Posted on 12/09/201309/08/2020 by Lucy

Organic Gift Wrapping and Mason Jar Terrariums: A Crafternoon

This past Saturday, I was invited to do a presentation at Whole Foods Santa Monica on upcycled organic gift wrapping. Along with Megan (the Whole Foods Marketing Team Leader…and blogger of The Dinner Party Association), we hosted Whole Foods’ first Crafternoon crafting event!

Mason Jar Terrariums with Megan:

Megan did a wonderful presentation on how to make really creative & fun gifts using mason jars, a bit of soil and moss, and a succulent of your choice. Then we got to decorate the mason jars with adorable little ribbons and holiday-themed embellishments. The result was a fantastic mason jar terrarium that would make the perfect holiday gift!

It was an absolutely fantastic presentation, and I really enjoyed learning a new crafting skill!

Upcycled Organic Gift Wrapping with Lucy:

Next was my turn! Whole Foods just asked that I do some sort of creative gift wrapping presentation, and left the details and theme up to me. I settled on an upcycled materials theme that focussed on an organic gift wrapping style. In case I haven’t made it obvious already, this is my utmost favorite style, and also the one I often encourage Fair Ivy‘s monthly featured surprise artists to use!

We started with Whole Foods brown bags, to upcycle into wrapping paper. We simply cut them open and used the backside, which made for perfect kraft paper that kept with the whole organic gift wrapping vibe.

I put together little boxes full of natural embellishments—leaves, twigs, flowers, berries, and other non-wilting plants that were perfect for embellishments on organic gift wrapping packages. Each Crafternoon participant got their own little box of organic goodies, and were allowed to be as imaginative as they wanted.

Above are a few of the sample packages I created, all using organic embellishments that I simply found in the garden or outside my house. The idea was to focus on natural items that don’t need water to remain beautiful—so low-water-needing plants (like succulents, ficus trees, rosemary, Christmas trees), dried plants (like twigs, dead leaves, dried berries) and even little pebbles. For ribbon we used twine, natural-colored yarn, or raffia (made from the raffia palm—how much more natural can you get?).

I brought a little bottle of white paint as well, which participants used to spice-up some of their kraft paper, with little dabs of their finger.

And look at how perfect the holiday paper bags from Whole Foods are for wrapping paper if you use the outside! They even have snowflakes! These dried red berries were also a perfect holiday wrapping paper touch.

Thanks to those of you who joined us, and we hope to see many more of you at the next event. Oh, and….

Happy Holidays!!

Ps. If you need any help or suggestions for upcycled creative gift wrapping ideas, just drop me a line 🙂

Posted on 12/09/201309/08/2020 by Lucy

New website design coming soon!

This weekend, Fair Ivy will have a teensy bit of downtime as it transitions to a new website design. Here is a sneak peak at some of the new pages you’ll find:

This website change is schedule for Saturday January 11th, from morning until late afternoon, so please be patient with us during this time. We think you’ll enjoy the updates!

Posted on 12/04/201309/08/2020 by Lucy

Etsy + Wholefoods presents: A Crafternoon (with me, Lucy!)

Etsy + Wholefoods presents: A Crafternoon with Fair Ivy founder Lucy Fairweather

If you live in or around the Los Angeles area and want to come meet me or learn how to craft pretty packages, swing by the Whole Foods in Santa Monica (on Wilshire) for A Crafternoon this Saturday, December 7th between 3-4pm. I’ll be trying out some different styles of cute gift packaging, including organic, feminine, and creative!

To RSVP to this event, visit EventBrite: Crafternoon.

lucy-wholefoods

Posted on 11/07/201309/08/2020 by Lucy

Last minute Christmas shopping: It doesn’t have to be stressful

Last Minute Christmas Shopping: We all do it

It’s the classic tale: we think we have so much time until Christmas rolls around, only to realize we don’t….and thus begins the panic. Perhaps we can’t get enough time off work to shop, everything we want is sold out, we have too many friends (what a terrible problem to have!), or we just can’t face the horror of the shopping mall war zone during the holiday rush.

It doesn’t have to be painful.

I’m not here to tell you not to procrastinate, since we all know we’re going to do it regardless. What I CAN tell you to do is to find a gift idea that makes last minute Christmas shopping kind of….fun, and quite a breeze.

First of all, there is the super fun and easy way out.
Since YOU feel stressed about last minute holiday shopping, it goes to follow that OTHER people feel the same way. Talk with your friends and family early and feel people out—if you find that your best friend also hates last minute Christmas shopping, create an agreement together that neither of you will buy each other gifts, and instead you’ll go out on the town together, or get your nails done, or some other sort of treat. This also avoids the problem of getting someone something that they will never use—this way, you both get to enjoy an experience (oh, the memories!) and you know your money is well spent!

If that doesn’t work, there is always the ACTUAL last-minute gifts
Obviously I always tout Fair Ivy as a great last minute gift, because who doesn’t like receiving multiple surprise gifts every month? They’re handmade and they all already come hand-wrapped. We even have a little gift notice you can print out to let the recipient know the surprise gifts are on their way—so you can literally buy a subscription on Christmas morning and they can start getting excited about the future surprise gifts they’ll be receiving.

