Halloween Treats!

A great way to get the kids involved with something fun and creative this Halloween is by getting in the kitchen and cooking up a storm!

You can't go wrong with a spooky Halloween cupcake, which are bound to delight the little kids as well as the big kids! Decorating the cupcakes are a fun afternoon activity for the kids to keep them entertained!

These spooky spider cupcakes are easy to make and fun to decorate! Find the recipe for the cupcakes here.

 

And to decorate the cupcakes you will need:

 

2 packs of liquorice Catherine wheels

12 tbsp. Nutella or other chocolate spread

Liquorice allsorts (the black ones with the white centre)

tube of black writing icing

1 length of red bootlace

 

To decorate the cakes: unravel the liquorice wheels and cut into lengths to make the dangly legs, let the kids get creative and stick the legs onto the top of each cake.

 

Spoon the chocolate spread on top and spread lightly within the liquorice legs to make the spiders body! Now cut the allsorts to make the eyes and the red bootlaces to make mouths! Let the kids stick everything onto the cupcake and make different spooky creations they will love to eat!

Another great Halloween treat is these Eerie Eyeballs, which are a healthy option for kids this Halloween! Made from apple rings, dried apricots and raisins they will be a fun addition to Halloween and the kids can have fun making them. Find out how to make these here!

Have fun this Halloween creating fun and exciting treats for the family! 

'Re-design, Re-cycle, Re-love'

'Re-design, Re-cycle, Re-love' are three very important words here at Ellie Ellie, and we want to share out motto with you and let you know what it means to us!

 

Re-design is taking something that's been unloved and giving it a new lease of life with a little Ellie Ellie TLC. We transform forgotten treasures into something new, current and loveable.

 

Many of us remember the hours we spent wrestling over board games with our siblings, or those party games with our school friends - our products capture all those joyful memories and allows us to look back with a smile.

 

The Re-cycle aspect of our motto means taking something that's destined for a landfill and turning it into something completely different, to be used and enjoyed by one and all!

 

Recycling is gradually becoming a part of everyday home life, which is great! We push the boundaries even further by encouraging recycled gifting to spread the eco-friendly message.

Here at Ellie Ellie the 'Re-Love' aspect of our motto means taking something from our childhoods, that we have forgotten and turning it into something innovative for all to love again. You know, things like old fashioned board games or those scrumptious retro sweets that used to be the highlight of your school days.

All those things you used to treasure, we jog your memory about and look back on them with nostalgic fondness in our products.

Little Gnorm loves spreading our Ellie Ellie words of wisdom!!

Ellie Ellie Wears: Dungarees!

Denim is a staple in the closet and what better way to make the denim trend your own with these great dungarees from Beyond Retro! Beyond retro offers a wide selection of handpicked vintage clothing making it a place to find stand out, vintage and unique pieces!

A great way to wear dungarees in this weather is too add thick woollen tights, as well as this great cardigan from Bibico, which will keep you warm whatever the weather. Finish off the look with these Bertie boots, which are a great addition to the outfit! Our Ellie Ellie vintage letter tile ring, which can be personalised with your initial adds extra fun to the outfit!

Dunagrees: Beyond Retro
Cardigan: Bibico
Vintage Letter Tile Ring: Ellie Ellie
Boots: Bertie

Get set for a spooky halloween!

Tulley's Farm has a world wide reputation for supplying outstanding local foods, providing a great experience with friendly service and fun family seasonal events! Around Halloween, Tulley's Farm transforms itself into its Halloween festival, with fun days and fright nights!

On the weekend of Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th of October, and in November Tulley's Farm hosts its Spooktober fest, fun park and its Shocktober fest scream park! A great event for families and friends!

Voted the UKs No1 Halloween family attraction, the day is sure to be filled with frights as well as fun and is something the family won't forget!

Including fun shows, fireworks, a horrid hayride, boo barn and spooky trails this festival has everything for all the family!

Find out more about the festival and for tickets see the website!

Time for Pumpkins!

