Gifted

My friend Michael Pelkey and I have a long standing tradition of gift giving to one another and to everyone else we love, and to every home we are invited to. We lump it all in the category of "hostess gifts". Michael can never give one, and when we see each other, he lavishes them upon me, beautiful little things he has picked up here and there over time.

Michael Pelkey lavishes an embarrassment of hostess gifts
on the Visual Vamp on a visit to Key West

I was feeling blue, and all of a sudden the postman rang twice. Cholo barked his head off, and the mailman left a box on the front porch.


It 's a gift from my dearest Michael Pelkey!!!! Look at his regular handwriting! It's calligraphy!
And look at the gift wrapping! He used remnants from a $300. a roll of grass cloth wall paper that looks like raffia. The ribbon is chiffon with a leopard print!

He sent me a Majolica plate for my collection, a string of pearls, and bundles of wooden utensils he thought I would use for the lunches I serve in the garden that he affectionately calls my "French Woman's Lunch".

Visual Vamp Majolica plate in the fireplace mantle in the kitchen

Michael does his gift wrapping effortlessly, usually while sitting on the floor, or at his kitchen table, or maybe sitting on his bed.

I started to think about the gift wrap room that became popular when Candy Spelling had a picture of hers published.


It seemed so luxurious and decadent back then!!! Like only rich people would dedicate a whole room for wrapping presents!

But now, it's become mainstream, and people turn laundry rooms into rooms for gift wrapping.

Martha Stewart certainly played a huge part in the art of gift wrapping.


Where do you wrap your gifts? Have you turned a closet into a gift wrap station?



An armoire makes a nifty place to store all the gift wrap things.


I have all my gift wrap stuff stashed on a cubby hidden by a skirt in my dining room, and like Michael, I wrap my gifts sitting on the floor.