Embroidered Butterfly #24, 25 & 26 {Brown Argus, Northern Brown Argus & Scotch Argus}

On September 18, 2026September 18, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework BugsLeave a comment

Hello my friends!

A few weeks ago I posted some photos a summer Butterfly Conservation trip to a special MOD site called Penhale sands which is a special home for Dingy and Grizzled Skippers (super rare and are only found in this one place in the whole of Cornwall) but is also home to Red Admiral, Meadow Brown and Brown Argus.

It was amazing to see so many butterflies and Penhale Sands is outstandingly beautiful.

Now, in the UK we actually have three brown-coloured-argus-named butterflies, Brown Argus, Northern Brown Argus and Scotch Argus. Three beautiful little brown fluttery things and I decided to make one of each for my ever increasing collection of embroidered butterflies…

Brown Argus – the one I saw at Penhale is #24 on my embroidered butterfly challenge, – its a member of the ‘brown’ family of butterflies and looks really similar to the female Common Blue, and has tiny black and white spots on their underwings with a minuscule wingspan of just 29mm making my twice life size version is still only 6cm across.

Northern Brown Argus, is as the name implies only really found in the north of the UK. When their wings are open they look basically identical to their southern cousins (but only have white dots on their underwings) and are even the same size 29mm across so this one is also only 6cm across.

I feel I basically made two to match.

The slightly larger Scotch Argus is really widespread in Scotland and has a wingspan of 35mm (male) and 40mm (female) and is a slightly darker brown with orange rimmed eyespots. When doubled to match my twice life size scale my Scotch Argus has a tiny 8cm wingspan! I think this one looks quite similar to the Mountain Ringlet I made earlier in the year.

Well that’s it for this week…which one do you prefer? I’d love to know! Thank you so much for checking this out and I wish you a wondrous week ahead!

Ps. If you wanna see all my other butterflies they’re HERE!

Raising Painted lady Butterflies (2026 Edition)

On September 12, 2026September 18, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography, Raising Butterflies2 Comments

Hello my friends!

We are nearing the end of butterfly season for 2026 and so this week I’ve got a summer butterfly tale to tell you as we slowly plod on towards the end of the year.

On a normal year I spot maybe 40 Painted ladies in the garden, for 2026 I’d seen that many by the end of May!

I’m now into my forth summer of growing a nature garden for pollinators and many of my plants are now fairly well established – mainly the rudbeckia, daisies and thistles and the butterflies are finding the plants I’ve grown for them.

Back in June I actually saw Painted lady butterflies laying eggs on the thistles in my flowerbed (and was over the moon) the last time I raised these butterflies was back in 2023 when I bought the thistle plants and came home from the garden centre with hitchhikers (link at the bottom if you want to read about them!).

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Embroidered Butterfly #23 {Grizzled skipper}

On August 29, 2026September 18, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs2 Comments

Greetings friends!

Firstly, if this looks familiar its because I scheduled this post for yesterday but forgot to change the photos 😂

Lets try again shall we…

I’ve got a new needlework butterfly to share with you this week! I recently met so many butterflies during my recent exploration of Penhale sands including the Brown Argus and really excitingly I spotted my very first Grizzled Skipper – a tiny black and white fella similar to the much more brown Dingy Skipper (#14 of my challenge, link at the bottom) so obviously I wanted to create one of these very special butterflies to add to my ever growing handmade collection.

This is #23 on my Embroidered Butterfly challenge the Grizzled Skipper – and isn’t one I expected to be making this year!!!

Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvae) is found in Britain and Ireland but is super rare, literally its only found on Penhale sands in the whole of Cornwall so spotting them is really special. Its black and white wings are covered with mottled patchwork markings and they have super fluffy bodies.

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Exploring Penhale Dunes {wildfowers and butterflies}

On August 21, 2026September 18, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Photography3 Comments

Hello my friends,

One of the loveliest things about being a member of the Cornwall branch for Butterfly Conservation is that every year they host field trips all over the county and now that I’ve got my wheels I can pack up a lunch and head off into the wild with my fellow bug freaks whenever the feeling takes me (normal life things not withstanding!!)!

All of the trips look for specific butterflies, some that like woodland, or meadows or in the case of my recent trip to Penhale sands open grasslands.

Penhale sands (near to Perranporth, the best beach in the world) is owned by the MOD and Cornwall Wildlife trust its an amazing site that spans a whopping 620 hectares with Atlantic facing sand dunes and grasslands, the area is classed as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

Its a place you can only go with an invitation and I always get rather excited when I get the chance to visit and I thought why not take you with me while I hunt for pretty butterflies!

Ready?

Lets go…

The trip started slightly overcast and our amazing guide Wildlife Trust ranger John Cripps was so good at lifting everyones spirits – butterflies are cold blooded and need the sun to warm up their flight muscles, so on a grey afternoon you aren’t likely to see that many. Thankfully by the time we had decanted into a smaller number of cars it had brightened up into a lovely morning.

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Disneyland Paris World Turtle

On August 15, 2026August 20, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Art, World Turtles

Hello friends!

This week I’ve got a new World Turtle to share with you. (I haven’t posted one of these for years!)

