Tag: lifestyle blog

Small tortoiseshell Butterfly {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

I hope life has been treating you well.

Its been 4 or 5 weeks since my last One Frame and I’ve got a new one to share with you!

Recently I found a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly sunbathing on some really over grown stinging nettles and got a few really good photos of the wee beastie without disturbing it!! Doesn’t it just have the most fluffiest body ever!? And I love how much detail I managed to capture – its eyes are amazing.

The Small tortoiseshell is one of the most well-known butterflies we have in Britain, they are quite possibly my favourite and like a fairly wide range of nectar heavy flowers – this year I’m gonna start creating my own butterfly garden for all pollinators to try and do a little bit extra for nature. Hopefully I’ll find lots of other butterflies to photograph.

The natural light was so good that this image taken with my Nikon in macro mode, and only brightened a little in post prod.

Well that’s pretty much it, one photo of one butterfly, I hope you like it. Do you have a favourite bug? They are wonderful little creatures that run our world and make no fuss whatsoever. I’m thinking about creating an embroidered Small tortoiseshell similar to my others (hopefully you’ll come back to see it next week!)

As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

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Mothers Day World Turtle {Art}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, World Turtles9 Comments

Hello friends! 

This coming Sunday is Mothers Day (in the UK) and one of the things I’ve always done is make something for my mum, I decided a while back that I wanted to paint her something which evolved into a new World Turtle illustration, that I want to share with you. 

This is the fifth World Turtle and my growing collection now contains Spring, Autumn, Winter and Valentines illustrations and now I can add a Mothers day one too!!!

So this painting features not one, but three World Turtles – a mummy and two hatchlings! As its a mothers day themed painting I wanted there to be a lot of pink and flowers – so its kinda incorporating all the colours you’d find in a bouquet. Foliage wise the trees and bushes are in bright shades of green.

The Summer World Turtle has a sun deck and Autumn has a star gazing platform, but for this one I wanted the main mummy turtle to have lots of flowers growing in the grass, the sun deck is back (as I’m impatiently waiting for the sun to come out!) and I’ve added a little ledge for pot plants!

Another thing I quite enjoyed was deciding that obviously the castle would grow with the turtle so that they are more size appropriate – the girly one is only really a simple tower while the little one is more of a shed!!

Its A3 sized like the others (A3 is a great size to work with) and the process is started by lightly sketching with a HB pencil and then drawn ‘properly’ using a calligraphy ink pen with Windsor & Newton Black Indian ink. Because there are two quite small turtles in this illustration they’re a bit fiddly and details are drawn with a 0.1 fine liner.

Its then painted using Arteza watercolours and brush pens – which I absolutely love the only thing I’d say is a lot of the pinks seem pretty much the same colour! 

Well, that pretty much wraps it up for this week…What do you think? I’d love some feedback on my World Turtles are they a bit weird? Something I’ve been experimenting with is moving their pupils as is changes the whole feel of the painting….next week I’m thinking of posting a new One Frame of a recent garden visitor.

Thanks for checking out this art post and as always I wish you a wonderful week, may it be filled with love and happiness! 

ps. Happy Mothering Sunday!!

psps. If you fancy checking out my other World Turtle illustrations click the link or follow the menu!

© ArtyMissK 2023

A Woodland Walk {Photography}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello friends!

Who doesn’t feel at home in a woodland? 

My inner elf just wants to be set free and run through the trees barefoot. I’ve taken a break from decorating this week and given myself a little chance to explore my new surround – a brilliant mix of woodland and fields (filled with sheep!) I can even hear them baa-ing from my bedroom which is amazing!!

The village I’ve moved to is only a mile across and you can walk for miles before you see another human being.

There’s even a 400 year old church and the bell still tolls the hour, which is rather quaint. 

The woods are filled with some of the prettiest snowdrops and foliage ever, its so relaxing to be out in the wild – something I wasn’t prepared for was how quiet it is, the bird song at dawn and dusk is incredible and I haven’t heard a plane since I moved! 

I wanted to take you guys along with me so you could enjoy the relaxing and calming atmosphere too! I hope these photos bring as much peace to your day as much as they did mine.

Ready?

Let’s go!

