My Ultimate Baking Wishlist...

Seeing as I have been getting back into baking recently, and you can check out what I have made so far here. I have been scouring the internet looking for the perfect baking tools to assist me in my baking quest!

From top left to bottom right we have:

1. The Andrew James Electric Food Stand Mixer in Black: This is Amazon's most popular stand mixer, I myself am desperate to own a Kitchen aid, however I am aware that their price tag is way out of my reach at the moment. So I'm looking for an alternative, and at £79.99 this looks to be good value for money.

2. Andrew James 'Spare' Bowl for Mixer: Obviously needing this is dependent on me having the food mixer, but as most recipes call for several mixes and icings, I thought it might be handy to have two bowls. That way I don't have to pause in between to wash the bowl up so I can get on with my baking. This one costs £18.99

3. Andrew James Stainless Steel 5 Piece Mixing Bowl Set: I'm currently using some Poundland plastic mixing bowls, and whilst they do the trick, they are cracked (still working though) and they do get scratched a lot by my hand mixer. Having a stainless steel set would mean that I wouldn't have to worry about them cracking, also they come in various sizes, handy for baking. At £19.99 I think this set is definitely worth giving a go!

4. Andrew James Multifunctional Food Processor: I have a cheap Morisson's own food processor that is a constant source of annoyance for me, every single time I want to use it. It doesn't hold enough, and the blade never catches all the mixer. This processor looks neat enough, and comes with an army of attachments, and for £69.99 I think that it's a steal.

5. Andrew James Ice cream maker attachment for Stand Mixer: Another reason to buy the food mixer above, you can buy an ICE CREAM MAKER attachment. That makes me seriously happy as I love ice cream and would love to make my own proper stuff, this dreamy attachment can be yours for £29.99.

6. Masterclass 20cm Square Cake Tin: I've got loads of regular cake tins, but how cool would it be to make square cakes? Masterclass is a good brand of bake ware, and at £10.20, I'd love a couple of these to add to my tin collection!

7. 52pc Stainless Steel Piping Nozzle Set: Just think of all the cake decorating I could do with this set, the thought of it, literally makes me go giddy with excitement. 52pcs for £11.24 is a total bargain!

8. Silicone Rolling Mat: One thing I noticed when making my sausage rolls yesterday was how little fun it was to roll pastry directly onto my work surface, so one of these at £14.99 would really save my life.

9. Baking Beads: I bought some of these AGES ago and they have mysteriously gone walkabouts, so I need more of these in my life before I decided to make a tart, they're only £5.00.

10: Flat Baking Sheets: These would be perfect for when I am baking biscuits, and pastries to ensure they get an even bake, for £5.40 I think a couple of them could mosey on in to my collection, right?

11. Premier Housewares Cake Stand and Dome: How cute is this? I need a pretty serving plate for my cakes and this one is so beautiful. Yes, I don't strictly need this, but I WANT it, and it's only £17.14...

12: Savoy Disposable Piping Bags: Last and by no means least are some piping bags. I'm no stranger to a piping bag, but I'm forever having issues with mixture coming out of the top of them, probably because the ones available in Tesco are far too small. These one are large in size, and a professional quality, so I'm sure they'd be less hassle for only £2.35, right?

OBC #24: The Sibling Tag

Last week I actually filmed a video with my brother, Markus, however didn't manage to edit it and get it up in time for my Friday video. So I thought I would share it with you all this week!

Let me know in the comments if you have any siblings, and whether or not you get on?

OBC #23: Costumes From the Past...

For as long as I can remember, I have loved dressing up, from Halloween every year when I was a kid, and World Book Day when we got to dress up at school. Unfortunately I don't have any photos to hand of my costumes from when I was younger, so I had to settle for the ones I could find on Facebook.

This is from my 17th Birthday Party when I dressed up as a Greek Goddess. I don't think the party had a theme, other than 'wear a costume' so we ended up with a weird mix of characters...

This one was taken on our last day of Sixth-form before exams. Me and two of my best friends decided to go as Pumapards (Puma cross Leopards). It was a seriously fun day, despite it being pretty hot wearing that fur coat!

Can we all just ignore the pout? This was from the first year of Uni for the 'Back to School' party. Hence the shirt, tie, and pigtails.