I’m still riding on the highs on visiting the place where magic gets real and have been going through the thousands of photos my brother and I took and thought that since I enjoyed Disneyland so much I’d recreate the castle and add it to my collection of illustrations!

Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant (Sleeping Beauty Castle) at Disneyland Paris is considered to be the prettiest Disney castle due to its unique, fairytale design, walk-through gallery with Sleeping Beauty stained glass windows, and the La Tanière du where the dragon lives in the dungeon beneath the castle. I also love the square trees that surround the disney landmark – it looks so much like the 1959 film.

So, my latest illustration is titled A Disneyland World Turtle and sitting happily atop the turtle floating gently through space is the prettiest fairytale castle ever to exist! I’ve tried to keep the colours inline with the 1959 movie, lots of pink (obviously) with blue turrets, gold details and the iconic square trees.

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Embroidered Toy Story shirt

On August 9, 2026August 20, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Photography6 Comments

Hey friends,

Following on from yesterdays snaps from Disneyland Paris post, I thought I’d share more details about my brothers embroidered Toy Story shirt!

My brother is obsessed with Pixar’s Toy Story and always has been, so I decided that as I finished my Alice jacket with time to spare I’d embellish his favourite denim shirt for our trip to the magic place.

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Disneyland Paris (a few holiday snaps!)

On August 8, 2026August 20, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends,

Remember me??

I haven’t posted anything for like a month, partly because I was on holiday, partly because I had sooo many photographs to go through post-holiday and partly that its summer so I’ve been outside!

Ages ago I mentioned that my brother Milo and I were planning a once in a lifetime trip to Disneyland Paris and I thought to try and get myself back into the swing of posting that I’d look through some of my holiday snaps from our trip and pick 20 or so to post on here with a few snap shot memories.

Ready?

Lets go…

I thought it would be fun to kick things off with a photo of the Grand Magic Hotel, its possibly the cutest and pinkest hotel (especially seeing as its filled with magic) I would genuinely like to know how they create the Mickey Mouse face in flowers because its so pretty!

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Embroidered Butterfly #22 {Wall}

On July 3, 2026September 12, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs4 Comments

Hello my friends!

A couple of weeks ago I shared a photography post celebrating the rare Wall butterfly. I was over the moon to not only spot this butterfly in my garden last summer but to also have found a pupa in the grass that was invading my patio!

This is literally the rarest butterfly I’ve ever seen in my Wildspace!

Super exciting, and of course I had to make one to add to my collection.

I decided to make only make a female as there isn’t masses of difference between the two sexes.

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Wall! (a super exciting tale!)

On June 19, 2026July 4, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography, Raising Butterflies7 Comments

Hey friends!

This week I’ve got a super special post for you, I’m really very excited about this one!!

But first lets go back to the glorious sunshine filled days of July 2025…

Last summer I met a whole bunch of Wall butterflies for the very first time, mainly while walking around the village – they seemed to have a colony in the old no longer used and derelict churchyard, but I wasn’t expecting to ever see one of these butterflies in my very own garden.

I always assumed any small-ish orange and brown butterfly in the garden was probably Meadow Brown or Gatekeeper so I wasn’t really chasing every single one I saw…big mistake when I realised my garden of wildflowers was attracting a slightly-rare butterfly I was over the moon.

Wall (Lasiommata megera) is similar in size (about 4.5cm) and colour to Gatekeeper, but is so much more patterned and I think looks more like a small fritillary butterfly. They like to bask in the sunshine on you guessed it walls.

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A Moment with Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle {One frame}

On June 12, 2026June 10, 2026 By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hey friends!

Can you believe we’re already nearing the halfway point in June! (OMG that means we’re nearly halfway through the whole year!)

I’ve got a new one frame to share with you, I kinda ummed and arred about what I wanted to post this week and in the end I was scrolling on insta and one of my photos popped up so I figured as I hadn’t shared it here yet, why not do it now.

We regularly get hedgehogs in the garden here at night and a few weeks ago I met a real Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle out and about roaming the garden in the day! I’ve never seen a hedgehog during the day before, she was sitting in the grass and we didn’t want her to be left out in the open so out came the sturdy gloves and she was (very carefully) put in the quietest corner of the garden inside the hedgehog house. But I couldn’t resist getting a quick photo!

Look at her little nose!!

The European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) is one of our most famous wild animals, covered in sharp spikes and really rather sweet these animals are normally spotted at night but at certain times of the year can be seen during the day while collecting nest material!

Hedgehogs eat more or less anything they can catch from crunchy beetles, to slugs and worms! These amazing creatures are covered in about 7,000 spines which are actually modified hair (its super sharp!) and have the ability to roll themselves into a ball when threatened.

We have 3 or 4 individuals who are all different sizes, and I’m forever finding their droppings in my wildspace – I think backing onto natural farmland has a lot to do with the creatures that find the garden, we also get rabbits and badgers and somedays we even have Red Kites and Buzzards fly over the garden as well as have owls at night!).

After taking her photo and placing her in the hedgehog house, we put some food down – which she devoured in 10 minutes before disappearing under the fence so I think she was healthy and just out for a stroll!

I really hope we get hoglets in the future!

Thanks for stopping by to check out this post, do you get hedgehogs where you live? They are so very cute! As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!