Accidents and Mistakes - Make them!

We are big fans of Keri Smith at Ellie Ellie and you may know about our postcard challenge, whereby we sent our little postcard on an adventure to different friends to see how far he could travel and how many people we could get to comment on him (we are chasing his location now and will update you soon). 

Keri Smith is absolutely brilliant, and is such a creative inspiration. Her books, including Wreck this Journal and Mess are brilliant in unleashing your creativeness and imagination! 

We are currently completing her book 'Mess', The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes, which challenges something you have been taught all your life, that making mistakes and a mess is a bad thing. Which it certainly is not! 

In this book are a series of exercises designed to throw you into a place you have little or no control over and to get you exploring a variety of different materials. 

For a perfectionist, this book is really stepping out of your comfort zone, one exercise is asking you to cover a page in honey or glue, drop something from a height and see where it lands as well as a number of other exercises that promote fun and creativity you may not think you had. 

The next exercise for us is this.....

We will let you know how we get on with the book, i'm sure it will be a complete mess once we have finished all the exercises but that is what is challenging in the book, stepping out of your comfort zone! Have a look at Keri Smith's other books which include a world of unknown creativity! 

Garlic Garlic Garlic!

We wrote about the Isle of Wight Garlic Festival last year, and this year we finally got to go! We set off on the Ferry to the Isle of Wight to the islands biggest summer show. We saw a number of cookery demonstrations, of course all using the vital ingredient - garlic! As well as the giant garlic marquee, with was full to the brim of all kinds of garlic in every shape and size!

There is also so much to do with the family, with activities and fun for the kids and live music and delicious food!

If you get the chance to go next year, go! We will give you a little reminder before the festival so you don't miss it!

Isle of Wight Garlic Festival! 

Ellie Ellie Wears

The weather this Summer has been brilliant and we are embracing the sunshine this week with Ellie Ellie Wears! Perfect for the summertime, this midi dress is brilliant for day to night. It's simple design means it will go with just about anything and would look great with a pop of colour like this bag. 

This bag from What Daisy Did is made from recycled and factory offcut leather and synthetic leather materials that may have otherwise been wasted. They have great designs featuring loads of different colour combinations. Finish off the look with our recycled aluminium initial heart pendant and these summer sandals from Hudson, which would look brilliant with jeans and a shirt as well.

Dress: L.K Bennett

Recycled Bag: What Daisy Did

Sandals: Hudson Shoes

Personalised Pendant: Ellie Ellie

Shoreham Airshow!

As one of the premier family airshows in the UK, the Shoreham Airshow is a brilliant event that attracts the best UK and European display acts to its event each year.

Taking place next weekend on the 30th and 31st of August, the Airshow is a family fun day, with aircraft displays and exciting aerobatic displays. If you are a plane enthusiast, this is an event for you. The event this year will also see a new attraction which is a World War Two Scenario!

Held to support the work of the Royal Air Forces Association, this event raises so much money for this great cause, which provides comradeship to all members of the Royal Air Force and Royal Air Force Regiment. Since the show first started it has raised over £1.8 million for the RAFA.

Find out more information here and enjoy this exciting day!

Tulley's Puzzle Park

If you are looking for something different to do this Summer in the last weeks of the Summer holidays, look no further than Tulley's Farm in West Sussex! Tulley's Farm is a brilliant farm with a world wide reputation of family fun!

Happening this Summer is the farms country puzzle park, which includes loads of activities, including giant games, mini mazes and logic puzzles for the kids to get involved in. They also have their giant maize maze, which might drive you mad but is guaranteed excitement for all the family.

Visit Tulleys Farm website for opening times and tickets and give yourself and the kids a great day out!

We're all moved in!

Thank you so much everybody for your messages during our big office move. We are now all moved in to our new HQ in Hove, after a big weekend clearing out the old office and then moving everything into the new one.

We've shown you some sneak peeks along the way, but we can now show off our new office to you, which we hope you love as much as us! We will be posting new photos on our Instagram over the next few weeks, showing off our brilliant new space!

This was our old space, all cleared and cleaned with everything on the way to the new office:

Here's some snippets of our new space:

Keep up with the Ellie Ellie journey on our Facebook! 

Lets Have a Feast!

Jamie Oliver and Alex James present The Big Feastival on the 29-31st of August in the Cotswolds!

The feastival (see what they did there?) is an absolutely jam packed weekend celebration of music, food and family fun. Whether you go with family or friends you will enjoy music from top acts and chef demos in the Big Kitchen.

As well as entertainment and activities, there is also local produce stands, where you can sample the best of what the Cotswolds has to offer. There is much more going on with arts & crafts workshops and a vintage funfair and more....

Find more information on The Big Feastival and get tickets

Perfect Elderflower Cordial

Elderflower cordial has become a summer favourite, perfect for summer parties, bbq's and a refreshing drink in the sunshine. There are so many different drinks you can make with elderflower cordial, from a fizzy drink to something a bit stronger for the adults.