Again from the first year of Uni, which is why there is a serious amount of alcohol on the tabl in front of me. This was a very last minute costume as I wasn't actually going to go out, but my flatmates persuaded me. A friend did my hair and make up, and luckily I had a black dress, so I was a vampire.

I don't know why I look so confused in this picture, but this was from my 19th Birthday, whilse I was at Uni. I asked everyone to come as something beginning with 'A' and so I went as Alice (Alice in Wonderland)

This is by far my favourite of all the costumes I have ever worn. This was my 20th Birthday and I asked everyone to dress up as characters from 'My Little Pony' and I went as Fluttershy. I even got recognised by a few people whilst I was out!

This is from a friends birthday party, and we could dress up as whatever we wanted, but I wanted to go as a female video game character. With limited choices I settled on Amy Rose from Sonic. Which turned out to be quit an effective costume.

This one makes me giggle every time I see it. Back when I was the Social Sec of a society at uni, I ran a night where I asked boys to dress up as famous female singers and girls to dress up as famous boy singers. I forced my friends to dress up as JLS, and we even used their condom boxes as pendants... Wow I was cool back then...

I wore this to a horror film festival, and it was based off of a film that I had watched the day before, and loved so much, that I decided I had to pay respect to it. In case you are wondering what film it was, it was this one.

This is probably the most recent picture I have of me in a costume, and it's from a few Halloween's ago. A friend of mine hosted a Halloween themed murder mystery and I got the role of the wicked witch, in case you hadn't already guessed...

I've really enjoyed taking a look through all my old costumes today, it's really reminded me of how much I love dressing up, and how I may have to start going to a few more costume parties!

OBC #22: A New Beginning...

I know, I know, I haven't exactly been keeping up with this blog challenge the past week or so, I'm really sorry about that. I'm hoping to finish it strong by writing a post every day until the end of the month, starting today.

Today's prompt was supposed to be a 'Wordless Wednesday', however as I didn't have any pictures prepared I thought I could talk to you about something else.

On November 3rd I will be starting a job in a place where I have always wanted to work. Whilst I will be contracting, and not necessarily working for the company, I am still super excited about it. It's only a four month contract with a few of progressing, either in the company I will be working at, or within the company who is contracting me there. I am happy to say that the job I am undertaking, is NOT in sales. I breathed a massive sigh of relief when they offered me the job, because I have been dying to get out of sales for a long, long time. Unfortunately for me, I appear to have the perfect CV for sales, but now I will be getting some Admin experience under my belt, which will hopefully start to move me towards where I want to be.

So today, I thought I would share with you some of the things I noticed whilst searching for jobs recently:

1) There are a billion jobs in sales and recruitment. These jobs come across as being highly competitive, when in reality the Sales sector probably has the highest turn around of staff than any other sector.

2) There are quite a lot of jobs in construction available, and not the ones you would immediately think of either.

3) This time of year there are a tonne of retail jobs available. This is because they hire their seasonal staff, and more often than not they keep these staff on once the holiday season has ended.

4) Recruiters will hassle you if you have your CV up on Reed.co.uk. The amount of calls I get a week from recruiters, just because my CV is up on the Reed website is ridiculous. If you are looking for work, then that is a brilliant place to put your CV up. Not only can you browse available jobs, but 9/10 times you get recruiters doing all the hard work for you and calling you up with vacancies.

If you are looking to change jobs, then start now. Sometimes it can be a slow process, and then other times you may have the perfect role for you land right in your lap. It's all about putting yourself out there and giving it a go.

OBC #18: Places I Want to Travel to...

There are quite a few places that I am desperate to travel to, and I'm hoping I'll get to see at least a couple of them in my life time...

Venice is very high on my to do list, I just think it's such a romantic place. I'm hoping that I'll get to go to Venice next year, but we'll see if it's on the cards...

I've been to Vegas before, but we only spent a few days there, and at the time I was under the legal age for gambling etc. So I'd like to return so I can see everything that I want to see, and actually maybe win some money in Vegas!

Australia was never on my 'to travel' list, until a couple of people I knew were talking about their time travelling out there, and it just sounds amazing. I'm not sure if I'll ever make it there, but we'll have to wait and see.

Ever since I was a little girl I have been obsessed with Ancient Egyptian history, and I have always been desperate to see the pyramids. I'm hoping one day I'll get to go on a cruise down the nile, and see all the things I have always wanted to.

