Embroidered Toy Story shirt

On By ArtyMissKIn PhotographyLeave a comment

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.

Which I have to say looks banging. I’m so unbelievably pleased with it!  

Between us we picked out some really cute elements, like Luxo the Pixar lamp and his ball (I didn’t know the lamp had a name!), the Pizza Planet rocket ship, one of the Little Green Men, Woody’s cowboy boot and even the Toy Story logo and I drew them out roughly on tracing paper before printing them on the wondrous stick and stitch paper (the best stuff ever!) And we pinned them in place until he was happy with the placement.

For each patch I started by edging each different colour section, before using long and short stitch colour each section in fully, before finally adding the tiny black stitches to create the cartoon style outlines. I’m already really pleased with how this piece of embroidery looks as a whole and the super fun idea of the patches is that it doesn’t really ever have to be finished – new pieces can always be added! 

My favourite patch of the whole thing is Forky, the adorable character from the forth movie. Literally this one only took like 2 hours, I decided to take off one of the pocket flaps and sew it as if the little guy was sitting in the pocket. I think I did pretty well trying to recreate his pipe cleaner arms, one of which over the pocket edge so its still a useable part of the shirt.

Woody’s sheriff badge was actually quite hard to sew due to the shape but looks so cool!

The main and biggest patch is across the centre of the back and is Buzz Lightyear’s wings with his catchphrase ‘to infinity and beyond’ and the final two patches were added last minute as I finished it so quickly ‘reach for the sky’ is embroidered across the front near the hem in a lovely dark blue and ‘Hey howdy hey’ is on the right front shoulder in brown to look like rope.

This was such a fun project because most of the patches took very little time and if I hadn’t been able to get all of them done it was still a wearable item of clothing.

Milo even picked up this super cool Buzz Lightyear cap at DLP, the wings are so much fun! I’m know I’m biased but I think my brother definitely rocks his completely one of a kind shirt!

I think I could have kept adding to it, but sometimes you have to pick a point to stop at, less is more and all that. I really cannot recommend just picking up a needle and thread enough its so soothing.

Although now we’ve been on the holiday we’re thinking that adding Woody and Jessie’s autographs would look awesome.

And I’m definitely adding a Karen Beverly into the pocket next to forky!

Anyway, that’s it for this weeks embroidery-project post, do you have a favourite patch? Next week I’m hoping to post some new art I feel like I haven’t painted anything for an age!!

As always thank you so much for reading my friends, and have a lovely week!

Disneyland Paris (a few holiday snaps!)

On By ArtyMissKIn PhotographyLeave a comment

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!

Before the holiday I had this whole plan, go on holiday, take photos, come home, edit photos and create a post by the following week…which was so over ambitious, between us my brother Milo and I took over 5,500 photographs! (So narrowing it down to 20 took forever!!).

The last time I went to DLP I was only like 7 or 8 years old and basically remember everything, but my brother was so small he remembers practically nothing, so we had this whole daily itinerary – which I was going to make into a much bigger ‘what we did each day’ type of post and make it far more in-depth including food reviews, character meets and silly tips I learnt while being there, but we pretty much ignored our plan once we’d arrived. 

The thing we were both excited to see was the daytime parade (the thing we both remember the most), my brother and I stood and watched the parade so many times while we were there so, I had to include a photo of the main mouse himself and Daisy (I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for her) who is such a diva!

I was also over the moon to actually snap a photo at the moment that the dragon breathed fire! (This was literally on my bucket list of photo ideas for the trip!).

A useless fact about me is that I get super bad motion sickness on theme park rides, even on the child friendly ones like Dumbo or the teacups! Fantasyland was definitely my favourite area, even though a lot of it is currently under construction, its wonderful to be surrounded by bright, friendly colours!

I’m also trying to work out where I can add a lantern display like this to my garden.

My brother even took a few snaps of me on the single occasion I actually wore my Alice jacket…we happened to be there during one of the unbearable heatwave that France has suffered and a few of the mornings it was a sweltering 32 degrees by like 10.30am! 

