I wore my top hat so I could be an English gent

Fake moustaches!

For those of you new to Steff Metal, Up the Irons! Is my weekly gratitude list, heavy metal style. Feel free to add your own list in the comments or on your own blog.

A big Steff Metal Up the Irons! Goes out to:

\m/  waiting for (hopefully) exciting news, and all the feelings of anticipation and fear and excitement that go with that. Sorry, I can’t tell you any more than that, except that when I DO hear, you’ll be the first to know  \m/  An awesome print from Legendary Tiger Hero arriving in my letterbox, which is now hanging over my desk in all its eldritch glory.  \m/  Slow, but fun work on the sequel to Thorn.  \m/  My husband starting work on his first novel, which makes me feel all warm and giggly inside  \m/  a ROAD TRIP to Wellington to go to a 21st gig and see my best friend, planned in three weeks time. There will be carnage!  \m/  the simple winter pleasure of a bowl of porridge with bananas and a little brown sugar  \m/  Placing an order at Steampunk Couture – which I declare to be the last purchase I make for a year, (Wacken and Mayhem tickets excepting) until I get on that plane to Germany  \m/  surprise checks – the best kind of checks.  \m/  the Iron Maiden back catelog – sometimes, you just have to start from the first album and work your way forward.  \m/  sweet friends in Australia who are thinking of you.  \m/  having my folks, and my little 18 month old nephew up for the weekend.

My friend Louise Curtis nominated me for a blog award – apparently I am quite the Versatile Blogger. Thanks girl! I am meant to tell you seven facts you didn’t know, so here goes:

1. I cannot wink, but it is very humorous watching me try.

2. My middle name is Carol. Both my sister and I have Christmas middle names (hers is Holly). My parents swear this is an accident.

3. I can touch my nose with my tongue

4. I have a brown belt in Goju-Ryu karate, although I no longer train

5. I have my computer set in reverse black and white

6. Alongside a translation knowledge of Ancient Greek and Egyptian Heiroglyphs, an intermediate knowledge of German, and a poor knowledge of french, I once ran a group that studied Quenya – the elvish tongue for Lord of the Rings.

7. My husband is nearly ten years older than me.

So now you know!

More photos from my recent exploits:

Food made by friends at an engagement party. Note the spiders :)

That wonderful man spent half the night with his beautiful fiancee making these cupcakes

R "I could fit that shirt", A "No you can't", R "Watch me!" (this is one of my old shirts).

My beautiful nephew, devouring a chocolate muffin

look at him go!

Flamingoes at Auckland Zoo

Yeah, it was pretty cool when he looked right at me.

Can I keep one?

My awesome sis and nephew

Right, that’s enough of that. How are things with you lot?

Love, lust and pudding crust

Hoppy the rainbow lorikeet has been hanging out on my desk, chewing on my pencils and generally causing mischief

\m/ some significant jumps in blog traffic. Tr00 Metal Hails to all my new readers \m/ the sale at Beserk Clothing (you’ll see what I picked up in a couple of weeks) \m/ NZ friends deciding to join us at Wacken 2011. It’s gonna be one hell of a party \m/ baking the most EPIC apple pie ever – probably the nicest thing I ever cooked, ever. \m/ River Cottage being on again, and Hugh’s food punnage is worse than ever \m/ Top Gear – \m/ a rainbow lorakeet has moved into my office and refuses to leave. He has spent the last two days hopping from desk to desk and eating apples and seasame seeds we feed to him. We call him Hoppy. \m/ not getting too rained on despite the massive walking trek’s I’ve had to do over the last week \m/ Bill Bailey live – hilarious. It’s such a great feeling to just go into a theatre and laugh non-stop for three hours. Also, he can play Motorhead on the Ooud, thus making him extra awesome \m/ I painted some pictures for our German friends as a way of saying thank you for being awesome hosts to us last year, and they arrived safe and sound (always a mission with NZ Post) and they like them, so that’s good :) \m/ slowly perfecting Eluveitie on my whistle – I do a lot better if my fingers weren’t so thin and spindly \m/ Just general feelings of awesomeness for all the cool stuff going on in my life and the lives of those close to me – quitting their jobs to pursue their dreams, travelling the world, securing jobs of their dreams and houses of their dreams, getting married, selling up and moving on. It is awesomeness all round in my corner of the world.