It's October and that means it is time to get pumpkin into meals and spice up your cooking. With Halloween around the corner what better way to prepare then with a lovely, warm and hearty pumpkin soup!

Ingredients for your pumpkin soup!

1x4kg pumpkin
125g butter
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
1 cinnamon stick
grated nutmeg
salt and black pepper
1.7 litres chicken stock, or vegetable stock for vegetarians
3 tablespoons of sherry

These ingredients are all you need to make your pumpkin soup, which can be a great starter for a dinner party, or warmed up for lunch in the office!

To prepare and make the soup, follow these easy instructions:

1. Cut the top off the pumpkin and scoop out the seeds from the middle
2. Using a sharp knife and a spoon, carefully hollow out the pumpkin, removing the inside and setting it aside!
3. Roughly chop the scooped out pumpkin
4. Melt the butter in a large pan and add the onions! Cook for 10-15 minutes until they are golden brown.
5. Add the pumpkin to the pan, with the cinnamon and nutmeg and season to taste.
6. Increase the heat to medium and cover with a lid! Cook for 40-45 minutes and stir occasionally to prevent from burning, until the pumpkin is cooked through.
7. Return the soup to the pan and bring to a low simmer and cook for a further half an hour.
8. 45 minutes before eating, preheat the oven and pour the soup into the hollow pumpkin and add the sherry
9. Place the pumpkin lid onto the pumpkin and put on a large baking tray, cook for 45minutes
10. Carefully remove from the oven and serve the soup!

Voi la!

To find the recipe and more pumpkin inspired dishes visit the website!

Ellie Ellie Wears: Bright Spots

A great way to accessorize our Ellie Ellie Lucky Sixpence Customised Date Coin Necklace is to add colour and still keep it simple!  

Wear this great red spotty skirt from Rokit with a simple white blouse to make sure the skirt pops out! Rokit have loads of lovely vintage pieces that include great patterns which are ideal for any look!

Finishing off the look with these brown Chester loafers from Russell and Bromley, complete the outfit perfectly! As well as our Lucky Sixpence Necklace!

White blouse: Oasis
Red spotty skirt: Rokit
Lucky Sixpence Necklace: Ellie Ellie
Loafers: Russell & Bromley

Arundel Food Festival!

Saturday the 19th and Sunday the 20th of October 2013 sees the Arundel Food Festival take place in the community of Arundel!

Celebrating the fourth annual food festival, events take place throughout the town and surrounding countryside on the 19th and 20th as well as the following week.

The historic market town of Arundel is uniquely positioned between the idyllic South Downs National Park and the Sussex coast.

 

This enables the festival to provide some of the freshest and tastiest food and drink in the South East for a great weekend!

With great events going on throughout the festival, there are many enthusiastic participants taking part in the festival.

Saturday sees the Arundel Farmers Market, which is a great way to kick-start the festival and with more than 40 stalls it brings together the best food and drink suppliers across West Sussex!

With other events such as bread making, cheese tasting, fudge making and the beer and cider festival, the weekend is sure to be a great weekend for food lovers!

To find out more about the festival visit the website now!

Recycled and Upcycled Furniture!

Putting a new lease of life and redecorating is a great way to refresh
your home. There are some great ways to add something new to your home, by using something old and pre loved, which was previously used for something else!

The use of this chair for a new shelf and a place to hang towels is a great way to reuse this piece of furniture, that may have been thrown away or scraped.

There are so many ways to reinvent pieces of furniture that you would otherwise throw away! Here are some great ideas, including this way to reuse an old coffee table for a fun and unique shelf. It would also look great in a bright colour to add more of a feature in a room.

This use of an old shutter for a console table or hall table is a great way to upcycle an old shutter, which could also be used as a great room divider and feature piece for a room. It's simple yet interesting for a room!

Pallets are becoming more commonly used for furniture and storage and are a great way to get a vintage look in the home! This way of using them to display pictures is an innovative way for a feature in the home! They would also be great to store magazines or bits and bobs that would otherwise be lying around the house.