So those are the main four places on my travel list, I don't know how many of them I'll actually get to do, but I pray that I get to see them all one day. 

OBC #16: Thankful Thursday #2

I'm going to keep this Thankful Thursday short as there is one major thing that I am thankful for this week. On Monday I celebrated the one year anniversary of my relationship with Tim! Only the second time I have ever reached this milestone in a relationship so it was pretty special to me.

Unfortunately Tim had to go to work that morning, but he left my card on my dressing table for when I woke up, and I have to say what he wrote in it brought a little tear to my eye...

Thankfully he only had to work a half day so he arrived home within plenty of time for us to have lunch together. Shortly after he got home the doorbell rang, to which he said, 'Can you get that?'. This immediately set off alarm bells in my head because Tim is always the first one to answer the door. I opened the door to be greeted by a sweet surprise.

Roses are obviously my favourite flower, and Tim managed to get me a bouquet of 12 roses. Although this was the first time I received roses from Tim, he actually ordered me a bouquet on Valentines Day only to have them refunded without explanation and never delivered. Alongside the roses was this beautiful card, which again made me tear up...

Seriously how sweet is this card? Although he was a pretty sweet guy when I met him so I'm not entirely sure how I've made him better!

On top of my flowers, Tim also got me a gift, which he was hesitant to give me, as he wasn't sure I would like it.

Of course as soon as I opened it I fell in love, he got me this beautiful heart shaped locket, and I can't wait to put a picture of us together inside of it! 

After spending our afternoon cuddling and talking about our favourite memories of when we first started going out, Tim was insistent that we go out for dinner. Despite the fact it was pouring with rain outside, he managed to convince me. He whisked me off to a local steak house and we had a lovely meal, accompanied by a large glass of wine!

All in all it was an amazing day, and a brilliant way to celebrate our love for each other, I hope to be sitting here at the same time next year, writing about our second year anniversary...

OBC #15: Link Love

Today's prompt is all about celebrating things that I love on the internet, in the hope that maybe some of you will love them too!

I saw this video on Tumblr AGES ago, and I completely forgot about it until I was searching for links to this post, it will make you smile, I guarentee.

This master post on 'How To' Fashion that I found on Tumblr is seriously helpful for people like me who have little to no fashion sense. It also covers how to wear Scarves, T-shirts and even shopping the Menswear section. Seriously helpful...

I love reading Kayleigh's Disney World Diary posts, although I have to admit they make me a tad bit jealous, I do love seeing all of her colourful photos!

I always enjoy reading Leona's Wednesday Love posts, as they always contain things that make me smile, plus Leona is an awesome blogger so get on over there!

I really like this idea for Halloween, we all know I love all things horror and gory, and I'm definitely considering trying to recreate this look for one of the several Halloween partied I have this year.

OBC #14: What's on my Playlist?

Whenever I go on a road trip I have to make sure that I have my favourite music with me, particularly if I am driving because it keeps me sane. Normally I hate talking about my taste in music, this comes from being ridiculed pretty much my entire life for the type of music I like. I just never really saw the point in starting an argument with someone, so I normally just listened and never spoke when the topic of music came up. When it comes to music I am into a lot of different things, but mainly I like Pop music. I'm guaranteed to like pretty much anything in the charts, but alongside that I do have a few random tastes.

Any playlist I create will definitely have some Nickelback on it. Now I know that Nickelback get a pretty bad rep, mainly on the internet, but to be honest, I really like them. I've seen them live, and I think there awesome, and I really enjoy singing along to their songs. Anyone who shots someone down for liking Nickelback is certainly no friend of mine...

My top 3 Nickelback songs are:

1) Lullaby
2) Gotta Be Somebody
3) Next Contestant

Back when 'Dance, Dance' was popular I went through a massive Fall Out Boy phase. I went to see them live when I was 15 and I dressed up all emo, and thought that I was so cool. Me and my friend got separated by a Mosh Pit and I panicked and thought I was going to die. They had light up guitars when they played their most recently released song, and they were seriously amazing live. Pete Wentz jumped down to the barrier and was pawing a tonne of fangirls and I almost died because I couldn't reach him. Then Fall Out Boy split up, and I mourned, listened to a tonne of their music, and then to be honest, I kind of forgot about them. That was until they made an epic comeback with 'Save Rock and Roll', as soon as they announced their tour I knew I HAD to get tickets. Thankfully my sister is equally as obsessed with them as I am, so she came with me. We arrived at the arena super early, and waited all day in the freezing cold, even going to buy blankets at a local Primark because we were that freezing. It paid off in the end because we were second row, and they were even more glorious than they were the first time I saw them!

