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!

Graduation: A Year Later

I've seen these posts floating around the Blogisphere a lot this week, and to be honest I have been thinking back to my own graduation. The actually day was pretty boring to be honest, it involved a lot of sitting and clapping, and being hot and sweaty, and posing awkwardly for photos. 

What graduation meant to me was a different matter... It meant the end of an era, the end of my independence, and the beginning of my life as a 'proper' grown-up. On top of all that, it meant the world to my family. I was the first person in my immediate family to graduate from University, so it was a very proud moment for my mum especially. She literally burst into tears as soon as she saw me in the robes.

However looking back at this, it really makes me realise how much has changed since the day this photo was taken, and I thought I would share those changes with you all.

Since graduation...

I have moved twice... Once to move back in with my mum, sister and brother, which to be honest was not an ideal situation. Then again this March to move in with my boyfriend, which was the best decision I have ever made! Considering that before I went to university, I had never moved in my entire life, I'm pretty used to moving around now, and I NEVER thought I would say that. Tim and I are only planning on renting our flat for a year before we hopefully buy our own place, so I have yet another move to look forward to, but hopefully that will be our last!

I've had three different jobs. I started working in a Debt Management company straight out of university, as my first full time job. The job was fine, my colleagues were lovely, but it really wasn't for me. Then I moved onto working in the Vodafone store as a retail advisor, I loved this job, yes it was retail so I still had to deal with annoying Customers, but I really loved the company I was working for. My colleagues were awesome, and the products I was selling were cool, and best of all I was working for a company I have trusted since I got my first mobile phone! Unfortunately I did have to leave Vodafone, as I needed a full time job to fund living away from home. I do still miss it! My current job is in an office doing telesales, and I get on with everyone there and the job is easy enough. Ultimately it isn't where I want to work for the rest of my life, but I'm saving up to do my make up course so I can become a super awesome Film and TV make up artist!

I almost died. Well I may be exaggerating a little bit, but I had a car accident, in which I flipped my car over, and it was a very scary experience. In fact I wrote about that here.

I met and fell in love with Tim. When we first met it wasn't love at first sight, but look at us now! If you'd like to learn more about our relationship you can read about it here.

I've actually managed to achieve some of my goals! Such as beginning to lose weight (which has always been a big goal of mine), and completing the Race For Life. I'm really enjoying ticking them all off, and can't wait to get more done!

Looking back a lot has happened since Graduation... I do severely miss the university lifestyle, and all of my friends, but I'm glad to be moving forward with my life now! I'm even going to be visiting Aberystwyth (where I went to Uni) for a short holiday this August with Tim. I can't wait to show him Aber, and for my friends to finally meet him! It's going to be so awesome...

Let me know in the comments if you've graduated recently, and what the best part of graduation was for you!

#BEDM 9: Motivation

I am by nature a creature of procrastination, my motto tends to be, 'Why do today, what you can leave until tomorrow?'. This was a pretty big theme during my time at uni, with me often leaving work to the last minute, and writing essays in a matter of hours, and just turning them in... By some stroke of luck I actually managed to still get a 2.1 with this terrible attitude, but it often makes me wonder, What if?

What if, I had actually spent time on my work, and produced some quality essays, I could have easily walked out of there with a first degree! To be honest, for me, it was probably a lot down to the fact that I struggled emotionally and physically at university. First year a lot of that was down to homesickness, and relationship stress. Second year I was quite ill for the majority of the year, but I was a lot better emotionally, due to having great friends. Third year, was a mixture of being heavily depressed and not being well a lot of the time, which made everything just that little bit harder.

However since leaving Uni, I don't really know what my excuse has been. Nowadays it's less about leaving essays until the last minute, and more about leaving housework until the last minute, and a lot of sitting on my bottom and surfing the internet instead of doing anything productive..

So from now on, I'm going to try and live by the above quote.. 'I'm gonna make the rest of my life, the best of my life'. From now on, I'm going to do my housework ON TIME, and start planning to use my time a little more productively, including writing blog posts and making Youtube videos!

So watch this space, some great content (hopefully) will be coming your way from now on!

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!

Getting Personal: 3 and 1/2 weeks...