Snowdrops are pretty much one of if not my favourite flower. The way they burst out in February showing winter that its time is over for the year while everything else hibernates.

I don’t actually know what this little yellow flower is but I like how everything surrounding it is in focus while the flowers itself isn’t.

There are some amazing trees here their trunks are often quite gnarly with plenty of creeping ivy and fluffy lichen. Almost as if they’re slowly being claimed by the rest the plant life in the area.

I imagine some of these trees must be hundreds of years old!

I’m fairly certain this is a multi headed daffodil (maybe) but I like how it looks ‘caged’ by the small dead branches.

This gnarled tree branch looks like some sort of monster, maybe an orc or goblin. Its got eyes and fangs and if it was outside my house would definitely be scary in the night! I imagine it was made by something – possibly a Greater Spotted Woodpecker, trying to either turn it into a house or to eat whatever was already living there.

I kinda feel life has been hard on this poor branch.

More snowdrops, these were actually growing by the side of the road (using the term ‘road’ loosely) I love how many textures there are in this image.

Ferns and moss are literally everywhere – apparently there is a pesky bug called a fern tick, another reason not to go skipping barefoot through the woods. I’m thinking of taking some crayons and tracing paper to try and get some rubbings of these leaves on my next adventure in that direction.

Is this moss, or lichen or even a type of fern – I’ve no idea but its so pretty and super soft to touch!

When I was little I used to think that snowdrops were a sort of lantern for fairies because of how bright they are against the gloom.

This part of the world is definitely snowdrop country the grow in their hundreds along banks and amongst the trees, even by the roadside. These ones were like a waterfall cascading down the bank and pooling by the roadside.

Another mossy lichen tree trunk here, this one is more or less fully claimed by the stuff and I particularly like the contrast in colour between the green of the tree and the bleached straw colour of the protruding sticks and stems.

I think there are 4 or 5 types of leaf in this photo, it lovely how ‘wild’ they are not just grown in little pots so that they can mingle and spread into their neighbours space.

The lone snowdrop is my favourite photograph of the day (second place is the gnarly branch!) I love how soft the background is with all focus solely on the flower.

I love the natural tones of this shoot, the colours are naturally muted due to the time of the year, but I think the effects are quite romantic. I haven’t used any post processing on these photos the natural light was enough – the light in Cornwall is amazing .

So that’s it for this weeks post…I really hope you enjoyed these woodland foliage photos because they filled me a great amount of positivity and happiness. Did you have a favourite photo? Next week I’m hoping to post a new illustration. 

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

I would rather spend one lifetime with you {Art}

On By ArtyMissKIn ArtLeave a comment

Hello friends! Welcome back…unless this is first time you’ve read one of my posts, then, hey! How ya doing and most importantly welcome!! 

I’ve got a new piece of hand lettering art to share with you this week. I would rather spend one lifetime with you, than face all the ages of this world alone is a quote from Peter Jackson’s adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien’s Lord of The Rings. Tolkien’s works are filled with many a wonderful quote…although I’m pretty sure this isn’t one of them.

**I did check the books but couldn’t find it so I assume it was made up for the movies.**

Something I’m trying to improve with my hand lettering is allowing the words to flow together and get in each others space as opposed to just being in straight lines. Although I like the cleanness of using straight lines if its quite a long quote for these shorter ones letting the words nestle into one another looks way more interesting…but it takes a little practice.

I used my arteza water brush pens and a really fine paint brush to create this piece and think the uses of different fonts work together really well and thought about painting a frame of leaves and wildflowers to represent a bouquet but decided against it as its possible to have too much green in one painting.

That’s it for this week…I hope you like it! Do you have a favourite book quote? Even if its on the back of an envelope with a biro I really think everyone should have a go at hand lettering, you don’t need anything fancy just paper and pen…or pencil and can easily get brilliant results!! Next weeks post is shaping up to a little bit of woodland photography.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you’ll be back in the future and I wish you a prosperous week ahead!

ps. if it is a book quote please let me know!

Fleeting thought #2 {Sandcastles, poetry & childhood memories}

On By ArtyMissKIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Hello friends, I hope you had a good week!

Today I wanted to share my second Fleeting Thought with you. If you’re reading one of my blog posts for the first time (hi/friendly wave) and if your back and happy to read more of my ramblings (massive hug and a beaming smile!!). 

