Happy Birthday, ShaikhenAndStirred!

Happy Birthday, ShaikhenAndStirred!!! You’ve come a long way, baby:) So, it’s been thirteen months since I started my beloved blog. I can’t tell you how many times people have asked me what my plan is with this venture of mine. Honestly, I didn’t know either when I embarked upon this journey (I know, that sounds so philosophical but that’s how I write) and I pretty much have gone with the flow as opportunities have come my way.

I started SAS (also my personal initials … Sobia Aziz Shaikh) with the idea of a creative outlet that would allow me to express my love for fashion and travel while I sprinkled it with beauty and skincare tips, added some restaurant suggestions, highlighted my favorite products and recommended the books I enjoyed reading.

Talking about books, I love this one and it’s available at Amazon.

It has evolved in a manner I did not anticipate at all. To spotlight what I’ve been up to in the past year: I modeled again after almost 18 years. And of course, I’ll share the crap out of that campaign with you once the printed materials and the website are up and running. I was appointed an ambassador for Net-A-Porter. Hell yes, I love it too! And, that means that I’ll co-host various events with them in San Francisco - a few private lunches and various shopping events. Follow my blog for updates (yes, that’s a shameless plug). Oh, I also became a “glambassador” for GlamSquad - hair, make-up and nail services anytime, anywhere. In fact (yes, about to toot my own horn), so many of my friends, acquaintances and followers signed up for the service that GS asked me what method I was utilizing to spread the word about them!!!!) Success:))

I hosted (and will continue to host) a number of events in SF. My absolute favorite one was the one at Neiman Marcus, that I hosted with my daughter, Lyali, as a co-chair for the Coach X Selena Gomez collaboration. We invited 10 of Lulu’s friends and their moms (my friends too obvs) for a mother/daughter luncheon to introduce the limited edition collection to everyone.

I have been fortunate enough to have local San Francisco designers, brands across the nation as well as outside the United States reach out to me to endorse their products. I’ll obviously continue to work with different companies but have also finalized a sponsorship package with the help of a social media marketing team to further develop my brand - #funtogetpaidforwork. I know, soooo exciting. I have a few other projects in the pipeline, that I’m eagerly looking forward to and that I will, obviously, document for you when completed.

In addition, I was lucky enough to go to Paris Fashion Week in February and September of this year and was beyond inspired at every turn during both my trips. But, most importantly, I NEVER expected to receive the encouragement, support and love, not just from my friends (well, that I kind of hoped would happen;) but from my followers on social media that has left me overwhelmed and feeling all fuzzy and wonderful! So, THANK YOU to each and every one of you for reading, praising, supporting, criticizing and continuing to support me. Please write/DM me with more ideas of what you’d like to see here and I promise I’ll try my best to oblige. Oh last but not least, I have a VERY COOL giveaway coming up on my Instagram as a small token of my appreciation to all of you, so do stay tuned:))

Thank you VERY much for visiting & reading my blog posts for a year and I promise I have even more interesting content that I’m working on for this second year! Lots and lots of love from the stirrer;) Love, Sobia

A special thank you as always to my dearest Ricci of RustandFlourish for these pics!