like a bit of a laugh .... Redback on the Toilet Seat 

Stitched the body with woven spider web stitch.  The red is one strand of 8wt perle cotton.  The black is 4 strands of 12wt perle cotton, which was a bit of a pain....because at 3.30am Michael's is closed....and is a 40 minute drive away.

 A closeup of the spider before waving a hot iron over it to get rid of the Frixion pen marks.