My Top Three Fall Out Boy songs are:

1) The Phoenix

2) Death Valley 

3) Sugar We're Going Down

I first heard My Chemical Romance's 'Helena' when I used to watch movies that people had made from the Sims 2, and someone made an awesome one to that song. It wasn't until 'The Black Parade' was in the charts that I really started listening to them though. I found that I much preferred their older stuff to The Black Parade, but really I can listen to either. I just love how strong the emotion is in their lyrics, and love singing along to their songs...

My Top Three MCR Songs are:

1) Helena
2) I'm Not OK
3) The Ghost of You

Back when I was pretty young and Busted were in the charts I was totally obsessed with them. I begged my parents to take me to a Busted concert, but alas they never did. I remember watching Saturday Morning TV and desperately entering ever single competition they had to win tickets to see Busted, but it simply never happened. When they split, I was shattered, I would never get to see them in concert. Mcfly came along a filled the Busted void, and I liked them a lot, they weren't up to Busted's level for me, but that had some amazing songs. When the McBusted super group was announced I couldn't contain my excitement. My sister and I snapped up tickets, and in the end we WON tickets to go into the VIP area right at the front of the stage. You can read all about that experience here. It was literally amazing, even though I had to abandon my boyfriend, they played all of my favourite Mcfly and Busted songs, and by the end of the night I didn't have a voice left.

My Top 3 Busted/Mcfly Songs are:

1) Crashed the Wedding (Busted)
2) Room on the Third Floor (Mcfly)
3) Air Hostess (Busted)

Let me know in the comments what artists simply cannot escape your playlist, I love hearing from you!

OBC #10: Lush Mini Haul

Today is another Friday and therefore another Youtube upload day for me, so instead of rushing around trying to put out a video and a blogpost, I thought I would simply combine the two again. This week I bought a couple of products from Lush and I thought I would share with you guys what I got. Click the video below to watch my haul, or alternatively I have written a list of the products mentioned underneath the video.

Products mentioned in this video are:

• So White Bath Bomb
• Lord Of Misrule Bath Bomb
• Butter Bear Bath Bomb
• Dragons Egg Bath Bomb
• Sparkler Bath Bomb

OBC #9: Throwback Thursday

I can't believe that it's day 9 of this challenge already, I've really been enjoying getting back into blogging and writing a post every day. I hope you have all enjoyed reading my posts as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

I've never written a Throwback Thursday post before and I was really struggling to chose what to write about. Then as I was flicking through my Facebook photos I found this one, and I realised it's pretty much exactly a year ago since I had this accident. I'm not going to go too much into what happened as at the time I wrote a blog post all about that, which you can find here. To put your mind at ease I will say that I only came away with a small scratch on my hand, so luckily no need for any arm injury claims. What I really want to talk about is why I am thankful that this happened.

First off it made me stop and think about what I was doing with my life and what I wanted to do with it. At the time I was in a part time job, that I loved, but wasn't really giving me much in return, and living at home with my family and arguing a lot with them because I needed my own space. Also I was kind of dating but not really dating someone who I was adamant that I just wanted to be friends with, even though I knew he wanted more.

So what's changed since then?

Well first off I stopped messing around the guy I was dating, and I decided that life's too short. He seemed to really like me, and I liked him albeit as a friend at the time. I thought why not give him a shot? I had been pretty unlucky with relationships ever since my 'big split' and the guys I was picking weren't really making the grade. So why not go out with a guy who picked me, and see how I got on.

Well as you may or may not know, I know live with this guy, and honestly I couldn't hope for a better boyfriend. We will be celebrating our one year anniversary on the 13th of October, and I couldn't be more pleased. This is only my second relationship to hit the one year mark, and honestly it's been so easy. We get on like a house on fire, and I hope to be sitting here the same time next year, looking forward to our two year anniversary!

Secondly, as mentioned above, I moved out of my mum's house. This was an absolutely massive step for both Tim and I, for him it was his first time living away from home, and for me, it was the chance to get the space I really needed. It was also a massive gamble for our relationship and we didn't really know what it would be like to live together. Thankfully I can say that we get on amazingly well, and barely argue, we are the perfect house mates, and our relationship has only grown stronger since living together.

