My skeleton key necklaces and poetry broadsides are available for purchase at Petaluma Pie Company‘s pop-up shop! It’s a little boutique next door to the bakery in Putnam Plaza.  The address is 125 Petaluma Boulevard North, and I will be manning the shop this Thursday, January 26th from 2:30 until 5:00.  I would love it if you all stopped by to say hello, or even pick up a broadside and/or antique key necklace.  There are lots of other cool things in the shop too: handmade soaps, pottery, housewares, home decor, bags, Petaluma Pie tees, and even some vintage clothing!  And of course there is pie next door…

See you Thursday!
Amber R. Nelson

On Saturday evening, Arthur and I were able to attend two shows in the East Bay. The first show (pictured above) was at Mythos Fine Art and Artifacts in Berkeley. We had just been there two weeks prior to see our friend Jesse’s art exhibit.  When we heard that Jesse’s new three-piece, Passage Walkers, would be playing there on Saturday, we made sure to schedule our day so we would get there in time to see his show before we went to The Uptown later for our friends in Giant Squid and Hammers of Misfortune.  Of course I took photos at both shows, so I could see how my new lens would work in a concert setting.  It worked very nicely!

This show was a sit-down affair due to its art gallery venue, and I would have felt awkward if I stood up to take photos, so we did our best while sitting down.  And I say “we” because Arthur took that second photo!  I would really like to see him do more photography.  Whenever I hand him my camera, he always takes nice photos.

The Passage Walkers were great!  Arthur and I loved their darkness and their folkiness.  We hope to make it to more of their shows in the future, and we can’t wait for the day they put out a record!

After Passage Walkers, Arthur and I got some sushi in Berkeley and then headed to The Uptown in Oakland to see our friends Giant Squid and Hammers of Misfortune.  Squid was wonderful as always.  Arthur and I were finally able to get our hands on a physical copy of their new record, Cenotes, as well as give Jackie and Aaron a copy of Arthur’s new record, Dwellings.

It had actually been a while since I’d seen Hammers. The last time I saw them live, they still had Patrick Goodwin from Pansy Division in their lineup. It was great to hear their new(ish) lead singer Joe Hutton and guitarist/vocalist Leila Abdul-Rauf. The songs from their most recent record, 17th Street, sound really great live.

The above photo’s excellent lighting was an accident. I happened to snap a photo at the same time as the guy next to me, and he had a really nice flash. Perhaps this photo can be considered an accidental collaboration.  Thank you, mystery photographer standing next to me, for allowing me to borrow some light.

All the best,

Amber R. Nelson

I needed to hike on Monday.  It was necessary.  The natural world offers incredible calm and joy for me, and I needed to be calm and joyful.  Arthur was off work that day, so we decided to head to Jack London State Park, my favorite place in the world.  I’d hiked to the Wolf House and Jack London’s grave many times before, and I have visited both museums in the park as well as explored the main area of London’s Beauty Ranch, so Arthur and I thought it would be nice to hike a new trail.  Arthur and I had never visited the Pig Palace before, so we knew that was the top priority for our visit.  We would continue on to hike to the lake afterward.

The Pig Palace really is grand.  Jack London really cared about his pigs.  The entire piggery was made to be spacious (especially for pregnant and birthing sows) and he was insistent on keeping it very clean.  London even asked that people thoroughly clean their shoes before entering the piggery.

After passing the silos, we headed up the lake trail. There were two paths to choose from: a wide fire road and a narrow trail. We took the fire road on the way up and the narrow trail on the way back. I believe that smaller trail was the original one that London, his friends, and his family took to get to the lake on those hot Glen Ellen summer days.

Both the fire road and the original trail are shaded by towering redwoods and madrones.  I love Northern Californian trees.

The lake is silted and dried up now, but it is still so beautiful.  It’s surrounded by redwoods and lined with an old, time-worn dam that London built.  Arthur and I were blown away by the beauty of this silted lake; a ruin of sorts, similar to London’s famous Wolf House on the other side of the park.  While we were there, we relished the silence of this beautiful forest clearing, imagining how this lake must have been while London was still alive.

While I was writing this post, I found an excellent video about the park with a focus on the lake. You can watch it here.  And it’s narrated by Doug McConnell, the coolest Northern Californian environmental journalist ever.  If you lived around here in the 90′s, you’ll totally remember his old show, Bay Area Backroads, where he featured rad hikes, museums, and other local Northern Californian areas of interest.