Finally the use of an old ladder, spruced up and painted is a simple way to inject colour to the home and a great addition to a bathroom for towels, or like this for shelving! If you decide to redecorate your home it is easy to paint and remodel to suit any room.

Have fun up-cycling and reusing furniture! A great way to relove a piece of furniture that would otherwise be chucked away!









Ellie Ellie Wears: Pop of colour!

As the weather gets colder its always nice to wear colour and stand out from the crowd with colourful clothing. This week Ellie Ellie wears is inspired by our Artist Palette Pencil Necklace, which will add a pop of colour to any outfit!

To make the necklace stand out team it with this lovely cream People Tree cardigan, who sell all sustainable and fair trade clothing, perfect to keep you warm while creating a great backdrop for the necklace! Pair the jumper with these bright blue jeans for a great contrast and add a tan bag like this leather vintage satchel from Vida Vida! This is a great daytime outfit but you could easily change the top and put heels on to transform it for night time!

Beaded Cardigan - People Tree
Blue Jeans - River Island
Tan Bag - Vida Vida
Artist Palette Pencil Necklace - Ellie Ellie

The Perfect Hot Chocolate!

What better way to snuggle up in front of the tele with a film than with a lovely warm mug of hot chocolate! We have found a great recipe for a better than average hot chocolate that will definitely make it a firm favourite in the evening!

Ingredients:

50g dark drinking chocolate
40ml whipping cream
120ml semi skimmed milk
Pinch of salt
65g dark chocolate, broken into small pieces!

This great recipe is easy to follow and it won't take long before you have a lovely mug of hot chocolate in your hands!

1. Put 350g of cold tap water and the drinking chocolate into a saucepan and bring to a simmer over a medium heat.

2. When simmering, add the whipping cream, semi skimmed milk and salt, and stir to combine.

3. Pour over the chopped chocolate pieces and whisk to dissolve.

4. Using a hand blender, aerate the chocolate before pouring it into big mugs to serve and enjoy!

Why not add some mini marshmallows on top! Go on, we know you want too!

Find this gorgeous recipe here> Hot Chocolate Recipe

Glyndebourne on Tour 2013

Founded in 1934, Glyndebourne is a hidden gem near Lewes in the heart of East Sussex that shows the highest quality opera.

It is a great way to spend the day, with guests able to enjoy picnics and lunches in between performances.

Glyndebourne on tour 2013 presents three large scale operas on the road, in various locations around the UK!

With numerous performances in different locations between October and December, there is bound to be time to fit in an opera this Autumn. Operas this years are, Humperdinck Hansel and Gretel, Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and Britten The Rape of Lucretia!

Find out more here!

Ellie Ellie Wears - Lets get our wellies on

It's always great getting wrapped up warm for a country walk and some fresh air! Keeping warm and dry is essential as the weather turns from summer to autumn. Ellie Ellie wears this week is all about outdoor inspiration and getting your wellies out from the cupboard.

This jumper from Bibico is absolutely perfect at keeping you nice and warm! Wellies are a must if rain is threatening and Joules have a great selection of wellies at the moment with great designs and prints! These spotty patterned ones will look great and keep you dry. Team your wellies with a skinny jean like these from topshop and add big cosy socks to keep our feet warm! Add an Ellie Ellie personalised map pendant to keep your memories with you, or create new ones!

Jumper: Bibico
Wellies: Joules
Jeans: Topshop
Personalised Map Pendant Necklace: Ellie Ellie

Fontwell Races! October Festival

Fontwell Park in West Sussex brings a thrilling 2 day festival full of brilliant entertainment.

If you fancy a day out with friends or family, Fontwell Park has it covered! There will be the excitement of racing mixed with food and drink at the festival. Starting this Friday, the 4th of October, and running till Saturday Fontwell October Festival will be a busy event full of live music and racing.

There are two enclosures to choose from and ticket options available for both days! Take a look at the website for more information!

 

Take a look at the website now! And enjoy the festival and a day out at the races!