Boyfriend/Girlfriend Tag

I saw this tag post on another persons blog, and I knew that Tim and I had to give it a go! I'm also thinking about the possibility of letting Tim takeover my blog once a week but not quite sure if anyone would like/read it, so let me know in the comments what you think...

When/where did you meet?

Alyssia: We met on a dating wesbite (POF), I got a notification to say that someone had viewed my profile, so I checked it out. He looked cute and seemed like a pretty normal guy, how wrong I was...

Tim: We met on a dating website, and I remember us talking about horror films for a week, before we went on a date.

When did you meet the parents?

Alyssia: I honestly don't remember how long we were together before I met Tim's parents, but I remember going to their house, and his mum being worried of what I would think of their house.

Tim: It was Alyssia's nan's birthday, her mum cooked steak, and I remember being really nervous the entire time, and her dad didn't talk to me at all.

Where/when was your first kiss?

Alyssia: I believe our first kiss was in Tim's car, and he was dropping me home after taking me to Thorpe Park, and that was the night I decided to give our relationship a go. I think I surprised him a little bit when I kissed him.

Tim: We spent the day at Thorpe Park, and then went to dinner afterwards. Then I dropped her home where we kissed in the car. I remember Alyssia's mum called her and asked where she was and Alyssia replied, 'he's dragged me off into the woods to murder me', it made me very worried about what her mum would think of me!

Who said "I love you" first?

Alyssia: I said it first when we spent our first weekend away together in Bristol.

Tim: Alyssia said it first because she had banned me from saying it, but I think we both realised we loved each other at the same time, which was at a fireworks display the weekend before.

What is one thing you wish the other didn't do?

Alyssia: Tim mumbles terribly and it drives me absolutely nuts. Sometimes I have to ask him to repeat himself THREE times before I get it, and I hate that.

Tim: I wish she wouldn't doubt my judgement so much. Sometimes she suggests that I should do things a certain way and then gets annoyed when I do it my own way anyway.

Where was your first date?

Alyssia: He met me in Newbury and we went and sat by the canal and had a good long chat, after that I believe we went to Wetherspoons for dinner, it was all very casual because I wasn't sure I wanted a relationship at the time.

Tim: I met her at Newbury canal, we sat on the bank for a good couple of hours and talked, and laughed. Then we went and had some food, we talked a lot about our past, but Alyssia had to go so it was cut short, I could have talked to her all night.

What eye colour do you wish the other had?

Alyssia: I have to admit I am a sucker for Blue eyes, but Tim's eyes are gorgeous, they look brown but if you really study them there are parts that are actually more green.

Tim: I'm lucky, because Alyssia has blue eyes, which I really like.

What TV show is your favourite?

Alyssia: He likes all things nerdy, and I'm not 100% on his favourite but it would be something like Doctor Who.

Tim: She watches a LOT of TV, but I think if I had to pick her absolute favourite it would be Doctor Who. She also loves things like CSI and Horror TV shows like American Horror Story.

Which food do you like/not like?

Alyssia: He doesn't like broccoli, in fact when I met him there were a lot of things he didn't like that he eats now. He loves Parmesan, he'd have it on everything if I let him!

Tim: She hates tomatoes, and she always picks them out of burgers etc. I have never seen anyone hold food with the tips of their fingers in such disgust before. I don't think I could pick her favourite food, but I know that she loves me to cook her Macaroni Cheese, and she also likes when I make my Garlic bread.

Which drinks do you like/not like?

Alyssia: I'm not sure there is any drink he particularly dislikes, but one of his favourites is Strawberry Milkshake, he'll have one whenever he gets the chance.

Tim: When she used to drink alcohol her favourite was Rosé wine, but I think her new guilty pleasure is original coke. I really can't think of a drink she doesn't like...

What am I good at?

Alyssia: He's very good at technical stuff, being a software developer. He's the first person I go to if I have any technical questions. He is also really good at cooking, a skill he's only picked up since we have been together.

Tim: She is very organised, and very good at telling me off! She has amazing people skills, she's just good at talking to people and understanding them.

Do I often make you angry?

Alyssia: He doesn't often make me really angry, but if he does it's normally over something really stupid, and we've normally made up within an hour. We very rarely have an argument that goes on for a long time.

Tim: No, not often. If she makes me angry it's usually when she asks me to do something for her that I really don't want to do, but we've never fallen out over anything serious.

So there you have it everyone, there is a little insight into our relationship for you all. If you would like to see more of Tim on the blog then let me know in the comments below, and I'll see what I can do!

