With little lit minds and gurgling hearts, our newborn 2018 selves give a tip of our tiny top hats to the start of a new year.
I herewith share my lit party top hat from my 2017 self :

Seeking lit ideas we often look to the world for source and ask to be adorned with its lights. Shine on me, shine on me!

This year. 2017. Inside Out is our key take-away. Re-Soul-Lusions from within. It’s one we’ll all never forget for it’s social justice, political, environmental and emotional challenges and wins, further underscoring the importance of art, beauty, celebrating design, wellness science … the fields and fruits of our daily harvest. Within our daily harvest, are hidden the seeds of future trends, always. My greatest wish is to seek this, that Lit From Within power.

I do actually feel so lucky to work with our clients, the experts, personalities, and businesses that are creating positive change in the world. Together sharing their messages in very “lit” ways bodes well for our collective future.

This year, as well, personally we’ve donned 3 new hats/adventures (besides the X-mas Hanukkah bush above.) We now look forward with new brights of 2018 to share the highlights and best times of our year, with clients and projects portending GOOD THINGS for 2018!  

Before I run down some of these, looky how really lit from within I am!

“My biggest Top Hat Tip is this Tony Robbins‘ quote that almost flashed by me on Instagram earlier in the year:
“Begin to live as though your prayers have been answered.”

By Jove, I tried it! It works! Here’s a peek at some of what’s new going into 2018 so y’all can hopefully be inspired, connect with me, and see about some play time/work time/adventures/and oh! Lordy! answered prayers we can share together in 2018.

My newbies:

1  A new book of my illustrations and stories is now published entitled Immortal Beloved: The World’s First Goddess Coloring Book + Perfume. Click here on Amazon or see the post previous to this one, here.  Goddess cocktail events, workshops, and retreats anyone?

2  New clients, some public, others private, with private clients including those forward-thinking companies and individuals utilizing to great effect our 9-Star Passport, a life and design navigational system for people, brands, and places. Planning some brand re-thinks, commercial, or residential refreshes? I’ve got a passport for you.

3  We welcome new clients and events for Slow Luxury, our home for sustainable beautiful stuff! Goods and experiences that celebrate indigenous and heritage materials through body and home goods, and travel adventures ya don’t say? El Shoppe is in development for 2018, and … Got some sustainable product development in mind? Call me, call me!

Our basic biz is still in full effect and we will always love sharing our 20+ year agency experience in creative direction and public relations for lifestyle brands. Being in touch with the leaders of today and tomorrow is the thread that runs through all our work. Doorways to help our collective lit dreams coming true.

Take a tour by month here to see the highlights of our 2017 work, the trends we see on the horizon (in bold and pretty in pink in honor of pink hats whose impact opened the year that was.)

Connect with us to discover more over coffee, a matcha latte or perhaps a hot toddy wrapped in an actual holiday sweater courtesy of one of our imaginative clients. Find the recipe here on a lit blog named Tools-2-Tiaras.

JANUARY
1  Mental Wellness … The “Flawless Foundation” revolution will be televised!

The awareness, measurement, healing and non-stigmatizing of the degrees of mental wellness is a vast frontier today. Finding the perfection in every child and normalizing the conversation around mental health, Janine Francolini, the founder of the Flawless Foundation, regularly calls on us to help her perfect her media appearances.  This year she presented on CBS News 12 in West Palm Beach, see the clip here.

We adore coaching Janine and the kudos from her board, say it all:

“You are the BEST spokesperson for mental health and … health education!  You are an amazing natural on camera and your openness is very compelling.”

FEBRUARY
2  Meals That Heal. Bravo for Gal-Approved Valentine’s Day Aphrodisiacs

More stamina between the sheets? We are all about Meals-That-Heal. We pitched a Valentine’s Day menu of healing aphrodisiacs at our brewery/restaurant client, Paulaner on Bowery, for a seduction-test-taste by TV-personality-also-foodie, Delaina Dixon and her mystery man. Mind that Goat Cheese and Red Beet Terrine with Poppy Seed dressing you two! Looks like the beets and poppy seeds are already at work on the sex hormones and that Champagne-Mousse-with-Carmelized-Mango is well-known to give a love blush.

