It's Black Friday. The traditional start day to the Holiday shopping season. One in which we expect deep discounts from retailers. While we'd love to offer huge discounts during this season, that's not something as a small business we are able to do. We simply don't carry the margins of the huge retailers. Our products are small batch and made to order. In that way, while we have profit lower margins, we also keep our products special for you. They're not mass produced items you see in everyone's homes. Plus, we don't create the environmental waste that big business does.

That said, we are offering a free set of holiday gift tags with the purchase of our in studio stocked items, table linens, stockings, lampshades and ornaments. You'll receive a set of six tags in addition to your order as a token of our appreciation.

I also thought I'd take this opportunity to tell you the origin story of our small business, Bari J. Designs.

In 2004 I was a stay at home mom raising two children. While the kids were at school one morning, I took out my sewing machine and attempted to make a handbag. That first bag was somewhat of a disaster but I had so much fun making it, I kept making bags … and more bags... and more bags. Until in 2005, the first Bari J. website was started and we began selling our handmade bags. 

For years bags and belts were our focus. Around 2007 the handmade website, Etsy opened. And suddenly the internet was flooded with handmade bags. That's when I decided to use my graphic design background to design my own fabric. Eventually in 2009, I licensed my first collection of fabric and began my career as a surface pattern designer.

Art using traditional paint mediums came later around 2013. When I started painting, my world changed. I realized that was what I was doing all along, albeit using a graphic tablet into the computer... and that it was what I loved most of all.

Since then, Bari J. has grown into a lifestyle brand featuring all sorts of products from wallpaper and fabric to pillows, lampshades, personal accessories and so much more.

It is my fervent hope to see this business continue to grow and thrive in the coming years. 

Thank you to so many of you for following along on my journey through the years. It is you I have to thank for the success of Bari J. Designs.