Spring Activity: Painted Pebbles!

Getting outside is great now that the coldness of winter has been and gone. We've found a great activity for the kids (and big kids) to get up to on a Sunday spring afternoon! With pebble painting, you can get the kids involved in finding the pebbles, washing them and then designing some patterns to paint, draw or doodle on once they are dry! 

We've found some fun ideas to get your brains wurling, we particularly love the ladybirds and owls! 

www.ellieellie.co.uk

DIY Garden Markers

Having time to get out in the garden is one of the great things about Spring, and getting into your vegetable growing can be a fun way to spend the afternoon. Watching your vegetables growing can be so rewarding and the kids can learn a lot about where their food comes from if you grown your own.

If you are embarking on a vegetable patch we have some great ideas for some vegetable markers that are simple to make and easy to do.

These ones have simply been made using sticks from the garden, peel away a slice of the bark and with a sharpie or permanent pen, write your chosen vegetables.

These ones have been made with old wine corks and forks, simply write your vegetables on the cork and stick into the fork! The twine is a lovely extra touch too! 

These are slightly more colourful (and could be more easily spotted) and have been painted using brightly coloured paint and pens! 

How do you mark your vegetable garden?

Our Top Spring Picks!

Now that we should be well into the warmer weather, you'll need some ideas of what you need to make the most of Spring! Including seasonal colours, accessorising and how to make the most of stepping outdoors after a cold Winter!

We've chosen our Top 5 Spring Picks we love and think you will too:

Our new enamel mug, bowl and plate is a must have! Perfect for picnics with the whole family, outdoor treats and scrumptious hot chocolate!

We love nothing more than getting outdoors and flying a kite as high as possible! This traditional diamond kite continues to be one of our favourites!

These artist pencil spring green studs are ideal. In a bright green they are a necessity for your Spring wardrobe!

This lovely enamel tea can is a great way to transport your beverage of choice to an outdoor garden party or picnic! 

www.ellieellie.co.uk

The UK's sweetest signs of Spring

Lighter evenings and blossoming trees - after a cold and brisk winter, with a British Spring comes many things that we all love to see. Why not head out to find as many seasonal flowers, birds nests and baby animals as possible?!

Here's some sure signs of Spring to get you started, do you know what they are?:

..And some others to look out for:

- Hazel catkins

- Snowdrops

- Bluebell shoots

- Elder buds bursting

- Primroses

- Lesser celandine

- Birds building nests

- Bird song

- Frogspawn

- Spring lambs

You could cut down this list to last you a number of country and woodland walks, a great activity to get the kids interested in nature this season!

www.ellieellie.co.uk

Crossing the teas project - Volunteer and visit!

It’s no secret that the British love a good cup of tea, but who ever though it was a fact worth exploring to the extent of an art project? From this month until June, ART;sync; a network of creative professionals, are building a collection of memories based purely on the concept of drinking tea.

Funded by The Heritage Lottery Fund, ART;sync have partnered up with several Brighton-based associations to bring us a fascinating study of the tradition that so many of us simply see as an every day part of life! From a cuppa and cake on an afternoon with friends to the celebrations during Iranian New Year, the project involves nine groups of people with varied cultures and backgrounds hosting their very own tea party. The stories captured will then be on display in Jubilee Library from 22nd June until 16th July 2015.  It's also a chance to see some beautiful and historical crockery from around the world, as well as the stories behind them!

Sound interesting? Good news! The organisation, whose vision is to "mainstream cultural diversity in the arts", is accepting volunteers to get involved right now!. They are on the lookout for Memory Collectors, Community Heritage Facilitators, and Photographic Assistants. So if you're handy with a camera, fancy gathering stories or just looking to find out more about the whole idea, head over to ART:sync to find out more!

