Out of my comfort zone . . . . .

..... and I like it! Oh yeah. I feel dangerous. I feel edgy. I feel rebellious. I feel a little bit bead-naughty. Oooh mamma - check these babies out! Shiny lentils in my 'Merry Berry' colours but in a funky-groovy-retro pattern. I like them so much because in making them I feel that I've made a real step forward in my efforts to back off the glass and stop being so controlling over it.

I applied my dots in a meticulous-but-not-quite-as-meticulous-as-usual way and then I got brave and squashed the bead in my lentil press with no idea as to what the design would end up looking like. *Gasp!* That's so not like me!

So what do you think of the lentils?

I had spider issues today. There's a really evil-looking one in the shed and it's been lurking there for days. Chris made an attempt to remove it when he came down last weekend but the conniving little arachnid ran away when he approached it brandishing a 3/32 mandrel and a piece of paper. (Them's proper spider-removal tools, don't you know?!) Since then I've had that there's-a-spider-in-this-shed feeling and I haven't been 100% settled while making beads. Today I caught sight of the spider scuttling across my noticeboard in front of my torch. I whacked the propane up on my torch which turned it into a Ripley-style Alien-frying flamethrower device and watched as the spider legged it across the wall in fright. I have no idea where it went but I didn't see it for the rest of the day. I freakin' hate spiders!