Now is the time to make your cordial, as the sweetly scented flowers of the elder tree are in abundance in the summer time. We have a simple recipe you can try, and then what you mix it with is up to you, whether it be sparking water, still water or your favourite spirit.

Ingredients:
- 20 elderflowers with big heads, make sure to shake off any bugs and insects and trim off any excess leaves
- 4 lemons, thinly sliced
- 1.5kg sugar
- 1.8 litres of water
- 60 grams of citric acid.

Method:

- Bring the sugar and water to the boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar
- Once cooled, pour the sugar water and all the other ingredients into a big jar and cover
- Leave this for about 48 hours stirring occasionally
- After you have let the mixture set, remove the lemons and elderflowers and strain the water a few times
- Pour the syrup into a pot and cook for about 5 minutes
- Poor the liquid into clean glass bottles and close them
- Let them cool before putting them in the fridge
- Serve the syrup with your choice of spirit or sparkling water!

We added our syrup to still water and added lemons to finish!

Find more recipes for summer here!

A day in the life....... At an Ellie Ellie photoshoot!

Last week we got into our Christmas jumpers (yes it was unbearably hot) and posed for the camera for our Christmas card photoshoot! Despite the summer heat we grabbed our Christmas props and posed away!

We also did some other individual photos for a super exciting new project... All will be revealed very soon! As well as debuting our new Ellie Ellie aprons, with our logo embroidered on the front! What do you think?

Here are some behind the scenes photos from the shoot!

Keep up to date with Ellie Ellie news on our Facebook or Instagram! 

Ellie Ellie Big Office Move!

As you will know, Ellie Ellie are moving to a lovely new office space in Hove. Leaving our current office for a new adventure. Time has gone so quickly since we got the keys and we have been busy preparing the office for the big move. We don't want to give too much away until we move in but we have some sneaky pictures to share...

The big move is happening this weekend so keep you eyes peeled for another update where we will share our new space! Hope you are having a great weekend!

www.ellieellie.co.uk 

Bluebell Railway!

If you are looking for fun activities for the kids this summer then the Bluebell Railway is a great morning or afternoon out! The bluebell railway run preserved steam trains through the heart of Sussex and is sure to get the kids excited!

From the 26th of July they have been running their Summer Festival, which goes on until this Sunday, the 10th of August! This festival is jam packed full of fun things to do, as well as running their historic steam locomotives and carriages, they have a whole host of other special events taking place across the railway! Even when the festival is over, there is still a lot to be explored with the bluebell railway!

They have local history displays at each of their stations, as well as other excursions you can get involved with!

For more information of the Bluebell Railway, visit their website! 

Ellie Ellie Wears: Stripes

Stripes are a wardrobe essential this summer, with the nautical look being everywhere on the highstreet this summer! This outfit is perfect for a summer's day and could be easily transferred to an evening look. This top is from People Tree, whose garments are hand crafted in organic cotton and other sustainable materials using traditional skills that support rural communities. Team with these black high waisted shorts from River Island and jelly shoes from JuJu, the original makers of British jelly shoes for over 25 years. Our artist pencil colour palette necklace adds a burst of colour to the outfit to finish off the look!

Stripy top: People Tree
Shorts: River Island
Jellies: JuJu
Necklace: Ellie Ellie

Be a pirate for a day!

This Tuesday (the 5th of August) Arundel Castle are hosting their Pirates & Smuggler Day! Set in the lower lawns at the castle, this family day out will be a great opportunity to find out more about the Smugglers and Pirates of Sussex. Who menaced the waters around the World.

As part of the day, you can have a go at fencing, archery as well as other crafts. There will be lots of activities to entertain all the kids and adults too. Included in the day there are also some weapon demonstrations and story telling!

If you are up for something to do this Summer holidays with the kids, this is the perfect day out! Take a picnic and a big rug to have lunch in the grounds.

If you can't get to Arundel on Tuesday, there is also another Pirates & Smugglers Day on Sunday the 21st of September as well!

Find out more information about the events at Arundel Castle! 

Happy Birthday to us!

Happy Birthday to us! 

Ellie Ellie is celebrating its 2nd birthday today! We are celebrating the Ellie Ellie way, with a lot of cake and bucks fizz, thinking back on the past year and what are best moments have been! Here are some of the moments we came up with (it was so hard to choose). These have been our most funniest, challenging, happy and exciting times at Ellie Ellie over the past year!

Using our Christmas trolley fun!

Big Easter Bake Off (Ava was crowned the winner) 

A visit from the Easter bunny

Having fun playing with our new sports day games! 

Seeing Little Mix in Brighton as part of Ellie Ellie's birthday celebrations (Best surprise ever) 

Walking 13 miles at midnight for the Martlets Hospice, through pouring rain we did it!! 

Ellie Ellie's exciting new office (stay tuned for more in the next few weeks)

Ellie Ellie featuring in the new Notonthehighstreet book 'Shape Up Your Business' 

Winning the Online Business Award at the Sussex Women of the Year Awards 

The whole team with the award! 

Here's to an even better year ahead! 

www.ellieellie.co.uk