My visits to Jack London State Park have been truly life-changing.  I am always eager to bring friends and family there, and I often act as an unofficial docent when I bring people to hike there with me.  I highly recommend visiting this park.  It is on the chopping block for 2012 park closures, but it does have a glimmer of hope.  The Valley of the Moon Natural History Association has begun negotiations with the state on taking over the park in order to keep it from being shut down.  You can learn more about saving Jack London State Park by visiting these links:

Jack London Lake Alliance 

Valley of the Moon Natural History Association shop (for donations…I have donated to them before!)

And of course I overpaid for parking while I was there.  It’s a thing I do for all State Parks, especially Jack London.  The self-registration parking fee at Jack London is $8.  I paid $20.

This post is a tutorial and a story.

I have a bunch of old skeleton keys sitting around my house, which I use to make necklaces for my online vintage shop.  Every once in a while, I’ll come across a super rusty key like this little guy here.  Look at this poor chap!  It’s the rustiest key I ever did see; completely rusted from bow to pin, but so beautiful.  When I found this key, I knew I had to try to remove its rust and allow its original color to be seen again.  I could have used all sorts of abrasive chemicals and toxic substances, but instead I put Little Rusty through two milder treatments.  I put the little key in a dish and grabbed two items.

The first: salt. And of course the packaging has a lighthouse on it.  Would you expect anything less from me?  Although that lighthouse model is a little odd…

The second: lime.  I had read that, if you combine these two ingredients, it can help remove rust from many items, including old skeleton keys.  So with the little key in the ceramic dish, I covered it with salt and added enough lime juice to create a slushy mixture, similar to a granita or shave ice.

I let it sit for about four hours in this mixture, then I took the thing over to the sink, grabbed a brush and a sponge, and with lots of time and elbow grease, I was able to take off quite a bit of the rust, exposing the real color of this pretty steel key!

But I knew it wasn’t the end. The bow was still pretty dark and so was the collar, all the way down to the pin and all over the bit. So the next day, I tried one more treatment that I had heard works well on keys.  I covered the key in baking soda and mixed in some fresh lemon juice to make a foamy paste.

I let Little Rusty soak in this for about an hour or so, and then gave it a good, long scrub with that toothbrush you see there (obviously a toothbrush that I used specifically for this project, and not for teeth).  And finally, Little Rusty looked a little more like himself again.

As you can see, it looks better than it did after the first treatment (and much better than it did when I found it), but not everything was removed.  The bow (the top part) had some especially stubborn patina on it, as well as the bottom portion of the stem and the collar.  I will try another lemon and/or lime treatment on it soon with a wire brush instead of a sponge and a toothbrush, but I think this little guy has gone through enough scrubbing and treatment for now.  I’m just glad I could give this lovely little key a new life!

And to close this post, I just wanted to let you all know that I finally created a Twitter account.  Follow me @ambervonnagel (because my upcoming book will be printed under that wonderful name)!

All the best,

Amber R. Nelson

On Friday night our friend Jesse Michaels was showcasing his art at a gallery in Berkeley.  Jesse is the gentleman who did the Redwood Children broadside for me, which is still available for purchase here (I only have 7 left, so get ‘em while they’re hot)!  It was a really great event, and we absolutely loved Jesse’s paintings.

(That’s Jesse on the far right, by the way. And of course there’s Arthur on the left, looking thoughtful and mysterious.)

The exhibit will be up until January 29th at Mythos Fine Art and Artifacts on Solano Avenue in Berkeley.  I highly recommend popping in and taking a gander.  There are a few other artists also displaying their work at the gallery too.  The paintings in the following photos are Jesse’s.  You must see these in person!  They are beautiful!

(Arthur checks for street passes on his 3DS)

This post is essentially about cocktails.

If you know me outside of the internet (or even if you read my Facebook updates), you know that I’m always talking up this mysterious restaurant called Picco.  They are one of the few restaurants/bars in the Bay Area that will make you an Aviation.  That’s what drew me to them in the first place.  I also realized that they make the best risotto in the world.  And their tuna tartare is heavenly.  Just look at it:

The following two cocktails are a Jack Rose and a Rattlesnake, respectively. Both are super boozey and wonderful. The Jack Rose is made with apple brandy, grenadine, lime, and agave nectar.  It’s like a brandy old fashioned without the bitterness.