Spring into action! What to do and see this season

It's the season of new beginnings and the perfect opportunity for some adventure. So this Spring we have thrown together a couple of activities to keep the kids occupied during half term, and unmissable things to see in the great outdoors:

1) A Scavenger Hunt: Can you spot a squirrel, butterfly, or maybe just different colored leaves? With warmer weather and lighter evenings, all the signs of Spring have sprung and are ready to be found! While learning about the joys of nature, you and the kids will love hunting around to see how many weird and wonderful things you can find! 

If you need more than one scavenger hunt, each child could compete to find the biggest pine cone, or scariest spider! Alternatively you could encourage them to work together as a team.

2) Visit a fun farm: The Easter holidays are a perfect time to spend the day learning about baby animals, or maybe even see one being born! Wouldn't it be lovely to bottle feed a little lamb? Or have a pleasant pony ride through the fields? Many farms also include children's indoor and outdoor play areas for endless fun. Don't miss out on all the activities on offer at your nearest farm!

3) Relax with a hot chocolate: After all the fun and excitement of the day, there'll be nothing better than putting your feet up with a warm drink. Part of our enamel range is the blue trim mug, which is perfect for hot chocolate on a chilly evening. The kids can even decorate theirs with mini marshmallows or some sweet chocolate sauce. The whole enamel range, including a bowl, plate and tea can can be used indoors or for outdoor adventures this Sprin!

                                         

                                          

Which of these will you be getting up to this Spring?

                    www.ellieellie.co.uk

A Recipe for Mum!

We got into the kitchen to bake an absolutely scrumptious recipe for Mothers's Day, classic (and very moreish) shortbread biscuits, with red and pink icing just for Mum! We used three simple ingredients for this recipe, 300 grams plain flour, 200 grams margarine and 100 grams caster sugar.

Firstly, preheat your own to 160C before you start baking, this will get it lovely and toasty for your shortbread's to cook.

Secondly, cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl and gradually mix in the flour. When you start mixing in the flour, using your hands to knead the mixture together into a smooth doughy ball.

Next, lightly flour a clean surface and roll out your mixture using a rolling pin to about half a cm thick. 

Cut out your shapes, we used our Message in a Cookie Cutter Set and cut out heart shapes! 

And then pop them into the oven for 15 minutes, while you prepare the icing!

We used ready made icing for the look we wanted, and the icing easily rolls out. We used our cookie cutters again, this time adding messages to print the icing.

Once the shortbread is out the oven, set aside to cool and mix up a little bit of icing sugar and water, this will act as a glue so you can put your icing onto your shortbreads!

Happy Baking! 

www.ellieellie.co.uk

Let's get ready for Summer!

It's (nearly) getting to that time of the year that we all love, Summer! A great time to get outdoors, hopefully with no rain, have bbq's and spruce up the garden! Here is a great list of family activities to give you some ideas of what to get up to when the sun's shining!

We are definitely going to fly a kite this summer! Our traditional diamond kite is the perfect thing!

We are heading to Glorious Goodwood!

This coming weekend, Goodwood hosts their May Festival, which will see race goers and spectators descend upon Goodwood to see some horse racing. Taking place tomorrow, Friday and Saturday the May Festival is three days of back to back high quality racing. Me and Ava will be heading to the races this Saturday and if you haven't yet made plans this will be a great day out, filled with food, friends and racing!

Located just outside of Chichester, Goodwood is easy to get to from Brighton or London so pop along and see if you can win on the horse racing! Check out our Instagram for photos of me and Ava at the races this Saturday!

To take a look at what else is going on at Goodwood this Summer see the website!

Ellie Ellie Wears!

The days are getting brighter (well most of the time) and the weather is starting to get warmer as Spring continues, and everybody at Ellie Ellie HQ has been dressing in more summery clothes and embracing the blue sky! Ellie Ellie Wears this week embraces the approaching summer time.

With this lovely floral blue and cream shirt from Komodo, which looks brilliant teamed with these spotty blue jeans from Joules. Patterned trousers and jeans are a must have for the coming season, with a new twist on the classic blue jean appearing.

