Who would ever have thought that the best seller for a gift store in Bermuda in May would be a sheepskin hot water bottle cover?

Kristi Grayston, that's who. The owner of Pulp and Circumstance gift store and paper shop has never been one to shy away from improbable objects for the shelves of her business.

Her two Queen Street stores are filled to the brim with pretty things. One is a paper store specialising in invitations, the other a quirky gift store. This shop, on the corner of Queen and Reid Street, is not filled with objects you must have for the house - but loyal customers clearly feel they cannot live without these things, whether it be a brightly coloured soft toy, a picture frame made out of multicoloured glass or a large scented candle.

"The joke is we have the best smelling trash on the Island," said Grayston, sitting in the warehouse deep in the in the bowels of Windsor Place, surrounded by boxes and papers.

This is an Aladdin's cave filled with scented gifts, sparking packages and twinkling glass, stacked floor to ceiling, as Grayston gets ready for the late summer sale and begins to take stock for Christmas.

"Ooh, look at these," she said, diving into the nearest box and pulling out a sample of very tasteful Bermuda-themed note cards. "I do like the gombey one." The yellow and fuschia cards are just one of the many things that Grayston loves in her store.

She only buys things she likes herself - and has made a killing selling her taste on to Bermuda's residents.

But strangely enough the owner of this hugely successful business does not consider herself a businesswoman.

"I am a vendor. That is the way I think of myself." But in fact Grayston is one of the most successful businesswomen on the island, running a tight ship and getting orders again and again from some of the biggest names on the Island.

And just last month her achievements and business acumen were rewarded when she won top prize from the STARS Group for "Leading Entrepreneurs of the World".

She was given $10,000 to develop her business after beating off stiff competition. But she will not divulge what the money will be used for.

"I need to keep it under wraps," she said. "If I succeed or if I fail, I will let you know. I hope it will work, but within the next year you should be able to see what it is."

Grayston opened her specialist stationery store Pulp and Circumstance in 1996, after a career which varied from a shop assistant to being a trader for Bank of Bermuda.

She ended up working as a treasurer for an exempt company, Solvay, but when it decided to discontinue its business, Grayston had to look elsewhere for work.

"While everyone was looking around for work, I was just sitting back and thinking," she said. "I thought, this is happening for a reason."

And, as happens with many successful businesses, she stumbled blindly on her goldmine.

She had started a catering company, Calories, ("Which I loved," she said.), but also decided to team up with a friend of hers, Shelly Hamill who had a weeding business to open a side line in making invitations after seeing a gap in the market.

"It was supposed to be a hobby, and the catering company the real business," she said. But this was not to be. "There was no real place to get printed invitations quickly on-island and so we decided to open a store and include some gifts. Needless to say I didn't have a catering business for long... or a life," she joked.

Grayston credits mutual friend Allan Hall for coming up with the name, and they had to go forward.

She and Hamill each put in $5,000 and did a business plan and applied to the Bank of Bermuda for a $30,000 loan.

"We didn't want to ask our husband's for it. It was our company and we were going to make it on our own. But the irony was, when it came to sign the papers for the business, the bank made our husbands sign the loan as guarantors. So much for that idea."

And Grayston admits it was the best $5,000 she has ever invested. With the cash they bought their inventory of paper and a top-notch computer and printer to do their work.

The women opened the store in November 1996 at a space in the Old Cellar, and had to be inventive with what they did. Cheap prop tables were bought from Knick Knack, furniture brought in from their homes.

"We planned to make it month to month, and if it didn't work we would throw in the towel. We were so tucked away, every day I worried that no customers would ever come in. And on days that several good customers came in, I fretted that we would never make a sale again."

But the business was doing well, if not quite booming. Grayston ended up buying out her partner, and spent her days in the store, and the catering business was left behind.

"I really didn't expect to enjoy it so much," she said. "The fascinating thing about retail, especially coming from the corporate world, is that while technically you are the boss, from the moment the store opens at 10 a.m. to when it closes at 5 p.m., the customer is the boss. You spend all your time trying to please other people, saying `absolutely, I will do that right away...' That was a huge adjustment to make.

"But you meet so many people and build up so many friends from customers and clients, it is really worth it all."

The turning point for the business came in 1999, when Blucks moved out of their space on Queen and Reid Street. And it was then that Grayston made the leap from small business to the big time.

"When we had a good day back then, I would be horrified at today," she said. "We were hidden away in a little lane and a lot of people didn't know we were there."

They put up posters in the window with "P&C coming soon" and the mystery was unveiled when the gift shop opened.

And Grayston herself had to make a huge adjustment herself. Overnight the business had changed from her being the only full time employee, to having a staff, and to running and stocking two stores - one of which was proving to be a great success.

In times of crunch, her husband Michael, has had to pitch in, and both her mother and mother-in-law have helped in short-staffed times.

"It was a huge adjustment - and it didn't happen gradually. It took a full year to get used to it and to start working it properly," she said.

And just as she was getting used to the change, another space in Queen Street, and Grayston jumped at it. They refurbished the store just the way they wanted it and moved the paper division into the shiny new shop.

"We are so much more visible now," she said. "The Old Cellar was a great location for us - it was a great place to get started. But it was a nightmare for delivery - we very little storage and had to unpack everything when it arrived - you couldn't leave stuff in the street and it was a small space.

"We knew we needed more space, but didn't realise the difference it would make moving to street level."

While other retailers struggle to keep their heads above water, Pulp and Circumstance is one of the big success stories on the Island, catering to a niche market that will pay large sums of money for quirky and fun gifts and objects.

Now Grayston is setting her sights further - and hopes to open her secret new venture within the next year. "Watch this space," she added.