From Parisian Restaurant to Gift Wrap

Place Vendôme's Restaurant, designed by Michele Bonan and inspired by Dior is one of my favorite posts that I've composed.

I just love the color palette-dove gray, black and white houndstooth, and pink-

perfectly parisian, perfectly chic.

For my Christmas wrapping this year, I used this very non-traditional Christmas color scheme, and was very pleased with the result.

The great thing about these giftwrap designs is that one could use these papers year round.

_{Inspiration Source: Restaurant at l'Hôtel Place Vendôme}

This special gift was for my niece, Holly, from Amelia. The night we gave this gift to Holly was her last night here before returning to Washington D.C. for her new job.
I didn't want to give her anything extra to pack away, so we kept the gift small-a little golden acorn hanging on a brown ribbon-to be worn as a necklace or to be placed somewhere special as a momento of home and of "little squirrel," her pet name for Amelia.

I added a larger acorn covered in ebony glitter as an embellishment for the giftwrap as a little hint.

These houndtooth chairs and pink satin pillows are the perfect Parisienne duo. I'm seriously considering bringing this look into one of the rooms in our house.

_{I used these pink ornaments last year in several of my giftwrapped packages. Click here to view.}

A special package for one of my best friends. She specifically requested that if she had to wait to exchange gifts with me in order to receive a beautifully wrapped package, she would wait as long as she had to. Last year, I was so behind on giftwrap that I put her gift in a gift bag-Needless to say, she was disappointed (Shame on me) So, I made sure her gift this year was extra special!

This gift was for my brother-in-law, so I added a little masculine touch-a couple of vintage playing cards punched into large circles. Great for gift tags and a great accent to the black and white wrapping paper.

The cylinder tube on the left was a gift for my sister-in-law, Felecia. Her gift actually arrived in the mail in this tube-mailer. I remember thinking "How in the world will I wrap this?"

I used black tissue paper and vintage velvet blush ribbon (the stiff kind of ribbon that florists use). I decided that wide stripes were quite sophisticated and then added a little panache by pinning a black brooch on the center pink stripe.

This is the end of my giftwrapping ventures for now. Giftwrapping this Christmas was a much needed creative outlet for me during the hectic holidays, and I believe that the presentation of these gifts through thoughtful giftwrap made the gifts inside the boxes even more appreciated.

Happy New Year! I am looking forward to sharing 2011 with you all!
_{images 2,4 from TravelModus.com; all other images by à la parisienne}