For the uninitiated Fleeting Thought is something I’ve come up with while trying to post more of my feelings and be a bit more blog-ish, these wordy posts might sometimes include stories or poetry or maybe be a place were I can put photos/doodles that are a bit random and wouldn’t get a full post.  

Now, I’ve also written a haiku – you’ve been warned!

Ready here we go!

Have you ever watched someone create something and thought Yeah, I’ll take a whack at that, it doesn’t look too hard!

Well, I came across sand sculpting online when I discovered that Cornwall hold a few sandcastle competitions in the summer and couldn’t resist having a go on a recent trip to the beach…even though its February and at the very most 13 degrees! 

Was I the only lunatic playing in the sand, whilst wearing a wooly jumper…absolutely.

I haven’t built a sandcastle since I was little – one of my favourite childhood memories is my mum, sister and I used to build a boat when on the beach that had a bucket steering wheel, and we’d sail it on various adventures. I thought sand sculpting might be fun to try…it is very much enjoyable, but is much harder than it looks! So on that note I thought I’d share my first (and only) sand sculpting effort.

Also, while I personally love the idea that the human fascination with sandcastles began when mankind first stepped on a beach, there’s an eternal mystery in not knowing who built the first one.

Now for the grand reveal…

Ta-da!

Continue reading “Fleeting thought #2 {Sandcastles, poetry & childhood memories}” →

Magical cove {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography6 Comments

Hello my Friends!

Can you believe it, we’re already halfway through February?! Winter has been so cold and wet this year that it feels like spring is taking an age to get here, so I’ve been taking advantage of every moment of nice weather I can get.

Anyway, its been about a month since I posted my last One Frame and I’ve got a new landscape shot to share this week. The coast of Cornwall is magical and this photo was taken on Perranporth beach where there are some amazing caves/coves, this one is one of my favourites, its not so much a cave but an archway and has so many colours and textures in its stones.

In a weird way it reminds me of a Hag Stone, just on a much bigger scale.

The water that has been trapped until the tide comes back to claim it is super clear but Freezing cold and so much deeper than it looks! 

I kinda feel this particular spot might be a portal to Narnia or some other fairytale realm, with how the sun is shining on the cliff behind the arch. One day I might even be brave enough to swim through it…

That’s it for this week, I hope you like the little slice of beachy paradise. How is the weather where you are? Next weeks post is either gonna be the second Fleeting Thought or more art. 

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

Valentines World Turtles {Art}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, World Turtles8 Comments

Hello friends! 

This coming Tuesday is Valentines day and I decided a while back that I wanted to create some love themed art so this week I wanted to share a new illustration with you. My growing collection of World Turtles now contains Spring, Autumn and Winter illustrations and I thought why not create a Valentines day one too!!!

So this painting features two World Turtles – As its a love themed I wanted the colours to reflect the theme of love – using lots of reds and pinks. Foliage wise the trees in vibrant shades of green and help to create a heart in the negative space between the turtles.

Continue reading “Valentines World Turtles {Art}” →

All We Have to Decide {Art}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art2 Comments

Hello my friends!

This week I thought I’d share my first hand lettering post of 2023. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us is a quote from J.R.R Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring. Professor Tolkien’s books are an endless supply of wise and beautiful phrases, that I really love turning into art.

**spoilers ahead** 

This particular line is said by Gandalf the Grey while the fellowship are in Moria in the movies, but actually it takes place in Chapter 2 of FOTR: The Shadows of the past in a conversation between the wizard and Frodo Baggins before Sam gets caught eavesdropping and the hobbits leave the Shire.

**okay no more spoilers**

Continue reading “All We Have to Decide {Art}” →

Fleeting thought #1 {Hag stones, short stories, folklore & feelings}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello my friends, 

Bear with me, I thought I’d try something a little different this week!!

I kinda feel I should maybe do a few more ‘written’ posts, expressing my feelings/thoughts not just loads of pretty(-ish) photographs and my art. I used to keep a journal and I even wrote a few short stories…but on my blog I’ve never really felt confident enough to post that kinda thing.

