What to do with Dad!

There's only a couple of days to go til Fathers Day, so we've been having a look for the best activities to do with Dad to make it a memorable one!

You can't go wrong with spoiling him with good food - Sheffield Park in Uckfield, East Sussex has it all figured out. They're holding a Father's Day barbecue lunch in the tearoom garden, and thanks to the local microbrewery, there'll be a selection of beers and ciders to wash it all down with! There's no need to book, and you can take the whole family along. Find out more here.

For the car mad Dad, head to Woburn Abbey for the Father's Classic Day Out! From military, saloon, sports cars to motorcycles and live music from bygone eras (that he might remember!), it's a real treat. In return for any donation, the kids can treat their dad to a Dream Ride, where they can jump into a classic vehicle and be driven through the countryside!

If you're not feeling too adventurous this year, why not just treat Dad to a lunch in a local pub, go fishing, or bake your own scones for a delicious cream tea indoors? Whatever you decide, he's sure to be spoilt rotten!

What are you planning for Father's Day?

www.ellieellie.co.uk

Happy Banana Bread Day

We love a food inspired celebration day at Ellie Ellie, and today is Banana Bread Day! What better way to celebrate and dig into some well earned treats than making your very own (and very simple) banana bread!

There are all types of different additions to the basic banana bread, and having tried chocolate chip banana bread, we highly recommend it! As well as other flavours we have yet to try, such as blueberries, nutella and carrot.

Here's an easy recipe for you to follow:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c, 350F, Gas mark 4 and sift the flour bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3. Add the eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla extract to the butter mixture and mix well. Then fold into the flour mixture.

4. Grease a loaf tin and pour the cake mixture into the tin

5. Back for about an hour, or until well-risen and golden brown.

6. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving.

Happy Baking!

Festive Ice Skating!

The festive season is upon us (our favourite time of year at Ellie Ellie), and a great way to get the kids and the whole family out and about is the Royal Pavilion Ice Rink in Brighton, which opens every November for ice skating!

Opening for the festive season, till January, the ice rink is a great excuse to try something different if you haven't tried it before, or get back on the ice for people who love skating. In one hour slots, you can book your tickets online and then all you have to do is turn up, get your boots on and get onto the ice.

For the kids, the pavilion have Mr Penguins, who help the little ones feel confident on the ice!

For more informaiton visit the Royal Pavilion Website and book your skating session!

Christmas Markets!

Every year, towns, villages and cities get ready for their annual Christmas Markets, we've picked a few of our favourites we can't wait to explore!

Oxford Christmas Market: 11th December - 21st December
- Located at the heart of Oxfords historic Broad Street, Oxfords market includes a selection of Christmas gifts and seasonal treats.

Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market: 20th November - 21st December
- With an ice rink to keep the kids entertained, this Christmas market sees a bustling festive atmosphere with an array of Christmas gifts and festive food.

Brighton Christmas Fair: 15th November - 16th November
- In this two day Christmas shopping event, happening this weekend you will find loads of Christmas gift ideas, as well as festive home accessories and food and drink.

The Hop Farm, Kent - Weekends in December
- Hosting a series of weekend Christmas markets, you will find locally sourced products, crafts and seasonal food and drink at the Hop Farms Christmas Markets throughout December.

What Christmas Markets will you be visiting?

Guy Fawkes Night!

An annual celebration on the 5th of November, Bonfire Night sees many cities, towns and villages celebrate with fireworks, bonfires and parades.

Whether you are celebrating at a big bonfire night event, with family or having your own party, we've got our bonfire night essentials.

Our Retro Sweets Jar Giant Marshmallows are great to toast on the fire

Great for the kids this bonfire night, this Make Your Own Toffee Apple Set is the perfect bonfire night treat!

Our Check Recycled Wool Rug is perfect for settling down (with a mug of hot chocolate) to watch the fireworks. 

Where will you be going to celebrate Bonfire Night?

Brighton Digital

Brighton is a thriving digital and creative community and this Month it is hosting the Brighton Digital Festival, a community driven grassroots festival celebrating digital arts and culture!

Brighton Digital Festival has a whole host of events for everybody who wants to get involved, showcasing the variety of activity that goes on across this marvelous city.

If you are after some inspiration, art, culture or workshops, Brighton is the place for you this month. With a whole host of seminars and workshops for free this month, there are endless possibilities.

