Author: ArtyMissK

Hello my friends!! I'm Katie… a nature loving, butterfly obsessed, artist & amateur photographer with a love for illustration, needlework & conservation. If you fancy it checkout my website www.artymissk.com

Floral folklore

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography3 Comments

Hello my friends! 

I don’t know about you but I love discovering the quirky myths and folklore about the plants I’m growing in my garden (I’m a total plant-nerd) I’m fascinated by plant-lore and how they effect the way we interact with different plants. Surprisingly we’ve had a few days of dry and sunny weather and since the very first signs of spring are starting to appear outside I thought I’d write down the folklore relating to three plants currently flowering in my wildspace. (Its a complete coincidence that they’re all the same colour!!)

I grew these lovely white violets in a pot inside and they didn’t do anything for like a year and a half so I hastily shoved them in the ground last November and lo and behold they’ve flowered!

Violets are such a pretty little flower that is often overlooked, apparently wearing a wreath of them was thought to prevent dizziness and finding only a single flower was said to be a bad omen, while violets flowering in the autumn was the sign an epidemic was on the way.

Theres a wonderful greek myth about violets, which is associated with the story of Io, a nymph who was having an affair with the god Zeus in an attempt to hide her from his wife he turned Io into a cow (so kind of him). It was said that Io was unhappy at the taste of grass to the extent it made her cry and Zeus supposedly created violets from her tears so that she’d have something sweet to eat. 

In the language of flowers white violets symbolise innocence and purity.

Continue reading “Floral folklore” →

Embroidered Butterfly #12 {Monarch}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs7 Comments

Hello my friends! 

This week I’ve got a new needlework butterfly to share with you and I’ve been really looking forward to making this one! The Monarch is a beautiful orange and black butterfly that spends its time between Canada, America and Mexico. 

As a side note I’ve decided to up the official tally of 61 to include an extra 15 or so butterflies considered to be extinct species of and rare migrants to the UK. As I want to include some of the other rare migrants we occasionally get like the Monarch as well as some of the ones considered extinct in the UK like the Bath white and Large copper – these butterflies still exist in Europe just not here. So my new total is 76! These 15 extra butterflies are all found in The Pocket Guide to the Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland by Richard Lewington, with really lovely illustrations.

This is #12 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge – only 64 more to go!!!

The Monarch is the largest and possibly the rarest butterfly seen in the UK – in 2023 just three were seen in here. Unfortunately the caterpillars feed on Milkweed plants which aren’t native to the UK, explaining why the butterfly hasn’t bred here, so sadly I’ve never actually seen one of these in the wild.

Continue reading “Embroidered Butterfly #12 {Monarch}” →

Mini Mushroom Landscape {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my Friends!

I’ve got a new One Frame to share with you this week, my first one of 2025!!

Something I really love doing when I’m out hiking is to not only look up and enjoy the beauty of the trees and the sky (and of course butterflies in the summer) but I also like floor-watching when I’m in places like a woodland.

This rather lovely little mushroom is one I found during a trip to Cabilla and Reprice woods in Bodmin, which is touted as one of the finest ancient woodland in Cornwall. Its known for having many ancient (aka over 400 years old) oak trees and is home to many, many types of animals including but not limited to, six types of bat, deer, a variety of birds and even otters. As well as butterflies and dragonflies in the summer.

It also has mushrooms!

I love getting down to the level of fungi, it’s like a miniaturised world. I like to imagine that where mushrooms pop up fairies have previously landed.

Cabilla is a pretty magical place to wander although every time I go there I end up with at least three ticks on me – even though I’m drenched in anti-bug spray.

Also did you know a really handy way to remove ticks from your clothing is with a lint roller (for pets you need a special remover tool).

So yeah, that’s it for this week, do you ever floor-watch when hiking? Hopefully next weeks post is gonna be something artsy. 

Thank you so much for reading this post, and I wish you a prosperous week ahead!

Embroidered Butterfly #11 {Grayling}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs6 Comments

Hello my friends! 

Back in the autumn I posted a One frame of a rare Grayling and I wanted to create a needlework version for my butterfly challenge. My actual plan was to post this a couple of weeks before Christmas but everything got a little bit on top of me and I never got round to it.

It was awesome to see a basically endangered species just living its best life out in the wild!

These butterflies have a real life wingspan of up to 6cm and as it aways rests with its wings together which is a shame as they’ve got such pretty markings! I created a male as there’s very little difference between the two sexes.

Continue reading “Embroidered Butterfly #11 {Grayling}” →

Connecting with nature in winter

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello my friends! 

I don’t know about you but I often find winter a tough time of year to connect with. Christmas is always amazing as well as celebrating the solstice in December but it generally just rains a lot and is rather dull and grey in this part of the UK.

Of course there are still plenty of things to do, I’ve got bird feeders in both the front and back gardens and love watching all the little birdies (and the squirrels!) but nature is generally in hibernation and you can’t really play outside in it. 

I suppose staying upbeat this winter has been helped by the fact we’ve had more snow! It wasn’t quite as good as the snow we had back in late November but it gave me a chance to get out and about with my camera and I wanted to take you with me so you can enjoy the pretty countryside too! I hope these photos bring as much joy to your week as they did mine.