So here goes…I’ve come up with Fleeting Thought which I’m hoping will become wordy posts, sometimes containing stories or poetry or maybe just getting my feelings out there (and hopefully someone will read it) but they might also be a place were I can put all different groups of photos that wouldn’t get a full post on there own.

Back at the beginning of the month I mentioned that I recently moved house – which in and of itself is probably one of the stressful things I’ve ever done in life! But that’s not the point of this post. I happened to move from a city landscape to a picturesque one which is awesome, and in my new garden I found a Hag Stone! It’s small enough to sit on the palm of my hand, and is such an amazing shape…I think its made of flint.

Now, I’ve written a 200 word super short story (I think they call it a double drabble) about my hag stone! I haven’t written a story for ages!

But first a little bit of folklore,

Continue reading “Fleeting thought #1 {Hag stones, short stories, folklore & feelings}” →

Magnificent Swan {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

I hope life has treated you well this week.

Last year I that I realised that I had taken quite a lot of of photographs of wild birds – particularly mute swans (I even did a long post on them) but I’ve recently been through all the images on my camera in an attempt to clear some space on my memory card and found this one. 

Mute swans are actually very friendly and the wild ones I’ve photographed always seem so chilled out about the camera. I always assumed this was because I normally fed them, but I liked the idea of being a swan whisperer!

There’s something truly magical about swans and this one is almost looking directly into the camera. I love the way its sort of quizzically leaning, as if its sizing me up! Unfortunately the pristine whiteness of the swan shows just how dirty the river water is, but somehow that makes the swan all the more beautiful.

It’s a shame that as a country we’ve let our waterways become so polluted.

Well that’s it for this week, one lovely swan photographed for this post. I hope you like it. Do you have a favourite wild bird? They are wonderful creatures and I love watching them – and always try to keep the bird feeders full at home…I might even do a few posts on them this year. As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

ps. Next week I’m thinking of trying something a little bit different!!

Pretty Winter Textures {Photography}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography4 Comments

Hello my friends!

Nature is magical isn’t it?!

There are so many different textures to be found. So this week I wanted to share some snaps I’ve taken recently. I wanted these photos to have a slightly ‘silver’ theme, seeing as its winter and there aren’t loads of brightly coloured daisies and the like. I wanted to take you with me into a wintery world of texture.

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150 Subscribers Celebration!!! (& a Winter Sunset {One frame})

On By ArtyMissKIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Hello Friends!

Who-hoo! We’re at 150 followers, everyone!!!

Can you believe it?!

*cue bang-free fireworks and hand cut eco confetti*

Okay, actually, its 153 to be exact! I hit 150 just before the festive week, but decided to wait until afterward to share the exciting news!

Anyway, A SUPERSIZED THANK YOU to everyone who’s subscribed and liked my posts! I wouldn’t be where I’m at without you and I truly appreciate it more than you can possibly imagine!

Also, I’ve got a new landscape shot to share this week as I’ve had some major things happen in life.

Continue reading “150 Subscribers Celebration!!! (& a Winter Sunset {One frame})” →

Photography Recap 2022

On By ArtyMissKIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Hello my friends, 

I hope you had a good Christmas!

This week as it’s the last Friday of the year I thought that I’d create a little recap post with some of my favourite photographs taken in 2022.

So enjoy some black and white photography including ladybirds, butterflies and bumble bees.

In June I actually got some decent shots of a Holly Blue butterfly – I’d never seen one of these before – it had such stripy antennae! 

Letting the garden re-wild in the summer for #nomowmay was fun and it didn’t take long for insects to move in, there were so many ladybird beetles, I especially loved photographing them in the early morning.

I even grew my own wildflower ‘mini-meadow’ to encourage bees and really enjoyed watching them in the summer.

Continue reading “Photography Recap 2022” →

Winter World Turtle {Art}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, World Turtles2 Comments

Hello my friends!!

I said I’d started this painting and here it is!

This weeks post is as the name suggests a Winter World Turtle – and the third World Turtle illustration.

As this one is winter themed I wanted the colours to reflect the time of year – the snow is painted using white ink and acrylic with a very pale ice blue watercolour. There are even some tiny icicles hanging from the turtles’ shell.