I almost ordered this one for myself, but Arthur got it instead. It’s a Rattlesnake, and I’d describe it as a Sazerac that almost became a fizz. This one is made with rye, lemon, maple syrup, egg white, absinthe, and angostura bitters.

I think I might continue to post new cocktails from my Picco adventures.  I have a hard time breaking away from ordering Aviations there, but I trust the cocktail menu.  It has never failed me.

Amber R. Nelson

If you haven’t heard yet, Modcloth posted one of my vintage finds on their blog!  Go here to see the post!

Modcloth is a pretty well-loved online clothing retailer.  Whenever I describe them to people, I say, “if I’d wear it, Modcloth carries it.”  I am a regular reader of the Modcloth Blog (as well as an admirer of their entire shop), so I was absolutely floored when they chose my 1970′s velvet blazer to be featured on Fave Finds!

Fave Finds is a segment of the Modcloth blog that features reader-submitted photos of their rad vintage finds.  Along with the photos, people also submit some information about the garment, as well as vintage-hunting tips for other readers.  It seems my little blazer caught Modcloth’s eye!  I’m glad I submitted the post to them!

One of my favorite dresses comes from Modcloth, actually.  You can see it in this post and this post.

All the best!
Amber R. Nelson

Happy New Year!  I just hung up my 2012 calendar, and is it any surprise that it’s full of lighthouses?  That’s because this year, my poetry book about Californian lighthouses will be published!  And guess what?  I’ll also be printing up some merch to go with it.  You know, like t-shirts and stuff.  Bands always sell the cool extras, so why not do that for poetry?

I will be letting you all know the specifics about pre-orders and release dates and all that fun stuff within a few months.  The first thing I’ll be showing you, though, is the cover art.  Once it’s done being colored, I will post it on here for you all to see.

This year is going to be an exciting one.  Arthur and I getting married, my book getting published…

We are very happy over here.  I hope you all have a happy year as well.

Amber R. Nelson

(Check out my new water bath canner!  I’m going to make tons of jam!)

Shop update: Last week I posted a 1950′s hat and a 1960′s Vera blouse, and today I posted a few really cool skeleton key necklaces!  Check out the shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/unpetitfauve?ref=si_shop

This 1940′s silk blouse is really beautiful.  My brother gave it to me for Christmas.  When I tried it on at Chick-A-Boom! Vintage, I loved its unique capelet-style collar, large fabric-covered buttons, and gorgeous seams, but what I loved most about it is how very 1940′s it was.  Dating a piece of vintage clothing isn’t only an assessment of construction details (zippers, buttons, seam bindings, fabric type, etc).  All those things are very important, of course, but we cannot discount aesthetic.  Aesthetic can give us a lot of information about a garment’s age if we use it in conjunction with our technical, construction-based knowledge of vintage clothing.

The reason why I say this blouse is so “very 1940′s” is because of its capelet-style collar and how it emphasizes and broadens the shoulder.  Allow me to expand upon that.  Clothing reflects the ideology and atmosphere of the time in which it was made.  During the 40′s, as we all know, women were strongly encouraged to take on previously male-dominated jobs to help the war effort.  You will often see that, during times in which the number of women in the workforce drastically increases, women’s clothing styles take on a sort of angularity and draw attention to the shoulders, all to create a silhouette that is inspired by men’s fashion, and ultimately, the male body itself, while still operating within a typically feminine sphere.  If you look at 1970′s and 1980′s women’s fashion as well, you will see similar patterns.

Collecting vintage clothing is a highly semiotic hobby, and that’s why I love it.  It’s an exercise in Structuralism, really.  I can’t believe I’ve never written a paper about it before!

Until Monday.
Amber R. Nelson

I hope you all had a great December 25th. I know Arthur and I did!  It has been a rushed holiday season.  Today I’m going to visit my family in West Marin, so here are a few photos from the weekend.  Above is a precious 1950′s dress my brother got for me.  Tons of little pleats and stripes!

Also, I got Arthur a laptop for Christmas.  He hasn’t had a functioning laptop in over five years, so I got him a Lenovo (we’re big on Lenovo products).

And by the way, all of these photos were taken with the great Nikkor lens Arthur got for me!  I was in desperate need of a faster lens for all my low-light photos.  I can’t wait to take this thing to a show!

Lemmy wishes you all a merry Christmas, too!

I will be posting more photos and details in my Wednesday update. I’ll be visiting some family in West Marin today, so I will no doubt take some pretty photos of Bolinas with my new lens!

See you all Wednesday!
Amber R. Nelson