Love, lust and puddin’ puffs

miniature chocolate cakes, $8, from Orange Pumpkin

\m/ Sunday is Helen Keller day. Helen Keller is wicked cool – at the age of two she contracted a disease which took her sight and her hearing, but she went on to become the first deafblind person to graduate from College. She travelled the world teaching people about deafblindness and giving others hope that they weren’t just reduced to being “invalids”. She also wrote books – my favourite is “My Belief”, which discusses a little of her time in the Swedenborg society (she was friends with Mark Twain and Alexander Graham Bell) \m/ Fucking MAYHEM and Exodus coming to New Zealand this year. Stoked. Expect reports from the front lines \m/ To celebrate Helen Keller day, work shouted everyone cake. I like cake \m/ A friend of mine is leaving for Christchurch (in the south island of New Zealand) in a couple of weeks. Friday was her last day of work. Everyone brought something in for a shared lunch \m/ I love renting movies from iTunes. Saw this high-school horror “Jennifer’s Body” last week, and “Repo: The Genetic Opera” this week. Review coming soon \m/ Generally, I just love my Mac. I will never, EVER return to PC \m/ helpful folks in the WordPress.org forums who helped my figure out the random glitches in the blog this week \m/ One year till we leave for Germany. Already excited beyond belief \m/ Cake and monsters at the last German class of the semester \m/ An amazing fun time on Monday night with friends – went for wine and Indian food and spent the night at the Hilton ordering excessive amounts of cushions be brought to our room \m/ sneaking out of the Hilton at 6am so my friend wouldn’t get stuck with an extra on her room bill \m/ happy surprises that make people’s dreams come true \m/ When exciting life changes happen to friends who deserve them. I love seeing people who work hard get good things in life \m/ the cat, who now pouts by making a puff noise when she is displeased (CDH makes a puff too, and puffs out his lower lip when he doesn’t get his way, and it looks so cute and ridiculous I usually relent, so the cat has picked up the same trick.) \m/ CDH finally came home (he’s been away on work) and the house got 2 degrees warmer \m/ six writing jobs to finish in June / July. It’s good being busy \m/ tickets to Bill Bailey on Monday night \m/ pretty much everything and everyone at the moment.

Anything good happening in your life?

Super Snuggles and Shoggoth Kisses

I am far too busy, which is a good thing, but also a bad thing, because I feel like I can’t stop, take a step back and appreciate what I’ve been doing.

My table at Crafternoon Tea, May 2010

\m/ a successful first craft show, where I spent the majority of my profit on gourmet cupcakes \m/ wonderful new writing clients with incredible imagination and passion \m/ preparing my new, uber-large size canvas for an upcoming art competition \m/ no more than five days away from getting rid of my novel (every time I think it’s nearly ready we think of something to make it better) \m/ Tickets to Bill Bailey and Sweeny Todd \m/ \m/ nearly being on top of my email (to all those wonderful people who I said I’d get back to and haven’t, I’ll be doing that next week!) \m/ finally, our first real, winter RAIN! How I’ve missed you! \m/ CDH, who hates all people equally \m/ hot noodle soup on wintery nights \m/ seeing my new website design come together \m/ hot water bottles and snuggle forts \m/ Being contracted to write an article about Wacken Open Air \m/ my dad picking up German hitchikers wearing Wacken shirts \m/ deleting heaps of sites from my Reader \m/ curbing my habit of checking my email 17 million times per day \m/ finishing my first steampunk painting (The Clockmaker’s Wife – available in the Steff Metal shop \m/ the way stressful things just seem to sort themselves out \m/ NZ Metallica fans sabotaging TradeMe (NZ eBay) auctions from ticket scalpers \m/ Cardamon cupcakes.