Finally I have made plans to work towards the career that I want. Unfortunately I am unable to implement these plans just yet, but by mid next year, they should be in motion!

All in all I am a pretty different person to who I was a year ago, and I can probably thank my car accident for that. I know it seems like a strange thing to be thankful for, but without it I would probably still be stuck where I was. Barely living, and simply existing. I'm thankful for my car accident because now I truly am LIVING my life.

October Blogging Challenge #7: Seven Lessons...

This year has been an amazing, and very confusing one for me. The beginning of the year I was struggling to live at home with my mum, brother and sister. This was due to moving back from University, and losing my independence. We argued a lot, it was difficult, and I didn't like it. Cue my boyfriend stepping in and rescuing me by moving us into our own (rented) flat!

From then on things have been much better, even though settling into a daily routine with someone else is sometimes fairly scary, we've coped pretty well. I would say I've definitely learned a good few lessons since living with my boyfriend that I'd like to share with you!

1. Housework MUST be completed.

Me and my boyfriend are fairly guilty of leaving the housework until the last minute, and as such we end up with a much greater pile than anticipated and it takes us much longer to get through it. We have decided that enough is enough and housework must be completed every day, so that we don't spend the majority of our weekends cleaning the entire flat from top to bottom. Especially if you are moving out on your own for the first time, you can really take for granted just how much work goes in to living on your own, so don't make that mistake!

2. Don't get lost in your little bubble.

It's easy when you live with your partner to draw yourselves into your own little bubble and forget about the outside world. The most important thing when moving in with someone is not losing yourself, or more importantly your friends. Obviously now you live together you have your own responsibilities to each other and to your home, but sometimes you just need time away from each other. Similarly you need to find time for your families, especially if this is your first time moving away from home. They will miss you, and wonder what you are up to all the time, so by making time for them ever few weeks, you'll stop those desperate phone calls that always seem to come.

3. Supermarkets are Evil.

Going food shopping is what I like to think of as my own personal hell. People getting in the way, screaming children, not being able to find the items you want, and long check-out queue's are all reasons why I like to avoid Supermarkets. That's why I'm so happy that Tim and I can use a click and collect service with Tesco. We sit down and plan out our meals for the week, order only what we need, and then we simply go and collect it within a pre-booked 2 hour time-slot. It couldn't be easier. Another reason why I love this service, is that it stops us from buying lots of things that are 'on offer' that we don't need. That doesn't mean to say that we don't benefit from their offers either. We just shop online as we normally would, and then the website will tell us if any of the products we are buying are on a special offer. If they are we can chose to use the offer, or ignore it if we've already got what we need. In summary, Click and collect is the bee's knees, and you should all try it at least once!

4. Make time for each other.

I know above I said don't spend too much time together, but it's equally as important to spend time together doing things that you enjoy. When you live with someone, it's easy to spend your evenings sitting beside each other on your laptops and not really talking to one another. It's important that at least one night a week you do something that both of you enjoy doing, even if that something is simple. My boyfriend and I like to play video games together, or watch a horror film together. If we have enough time and money then we'd probably go to the cinema and eat Ben and Jerry's ice cream. You don't have to do anything extravagant together, but just do something.

5. Make sure you are both clear on what your goals are.

If like me, you aren't currently in the career that you want to end up in, then it's important not to lose sight of what your end goal is. Being in a relationship with someone can easily mean that your goals get put aside for the sake of the other person, and that's not how it should be. Both people in the relationship should be aware of what the other person's career, life or even yearly goals are, so that you can support each other in working towards them. I'm very lucky because I am in a relationship with someone who 100% supports my goals, and it helping me work towards reaching them as soon as possible. Similarly we are both aware of each other's life goals such as marriage and children, and when we want that to happen (roughly), so we understand each other. I'm not saying you need to sit down with your boyfriend of one month and tell him when exactly you want to get married and have children, but making sure that you both have similar goals is imperative to your relationship surviving.

6. Exercising is important.

It's easy to get into a routine where you come home, sit on the sofa, and then don't move except to eat, pee and sleep. Getting some exercise into your routine is important for not only keeping you healthy, but also for keeping you happy. I'll admit, since our gym went into administration a few months ago, we have done little to find another one, or even integrate any other exercise into our lives. I'm vowing that this will change by the end of the year, especially if I want to hit certain other targets of mine.