But even in the full glare of the sun it was a magical holiday!

Something I really wasn’t expecting was for there to be so much greenery in a theme park! Literally there are flowers everywhere, which as a nature freak makes me very happy.

Now I don’t know if I’ve mentioned how much I hate having my photo taken, but my brother snapped this one on his phone and I promised to include it on my blog…actually I don’t look that bad! The chair is inside the Pink hotel which is one of the prettiest hotels I’ve ever been in and it smells absolutely divine.

We both agreed that food is better when its Mickey shaped and Main Street has so many cute places to get snacks.

We also stayed up late to do the night shows, the one in the main park called Tales of Magic was incredible and if I could only give away one tip for the whole of Disneyland its pay for the reserved area for the fireworks. Literally made the whole thing so easy and you end up right at the front!

All of the statues around Adventure World are a great touch, I really love this one of Walt and Mickey. Actually another tip is don’t bother queuing for rides in magic hour, use that time to get your photos, everyone else seemed so busy queuing for Crush and Frozen that it felt like we had Adventure World to ourselves! (We also did the same thing for photos in the main park).

We also watched all of the shows Together which is a Pixar based mini-stage show was so good!

Even the bins are decorated, although it kinda squeaks me out that they’re referred to as tables for two!

My brother is obsessed with Toy Story and always has been, so it was so much fun to spend some time in Toy Story Playland! Milo even wore the special embroidered shirt I decorated for him (I’ve got a post coming on it in a few days!) he looked so cool!

World of Frozen is just like stepping in to the movie and if its something you really love its definitely worth spending some time there…but maybe leave it for a while so that the excitement has dropped a little. We weren’t even aware Frozen world was happening until just before we went and it was sooooooo busy!

And lastly I had to close this post with a photo of the most beautiful castle in the world. Did you know theres a dragon underneath it! You can actually go inside the castle, there’s a shop filled with delicate glass things where you can build a magic wand and a Christmas shop. You can even go up and look at all the stained glass windows that tell the story of Sleeping Beauty.

Genuinely if you’re thinking of going to a Disney park, go for it! Even as a nature girlie who’s idea of a perfect holiday is being out in the woods somewhere I had literally the best holiday ever!

Anyway, that’s it for this post, tomorrow I’m gonna be posting a little something about my brothers embroidered Toy Story shirt (I’d wait until next week but I need to catch up with things I want to post this year!) 

As always thank you so much for reading my friends, and have a lovely week!

Embroidered Butterfly #22 {Wall}

On 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.

So, Wall is basically a medium sized orange butterfly with brown patterning…sort of a cross between a Gatekeeper and a Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary. With a real life wingspan of 44 (male) and 46 (female) it means my needlework version is around 9cm across.

I’m so unbelievably pleased with this one!

As usual it has a very thin stainless steel wire concealed in the edge of the wings to help the keep their shape and it was lovely to work on such an intricate pattern.

Well that’s a wrap for this week…22 butterflies down and only 50 to go, I feel like I’m really getting through them only another twelve and I’ll be halfway through my challenge!! Stay tuned for the next instalment on my butterfly creating adventure. 

Thank you so much for checking out this post!

Hopefully you’ll be back next week!

Ps. If you wanna see all my other (much prettier) butterflies they’re HERE!

© ArtyMissK 2026

Wall! (a super exciting tale!)

On 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.

Continue reading “Wall! (a super exciting tale!)” →

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

On 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!

Honey, oat and cranberry cookies {recipe}

On By ArtyMissKIn baking3 Comments

Hey friends, I hope you are well!

I thought this week I’d share a new recipe with you!

I’ve got a set of specific recipes I always go to and with the prices for pre made baked goods going up and quality (sometimes) going down I’ve finally realised that I genuinely prefer my own baking over shop bought alternatives and its great having a cupboard full of fun ingredients that if the need arises I can just grab and bake myself into a happy place.