Ok, promo time over. Beyond actually BUYING something, here are 4 lovely last minute gift ideas that we fully endorse:

Make a lovely dinner for someone. Or invite a bunch of people and knock them all off your gifting list at once! If you can’t do this before Christmas, why not handmake a really cute coupon that they can redeem at any time (perhaps with a week’s notice)?
Buy two tickets to go see a band you know they like, that is upcoming a few weeks or months after Christmas. Memories can’t be beat!
We don’t usually like recommending gift cards because they don’t feel very personal. However, we do like travel gift cards! Most airlines or train operators sell these, and you could even make a cute little handmade card with recommendations for where they could go.
Our favorite gift this year: With so many of our photo memories stored digitally nowadays, we start to appreciate the tactile once again. Take the time to print out a photograph of a cherished memory you share with a loved one, frame it, and hand-write a note about what the shared memory means to you. We know your loved one will cherish it as well.

We hope this post will help dispel some last minute Christmas shopping blues. As always, feel free to contact us to help you with gift ideas—we specialize in finding handmade gifts that fit your recipient to a tee.

Posted on 10/22/201309/08/2020 by Lucy

Why buy handmade: An inside look at our business practices

Why buy handmade? Here at Fair Ivy, we hold great value in buying handmade versus mass produced. This means that every product we send to you monthly as a surprise comes directly from a small business or individual hand-maker. Nothing comes from a big factory, and everything is produced using good business practices.

Why is this important to us?

There are multiple reasons why we feature handmade products exclusively, as well as a few challenges (that we think are well worth it). Here’s an inside look at why-we-do-what-we-do.

Pros (i.e. why buy handmade):

We support small local businesses and individual artists.
Often the creators of our handmade surprise gifts are regular individuals with a specific skill and love of crafting, who hold completely unrelated day jobs and then spend their evenings and weekends lovingly creating the products you then receive in your subscription. Some are stay-at-home moms, some are teachers, nurses, accountants, or marketing executives in the daytime.

The money you spend on your subscription (and thus the money we then use to purchase each surprise gift) stays in the US economy.
All of these artisans are located within the USA, meaning that you are shopping locally, even though you are purchasing something through the internet!

We love working with individuals verses corporations.
All our business transactions occur after we’ve found someone wonderful at a craft fair, via Etsy, or though another artisan venue. We absolutely love the part of our job where we get to interact with these creative individuals. And we love helping the businesses grow stronger—some of the businesses we’ve worked with have grown to open brick & mortar stores!

Our customers get to connect with the artisans as well.
Each surprise gift you receive should have details from the artist about their life, their craft, or their inspiration. We have had many reviews and feedback saying that this personal touch sets Fair Ivy apart from any other service out there.

Each surprise item is hand-wrapped!
You can’t get that with mass-produced items!

We know the business practices of our hand-makers.
By working directly with individual small businesses in the US, we are boycotting the types of labor practices that often go hand in hand with mass-produced overseas products. We know exactly who is making our product, and that they are doing it because they want to, not because they have to.

Challenges:

Individual artists need time to create all the handmade items for our subscribers. Which means Fair Ivy has to plan ahead—far ahead!
Sometimes we have to give them 3 months before their feature to get all the items made. This also means that once we decide on a quantity for a given month, we can’t accept any additional customer orders (so if we tell an artist to make 200 items for a future month, once we hit 200 subscribers that month we have to close orders completely).

While handmade items are more costly to create, we think the quality is worth it.
Some people may say “why buy handmade when it’s so much cheaper to buy mass-produced items?” Many companies use products from overseas simply because labor is very cheap outside the US. Having individuals in the US make products is more costly, but it also comes with a guarantee that they are using good business practices (e.g. no child labor, no indentured service, no unhealthy working conditions, etc). As a result we have a much lower profit margin than some of our competitors, and our boxes are slightly more expensive. However, we know that our customers realize all the wonderful benefits of connecting with US hand makers and supporting their craft.

Why buy handmade? The bottom line

We hope you can see why we value handmade so greatly, and why a subscription purchased through Fair Ivy is a conscientious purchase. And now if anyone asks you “Why buy handmade?”, we know you’ll be able to answer!

If you have any questions at all about our products, our process, or anything else, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Posted on 04/04/201309/08/2020 by Lucy

Subscription surprises for women!

Did you know? Fair Ivy was actually conceived of during a “wouldn’t-it-be-nice” session!

Lucy Fairweather, the soon-to-be owner of Fair Ivy, was having coffee with a friend one afternoon, when they began to lament about the lack of surprise mail they’d received since graduating college. They used to receive random care packages from mom and other friends around the country, and the fun of opening a complete surprise package was like nothing else!

One discussion led to another, and soon the idea behind Fair Ivy was born. In 2008, the company began as a hobby, where each surprise package sent out (to friends and family at first) was themed. Themes included “It’s not Easy Being Green” and “Beyond the Sea”. It was cheesy, but everyone loved it! They said they were the best subscription surprises for women they’d ever been a part of.

This encouraged expansion to new types of surprises and eventually the concept was whittled down to include only handmade surprises. This decision made sense—customers preferred feeling connected with the artists, Lucy enjoyed working with the handmade artists more than bulk item companies, and of course the items themselves were unique, high quality, and lovely.

Today: Now the best subscription surprises for women

Both customers, bloggers (we have tons of awesome reviews!), and list-makers (who make the “Best Subscription Surprises for Women” lists) agree that Fair Ivy tops the market for handmade surprise gifts.

Check out a few of the types of handmade items we send:

Fair ivy: Best Subscription Surprises For Women

Each gift is hand-wrapped, handmade, and includes details about the artist—such as where they learnt their craft, what inspired them to create the piece, or what they like to do for fun. This little touch helps customers feel like the gift was lovingly made by a close friend.

We hope to see you on our surprise recipient list soon!