7. Enjoy the little things.

This is probably the most important lesson I have learned from living with my boyfriend. Getting into a routine, housework, shopping, cooking, working, it can really put a strain on your relationship. That's where enjoying the little things comes in. One of the things I enjoy the most about living with Tim is getting to wake up next to him every morning, and realising that I have someone to stand beside me no matter what.

So there you have it, seven lessons I have learned this year, that are all to do with living away from home and with your boyfriend. Let me know in the comments if you have recently moved in with your boyfriend, and what it was like for you!

October Blogging Challenge #5: My Favourite Movies

Being that I studied Film and Television at University, you would think that I could reel off my top five films with ease. However I actually find it really difficult to pin down specific films that I love, because there are just so many. To help myself out I thought I would narrow it down a little, and seeing as it's October, it is the perfect opportunity for me to talk about some of my favourite Horror films (in no particular order).

The original Halloween was the film that really got me interested in watching horror's. It's an absolute classic Slasher movie featuring Jamie Lee Curtis. This movie isn't actually scary, although I'm sure it was when it was first released... The most unsettling part of this film is by far the music in it, I'm sure you've heard it even if you haven't seen the film, but it makes my skin crawl. This film was also remade by Rob Zombie, and to be honest I am a fan of the remake, I think it brings a new and interesting light to the story of Michael Myers. If you like slasher films then both are a must watch.

This is an altogether different kind of Slasher film, and it's certainly not your average clichéd teen horror movie. I don't want to give too much away about the storyline, because I really think you should go into it with a completely fresh mind. All I will say is the story is based around body modification, and there are some pretty interesting procedures involved. I first watched American Mary at a horror film festival, and I'm glad I did. Anyone who is even remotely interested in horror films needs to cast their peepers over this one!

The Evil Dead is a classic 1980's video nasty movie, and was pretty scary. It features some interesting visual effects including some stop motion gore which makes for interesting viewing. However I must say that the recent remake of this film was ridiculously creepy. I wouldn't say scary, more gorey and unsettling than scary. Either way teenagers trapped in a cabin in the woods and being hunted by evil demons and spirits is a classic recipe for a good horror.

Saw is a prominent franchise of our generation and I'm sure that all of you reading this have seen at least part of one of the films. I remember staying over at my uncles once and he showed me the first Saw film, and from then I was hooked. I think it's the perfect balance of mystery and gore that kept me hypnotised. I'll agree that the franchise got a little too drawn out, and certainly could have ended at the third or even fourth film, but that didn't stop me from watching every single one. I don't know about you, but I'm still absolutely terrified of that dummy...

If any of you know me, or have ever spoken to me about horror films, then you may have heard me 'bang on' about this next one. I saw Grave Encounters at the first horror film festival that I ever attended whilst at University, and I swear to God, I didn't sleep right for almost a month after watching it. Ten minutes in, you are sitting there thinking, 'this is just another rubbish ghost film and it's not going to go anywhere'. Then something changes, and the atmosphere shifts... This film has bucket loads of atmosphere. My boyfriend at the time came to see this with me and we squeezed each other's hands so hard that they were white when we left. All in all I've probably seen this film 6 or 7 times now, and I still have to hide behind a cushion every time I do watch it. If you like being scared then this is easily the best film for the job.

So there you have it, a list of horror films that I love. These are by no means the only horror films that are my favourites, as I said before I just have too many favourites to mention...

October Blogging Challenge #4: My Blog Name...

I'm sure that I have mentioned this a million times before in other blogging challenges, but the reason behind my blog name is reality, pretty boring.

My full name is Alyssia Rose Marie Slade. Not Rosemary, Rose Marie. For some reason my doctors surgery has me down as Rose Maria, I really should get that sorted out...

So I guess I could explain my name a little more fully, that might be interesting right?

Slade is a pretty straight forward surname, which according to a couple of websites comes from the Old English Slaed - a valley. Which I didn't know until right now...

My first name was chosen by my mum, so I've been told. According to her, at the time of her pregnancy, my uncle had a girlfriend called Alicia. Mum decided she liked it, but decided to spell my name Alyssia, the slightly less common version of the name. In case you are wondering how to pronounce my name (I get this a lot), it's pronounced 'ah-liss-ee-ah'. Looking on a baby names website, my name is derived from an old German word for 'Noble'. Not sure how far I'd agree with that for myself...