Personally I find baking to be rather soothing as something I really struggle with in life is anxiety (I get so upset and spiral if I think I’ve done something wrong or let people down) and I find one of the things that helps me calm down is baking, specifically baking biscuits or cookies. I’ve shared one or two of my recipes before and kinda thought why not post more of them and maybe make like a mini digital recipe book and share the ones that help my mental health the most (on the off chance other people find them helpful).

To be fair I don’t bake particularly complex things.

So, I figured I’d start with one of my favourites a chunky honey, oat and cranberry cookie decorated with lashings of dark chocolate that even has a chocolate base!

These cookies do contain egg so they aren’t vegan (but egg substitutes are available). I’m a vegetarian and I don’t like the taste of cows milk so I use oat/plant based instead and I’ve got a free ranging duck and a chicken for fresh eggs (I try to contribute as little as possible to intensive animal farming).

So with that in mind lets bake some awesome cookies…

~

Makes 13-ish decent sized delicious chunky cookies.

For the biscuit –

  • 225g unsalted butter (proper solid butter not spread and straight from the fridge)
  • 55g Caster Sugar,
  • 55g Light brown soft sugar
  • 1 Large Egg
  • 275g plain flour
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tbsp organic Rowse honey
  • 100g dried cranberries
  • 1 tsp almond flavouring
  • 90g plain chocolate, cut into chunks
  • 170-200g dark chocolate (or milk if preferred)

Top top! Use an ice cream scoop to portion the dough, it make great chunky cookies!

The method –

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C, gas mark 4; line 2 large baking trays with baking parchment. 

Chop the cold butter into cubes and lightly combine with both types of sugar using an electric whisk on a low setting.

Add the flour, bicarb, almond flavouring, honey and the egg and whisk to combine.

Mix in the cranberries and oats with a large spoon until distributed evenly through the dough and then rest the mix in the fridge for an hour.

Use an ice cream scoop to create chunky cookies (or use a spoon that works too!) and spread them across the baking trays.

Bake for 10 minutes until golden at the edges, remove from the over but leave to cool on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Decoration –

Once totally cool, lay the cookies back on the baking paper and melt 170-200g dark chocolate. Put a good spoonful of melted chocolate on the baking paper and then place each cookie on top for a decadent chocolate base. To use up the extra chocolate use a fork to flick it back and forth over the tops of each cookie.

After about an hour the chocolate will be set and you can peel them from the paper and enjoy them with a cup of tea!

They’ll store in an airtight container for 3 days!

Overall I’m always overjoyed by how yummy these cookies are.

These are so, so good and don’t take too much effort…the hardest bit is leaving them while the chocolate sets!  I really quite enjoyed writing this, I love baking and I really hope you like this recipe (let me know if you give it a try). 

As always thank you so much for reading my friends, and have a lovely week! 

Raising Small White Butterflies

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography, Raising Butterflies2 Comments

Hey friends!

I’ve got a brand new Butterfly Tale for you this week which is always exciting, it actually began last August when I spotted a tiny two leaf wild cabbage growing in my front garden totally at random. I only even really noticed it because a cabbage butterfly was paying it so much attention. When I went out with my watering can to feed my plants I realised that she had laid thirteen eggs on this teeny tiny plantling! I just couldn’t leave it where it was – directly underneath the bird feeder, so I carefully dug up the cabbage and moved it into my butterfly house.

It was only a few days before the eggs hatched and quite quickly they began to eat both leaves of the cabbage, at this point in the year I didn’t even have any other plants to give them so I resorted to buying organic ones from the supermarket! By the middle of September they had grown into these handsome green chaps.

Continue reading “Raising Small White Butterflies” →

Hello! (A little bit about me!)

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello my friends! 

Welcome back to another edition of ‘What have I been up to!’

I figured I should finally introduce myself, because I think it’s nice to be able to know a little bit about the person behind the pictures. 

I can’t believe I’ve not done this before, although I really don’t like having my picture taken so thats probably got something to do with it! Basically I made these slides for insta and thought why not post them here too!

