Trips | Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics

London Adventures

November 26, 2012 Charlotte No comments

I had a great time in London over the weekend. Despite the wet weather, I enjoyed seeing some of the sights and managed to stay dry huddled under a brolly.

We started the day with a big breakfast in a little London cafe before hopping on and off the tube looking at some of the sights. I loved being so close to the London Eye and felt like such a tourist!

This man put a smile on our faces, making beautiful big bubbles that floated up into the sky along the River Thames.

One of the highlights of the day was visiting the London Dungeon which was very fun but spooky! We also visited Camden Market which I LOVED and can’t wait to go back again in the summer. It was full of so many different quirky things that you wouldn’t see anywhere else.

Overall my London adventure was very inspiring.

I would describe London as a bustling vibrant city with lots of character. Everything seemed quite dull and lifeless when we arrived back home in the Midlands.

Even some of the steps were cheery and colourful!

Posted in: Trips Tags: Camden Market, London

Adventures in Bath

August 30, 2012 Charlotte No comments

Last weekend I spent a fantastic few days away in Bath. We stayed in Frome, about a fifteen minute drive from Bath itself, and found it to be quite a pleasant little town. My favourite part was the cobbled streets and quirky little shops that were hidden away.

One day of the trip was spent nearby in Longleat where we visited the safari park and wandered around the grounds of Longleat House. This included finding our way out of a hedge maze which was a lot of fun, admiring lots of pretty gardens, the butterfly farm, and an interesting boat trip.

The weather was on our side on Sunday so we saw plenty of warm sunshine, which of course meant ice cream

At the safari park we took our chances and drove through the ‘monkey mayhem’ area where monkeys were free to do as they pleased… Many were hitching a ride on the cars but were also causing damage to aerials, bumpers, wing mirrors etc! Luckily our car was safe and there was one fellow who loved the taste of the windscreen wash from one of the washers on the bonnet!

We also came face to face with a lion which was quite scary but very cool!

In the centre of Bath we couldn’t resist a bit of shopping, and found some lovely restaurants. I experienced Cafe Rouge for the first time and loved it, can’t wait to go back.

If all that wasn’t enough, we also managed to get a good glimpse of Stonehenge on the drive home!

Posted in: Trips Tags: Bath, Frome, Longleat safari park

Hunstanton

July 30, 2012 Charlotte No comments

I had a lovely weekend at the seaside in Hunstanton making the most of the sunshine collecting shells, paddling in the sea, ice creams, fair ground rides and enjoying the smell of the sea air. It was a good opportunity to gather some inspiration for my work too.

Wish I was still there!

Posted in: Trips Tags: Hunstanton beach

Holiday to Alicante

May 08, 2012 Charlotte No comments

I got back from Alicante in Spain on Sunday, and am missing the sunshine so much already! Thought I might have been able to bring some of the sun back home with me, but it didn’t seem to work. Apparently I missed out on a lot of rain! I had an amazing holiday which was just what I needed, it was a nice break to get away from everything, so I’m feeling all refreshed now.

And to make things even better, I’ll be jet setting again in July when I fly to Turkey for another holiday, so I’m looking forward to that now!

The weather in Alicante was lovely and warm with a great beach and a relaxing private pool. I enjoyed plenty of cocktails and took some inspiring photographs which will be used for some new pieces of work that I will be working on very soon.

I’ll leave you with my favourite selection of photos… If I close my eyes I can still imagine being there! Enjoy

Posted in: travel, travel photography, Trips Tags: holiday in Alicante

Canal Boat Birthday Weekend

April 15, 2012 Charlotte 1 Comment

I had a great weekend for my birthday! It was spent on a canal boat cruising down the canal with friends, music, food and wine. Thankfully the weather stayed nice and we didn’t get any rain. We were also lucky not to crash as my steering wasn’t great! I would definitely recommend hiring a canal boat for something a bit different and will definitely be doing it again

Posted in: birthday, Trips Tags: canal boat weekend

News Update

February 04, 2012 Charlotte 1 Comment

Oops my blog has been neglected lately, I’ve been so busy and lots of exciting things are happening at the moment…

I was away last week staying in a log cabin with some friends, we didn’t get any snow but we had a great time!