To start my icy adventure I headed to one of my favourite spots near home, because of the surrounding views I like to imagine that this is a gateway into Middle Earth.

Continue reading “Connecting with nature in winter” →

Looking back on 2024 {reviewing the year!}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography3 Comments

Hey friends!

Happy New Year!!

This is only my second ever New Year’s post and I thought that instead of just doing a photography review of my favourite snaps, I would review my year as a whole and look back over the last twelve months. I actually meant to post something like this last year but the end of 2023 and early ’24 were too hectic, starting a new household in a place were I didn’t know anyone has been an adventure that at times has been really tough, but definitely worth it… so here’s my look back on 2024!

Ready? Lets go…

The biggest highlight of the year, has been properly settling into my new home, living in the countryside is so different to living in a city – my new neighbours are amazing! They’re all old school hippies and its lovely to be part of an old-fashioned community, where people actively want to be friends.

I’ve hiked through old mining sites, explored rock polls and woodlands, and even visited the odd standing stone, but I’ve found I genuinely enjoy just being at home, decorating, gardening…even cleaning (I love that everything has a place!), being in such a remote place I’m doing a lot more cooking and have been told I’m becoming somewhat of a domestic goddess! I realised that I now have a chance to live the Cottagecore lifestyle (basically having the time to bake/garden/craft) as much as possible in modern life and everything that entails.

Continue reading “Looking back on 2024 {reviewing the year!}” →

Fleeting thought #8 {Festive traditions and time well spent}

On By ArtyMissKIn Fleeting thoughts, Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends! I hope the festive season is filling you with excitement and wonder!! 

Before we start this post I just wanted to say that I did truly believe I was going to post this last week and do something cute and artsy this week but my life kinda imploded. I’m not a superstitious person, but I’m a great believer that things come in threes so when I awoke last Friday (the 13th) I found that my heating system had completely broken down and won’t be fixed until after the New Year (it is soooo cold right now!) Later in the day I fell down the stairs – my own fault I wasn’t paying attention, but I was so very very sore and by the time I was able to sit and prep my post I just thought ‘ya know what its not worth it, it might be the third thing!’ It wasn’t but I was glad I didn’t tempt Fate!

But I’ve decided that I’m a big girl and I’m not going to let the fact I’ve got no heating ruin Christmas as I’ve already got everything more or less sorted, so onto a more festive up beat thing…

Continue reading “Fleeting thought #8 {Festive traditions and time well spent}” →

DIY Snowflake Gift Wrap Ideas!

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello my friends! 

Happy December!

As we’re finally into the twelfth month I though I’d really get into the festive season with a post on gift wrap and a couple of d.i.y gift tag ideas. 

I am unashamedly one of those Christmas freaks who not only tries to get the wrapping done early but likes to have a gentle theme to my gift wrap – be it nature, or glitter, gingerbread men or fairies I like my gifts to look good, this year I decided on snowflakes because a couple of weeks ago we had five inches of snow even if it only lasted a day…we genuinely don’t get enough of the real stuff in winter here and although its so cold its also really pretty.

Continue reading “DIY Snowflake Gift Wrap Ideas!” →

A Wintery Walk

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography5 Comments

Hello my friends! 

Before I start, I totally meant to post this last week but due to storm Bert I had no power (the perils of living in the countryside!!).

I am so unbelievably excited about this post as before the storm properly hit I woke up to five whole inches of snow!

Snow is one of those things that I will never get tired of and usually when we do get it here its only a light dusting, so the fact it was so deep was amazing (I literally haven’t seen so much snow since I was a kid when we lived in Scotland).

Obviously I just had to go walking in it and wanted to take you with me so you can enjoy the pretty winter atmosphere and stroll through the countryside too! I hope these photos bring as much happiness to your day as much as they did mine.

Starting off our wintery walk, I headed to one of the local fields to snap a quick landscape shot, all the fields looked so serene, every one could’ve been a scene on a Christmas card.

Continue reading “A Wintery Walk” →

Grayling {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hey friends! 

A while back I got the chance to see a new butterfly and spent the best part of a day wandering around a place called Wheal Fortune – which is an old mining site and great hiking spot, with some awesome views! I even got to see a new type of butterfly!!

So the main focus of this One Frame is the elusive Grayling (Hipparchia semele) – it camouflages so unbelievably well with rocks and gravel that they almost disappear!

This little guy (or girl) was sunbathing in the gravel enjoying the last of the autumn sunshine, they always rest with their wings together and do this weird thing where they lean to whichever side will get more sun. Basically turning themselves into the Wally (or Waldo) of the butterfly world.

It was fascinating, I felt that if I blinked I’d lose it! I took about 50 photos of which about three actually included the fluttery fella!!

Sadly Graylings are listed in the UK as a priority species for conservation so it was awesome to not only see a few in the native habitat but snap an okay photo as well.

I really hope you like this nature filled post and that it spreads a little bit of happiness. Do you have a favourite bug? They are magical creatures and I love watching them. 

Ps. If you wanna see the landscape of Wheal Fortune I posted a One Frame HERE!