Delaina’s review for Bravo TV‘s lifestyle vertical and film for her blog, Diva Gals Daily made V’day v-tasty, however, on another note, our hearts also went to …

Matt Abramovitz‘s goofy angel wings interviewing Paulaner’s brewmaster Justin Meyers, for New York City’s best-loved classical music station, WQXR (The Classical Station of The New York Times) and their Classical Beer Jam: Valentine’s Day Edition, a live webcast event at Greene Space.  All in good love vibes, we were happy to make the connects where Paulaner served beer at the invitation of Heritage Radio‘s Beer Sessions. Craft beer, geeky-humor, classical music, angel wings … what’s not to Love?

MARCH
3 Food is Medicine. Get it on with a Happy App.

Happy as always to style and coach our long time client, advocate for healthy eating and living, Dr. Vincent Pedre …this year for the introductory video for his new Happy Gut app debut. Transforming a bare corner in a Tribeca loft studio into a green, vibrant kitchen was Part One of the evening for me. Part Two involved a Chelsea art exhibit of a nude woman with tattoos all over her body … and then a wine-n-dine on delish fish tacos at Hotel Americano. All in a NYC day’s medicine (I mean work!) my friends. As you well know.

APRIL
4  New/Old Food Rituals. Have you Herb the one about Bouley Botanical?

A chef and a doctor walk into an herbal wonderland for some kombucha and…
This spring we again welcomed new/old Wellness with a return ritual engagement of the Chef and Doctor series, in the spectacular Bouley Botanical, downtown Tribeca. Helmed by starred and award-winning Chef David Bouley and selected top docs this is where getting real dirty in earthy meets diagnosis. Chef Bouley’s passion for healthy ingredients paired with our client Dr. Vincent Pedre‘s extensive gut, microbiome and state of agri-business knowledge plus a … multi-course wine dinner gave a packed house much to chew on!

This year’s dinner featured passed happy canapés, a health tonic cocktail, and fungal magnificence like the dish below.  Here’s last year’s lush pics and prophetic dinner from our 2017 trends blog.

We get lit imagining more actual hands-on doctor-chef collabs and farm fun, kitchen-cooking and communal dinners in 2018.

MAY
5  Commune Across Lines. Our International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) Panel

One way-too-early Sunday in May I pulled together my favorite design people for a chat on all things new in design for our panel, Across Perspectives: Design Futures, to open the annual ICFF trade show at Javits Center. We were very happily surprised as an audience of at least 200 filtered in, up early!

Waking up fast to deliver spot-on trends were Suzanne Slesin, moderator of the panel and founder of Pointed Leaf Press, with panel members, Scott Sanders, Interior Designer; Ellen Fisher, VP for Academic Affairs and Dean at New York School of Interior Design; Ingrid Abramovitch, Features Director, Hearst Design Group (ELLE DECOR, House Beautiful, Veranda); Rio Hamilton, Design and Fashion Blogger/Marketing Strategist plus me, and in absentia, Chad Oppenheim, Principal Architect, OPPENHEIM.

We designed this perspective cross-section which gave both panelists and audience much to think and opine about. A great success measure. Happy to say that our talk was also enthusiastically covered by industry heavy, Editor At Large! 

I adore speaking and presenting to groups, about design trends! Hint, hint 2018!  Which brings us to …

JUNE
6  So what is this 9-Star Passport of which you Speak?

Just as the golden triangle, Fibonacci sequence and funky fractals represent the pattern of growth and alignment in nature and art, we ourselves can echo these patterns for optimum success in the design of our days, spaces, and creations. That is The 9-Star Passport.

Two new “private” business clients, one A Notable Interior Designer and the other A Mystery Architect with international hospitality, commercial and residential projects came to me for 9-Star Passport consults, intrigued by this new way to look at feng shui, sacred space, and intentional design.

Re: the plans for a stellar Beverly Hills home perched high that we reviewed, The Architect’s Team Project Leader said:

“The insight was great. It was a bit of a relief that we were headed in the right direction. Thank you for the solutions to the issues we did have. We find the concept of Feng Shui very interesting and found it very helpful to speak with someone who knows about it.”

Re: our Interior Designer Client desiring a deep dive on her brand for new directions, we utilized The 9-Star Passport to unlock visual and verbal cornerstones. Within weeks she suddenly had a multitude of new design jobs!

