Producer Spotlight: Linda Casimiro of FCED

Nanay Linda Casimiro is 61 and helps support her six children and four grandchildren through the orders that she gets through Gifts and Graces, in particular the consistent orders of Vic Barba.

Before joining the FCED Foundation, she dabbled in sewing, but her earnings were not enough for her family. As a member of FCED Foundation, she trained in sewing under KaBaKa - Kabalikat ng Bayan sa Kaunlaran, an initiative of then Mayor Bagatsing. Through her involvement in FCED and the help of Gifts and Graces, she honed her sewing skills and expanded her opportunities.

She narrates that making Vic Barba bags also helped her a lot in improving her sewing skills. It was four years ago when she first received orders of custom made bags for Vic Barba. She studied the design drawings and samples that were sent to her and produced bags that she was very proud of. When asked why she was proud of the Vic Barba bags she replies “maganda ang quality ng ginagawa namin, alam namin yan dahil sinasabi ng ibang tao. At shempre maganda ang design. Ako ang may gawa eh!”. (We make good quality products, we know this from the feedback of other people. And of course they're very well designed. Of course I made them!). Nanay Linda is grateful for the Vic Barba bag orders, she adds “malaking bagay ang pagagawa namin ng bags ni Ma'm Vic, nakakatulong ang kinikita sa pagpapaaral ko sa bunsong anak ko” (Making Ma'm Vic's bags helps us a lot. The income I get from making those bags help in sending my youngest child to school).

She's also very grateful to Gifts and Graces for giving FCED a lot of income generating projects. “Dahil sa Gifts and Graces hindi kami nawawalan ng trabaho” (Because of Gifts and Graces we have reliable livelihood).

Through your support of Gifts and Graces, producers like Nanay Linda can send her children to school and give them 3 square meals a day. There are various other stories like Nanay Linda's and their stories are tied in to yours. Your act of support and generosity today can be their success story for the coming months.

Table Scape Treats

The dining table is where we gather with family and friends for special occasions. Be it celebrations or commiserations - special occasions and normal everyday it's where we all sit down to eat our daily bread. 


Invest in special pieces that mean something to you and that will make a difference in the lives of the marginalized communities who made them.


Gifts and Graces offer items that could make the humble dining table worthy of all the time you spend there with your loved ones.

Jade Napkin Ring

An elegant accessory to tie up a dining essential and is sure to up the ante in your table scape's overall look.

Oval Directory Tray 

Place your fruits or hot plates on this oval tray made of upcycled woven directory pages. A conversation piece and the perfect opener to explain to advocate to your friends buying fair trade products!

Riverstone Candles 

Do away with the typical candles on your table. Accent your table with these candles that look like smooth river stones instead.

All about Upcycling

We talk a lot about upcycling in this blog but not a lot of people don't know what exactly upcycling is. If you're one of those people, read on!


To quote Cara Smusiak in her post about upcycling in Naturally Savvy, Upcycling is 

"taking something that you would otherwise throw out and finding a way to make it into something else." 

She explains further the difference between recycling and upcycling: "upcycling maintains or improves the quality of the materials" while recycling downgrades the materials that are reused.


There are a myriad of ways to upcycle different sorts of "waste". It's all up to your imagination and creativity to reuse something that could potentially have added to to the landfills! To get you started, here is a list of 100 Amazing Upcycling Ideas you could use.


If you don't want to start upcycling yourself, why don't you buy some of Gifts and Graces many upcycled products? Not only will you be helping the environment, you would also be helping provide a dignified income to one of our partner marginalized communities!


Here are just some of our upcycled products:

Upcycled from Scrap Fabric

 Retaso Pillow

 Coffee Sleeves

Retaso Travel Set: Passport Holder, Luggage Tag & Checkbook Holder

Upcycled from Juice Packs

Juice Pack Bag

Upcycled from Magazines

Magazine Tote Bag

Upcycled from Phone book Pages

Stackable Directory Bowls

Upcycled from Old Flour Sacks

Harina Tote Bag

To see more of our upcycled products visit our showroom/office at:

Unit 131 Milelong Building, Amorsolo St, Makati City

or call 759-2525 or email us at: marketing@giftsandgraces.com

Fair Trade Travel

Jet-set in style using Gifts and Graces travel accessories. Be a fair trade traveler and take your advocacy wherever you go!

Mangyan Travel Set

Take your Filipino pride wherever your travels take you by covering your travel essentials with these Filipino handmade cloth passport holder, checkbook holder and luggage tag. 

Retaso Travel Pillow

 Travel in style and comfort with this pillow decorated with quality scrap fabric.

Retaso Travel Pouch

A place to put your toiletries in your hand carry bag made of canvass cloth and retaso fabric strips.

G&G on Give the World a Little Nudge

The Gifts & Graces team would like to thank Miss Emily Dy for featuring G&G in her blog Give The World a Little Nudge. Her blog has a regular feature called The Switch wherein she documents her efforts to switch to more sustainable and more environment - friendly products. 


On her fifth installment of the series, she writes about alternative Corporate Giveaways suppliers.

The G&G corporate giveaways products are included in her post.

Thanks again Ms Emily for helping us spread our advocacy of fair trade & livelihood support!

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If you also want to do a feature on G&G

Please don't hesitate to call us at 759-2525

Or email us marketing@giftsandgraces.com