What are you loving this week?

Remember, if you like metal, you’re my friend. \m/
Steff Metal

Diplomat Mini Top-hat, $25, from Pieces of Eight. Isn't that the most amazing hat?

I have had a fantastic, but busy, couple of weeks, and the pace won’t slow till my novel is out the door to the editors. This will hopefully happen within the next three weeks. It’s crazy – the last hundred pages of edits take me as long to complete as writing an entire new novel.

Here is what I’m shouting “Up the Irons!” to this week:

All of you, amazing blog readers, for your comments and email and support \m/ Artibrary celebrations at work – any excuse for a shared lunch \m/ friends getting married and heading off on amazing adventures \m/ studying German on the train and forgetting I’m in New Zealand \m/ making plans for Wacken 2011 \m/ snuggles on freezing NZ mornings \m/ talking on Skype with old friends \m/ making new friends \m/ finally getting the hang of Twitter \m/ learning about interesting people (thank YOU Countess Bathory) \m/ mysterious packages in the mail \m/ preparations for my stall at an upcoming craft fair \m/ cooking dinner from a friend from the middle east tour tonight (I am excited) \m/ finally making it past a certain scene in my books – on the home stretch now \m/ Whitikas dark chocolate blocks. \m/ black books, good company and french toast on a cold day \m/ when you can be in a relationship with someone for five years and they STILL surprise you \m/ amazingly talented friend J winning a Metallica art competition \m/ Skyclad and Orphaned Land – musical loves of the week \m/

It’s been one of those weeks where lots of cool stuff has happened to other people, and that’s so cool. What about you? What are you loving this week?

Up the Irons! \m/
Steff

I haven’t done an Up the Irons! since Feb. That doesn’t mean I don’t have lots of things to be thankful for.

This week, a bit Steff Metal Up The Irons! to:

\m/ Amanda Palmer, who kicked ass yesterday and gave me a hug \m/ the cute little wooden shelf in my office that’s too tiny to serve any real purpose apart from a shelf for my drinks! \m/ My beautiful desktop iMac, propped up on old archaeology textbooks – no more hunching and bad posture \m/ Unser Baby Katze – Levi, our baby cat. She’s so cute. \m/ Breaking 800 Twitter followers – I love you guys! \m/ Getting a free breakfast for national Walk2Work day – a muffin the size of my head (no kidding), an organic blueberry yoghurt, a fresh squeezed orange juice and a banana \m/ Autumn FINALLY closing in (my favorite season of the year) \m/ Future plans with friends: a “petite” party, the Genitorturers gig, Behemoth and a day-long creative orgy (an orgy of creativity, that is, not a creative orgy) followed by a folk rock band \m/ love is in the air! A friend’s wedding this weekend! \m/ reaching my goals in my writing \m/ receiving emails from my writing idols \m/ writing long, exciting blog posts \m/ Organising friends to see the Sweeney Todd production coming to Auckland in June \m/ Apple Crumble \m/ cleaning the oven (I found the burnt chip that was making all the smoke happen :) \m/ vegetarian curry \m/ discovering a rhubarb plant in the back garden \m/

What are you thankful for this week?
Steff

This week, I give metal horns to:

My new boots

My parentals coming to visit for the weekend for my birthday!  \m/  My birthday in 6 days!  \m/   The fact that I’m 25 and the celebrations last all WEEK.  \m/  Our “Great Bogan Train Robbery” party next weekend – we rented a carriage on an old steam train and about 25 metalheads are riding around all day, having a tea party and dressing up in steampunk / victorian gear! (there WILL be photos)  \m/  I had my first EVER impulse buy (I normally think about these things for months, and I never buy shoes. I hate shoes) a pair of Jeffrey Campbell wedge boots, and they’re beautiful  \m/  My husband, who laughed about my new boots, whereas if it had been him and a new cymbol, I wouldv’e made a frowny face  \m/  Arch Enemy, for inspiring my novel edits  \m/  German classes, which are filled with adventurous people are are teaching us so much  \m/  My husband, for getting me the best birthday present ever – an easal to paint my artwork on  \m/  My blog readers, for filling in my 2010 reader survey with such awesome answers  \m/  nasty gal – new favorite shopping site  \m/  Chocolate self-saucing pudding – the fuel for life  \m/  jazz-inspired metal – it’s the next big thing  \m/  Life and the universe, for treating me so well :)