Owl of Dates #1: Ice Cream and Compliments

I can't remember if I ever wrote about what I got Tim for Christmas, it was such a long time ago... Anyway, I didn't have a great lot of money to spend on him, so I thought it would be cool to make him something. After scouring pinterest for hours on end finding NOTHING of interest, I found something call a Jar of Dates. Essentially what you do is fill a jar full of ideas for dates, you can include pre-paid dates, sweets, vouchers, tickets, whatever you like. Seeing as I didn't have a great deal of money, I just put some ideas for dates in his jar. On top of that, I didn't want to put these ideas into any old jar, and that's when I stumbled across a ceramic owl in Wilkinsons, and I knew it was perfect! That's how the Owl of dates was born!

Up until this week, we hadn't actually drawn an idea out of the owl, but we were feeling like doing something together today, so Tim picked one out and this is what we got.

'Make your own chocolate bowls! Serve your favourite ice cream in the bowls, and use your favourite sweets, and sauces to add to the experience. Whilst eating your ice cream and bowls, give each other two compliments, and then give yourself a compliment'

Tim always gets very excited at the mention of chocolate, so you can imagine his delight when he saw what we would be making. ALSO instead of buying ice cream, Tim really wanted to try out my Easy Peasy Ice Cream which I wrote about last year.

So first things first, the chocolate bowls. All you'll need is a couple of bars of your preferred chocolate, some balloons, and a baking tray.

Start off by melting the chocolate in the microwave, in a plastic bowl. Do this in 10 second bursts, stirring the chocolate each time. Stop microwaving when you can stir it and the lumps begin to melt simply from the heat of the rest of the chocolate.

Place your melted chocolate into a large bowl (if you need to) and dip your balloons into the chocolate, making sure to go as far up the sides as you need to.

Then place them on a baking tray and leave them to set! You may need to repeat the above step a second time to make sure that your chocolate bowls are thick enough.

Once you are happy with them and they are set, simply pop the balloon and peel it away from the chocolate, and you are done!

Now onto the Easy Peasy Ice cream, and you only need two main ingredients for this recipe...

500ml of Double cream, and 400ml of condensed milk! It really is that basic...

Put them in a mixing bowl together, and then whisk away until the mixture thickens like the below picture, it may take a while...

Once your mixture looks like this, you can add your flavourings, sweeties, or whatever you like, just fold it in gently so as not to reverse that whisking you just did!

Tim and I don't do things by halves... and we went for a whopping THREE flavours. All we did was divide the mixture into three separate bowls and then added our flavourings, these are what we went for.

The first flavour is just for me, and it's peanut butter with chocolate chips, I have become completely obsessed with peanut butter ice cream at the moment. The second flavour is caramel, very similar to what I made when I first tried this recipe, with this we mixed the caramel in, but then added little splodges on top so you get extra caramel. The final flavour is pretty plain, but with all the sauces and treats we are going to add later, we didn't want another crazy flavour, so we just went with vanilla. 

Then believe it or not, all you have to do, is let them set in the freezer!

Now Tim and I cannot simply be happy with chocolate bowls, so we had to go crazy with sauces and toppings!

So all that was left was to build our ice cream sundaes! We couldn't help ourselves and had a scoop of each ice cream, a couple of sauces, and of course all the toppings!

That wasn't the end of our date though, we also had to give each other 2 compliments and then give ourselves one compliment! I won't make you all feel sick with our compliments to each other, but I thought I'd let you guys know my compliment to myself, and that was: 'I feel like when I actually try hard, I can achieve whatever I want'. Tim did mention how this was a bit of a back-handed compliment, however I'm not very good at complimenting myself, so I'm going to stick with that!

Bliss in Bristol

Last week I was lucky enough to have a whole week off of work. Originally this was so that I could attend the Abertoir horror film festival in Aberystwyth. However for personal reasons I had to cancel those plans. However rather than just waste my time off, my boyfriend suggested that we spend the weekend somewhere else. I spent a week by myself in Bristol at the beginning of September for my training with work, and I suggested that we return there so that I could do some of the things that I didn't get around to last time! So I thought I'd share with you guys a couple of the things that we did/saw.

The Aquarium:

On our first full day in Bristol, we paid a visit to the Aquarium, which was actually not even five minutes away from our hotel! I love aquariums, especially when they are filled with brightly coloured, beautiful fishies!

The jellyfish were one of the first exhibits that we came across, they had two tanks of these jellyfish, some under blue light, and some under red. I managed to snap this beautiful picture just as it opened up!

This stingray was swimming right on the top of the water, and kept lifting it's mouth up into the air. It was really cute.

We managed to stumble across my favourite tropical fish! Although this one looks less than impressed that I managed to get a picture of him.

I couldn't resist snapping this picture of all the beautiful clown fish in this tank. There were bright orange, and black ones, which I had actually never seen before. We were even just in time to watch the tiger sharks being fed, but I didn't get any decent pictures of that.