Rose was my grandmother's middle name, so it's nice to know I'm keeping a name in the family. I could have ended up with her first name 'cecily' which my sister ended up with as a middle name!

Similarly to Rose, my other middle name Marie is also a family name. This however is my mothers middle name, which I think is such a nice thing to share with my mother. On the baby name's website Marie apparently means 'Star of the sea', which I am most certainly not. In fact I have a phobia of swimming in the sea...

So why did I decide to name my blog, Alyssiarose? Well to be honest, I wanted my blog to be somewhere that I could write about anything to do with me and my life, so why not name it after myself. Alyssiarose is somewhat of an alter-ego for me, someone confident and beautiful that I strive to be. OK, that sounds kind of dumb...

October Blogging Challenge #3: September Favourites

Today's prompt was supposed to be an OOTD (outfit of the day) post, however seeing as I didn't really wear anything interesting today I thought I would instead post up this weeks Youtube video. For the first time ever I decided to do a favourites video which you can check out below. I have also added a list of all things talked about below, just in case you don't want to watch the video!

My favourites this month are:

• Garnier Ultimate Blends, Marvellous Transformer Shampoo with Argan and Camellia oils
• Bourjous 123 CC cream
• Collection Lasting Perfection 16 hour concealer
• Rimmel Wonder'full mascara in black
• Sweet Lilac Tangle Teezer
• Switched at Birth (TV Show)
• Once Upon a Time (TV Show)
• CSI (TV Show)
• Little Big Planet (PS3)
• 2014/15 Planner from WHSmith

October Blogging Challenge #2: Thankful Thursday

Welcome to my first (and possibly only) Thankful Thursday post. Here's what I am thankful for this week.

Chocolate Desserts: I've been feeling a little down lately, and as such have been eating a lot of things that I shouldn't. My favourite of which has become chocolate melt in the middle puddings... So far I've had plain chocolate, chocolate orange and even a salted caramel one, seriously yummy.

Naps: Recently I haven't been sleeping well, and as such when I get home I have been taking a nap, I honestly don't know how I would cope without that extra hours napping!

Youtubers: As mentioned above, I haven't been feeling at my best recently. One of the things that has been keeping me sane, is watching videos from my favourite Youtubers. Helon Melonlady, Niki and Sammy, Jacksepticeye, Pewdiepie and Bubzvlogz. You should check them out, they always make me smile!

My Boyfriend: Tim has seriously been my rock at the moment. He knows how to take care of me and asks for nothing in return. I never thought I could have such a wonderful relationship with someone, especially after past ones. Once I get through my rough patch, I'm going to make it up to him. He is my prince, and I love him so much.

Apologies for getting a bit soppy at the end there, sorry to anyone who had to reach for a sick bucket!

October Blogging Challenge #1: My Goals for October

I thought it was about time that I picked this blog up and started working on it. Since moving in with my Boyfriend in March I have been struggling to find a routine that fits everything I love into any spare time that I have, but I am trying. Of course I thought the perfect way to get back into blogging was with a blog challenge. There's nothing like posting every day for a month to get you back into the swing of things. This challenge was created by Gracie of Girl Meets Life, so don't forget to check out her blog.

So the first prompt is all about my goals for the month. I thought I would pick five as I like that number) and I didn't want them all to be blogging related because I have a lot of other things that I wish to achieve.

1. Complete this challenge: This is a pretty obvious one, but nonetheless a worthy goal for me considering my recent posting history.
2. Keep Up my Youtube Channel: If you didn't see my recent post, I have put up a Youtube video every week for 6 whole weeks! I hope to continue doing this for the foreseeable future, maybe even expanding to several videos a week... I post a new video every Friday so make sure you go and check it out!
3. Pick up my diet again: Yes I have been slacking for the last 3 weeks diet-wise. I have been ill, and there are a few personal reasons, but I plan to start that back up again shortly.
4. Read one book: This seems like a simple goal, but actually recently I have lacked any motivation to read. Considering I have a million books to read, I really need to get into the habit of reading at least one a month.
5. Handle my Gerbils: If you read my blog regularly then you may know that I have two gerbils which I got shortly after moving in with Tim. As of yet I have been unsuccessful in handling them. They trust me and will happily sniff my hand, but as of yet they will not let me hold them. So I plan to work on that this month!

