Bloggers In The November Magazines

It's always a thrill to see bloggers in print. Bloggers are fast becoming the kings and queens of all media, crossing over into print, online magazines, other blogs and web sites, podcasts, TV, and YouTube.

The King of All Media

Gwen Driscoll of Ragland Social Hill has a MAJOR editorial in the November 2010 issue of Elle Decor. Nothing is up online at Elle Decor, so be sure to pick up this issue and check out her fabulous interior design work (page 230 entitled "Homeward Bound).




The November issue of House Beautiful is called "The Ultimate Entertaining Issue." Again they are slow to even have the cover up online. Note to magazines: Keep your web sites current.

Mentioned in a feature starting on page 118 called "101 Party Do's and Don'ts" are many designers weighing in, and quite a few bloggers offered their party tips including Eddie Ross and Joni Webb.


This past July Alberto and I were in New York, and went to a fabulous party at the home of Eddie Ross and Jaithan Kochar.

It was the best party with many bloggers in attendance: Reggie Darling, Debra Phillips 5th and State, Lauren Leiss from Pure Style Home, Michelle Ginnerty from My Notting Hill, Elizabeth Moyer from Pretty Pink Tulips, Patricia van Essche from PVE, and probably a few more we didn't get to meet in the huge crush of revelers and Green Acres (what I affectionately call Eddie and Jaithan's country manse).

go to page 22 and 24 in the November issue of Woman's Day

At the party at Green Acres, we also met the fabulous Elizabeth Mayhew, author of Flip For Decorating, NBC Today Show regular, and the current and new-ish editor of Woman's Day.

Elizabeth was fascinated by the reactions we bloggers had to one another, squealing and laughing and hugging and kissing, and she was quite taken that many of us had not met in person up until meeting at this party.

She asked if we would mind having our photo taken for the November issue she was working on
where Woman's Day wants you to focus on a few important things like staying connected. She was duly impressed with the connection bloggers have and foster among one another.

So go out and get an arm load of magazines this weekend, and sit on the porch with a glass of wine or a cup of tea. Leaf through the pages while enjoying the fine weather and your blog friends saying hi to you from the pages.



And if you missed blog TV star Meg Fairfax from Pigtown on The Nate Berkus Show, go HERE

Happy Weekend!

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.