September Diary

Shirt- River Island
Jeans- Topshop
Shoes- H&M
Scarf- Vintage YSL

Hey there,

I've finally decided what I'm going to use this blog for, better late then never I know. As everything's got a bit full on recently as you'll soon see, I've decided to use it as an online diary, so here goes my September round-up.

I moved back up to Birmingham, ready for Welcome Week and the start of Uni, slightly earlier then most students as I was part of the Student Unions Welcome team!

Before I left home I made some bunting from the fabrics collected from my internship with Louise O'Mahony. Instead of stitching the bunting onto the ribbon I chose to pin them on with little christmas pegs and I love the effect. It looks perfect on my new desk.

I also moved all my treasures I collected from Turkey into my new room. It's such a novelty for me to have such a large room compared to what I'm used to at home and I've recently discovered how much I love homewards. Somehow managed to convince myself its not splurging, if it's essential for my room, hehe. 

Shirt- Primark
Necklace- H&M
Coat- Mango
Boots- H&M
Jeans- River Island
Bag- TK Maxx
Scarf- Vintage YSL

  Whilst in Birmingham, I've been hot on the job hunt with mixed results but I guess thats to be expected from the current climate. However it does mean I've had to carefully consider my wardrobe choices, including the end of my nose piercing. This OOTD was snapped by my friend Mollie, for her blog, before one of my interviews.

Being back in Birmingham also gives me the chance to catch up with friends I haven't seen for months. The other day we checked out a new healthy vegetarian cafe tucked away in Digbeth. For a very reasonable price we shared some sundried tomatoes and I had a delicious Millet salad. Although I'm not vegetarian, I do really appreciate it especially since being at Uni. I shall defiantly be visiting the Warehouse Cafe again.

And finally, Tomorrow's my Birthday!! Hip, hip, horaaay. Tonight I baked a batch of (almost) guilt-free brownies, containing agave nectar and bananas instead of butter and sugar. I haven't tried them yet but my housemates have had a few tasters and I think it's safe to say they went down well. Also think I finally got a very exciting job today and some new university projects on the go but thats all I'm going to say for now... watch this space! 

Love 

Sophie Agnes

xxx

Wild Flowers

Hey,

This post is a little later than I had hoped as I was having a few problems with my Mac, but it seems to be all sorted now hopefully. When I'm not at uni I live in the Sussex countryside, which has literally exploded with colour recently! As the sun was out, I took the opportunity to practise my photography skills and get some hint of a pre holiday tan. I love the vibrance of the buttercups and bluebells, they just compliment each other so well. 

                           
 Love Sophie Agnes xxx

Green Smoothies

Hey there,

Since I've got home from Uni, I have got into drinking more and more Green smoothies, which taste delicious despite the sometimes off putting colour! They're so easy to make and quick to drink, so perfect as a healthy snack when I'm short on time or trying to multitask. Here's a few of my favourite recipes so far that I wanted to share with you...

Mango Green Smoothie

Ingredients-

1. Banana

1 cup of Green Tea

15g of Oatbran

20g of Frozen Mango (or fresh mango)

10g Frozen Spinach (Fresh spinach is preferable)

Simply throw all the ingredients in the blender and blend. The longer you blend it for the smoother it will be. It may seem odd to put oat bran in the smoothies but it's a good source of energy and will keep you fuller for longer, if you blend the ingredients for long enough you won't even notice it. 

Blueberry Green Smoothie

Ingredients

1 Banana

1 tsp Honey (Optional)

10g of Almonds

5g of Fresh or frozen Spinach

Handful of Blueberries

1/2 cup of water 

 For this smoothie you may want to blend the almonds a bit first or roughly chop them. Then add the rest of the ingredients and blend. Serve in a cold glass with some fresh spinach leaves to garnish. 

This is easily my favourite of the green smoothies as it was so yummy! You may find you don't need to add extra honey as it should be sweet enough without it. Also I used water as the base for this one and if you want a thicker consitency then just add less liquid, same applies to the other smoothies.

Raspberry Green Smoothie

Ingredients

1/2 Banana

10g Oats

1 cup of Green Tea

5g Frozen Spinach (or fresh)

Handful of Raspberries

Once again pop all the ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth. Then serve in a cold glass with a few berries to garnish.

As you can see they're so simple to make. You can also substitute the green tea for water or vice versa, also you could use Greek Yogurt or fresh fruit juice as the liquid base. I reccomend using bananas as they give the thick, creamy consistency. The spinach can also be substituted for other greens such as kale. Please note, all the above recipes serve 1 and the quantities are just a rough guide.

Enjoy your green smoothies and feel free to comment with any recipe suggestions I might like to try!

Love Sophie Agnes xxx

Freebies!

Hey,

This is just a quick post to share with you some freebies I've managed to get my hands on recently...

As you'll soon discover I'm a bit of a health nut when it comes to food so when my friend sent me a code to get a free breakfast Grazebox, I was a little bit too excited.

 I'm already a massive fan of Grazeboxes and these are such a good idea! They were so easy to make, unlike normal porridge, just two mins in the microwave and they were ready. Plus they come in tasty flavours and have honey included, so an all-round tasty and healthy breakfast. The Apple and Cinnamon was definitley my favourite.

 Another freebie, I managed to bag this week was a haircut. Normally I'm so bad with getting my hair cut and don't get it trimmed as often as I should mostly because of the cost. Then a friend recommended  Bad Apple Hair in Birmingham.

Please excuse the picture, I was trying to be subtle!

 On Tuesday afternoons they have student hairdressers in and models get their haircut free of charge. It takes a little longer than a normal hair cut, just over two hours, but I was prepared to be there a while and they made sure I had plenty of refreshments. 

 Overall I was so pleased with the cut, thanks Bad Apple! Also I had that salon feeling afterwards thanks to the Tigi products used. It was a great way to save some pennies and get rid of my dead ends before summer.

Thats all for now,

Love Sophie Agnes

xxx

Hey There!

Welcome to my new Fashion, Design and Lifestyle blog. I'm Sophie and I've just finished my first year studying Fashion Design so I've set up this blog to share what I've been doing to keep myself busy, expect plenty of fashion, baking, DIY and doodling.

My current favourite shoes, From Office.

My first year at Uni has flown by yet I've gained so much from it. One of the highlights of the past year was travelling to Paris for Premier Vision!

Also exploring and discovering some of my favourite parts of Birmingham including my new favourite restaurant, Bodegas.  I've never had nachos like it and none will ever compare to the Bodega Nachos.

My first project at Uni was to design a top and skirt from inital  concept to final collection, then for our next project I had to create a conceptual garment through draping on the stand. However my favourite was the third project to design and make a shirt aimed at a brand.

First project Photo shoot- See my Online portfolio for full project

Heres a sneak peak from my portfolio but to see my work from the beginning check out my online portfolio  at http://sophiearist.blogspot.co.uk.

In the most recent project my mild obsession with 'to do' lists became rather obsessive to keep on top of the amount of work I had on, so much so that I'm feeling lost without them. To help my craving for lists here's a snippet of what I am to achieve this summer and what you can expect from Sophie's Design Bee.

- Start and maintain a blog,

- Make some decorations for my new room (Moving into a new house in September!)

- Buy a new diary and notebooks for my lists,

- Teach myself new skills on Illustrator and Indesign,

- Try out new recipes (This won't be hard, I love cooking)

- Visit a country I've never been to before,

- Make more personalised presents for people.

That's it for my first post but theres much more to come shortly,

Love Sophie Agnes

xx