I'm hoping to complete at least three of these goals, and if I complete all five then I have promised myself an end of month treat!

Let me know if you are taking part in this challenge as I would love to read your posts, and you can follow the challenge on Twitter using #octbloggingchallenge

#BEDM 13: Fashion, Beauty and Grooming...

I'm not massively into fashion... I mean I love buying myself new clothes, what girl doesn't, but I don't tend to follow any trends, and I normally chose comfort over style!

That being said, I do enjoy reading fashion blogs, and seeing all my blogger friends put outfits together, and it does make me a tad jealous... I think one of my goals for next year might be to become a little more style concious. I have a style in mind that I would like to follow, I just need to get going on it!

Despite not thinking I'm that stylish, I actually did write an outfit post on this blog... Once upon a time... You can see that here.

As for Beauty, I am much more interested in that! In fact I am thinking of becoming a Makeup artist for film and TV, and have looked up a number of courses that I would love to enrol in, maybe in the near future!

It may surprise a lot of you, to find out that before I started writing this blog, I actually wrote a blog dedicated to nail polish, and nail art, called Rose Tint My Nails. Around the time I started my nail blog, I was becoming seriously obsessed with Nail polish (and still am). From simply reading nail blogs my polish collection grew from 20, to 120... It's still growing now... Unfortunately after starting my lifestyle blog, I simply couldn't keep up with both of them, and my nail blog was axed. There are still some pretty good posts on their that I am fairly proud of so you should definitely go and check them out! I don't paint my nails as often as I used to, and I really want to get back into it. I'm thinking of starting a feature on this blog where I paint my nails at least once a month, would you like to see that?

As for personal beauty, on a day to day basis, I don't tend to wear a lot of makeup, however whenever I get the chance I will sit down an experiment with my giant collection of Eyeshadow palettes... I own so many I think I literally have an addiction... I even talked about it on my Youtube channel...

Ever since watching Youtube Makeup Guru's such as Panacea81, I have been obsessed with eyeshadow looks. I'm not brave enough to wear crazy eyeshadow looks out, but it certainly makes me want to experiment...

I have written a post on a makeup look that I created using one of the palettes featured in the above video, and you can check that out here.

So there you have it, there is a little insight into my relationship with Fashion and Beauty. Please let me know in the comments if you would like to see more fashion and beauty posts from me!

#BEDM 12: A-Z of Me: C is for Cooking...

One of my biggest annoyances of living at home after University, besides never having any time to myself... was that I didn't get to control what I ate. I'd come home from work, and 9/10 times mum would have something already prepared, and usually it was something that I didn't like...

Since moving in with Tim, I have been in FULL control of what I eat, and have been enjoying some lovely home cooked meals. Another great thing about living with Tim is we actually take it in turns to cook... so every other night I can put my feet up and watch the TV whilst he prepares my dinner.

Here are some of the things we have eaten since moving in together.

Stuffed Mushrooms and a jacket potato, both with cheese and bacon on them!

Creamy Tagliatelle made using a Schwartz flavour pot, which are becoming some of my essential cooking ingredients!

Homemade pepperoni pizza, with curly fries and mayonnaise. Probably not our most healthy meal, but certainly one of the tastiest!

Cottage Pie with salad. This I actually managed to severely burn my mouth on... although it was still tasty!

Grilled mini pizza muffins. I made these for myself one lunchtime, I realised we had all the ingredients, so I just decided to wing it!

Chicken and Chorizo Paella. Yet another Schwartz flavour shot recipe, I was seriously impressed with how well it turned out, so much so that I am making it again this week!

Steak with Red wine, mushroom and bacon sauce, with onion rings, chips and peas. This one was actually made by Tim for our anniversary dinner, and I couldn't believe how much effort he had put in!

Spaghetti Meatballs. Another meal that Tim made for me, but the standout of this dish, was Tim's home made cheesy garlic bread. In fact it is so good that we have eaten in numerous times since then!

So there you have it, there is a little insight into what I have been chowing down on since becoming a domesticated woman! I'm seriously lucky to be able to eat such good food every night, and there is still plenty more to come. 

Let me know if you think I should start writing recipe posts, because I am seriously toying with the idea!