Valentines Day is fast approaching so I’ve been busy making personalised engraved love heart plaques and sending stock to new galleries (more details to be announced soon!)

A couple of days ago I was contacted by someone on behalf of Richard Curtis, the writer/director of Notting Hill, Love Actually etc. Unfortunately his mother recently passed away and for her funeral next week he was interested in purchasing 200 of my ceramic plant markers with his mothers name engraved! Sadly it was far too short notice for me to get a batch of 200 plant markers made in time by myself, especially for each one to be individually engraved, but it still feels so exciting being approached by someone so famous!! Luckily a company was found who could mass produce the markers in enough time. I wonder how they came across my plant markers… perhaps in one of the magazines they have been featured in such as House Beautiful!?

If you are a regular reader of my facebook page, you might remember me mentioning an exciting opportunity last year where my website was going to appear in a book. I am now pleased to announce that imagery from my website is going to be printed in a new book – ‘The Workshop Guide to Ceramics‘ by Quarto Publishing, which is out in March! Can’t wait to receive my complimentary copy

While on the subject of exciting news… my new kiln is going to be delivered in March! It will be fantastic to finally have a more reliable and much bigger kiln. New work is already in progress in the workshop ready to fill it up!

Posted in: News, Trips

Christmas trip to Germany

December 12, 2011 Charlotte 1 Comment

What a fantastic weekend! My trip to Germany was a nice little break and I really enjoyed visiting a few of the different Christmas markets, they looked and smelt amazing, especially all lit up in the evening. I also hadn’t laughed and danced so much in ages, so all in all definitely a fun-filled trip!

Posted in: germany, Trips Tags: christmas market

Trip to Bournemouth

November 27, 2011 Charlotte No comments

After returning home from a trip to the seaside in Bournemouth with some friends this weekend, I’m feeling very bright and refreshed! We enjoyed a day of shopping, eating yummy food, drinking cocktails and had a fun night out. It feels strange to think that earlier this morning we were on the beach, I’m missing the sea air already!

Thank you to everyone who has placed orders over the weekend, I will send the in-stock items out tomorrow and also make a start on custom orders. Hope you had a good weekend too!

Posted in: Trips Tags: bournemouth, bournemouth beach

Trip to the Seaside

June 20, 2011 Charlotte 3 Comments

What a week! I’ve just got back from a trip to the seaside, I stayed at a little bay on the coast with some friends near Plymouth. We had a great time, it was so nice to have a relaxing break. The weather was kind to us all week apart from Friday when it poured down with rain, but we didn’t mind as we were shopping indoors!

We had lots of fun outings together including some long walks with breath taking scenery. And a spot of fishing in the rock pools too!

I was in heaven on some of the beaches and couldn’t stop snapping away with my camera, taking inspirational photos of the rocks and caves for my work.

I collected a whole bunch of these flat pebbles from the beach, they certainly made the car heavier on the way home! I’m going to make some photo frames and decorate the edge of some mirrors with them.

We couldn’t resist building a sand castle! You can see how flat the pebbles are more clearly here…

This is what some people decided to do with the pebbles! We saw a few of these along the beaches, people built them to light a fire inside at night, I thought they were really cool.

And it wouldn’t have been a holiday without some sunbathing!

I’m feeling very refreshed and inspired after the well needed break, ready to crack on with orders and more new work.

Hope you all had a great week x

Posted in: challaborough bay, Inspiration, plymouth, seaside, Trips

Family trip to Wales

August 26, 2010 Charlotte 4 Comments

Last night I stayed at my uncles farm house on the border of Wales, near Shropshire. We had a family BBQ and I met some family members I didn’t even know about. It wasn’t the best time of year for a BBQ, and will probably be the last for this year, but the weather stayed dry for most of the day.