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That's how long I have before my whole world changes. I may sound a bit melodramatic right now, but it's how I feel right now. In fact I went for lunch yesterday with my two best friends, Ellie and Elliot, and I worked out that I have 3 1/2 weeks left in Aberystwyth. I almost got a little teary eyed. The worst part about it is I have ZERO free time because I have a million assignments to do. I'm moving back to Newbury around the 11th of May, and I am scared, here are the reasons why:

1. I have to find a job: In the current climate it's going to be pretty tough for me to find a job, although I am going into it with the view that ANY job is a job, so i'm hoping I won't have to wait too long.
2. I have to share a room again: Me and my sister (Who coincidentally has just started a blog), shared a room from when she was born until I left for Uni 3 years ago. I literally couldn't remember what it was like to have my own room. In fact when I came to uni I found it unsettling being in a room by myself, but I've grown to love it. I also have a lot of stuff that I have accumulated during my time here that I have to cram into a shared room.. this is not going to be fun.
3. I'm going to miss my friends: I was getting teary eyed yesterday just thinking about it. I get to see my friends almost whenever I want to, I see Ellie EVERY day because we live together. It's going to be weird not sitting together in the evenings on our laptops just messing around, or watching Masterchef together... 

So there you have it, some of the things I am not looking forward to! I am also going to be REALLY busy over the next few weeks so my blogging will probably begin to slow down, the only upside of this is that once I move home I will have LOTS of time for blogging. Let me know in the comments if you have any big changes coming up in your lives!

31 Day Challenge! Day 25! My Location!

Aberystwyth Pier

My current location is Aberystwyth in Wales. I study at the university here so for 3 years I have lived here. It's by the sea, which means that the weather is pretty eratic, when it's good it's very very good, and when it is bad it is terrible. For example, currently the weather is FREEZING cold, and the winds are so strong they can blow you over. Also for some reason there is always a sunny day whenever the University has an open day, prompting everyone to believe that there is some kind of weather machine being hidden at the uni! Basically Aber is a town for students, old people, and holiday makers. The nightlife is pretty sweet (because of the students) and there is enough to do if your bored. The cinema only has one screen so don't expect to get to see new releases on time! Which is one of my BIGGEST annoyances with Aber...

Anyway, I will be moving back home to Newbury, Berkshire in a couple of months and I'd like to say I'm going to miss Aberystwyth but I really don't think I will! I'll certainly miss my friends, the night life, and the independance i've had at University but apart from that I am fairly happy to be moving home soon! If you want to check out my other challenge days please check out 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!
• Day 17 - When and Why I started Blogging!
• Day 18 - Where am I happiest?
• Day 19 - 5 Blogs I Read on a Regular Basis
• Day 20 - What do you collect?
• Day 21 - My Biggest Fears...
• Day 22 - What do I do when I am Home Alone?
• Day 23 - My Hobbies...
• Day 24 - Most Embarrassing Memories!

31 Day Challenge! Day 16! What's Your Biggest Accomplishment?

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I have mentioned a million times before on this blog that I am graduating this year. Gaining my degree is going to be my biggest life achievement to date. I know it seems quite boring that I am picking this as being my 'biggest achievement' but it really is. No just for me, but also for my family. I'll be the first person in my immediate family to get a degree, and probably the only one for a while. My sister is unsure about going to university and I really can't see my brother going either, so it falls on me. As it stands currently I am on track to get a 2.1 degree, which I will be extremely happy with! I know that there are hundreds of thousands of students who will be graduating the same time as me this year, but it's still a massive achievement to me!

Let me know in the comments what you think your biggest achievements are! If you want to check out my other challenges then 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?

31 Day Challenge! Day 10! Daily Routine!

Hello again all! I hope you are enjoying these daily challenges as much as I am! I feel like not only am I sharing myself with you but I am learning things about myself that I didn't really think about before! So being a student I don't tend to wake up until around 10/10:30am sometimes even later if I don't have anything to do on that particular day. This is something that I will sorely miss when I graduate later this year and get a job!

So once I am awake I turn on my laptop and check all my social media sites, watch a couple of Youtube videos. This will take normally about an hour. Then I shower, and get dressed.

Depending on whether I have filming/lectures I will either do some work, write a blog post, or catch up with my favourite American TV shows.

I then spend the majority of my day watching TV, blogging, gaming, OR doing uni work.

I go to bed around 1am, and then start all over again the next day.

I didn't realise how boring my life looks until you write it all out like that. I just want to say that I don't think in ANY way that my life is boring and I absolutely love my routine. Obviously there are things that aren't in my routine EVERY day like when I have work, or when I go out with friends, but what I've written above is the bare minimum of what I do.

Let me know if you're routine is as dull as mine! If you want to catch up with 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