Some of the great things going on include: geo-writing, the hidden web, mind of the city, comics and computers and career advice!

For more information on this jam packed digital festival visit the website now!

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!

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 

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! 

Ellie Ellie is 2! (Well nearly)

Ellie Ellie turns 2 on Friday (Happy Birthday to us!) and we are taking the time to look back at our favourite moments from the past year! It has been such a jam packed year, full of birthdays, a busy Christmas, new team members and milestones we've picked a handful of brilliant Ellie Ellie moments to reminisce!

Getting our new postal bags in September to send all our orders in! 

Launching our snazzy new website in October! www.ellieellie.co.uk

Celebrating 20,000 orders with Notonthehighstreet.com in November with bucks fizz (of course) and the team! 

Meeting Theo Paphitis at the Small Business Sunday Birmingham event in November! Very nice chap indeed!

Christmas Jumper in December during the Christmas madness! 

Welcoming our newest member of the team, Ellie Ellie's mother hen, Hayley in February! 

Here's to many many more brilliant moments and to the next year!! 

Say Hello to the New Ellie Ellie Office!!

We had some very exciting news at the beginning of July which means we are getting ready to start another Ellie Ellie adventure. The whole Ellie Ellie team are getting ready to move into our new offices in Hove, which is a converted old soap factory! All the team are very excited about this move, which will see us move to a bigger office which much more space for our growing team. We really love our current office and have made it our own working space, changing the layout numerous times to fit the needs of the business, but there is no longer enough space for the growing team, so Hello Hove!

We are in the midst of organising our big move and will keep you updated every step of the way! Here are some pictures of our new space... Keep your eyes peeled for more!

www.ellieellie.co.uk 

We complete our 71 mile walk!

Last Friday all the team at Ellie Ellie completed the Midnight Walk in Brighton to raise money for the Martlets Hospice! The Martlets Hospice is absolutely brilliant, helping people live life fully and taking care of people across the whole of the local community. We were absolutely thrilled to be taking part in such a great fundraising event, and reached our target well before the event! Thank you to every body who donated to this special cause!

The first six miles of the walk went by pretty easily, and although 13 miles doesn't seem that far when walking, the last few miles of the walk were more challenging. It started pouring with rain for the last few miles which left us soaked through! But we did it and it felt great at the end of the walk to know that we had all challenged ourselves.

Here are some snaps from the night:

A few snaps while we were out walking:

Finally, soaked through, here is the team once we had finished the walk (and it was 5am and we were ready for bed)

If you would still like to donate, find our just giving page here!

A week to go!

We've got a week to go until we take part in the Martlets Hospice Midnight Walk in Brighton! Our walk will start at midnight, and end when we have all finished our 13 miles! This is such a great cause and we are hoping to get lots more lovely donations in to help the Martlets Hospice who do such great work!

We've been training since February when we decided to take part, walking around the beautiful Sussex countryside and beaches in our spare time to prepare!

If you would like to donate to this great cause visit our Just Giving page and you can read more about our story!

Our Instagram page is full of our training photos too, and we will also be posting on the night next week if you want to keep up to date with our walk!

The Big Beach Clean!

This week marks the 30th anniversary of Volunteers' week, which is a week to celebrate the contribution of millions of volunteers across the UK. Many different volunteer projects are getting underway this week, with challenges and events taking place throughout the UK all week to celebrate. 

Hayley and I got involved with the big beach clean up on Brighton seafront last week, joining loads of helpful volunteers to clean the beach of litter and rubbish. Organised by The Argus, teams of volunteers and individuals to met on Brighton pier from across the city to begin cleaning up the beach. 

I was very surprised at how much litter there was on the beach, considering we had had a rainy bank holiday Monday the day before. What was also surprising was the type of litter we picked up, i was expecting crisp packets and drinks cans, however, the rubbish we were picking up was much smaller pieces such as bottle tops, string and small bits of plastic that could easily not be seen and therefore stay among the pebbles. Which would ultimately increase the amount of litter on the beach. We even found a pair of headphones buried in the pebbles! 

Thank you to The Argus for organising the beach clean up. We will definitely be taking part in the next one!

Read more about the Big Beach Clean up here!

Find out more about Volunteers' Week