The house has old stables and barns on the doorstep, it felt strange being in such different surroundings but it was so nice – I love the countryside and would love to have a yard like this to keep horses!

We had this fire pit to keep us warm, although the smell from the smoke still hasn’t washed out of my hair yet!

In the evening there were a few showers so we moved the fire into this barn which was lit up when it got dark, and we all sat around the fire cooking corn on the cob and drinking home made sloe gin & rhubarb vodka.

I love my uncles house, it’s in the middle of nowhere surrounded by fields and the nearest neighbour is about half a mile away, so at least there wasn’t anyone asking for the music to be turned down!

Imagine having this as your garden!

You could see mountains in the distance. The dogs had a great time too, bet they are all knackered today.

Posted in: Trips

Home Sweet Home!

August 16, 2010 Charlotte 6 Comments

I’m feeling glad to be home after a long weekend away at the balloon fiesta in Bristol. We got back around midnight last night, and I’ve just about caught up with all the unpacking and washing (it’s surprising how much grass you find in your washing when you’ve been camping!), but I haven’t caught up on sleep yet!!

We had some long days – the marquee opened at 10am every morning and didn’t close til 7pm, and even 10pm on Saturday. But it was well worth keeping my stall open as there were thousands of people walking around in the evening waiting for the balloon glow to start. The location of the marquee wasn’t as good as last year, and I think even more people would have come to the marquee if it was in a better position, but there were still plenty of customers.

My stall was next to an entrance of the marquee which was brilliant for when it got really hot and stuffy, and if I wanted to stand outside and still keep an eye on my stall, but it wasn’t so good when the weather was wet and miserable! You can see part of my stall through the entrance of the marquee in the image above. I had my usual ‘L’ shape for my display which is perfect on a corner.

I displayed my new bunting for the first time – what do you think?

I made good use of the marquee and hung some items up on the backdrop of my display too. I also hung and draped things from my lights which looked really effective so I’ll definitely do this at my next event. I’m glad I took my copper wire, twigs, shells and little pieces of ceramic because I sat and made lots of new hanging mobiles/wind chimes. These looked really pretty hanging from my lights and I was so pleased to sell one of them to a nice couple. It makes me really happy knowing that people like my work enough to buy it

I’ll post some photos of the mobiles later in the week.

Overall it was a successful 4 days and I am pleased with the sales I made. I also met some really nice people who couldn’t have given me enough compliments! I get a buzz when people spend so much time looking at my stall and I like to watch them picking items up and feeling the surfaces.

I’ve had a few orders since I’ve been home so I think they are from people who picked up my leaflets over the weekend. Hopefully there will be more to come!

We had fun watching the balloons and other things going on, especially the night glow. The new special shaped balloon for this year was the Foamy Gnome – bright pink!

Dave caught the balloons all lit up just in time!

The best part for me was seeing the Red Arrows again. They are breathtaking, and it was a huge treat to watch them performing stunts and formations in the sky.

If you haven’t seen the Red Arrows before, you must! I just tried searching for some videos of them on Youtube but none of them do them justice – you really have to be there.

The marquee was deserted when the red arrows flew over the site, even all the stall holders abandoned their stalls to watch them!

What did you get up to over the weekend?

Posted in: bristol balloon fiesta, Events/Craft Fairs, Trips

Stratford Butterfly Farm

July 13, 2010 Charlotte No comments

The tropical environment of the Stratford Butterfly Farm is simply breath taking. You can see hundreds of the world’s most spectacular and colourful butterflies flying all around. This was definitely one of the highlights of our day trip to Stratford on Saturday.

These huge leaves below stood out at me, I love the look of them all clustered together at different heights;

There were some really pretty coloured and patterned butterflies;

and some of them even land on you;

There were hundreds of colourful wild flowers at the entrance outside the butterfly farm which attracted me in;

This is the pond where Dave’s sunglasses fell in when he was feeding the fish!

There was a bench right next to this table with sliced oranges, pineapple and bananas, which was swamped with one particular type of butterfly. They loved the sweet juice from the oranges and pineapples and I loved the smell!