The Best Bits of Christmas 2014!

We can't quite believe there is only just over a week left of January 2015! 2015.. How did that happen? We hope you have all had a brilliant month and year so far. We thought we'd take some time to reflect upon our rather busy Christmas, and all the great things that happened in December 2014!

Our very festive and alternative Christmas tree went up at the beginning of December, starting the month off with a festive feel!

We visited Downing Street to support and encourage Small Business Saturday! We had great fun meeting fellow small business owners and George Osbourne and Karen Brady! Go Small Businesses in 2015!

We had a slightly madder than usual Friday on the 28th of November, Black Friday! Where we broke records with the amount of orders and postal bags, here's some of the team with a few of them! 

With one week to go until the big day, December the 18th was a slightly sleepy one! 

Our Ellie Ellie staff drinks and secret Santa was the perfect way to end the Christmas season with all the team! With plenty of nibbles and bucks fizz of course!

We hope you had a brilliant Christmas! Here's to a great 2015! 

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 

Interesting Facts about March

As we arrive March (can you believe how quick January and February have gone) we've found some interesting facts that maybe you didn't know about this month!

• It is one of seven months that are 31 days long
• March starts on the same day of the week as November every year, and February in common years only.
• March ends on the same day of the week as June every year
• The name March comes from the Latin Martius, the first month of the earliest Roman calendar. It was named for Mars, the Roman god of war who was also regarded as a guardian of agriculture
• March was the beginning of our calendar year. We changed to the new style or Gregorian calendar in 1752, and it is only since then we begin the year on January the 1st.
• All through lent the traditional games played are marbles and skipping
• The last three days of March were said to be borrowed from April
• One of the flowers most associated with March is the narcissus (Wild Daffodil)

'March winds and April showers

Bring forth May flowers.' 

Who else has some facts about March?

Celebrate British Pie Week!

British Pie Week starts tomorrow and it’s the perfect chance for pie lovers to celebrate the great British classic food. There are a million and one recipes available to make the perfect pie and we are giving you one of Ellie Ellie’s favourite recipes. The Traditional Apple Pie!

What are your favourites?

Traditional Apple Pie:

Ingredients: 

• 1 pack Jus-Rol Sweet Dessert Pastry 375g
• 500g cooking apples
• 1 lemon
• 1tbsp flour
• 2tsp ground cinnamon
• 75g caster sugar (plus a little extra sugar for sprinkling 

 

1. Divide pastry in half and roll out one half to line a 18 cm shallow pie plate and chill whilst you prepare the apples.
2. Peel, core and thickly slice the apples, toss with grated rind from the whole lemon and juice from half, flour, sugar and cinnamon. Pile into the pastry base.
3. Roll out remaining pastry and use to top the pie, using trimmings for decoration as desired
4. Brush with water and dredge lightly with remaining sugar, bake for 20-25 mins until pastry is golden brown. 5. Serve warm with either cream or ice cream.

Visit the website for more pie recipes! 

What pie will you be making to celebrate British pie week? 

It's Home Made Soup Day!

We are big fans of a hearty home made soup at Ellie Ellie HQ, so being Home Made Soup Day we thought we'd give you a favourite yummy recipe of ours for you to try at home!

Danielle loves making her leek and potato soup, always cooking a big batch and freezing individual portions to bring into the office, this is a great way to save time in the morning!

Danielle's Leek and Potato Soup: 

Ingredients:

• 50g butter
• 8 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
• 5 large leeks, sliced
• 2 large potatoes, cubed
• 1.2L vegetable stock
• 300ml milk
• handful of chopped parsley

Recipe:

• Melt the butter in a large pan and add the bacon until it just starts to get some colour
• Add the leeks and potatoes to the pan, stirring well
• Add the vegetable stock and season, bringing to the boil
• Puree the soup in batches with a blender (or all at once if you can) 
• Return to the pan and stir the milk in, season to taste
• separate into separate containers and store in the freezer until you need a quick and yummy lunch 

Best served with some crusty bread and butter!

What's your favourite soup?

Fun Photo Challenge

At Ellie Ellie HQ we love capturing important and funny moments with the camera. We have a brilliant instant camera which means we can make memories and look back at what we've been doing.

Despite every phone now having a camera, moments can still get lost or you can end up taking photos of the same thing all the time.

We have found a great photo challenge for Instagram and photography lovers which many people have created, which gives you a challenge to take a photo everyday of something different. There are so many different ways to do this and you can find one for every month of the year! Think of all the moments you could capture that would have been forgotten about.

Here some we've found for February, with different things to capture every day!

Have a go this February and you'll be able to look back at the unusual and interesting things you took pictures of! It's a great idea to do for the month of your birthday, or a special event, which means you can get a different perspective of that month. You could have a go with a friend and see how different your photos are and print out your photos to make a scrap book!

Have fun!

Celebrate Chinese New Year!

The 31st of January is the start of Chinese New Year, which is a 15 day celebration including feasts and decorations and ending with the Lantern Festival on the 15th Day!

London's celebrations for the Chinese New Year are one of the biggest outside of Asia, and every year thousands of people visit the West End to wish each other Happy New Year or "Kung Hei Fat Choi'

In 2014 the celebrations are taking place on Sunday the 2nd of February, in Chinatown, Trafalgar Square and Shaftsbury Avenue. If you fancy a fun day out go and get involved in the celebrations, which include a parade and performances from visiting artists from China in Trafalgar Square. As always and the part Ellie Ellie always loves exploring, there will be traditional food and craft stalls, perfect if you want to find hidden gems or something a bit unusual.

Visit the website for more information about London's Celebrations!