My husband, the cantankerous drummer, for continually proving that he’s pretty much the most awesome person on the planet.  \m/  Behemoth  \m/  I FINISHED EDITING MY NOVEL. Finally. Now it’s been sent off to readers for them to pull apart, and I’m taking a week’s break before delving into my next novel project (two projects, actually. I need to research and plan a sequel, and finish a YA metalhead apocalypse novel I’ve started)  \m/  my first modelling shoot in three weeks. Eee! I was excited, but now I’m all nervous :(  \m/  a sausage sizzle at work today! Grymness. I’m going to have THREE sausages. (is a sausage sizzle called a Sizzlewurst in Germany? I shall find out!  \m/ my blog readers – you guys kick ass!  \m/  finishing another painting and moving to a new series and a super seekrit gift for some awesome dudes whom we totally adore  \m/  being poor, but happy  \m/  new ebook almost finished … almost!  \m/  buying english candy to share  \m/  “renting” movies online. Soooooo many horrible b-grade horrors to choose from!  \m/  meeting cool bogan chicks at the Kodak place  \m/  sloooooowly pulling everything together for the Steff Metal shop.  \m/  preparing to have a viking live with us for a week  \m/  midweek catch-ups with wonderful friends  \m/  takeout mexican food  \m/

What gets the Up the Irons! from you this week?

Steff

Homemade Chili fries  \m/  seeing Rodrigo y Gabriela live – they were super awesome  \m/  getting my Viking on  \m/  Sacrifago  \m/  dabbing on my ‘Scent of the Desert’ perfume from Egypt before I go out  \m/  planning my next corset purchase (it’s super unique and steampunky)  \m/  planning our adventures for the year – a steam-train journey and a trip to Wellington, and maybe to Austrailia  \m/  looking at boat hulls for sale on TradeMe  \m/  homemade bread, warm from the oven  \m/  working on a book about Socrates for a vision-impaired Classics student  \m/  CDH humming the Star Wars theme song while he flies the cat around the house  \m/  fantastic freelance writing projects  \m/  having only 30 pages left to edit on my novel  \m/  owning the world’s tiniest MP3 player (so tiny!)  \m/  the Genitorturers coming to NZ  \m/  planning my birthday day out  \m/  planting my basil seedlings in the garden and watching them grow  \m/

What are you grateful for this week?

Steff

Up the Irons! to:

\m/ NO CLEAN SINGING, who wrote this absolutely kickass post about That’s Metal – but it’s not music, which features me, the all blacks, Maori war dances, Invictus and poetry. It totally made my week. \m/ walking to the farmers market, and stopping at the traffic light to be greeted by a carload of metalheads throwing the goat and headbanging to “Purple Rain”. \m/ setting up a new Etsy shop (it’s so much fun!) \m/ painting \m/ forgiveness \m/ our krieg little kitty levi who beat up the neighbour’s HUGE bully of a cat this morning \m/ seeing my awesome family and little nephew over Christmas \m/ eating crackers with my mum’s homemade pickle (which is the best pickle EVER) \m/ learning German by translating Subway to Sally lyrics (denn die Sieben ist meine Zahl!) \m/ being 2/3 of the way through my novel edits, mostly thanks to the wonder that is Ommwriter \m/ making dreamy plans with husband \m/ cuddles \m/ cadbury mint bubbly chocolate.

What are you thankful for this week, most grymm and metal readers?

Steff