Ready here goes…

So hey, my name is Katie and I’m a UK based nature nerd, I’m also a book nerd who likes to do embroidery, paint, and is trying to create a little slice of happiness in my garden. I like raising caterpillars and giving them a safe place to complete their life cycle, which I’ve been doing since I was a kid. I use this account to post pictures of bugs I’ve seen, things I’ve painted or created, caterpillars I’m raising and trees (very important!).

I’d really like to give a special thank you to anyone reading this whether you’ve only just started following me or have been here for a while, it really means the world to have found such a kind corner of the internet.

I really hope you’ve enjoy following along on this journey. As always thank you so much for reading my friends, and have a lovely week!

ps. Trying to take selfies with butterflies is really hard, you have to be so quick!

Raising Emperor moths (2026 edition)

On By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography, Raising Butterflies6 Comments

Hey friends! Welcome to my third Butterfly tale of 2026!!

Do you remember last year I wrote about my experience over wintering 3 Emperor moth cocoons I found in the garden? They emerged mated like crazy and flew away, well this year I’m continuing that story…

So my three Emperors from last year were a richly coloured male and two gigantic grey winged females, I really fell in love with them and was thrilled that they survived the winter (I found them on a plant that was damaged during a winter storm) I created them an enclosure with different heathers and a giant meadow sweet plant and they were obviously quite happy as the girls laid like 250-300 eggs!

Sadly Emperor moth eggs need really specific humidity and temperatures to develop and although I was hopeful only a single egg hatched. I was gutted to be honest I kinda thought I was going to be releasing an army of them.

Just to point out my butterfly raising disclaimer, I’m only rescuing the ones I can identify as eggs as some caterpillars can be tricky to raise or are protected species. If I don’t trust that I can look after them properly and give them the right food plant/proper environment then my plan is always to just leave them alone.

So my very precious caterpillar began to eat her way around the enclosure. These moths have fascinating caterpillar, each time the caterpillar grows or ‘moults’ a stage in life where they rest for a few days and shed their skin causes significant changes in their appearance.

Continue reading “Raising Emperor moths (2026 edition)” →

Happy 100th Birthday Sir David Attenborough

On By ArtyMissKIn Art2 Comments

Hello my friends! 

I hope you had a good week! 

This weeks post is a little different, today marks the 100th birthday of Sir David Attenborough and while I had many things I was thinking of posting this week (including another butterfly tale!), a tribute to the worlds greatest naturalist on such a momentous birthday seemed poignant. 

I then couldn’t think of what I could do to celebrate such a life, I did briefly flirt with the idea of drawing his portrait but just could do him justice, so instead I illustrated a miniature Sir David Attenborough in his signature blue shirt with my favourite quote of his.

Sir David has lived such a long, important life and been one of my heroes for as long as I can remember, he’s given rise to many famous quotes my favourite of which is –

Cherish the natural world, because you’re a part of it and you depend on it.

I’ve always loved nature and I blame Blue Planet – I was hooked as a child and even as an adult actually find his documentaries to be very soothing, caring for our planet takes so little and if we all did just a tiny amount we could change the world.

It was how I started raising caterpillars, I wanted to protect them and figured that if I was feeding the birds it was okay to protect the caterpillars. I’ve never been very good at the naturalist motto of ‘don’t interfere’ in my opinion humanity interfered when we started polluting the rivers and the skies, over fishing and chopping down the trees – we cause enough harm so we’re already involved, trying to help should never be considered a bad thing.

When Wild Isles was released I literally binged the whole thing and then bought the book! Its funny how someone you’ve never met, but known your whole life can alter the way you see the world.

So I do really with all my heart wish Sir David Attenborough one of my heroes a very Happy 100th Birthday thank you for being a true light in the universe. Your tireless love for the natural world has inspired countless amounts of people to care for our world and everything that resides on it.

As always thank you so much for reading my friends, and have a lovely weekend!