These Bertie loafer shoes are the perfect accompaniment to this look, and would work with black jeans and a pretty dress too. Finish the look with our Ellie Ellie Recycled Aluminium Initial Heart Bracelet, which you can personalise with your chosen initial, and add more charms!

Floral Shirt: Komodo

Blue spotty jeans: Joules

Brown loafers: Bertie shoes

Recycled aluminium initial heart bracelet: Ellie Ellie 

Ellie Ellie Wears

With Spring in full swing, the weather has been picking up here in Sussex, we hope its been the same for you if you are located somewhere else. Ellie Ellie Wears today is inspired by this glorious weather, which we hope continues. This dress from Bibico is perfect for the recent bright and sunny weather, Bibico are a brilliant fair trade clothing company, who insure their cloths are made in a safe and healthy working environment and the people making their clothes are paid a fair price.

Although it is sunny and bright outside, there is still a slight chill in the air so a cardigan (or a bigger coat if you really feel the cold) is needed. This cream one from Bibico is perfect with the dress. Add these summer sandals and your personalised map bracelet bangle for the finishing touch to the look! Summery and fun!

Dress - Bibico

Cardigan - Bibico

Sandals - Hudson

Map personalized bracelet bangle - Ellie Ellie 

Top 5 Spring Picks!

With Spring here there has been lovely weather to get out into the garden or enjoy a spring clean and get your home ready for Summer. Here we have our top 5 picks for Spring, which are perfect to enjoy with the family or for the home.

First up is our Traditional Wooden Rounders Game, a splendid way to spend a Spring afternoon with friends and family in the garden. Our game set comes with a free whistle for the umpire too!

Secondly is our best seller Retro Sweets Jar Sherbet Lemons, a jar packed with delicious sherbet lemons to share (or keep to yourself) and you can personalise the jar too for an extra special gift for a sweet lover.

Our Rambling Rose Recycled Jumbo Storage Bag is a beautiful storage bag that can fit just about anything in, they make perfect bags for your picnic or beach trip this Spring and Summer time. 

Our Lego® Giant Storage Brick in Turquoise is a favourite of ours (not just because of the Ellie Ellie Turquoise colour) it is perfect to store the kids Lego or any other toys or arts and craft materials! 

Last but not least, our Traditional Diamond Kite is perfect for a family day out and hours of fun on a bright and breezy day! 

Which is your favourite?

Scrumptious Hot Cross Bun Muffins!

As Easter weekend is approaching next weekend we thought we'd get in the kitchen and bake some yummy Easter treats for you to share with all the family this Easter! 

What reminds all of us of Easter is the absolutely delicious hot cross buns with lots of butter and some yummy Easter chocolate too!

We've got the best recipe for something a little different, hot cross bun muffins!

The ingredients you will need:

• 150g currants
• 375g self raising flour
• Half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• Half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 165ml sunflower oil
• 250ml buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 200g caster sugar
• 80g icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Recipe:

1. First, preheat the oven to 200c and grease a 12 hole muffin tray with paper cases (we used silicone cases instead of a muffin tray which still worked well)

2. Soak the fruit in just enough boiling water and cover for 10 minutes, pat dry with a paper towel and set aside

3. Sift the flour, soda and spices into a large mixing bowl

 4. In a separate bowl whisk together the oil, buttermilk, eggs and sugar until combined

5. Add this to the dry ingredients and stir to combine, gently stir in the fruit!

6. Divide the mixture among the cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned

7. Meanwhile, place the extra 2 tablespoons of sugar in a pan and 2 tablespoons of water, simmer over a low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved! Brush over to glaze the muffins!

8. Sift icing sugar into a bowl (We ended up using a bit more than 80g for our icing) add lemon juice and just enough hot water to make a thick pipable icing. Use a piping bag to draw a cross on each muffin!

And Voila....

We found this yummy recipe here!

We hope you enjoy these scrumptious treats and your Easter weekend!