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

Go Get Your Subway Sign!

You picked this sign if you won the Giveaway from Subway-Sign.com.


Congratulations Deborah from Dumbwit Tellher!

Deborah Peterson Milne from Dumbwit Tellher
"Good taste isn't just on the tip of your tongue"

Deborah, please email Chris and claim your prize! And please send us a photo to show how you use it in your home.

AND Chris is offering a rebate to everyone else! Read her note:

Good Morning Valorie,

Thank you for the opportunity to show my subway sign art décor this past week in the giveaway!

Please share this with your readers:

For the readers of the wonderful blog, Visual Vamp, I have a limited time offer--

$5 rebate on any one sign purchased by midnight (MT), December 15th, 2010.

On checkout include rebate code: "ilovevisualvamp" in the notes to seller.

Offer expires midnight (MT), December 15, 2010.

Chris Subway-Sign.com

Thank you all for entering this fab giveaway!

Hope to get back to posting more regularly this week. You are all so wonderful for sticking with me during this difficult time. Alberto is feeling very very good and we are on track to moving ahead with enjoying life.

Subway Sign Giveaway!

Here is a great giveaway for you! Last two days to enter! Winner announced on Monday!

Chris from Subway-Sign.com offers a choice of any "standard" products sized 20" x 30" selected from Subway-Sign.com Subway, Metro and Streetcar 20" x 30" Photographs or Subway-Sign.com Destination/Personal History 20" x 30" Photographs
It is only available for shipping to USA addresses. The prize winner will need to provide her/his street address and email address.

You know the drill - please go to Subway-Sign.com HERE and look at all the cool choices. Come back here to Visual Vamp and leave a comment telling us which sign you like. The contest will go on for one week, and the winner by random choice will be announced next Monday. You must please leave a comment here on this post in order to win.

Visual Vamp has a subway sign in the kitchen!

Say what???!!!! Can this be the dreaded subway sign dissed on many a decor blog as another trend that bites the dust?

Like many of you, as a trend gets popular and trickles down to entrepreneurs like Chris, it becomes affordable and accessible to us mere mortals, of which I am certainly one.

I am a great fan of the art of typography, and have loved vintage subway signs, since I saw one hanging in a friend's loft in New York twenty years ago. These genuine vintage signs have become rare and collectible and pretty expensive, and I have always had my eye out for that miracle flea market find.

Buenos Aires subway sign HERE
Visual Vamp kitchen

Over the past three years printed reproductions have been cropping up most notably at Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn. Oh the kiss of death for sure for so many that wouldn't be caught dead using such pedestrian stuff. And the signs were pricey. And then one showed up in a JLo movie, and the coffin lid was creaking shut.

Visual Vamp kitchen with chicken wire insets on upper cabinets

As many of you who read Visual Vamp know, Alberto and I have been working on a progressive kitchen project HERE, as in we progress when we have some money and energy to DIY improve our kitchen. It is a quirky space in an old New Orleans shotgun house. Alberto has been refacing the cabinets, and yay! he felt well enough to hang the last two cabinet doors he made with chicken wire inserts to show off the white ironstone.

Eventually we will replace countertops, and maybe do a new backsplash. In the meantime a concrete treatment I did six years is holding up, and I love the color. There is a boxed in chimney from an old fireplace that has also been walled in (by the previous owners), and this provides a very long and narrow wall space to uh hang something. I have always envisioned a subway sign in this space. Read more HERE

Of course I always thought it would be a New York subway sign of some sort. Or maybe a sign with the streetcar stops in New Orleans. Or maybe a Paris metro sign.

New Orleans streetcar stops from Subway-Signs.com
It was added to Chris' great selection at my suggestion

But since our devastating trip to Canada, Alberto and I realize we may never be able to fly to Buenos Aires again. So what does this have to with our kitchen and subway signs? Well after trying several art options on the long narrow wall space, with nothing looking right, I bit the bullet, swallowed my pride, and gasp, started looking for a subway sign for that wall. I immediately knew I wanted to have one from the B Line from the Buenos Aires subway, and couldn't find any such thing, because, uh, it doesn't exist.

I found several sites that do custom signs, and I found Chris and he/she (still don't know if Chris is a man or a woman ha ha) immediately came up with a design based on the information I sent.
I wanted do the canvas sign, but the size I needed is not available. So I opted for the paper sign, a super glorified poster, great quality on a superior heavy paper stock, and at a terrific affordable price.

The Buenos Aires subway sign is so perfect for anyone who loves the city, or for a tango lover. Two of the stops on the B Line are named for two important and beloved tango personalities: Carlos Gardel and Osvaldo Pugliese.

The sign did need to be framed, and a huge custom frame job like that would break the already broken piggy bank. After a little Google shopping I found a DIY frame and ordered that too from HERE

Framing it was a two person job, and not that easy, and I am sure there is a hair or two and a speck of something under the plexiglass. But all and all, it came out so great, and Alberto and I love it.

I sometimes let the idea that something is "out", influence my decor choices. Often this is valid concern and a good thing. But sometimes when you know something that has been trend trashed is really right, and it is something you really like, you just have to say fuck it, I like it, and that's that.

Enter the giveaway - you will love having one of the high quality signs from Subway-Signs.com in your home, or giving it as a holiday gift.

If you don't win this time, just buy one! It won't break the bank.

And thank you Chris for providing this wonderful holiday giveaway to the readers of Visual Vamp!