Shopping:

I literally couldn't resist popping into Primark whilst we were in Bristol. Especially seeing as the Bristol Primark is a massive FOUR FLOORS! It's literally a bloggers dream...

I couldn't resist messing around with the novelty christmas glasses, although I simply couldn't bring myself to actually buy a pair! I did however manage to find my perfect Christmas jumper!!! I have wanted to buy myself one every Christmas for the last three years, but I have never been able to get one in time. This year however I am pleased to announce I have got one. I'll keep it as a surprise!

I also managed to convince my boyfriend to buy a Christmas jumper, so that on Christmas day we will both look as silly as each other. He didn't seem impressed at first, but warmed to the idea once we found the perfect jumper for him!

Of course a shopping trip wouldn't be complete without a little treat for myself, and I found that I just couldn't resist this amazing tiger top. Once we got onto the main highstreet, we were both surprised to find that there was a German Christmas market going on from now right up until Christmas. I didn't manage to snap any pics but I found this one online:

 There were German food stalls, sweet stalls, German beer bars. As well as other christmassy gifts! I became a little bit enchanted by one of the jewellery stalls and couldn't resist buying myself this necklace as a nice momento of our trip.

Food:

Me and my boyfriend both love food, and so of course we were both excited about eating out for three nights! Seeing as we arrived fairly late on the Thursday night, I just suggested that we grab something at a restaurant close to the hotel, so we opted for Prezzo's.

Neither of us were hungry enough for a starter, so just kicked it off with the mains. He had a classic pepperoni pizza with chicken, whereas I opted for a Calzone with chicken, pepperoni, and peppers. Mine was absolutely delicious, and I almost polished it off.

If you know me at all then you will know that I cannot resist having a dessert, even if I am fit to burst. I didn't want anything too heavy, so I settled on the three gelato's. Although I didn't realise that they came in cones, and were basically full sized ice creams. I didn't have to worry though, as my boyfriend kindly stepped in to save me! Pictured above are chocolate truffle, and two bubblegum cones.

On our second night we decided to visit Frankie and Benny's. I had actually been on my last trip to Bristol and assured Tim that he would love it. Although there was a slight hiccup with our table, and waiting time, we both thoroughly enjoyed it.

I decided to have a bit of a treat, and started off with a cosmopolitan. Although this was unlike any cosmo I had ever had, and was slightly sour, though still enjoyable.

For starters I went for the bacon and cheese potato skins, which are absolutely TO DIE for!

After my sour cosmopolitan I decided to go with a sweet Pineapple Mai Tai, we got a pitcher so that we could share, although I ended up drinking the majority of it!

For mains we both settled on the same thing, BBQ ribs. The plate was massive, and I was a little worried about how I would finish it, but I decided to leave the fries, and focus on the ribs! Our meal at Frankie and Benny's was so good, that we are going back this evening! Obviously not to Bristol...

On our final night we went to Za Za Bazaar. A world food all you can eat buffet that has a little bit of everything. Unfortunately it was too dark for me to get any decent pictures with my iphone, and I forgot to take my camera. But here are a few pics I found online:

If you ever go to Bristol you absolutely MUST go to Za Za Bazaar, it's about £18pp not including drinks, and you get to eat as much as you can stomach. You are limited to how much time you have in the restaurant, but I think this is fair, otherwise you could just sit in there all day and eat... That's how much food they have!

Everything Else:

On top of everything I already mentioned we managed to fit in a round of jungle themed crazy golf, go ice skating, visit a museum, and complete another Treasure Trail. All in the space of three days. 

To top it all off, right before we were leaving I spotted something in Build-a-bear that I really wanted, and not only did my boyfriend not complain, but he actually offered to buy it for me! So say hello to Rainbow Dash!

I had a really amazing time in Bristol, and it was the perfect treat for me and my boyfriend to share together. Although we've only been together properly a month today, it feels like I've known him much longer. He really knows how to treat me, and lets me be 100% myself. I hope that we'll continue to grow together, and that he'll continue to put up with me! Hope you enjoyed my post, and I'll leave you with the first actual photo of us together:

30 Posts of Truth: Something you Love about yourself!

'Something I love about myself ' is today's prompt. It took me a little while to have a think about what I love about me, seeing as there are SO MANY THINGS that I love about myself... (haha). Anyway I finally managed to pick one thing: My eyes.

I think that my eyes are by far my most beautiful feature, back in the day when I actually used to get male attention, I was constantly being told that I had beautiful eyes. And I do love them. I think they are an interesting colour, and in case you haven't noticed I have really big eyes!

From this post.

This picture really doesn't do them justice. Around the outside of my iris' there is a strong darker line which you can see in the picture, but around my pupil there is lighter blue, and green coming through. I really wish I could capture the colour properly as it looks rubbish in this photo.