I wanted the trees to reflect the time of year so I made a few of them flop to the side – as if they’re weighed down by heavy snow! Its funny we don’t really get ‘proper’ snow where I live, if we’re lucky winter may grace the area with a very light dusting, but that’s it and its always such a disappointment!!

Continue reading “Winter World Turtle {Art}” →

Festive hand lettering {Art}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art3 Comments

Hello friends,

Happy December!

As we’ve finally entered the festive month I though I’d share some Christmas Carol themed calligraphy art!

Something I’m trying to do is create a collection of festive themed art – I have a lot of art up around the house and have decided it might be fun to create winter pieces to go in each frame for the holiday season.

Two of my most favourite carols are O come all ye faithful and The Holly and the Ivy, which I’ve turned into A4 sized pieces in traditional festive colours. 

I love Christmas music – not necessarily the pop stuff, but the old school carols and folk stuff and having it on in the background while I’m making last minute gifts or decorations is always lovely, ideally I really like to have festive music playing in the background as soon as it hits December 1st.

Anyway that it for this week! I hope you like my festive hand lettering. I’m thinking of maybe trying some tutorials for calligraphy next year. Would anyone be interested in that?

And as always thanks for reading and happy December.

Old Forest Bench {One frame}

On By ArtyMissKIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Hello friends!

Seeing as its the last Friday before the festive month I thought I’d post a little autumn forest one frame this week, I love this old wooden bench and how its slowly being reclaimed by the nature and I wanted to share it with you. 

When I took this photo it was wet, it was muddy and this old bench still sat there, beautiful as ever waiting for passers by to sit on it, surrounded by a sea of fallen leaves. Really rather poetic when you think about it.

So, that’s it for this week! I always think part of the fun of these one frame posts is really focusing on narrowing it down to a single image. As always thanks for reading and have a wonderful week!

Autumn World Turtle {Art}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, World TurtlesLeave a comment

Hello friends! 

A couple of weeks have slipped by without me posting – they flashed pass so quickly its unreal (I don’t know how some weeks can disappear in the blink of an eye and yet some days can last a lifetime)

This week I wanted to share a new painting. Back in July I posted the finished watercolour painting of ‘A World Turtle’ and thought, why not do a turtle for each season!

As its autumn I wanted the colours of the foliage to reflect the time of year – November here is a bit nippy but the trees are beautiful as they change colour. I’ve even tried to include little piles of leaves that have been swept together – even if they look like bushes!

Continue reading “Autumn World Turtle {Art}” →

Embroidered Gatekeeper butterfly {Art}

On By ArtyMissKIn Art, needlework, Needlework Bugs7 Comments

Hello my friends!!

This week I thought I’d post a new embroidery that I’ve been working on.

Looking back at the Gatekeeper butterfly photographs (that I posted last week!) I decided to embroider one similar to my other needlework butterflies – I’m developing quite a collection of needlework bugs/insects.

As always I started by roughly drawing four wing and body shapes onto calico and then filled them in with the closest coloured threads I had. I like to block colour first using two stands of embroidery floss and then blend using a single strand (on the smallest needle imaginable – its like a hair!)

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Gatekeeper Butterfly {Photography}

On By ArtyMissKIn Photography2 Comments

Hello my friends!

Nature is magical isn’t it?!

This weeks post is a new butterfly centred photography collection. Its all about the Pyronia tithonus butterfly or Gatekeeper and over a couple of (very) early mornings it was most courteous and posed for a few pictures. I love insects and I wanted to take you with me into the early morning world of butterflies!

I loved watching the different flowers appear during #nomowmay (I even got up one morning to a huge patch of Ox Eye daisies) that I thought ‘that was fun, let’s let the unwanted plants do their own thing*.’

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Old Glastonbury Abbey {Photography}

On By ArtyMissKIn PhotographyLeave a comment

Hello friends!

This week I wanted to share some recent snaps from a day spent at Glastonbury Abbey and I wanted to take you with me – I don’t usually take many shots of buildings and things but it made a really nice change! The abbey holds mythical status as the earliest Christian church in Britain and is the possible burial place of King Arthur.

The abbey itself is dog friendly, has multitude of events held within it and can even hold weddings!

Continue reading “Old Glastonbury Abbey {Photography}” →