The Art Of The Hostess Gift

Michael Pelkey is a master at gift wrapping!
These gorgeous packages arrived wrapped in the color of the year!

A huge box was delivered to the front door, and I recognize the calligraphy hand writing of Michael Pelkey! Go HERE to read about Michael.

Michael and I have been friends for many years, and though we don't live near one another anymore, we phone and write and send each other gifts.

Michael shops for interior design clients, and he has been an avid collector of antiques since he was 15 years old. When he sees some little trinket that reminds him of me, he gets it and stock piles it until he has an impressive collection of "hostess gifts" to send me.

The latest collection of hostess gifts unwrapped
I couldn't stop smiling!

The green cashmere throw is so soft!
The portrait is of Michael

Michael writes little notes with each gift. For a vintage style piece of subway sign art he wrote, "Celeste, I like to keep current on my blogs". He read about my wanting a subway sign HERE!
(Michael and I call each other "Celeste").

How cute is this subway sign from Michael Pelkey?

A Tiffany box filled with one dozen intaglios
Maybe I'll frame them

There was a box with a dozen of these mid century modern chandelier drops
I'll add them to my dining room chandelier

We gave each other the same book!
And I love the vintage ribbon - Michael writes on it: "So French!"

This bracelet is hand made by a woman in Africa
It is so elegant and feels great on the skin

This grouping includes a DVD of my fave movie, a goldstone brooch,
a tortoise shell pill box, two strands of amethysts - I die!

Michael and I haven't been able to visit each other for three years. He has a home in Key West that has been in tons of design books and magazines. He also has home in North Carolina that he is renovating.

It is an old stone house, and Michael is painstakingly designing every nook and cranny, retro fitting antique windows and doors, building a cupola, exposing the stone walls in the interior, installing an antique mantle, and so much more. I can hardly wait to see it!

Michael wants to do a book about the stone house, and we are also going to do a book together.

Michael is not a run-of-the-mill designer chasing trends. He is firmly rooted in using antiques, and one of kind architectural details. Comparable designers who come to mind to describe Michael's style are Bunny Williams, John Saladino, and Rose Tarlow.

You can contact Michael at michaelpelkey@windstream.net

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.