So there you have it, that's what I love about myself. Let me know in the comments what you love about yourself!

Getting Personal: Why I started/Why I love blogging!

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During the #lbloggers chat this week the girls were all talking about the reasons behind their blogging, and I realised that I've never really talked about why I blog. I have written a short post about it before, but I didn't really go in depth. 

When I first started Univeristy back in 2010, it was the first time I had been away from my home by myself. Granted I had my boyfriend at the time, but he wasn't there all the time, in fact he was pretty terrible at being there for me those first few weeks. I began to feel horribly alone, although I had friends, as soon as I was alone in my room I felt panicky and horrible. I took comfort in the internet. Youtube became my biggest retreat, and I desperately wanted to make videos and share my experiences with others. At the time I didn't have a decent camera available to me so instead I started a blog (alyssiarose.wordpress.com). Looking back at this blog I can see that I was probably writing it for all the wrong reasons. I wrote VERY personal posts, some were targeted at certain people, and yes, they were written to hurt them. Looking back I was just very upset at the time, and was hurting greatly from my break-up and being alone at Uni. 

Thankfully I met some brilliant friends, mainly Ellie and Elliot, and they made me a lot happier. So I started blogging about other things, like gaming, and makeup. I stopped writing overly personal posts, and trying to upset people and just started writing because I enjoyed it. In November last year I stumbled across Nail Art blogs, I began obsessively reading them and collecting Nail polish. Finally I took the plunge and started Rose Tint My Nails. I found a community of wonderful women who all had Nail blogs and I made some friends. After about a month of writing Rose Tint My Nails, I decided that I wanted to revamp my personal blog, mainly so that I could write about a lot of different things. I moved my blog from Wordpress to Blogger and started taking my blog more seriously! I was so glad when I started gaining followers, although my blog is primarily written for myself I really love knowing that people out there are reading this. 

Since January I've bought my own domain, and had a redesign! I write at least 2 posts a week, have regular features, started a group for Berkshire Bloggers, and have a MILLION plans with what I want to do on this blog! This is a very exciting time for me, my life is about to change in a BIG way. I'm about to graduate and be throw into the adult world. I guess the question is, Will I grow up? We'll see!

I think one of the best things about blogging has to be the community. I love being able to chat to all the other lovely bloggers, and get advice with anything I am struggling with! I'm desperate to go to a blogger meetup, maybe someday soon!

Leave your blog URL's in the comments and let me know what made you start blogging!

31 Day Challenge! Day 17! When and Why Did I Start Blogging?

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According to my old blog, my first post was published on the 17th of November 2010. I'm fairly sure I wrote a few posts before then but deleted the blog that they were on, so I have no idea of when I genuinely started blogging. I started blogging properly in my first year of uni, and I kind of used my blog as a diary of sorts. When I first came to university I wasn't adjusting well at all, yes I made friends but I was terribly homesick and really wasn't enjoying the independence that came with being at uni! 

My blog became my place to vent, although looking back on it now, that wasn't a very good idea. Anyway I don't think I started blogging properly until November 2012 when I launched my Nail Blog. Basically I had been watching a tonne of Nail Art tutorials on Youtube, and reading a LOT of Nail blogs and I finally decided to start my own. I had a fairly good polish collection anyway but since then it has grown to well over 100 polishes... Then I joined the British Nail Bloggers Group and met a wonderful group of women, and I realised that there is such an amazing community for bloggers and my blog is now my favourite hobby!

At the end of January I made the decision to move my personal blog from Wordpress to Blogger, and to take it more seriously. I couldn't have made a better decision. My personal blog went from 0 followers to 44 followers on both GFC and Bloglovin. I am so proud of this. I am grateful for every single one of my followers, so thank you, from the bottom of my heart for reading my blog and giving me an audience to my ramblings! 

I hope to reach 100 followers by the end of the year, and to have regular blog features for you all! Thanks again, I love you guys! If you want to check out my other challenges then please click the links below:

• Day 1 - Self Portrait and 5 random facts

• Day 2 - Favourite Quotes

• Day 3 - What makes you happy?

• Day 4 - Best Childhood Memories

• Day 5 - Movies I never get sick of.

• Day 6 - My Last Random Act of Kindness.
• Day 7 - My Dream Job
• Day 8 - My Pet Peeve's
• Day 9 - What is on my Life/Bucket List
• Day 10 - Daily Routine
• Day 11 - The Last Book I Read
• Day 12 - Something I Miss
• Day 13 - Do You Have any Regrets?
• Day 14 - Whats on my iPod?
• Day 15 - What makes me Awesome?
• Day 16 - My Biggest Accomplishment!