Mini Mushroom Landscape {One frame}

On January 24, 2025 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 January 17, 2025February 8, 2025 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.

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Connecting with nature in winter

On January 11, 2025February 8, 2025 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.

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Looking back on 2024 {reviewing the year!}

On January 4, 2025February 8, 2025 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.

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

On December 21, 2024February 8, 2025 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…

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DIY Snowflake Gift Wrap Ideas!

On December 6, 2024February 8, 2025 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.

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A Wintery Walk

On November 30, 2024February 8, 2025 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.

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Grayling {One frame}

On November 15, 2024 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!

Embroidered Butterfly #10 {Comma}

On November 9, 2024 By ArtyMissKIn Art, Needlework Bugs8 Comments

Hey friends!

Last week I posted a bonus Butterfly tale about a Comma butterfly that I accidentally rescued on a nettle plant – a rather ragged brown and orange chap who usually lives in the woods, I felt so super excited to have fostered one of these so late in the year that I couldn’t help but want to create a needlework version.

Comma have a real life wingspan of up to 6cm. There isn’t too much difference between and males and females (which I’m glad about as the pattern was super fiddly!) All in all my needlework version has a wingspan of about 11cm to keep it inline with my ‘twice life size’ scale.

Its been great to create a different wing shape, the ragged edges were so much fun to try and recreate although the wire was so uncooperative! I know I say this with every one I make but this one is definitely my favourite so far.

Also this rather lovely fella is #10 on my needlework butterfly challenge (whoo-hoo I’m in double figures!!).

That’s a wrap for this week…another butterfly finished only another 50 or so to go!! I’m really hoping that you’ll stay with me while I needlework my way through our native butterflies. Thank you so much for checking out this post!

Raising a Comma Butterfly

On November 2, 2024February 8, 2025 By ArtyMissKIn Conservation, Photography4 Comments

Hey friends!

This week I’ve got a bonus butterfly tale for you, I’m really very excited about this one!!

Over the last couple of months I’ve been raising a grand total of 61 Red Admiral butterflies and during that time I’ve dug up many, many nettle plants for them to eat. When they start to pupate I like to add a fresh plant or two so that when they emerge there is a nice, new host plant for them to (hopefully) lay more eggs on.

At one point I had 6 Red ads pupating in a house of their own and after a few days I noticed the nettle I had prepared for them was being eaten, well, it turned out to have an occupant! One lone Comma caterpillar was quite happily eating its way through my new nettle.

Comma (Polygonia c-album) is another of our native butterflies, its one of the quirkiest looking ones we have here. They have scalloped wing edges which with the dark markings on the undersides of its wings camouflage it to resemble a dead leaf!

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