JULY
7  Lit is Simple Good (or We’ll take a Garden Tour Rapture for 100 vs. an Urban Rave)

Know what was most precious for me this July?
Carefully and in total connect, creating a lush garden and then sharing it with fellow garden gurus. I know some of you are shaking your head, what happened to her?
When I really thought about my best summer memory, a deep dive image, it’s not me so swanky, sexy diving into an Instagrammy pool, rave, or mountaineering like a Patagonian maniac. Because, simply, I did not go there.  Nope, my best summer memory is of goofy, earnest, salt of the earth garden tour goers ID’ing strange growths and prattling on in British accent delirium about Delphiniums.

Just so sweet. slow. Healing. Lit. From. Within.

AUGUST
8  We Blush + Emit Pheromones! Thrilled re: Awards and Media

Thrilled that among all the growth in interactive performance and public art … our urban art interruption project, Love Notes was selected for coverage by CODAworx magazine’s August issue for art in the environment that involved written words!

One Saturday, Love Notes, messages inside tiny golden tubes, appeared in the colorful energy riot of NYC’s Union Square Park. Interjecting surprise and an ephemeral moment into a city’s diary as people discovered, slowed down, and interacted with the notes.

Good feelings on a human scale generated! The project was a temporary public space installation, a performance piece involving the public, and a photographic essay to capture reactions as people read and played with the notes. Notes led like breadcrumbs along a path, at people’s feet, under trees, and ended at the feet of the Gandhi statue.  Read more here: CODAmagazine’s Written Word IV issue.

New York Lifestyles covered us too!

Slow Luxury sensuously thanks New York Lifestyles magazine for covering our Slow Luxury scent design travel adventures with Aroma M perfumes. Marrakech is our first trip! Read more about this custom trip here in partnership with the transformative travel company, Epic Road. As creators of a new genre of travel, called “transformative travel,” by creating exceptional, mind-expansive journeys that inspire, captivate, and thrill, Epic Road has earned Travel & Leisure magazine’s designation as a preferred travel specialist. Lit, in other words.

SEPTEMBER
9  Local Royalty. Oh Hi, Oktoberfest Citizen Mayors!

Since the Mayor of Munich officially opens Oktoberfest in Germany every September, (and although I asked, Bill de Blasio sent his sincere regrets) we opted to start a New New York tradition and honor four of our favorite Citizen Mayors to tap the kegs at Paulaner on Bowery. Clockwise from left above are our honored Mayors who tapped the Oktoberfest kegs each weekend: Bryan Woody, General Manager of Tribeca’s Spring Place for NYC Mayor of Influencers; Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin of SohoMuse, NYC Citizen Mayor of Creative Tech; Julia Kaganskiy of New Museum’s NEW INC, NYC Citizen Mayor of Cultural Innovation; and Jimmy Carbone, Host of Heritage Radio‘s Beer Sessions for NYC Mayor of Craft Beer.

Like wine, the craft of making tasteful beer is all about the terroir of the local elements. Adherants of Germany’s Reinheitsgebot aka “The purity of beer law” marvel at the delicious taste New York City water gives to the 400-year old Paulaner recipe. It’s basically local royalty.

Next year, Bill.

OCTOBER
10  Rare Scents + Textile Revivals.

Slow Luxury is in serious development this year in several sensuous scent and textile revivals.

India: We are connected to the passionate people at The White Weave whose mission is to preserve rare weaving and textile traditions in danger of being lost to the modern world.  Seen above is “mashru” a word derived from Arabic for “permitted by Islamic law.” It is a heritage warp face satin fabric composed of silk and cotton originally developed to allow Islamic men to wear silk while under restrains for luxury in their lifestyle. This fabric gives the rich feel of silk on the outer surface but only cotton yarn on the reverse, next to the body. We’re excited to begin working with designers here in the US to develop collections based on these rare weaves.

Scotland: Exciting news! Gold Hart will be available in the US! Capturing the scents of Scotland ~  the amber,bramble, glen, shore, wild rose ~ and the heart of UK’s luxury retailers, we are excited to be introducing these heavenly candles to our friends on these shores.

NOVEMBER
11 Pão de Queijo! (Cheese Balls!) For Art’s Sake
Slow Luxury Festa to Benefit The Brazil Foundation

Will we support Brazil’s kids to make art vs. sell drugs? Support the inspiration of the artist JR, the award-winning international photograffeur posting large black-and-white photographic images, massive art in the environment to call attention to social justice issues? Of course!

Will we support JR’s art of a woman’s eye on a sailboat, with a passionate philanthropist at the helm racing 4000K from France to Brazil to support arts for kids in Brazil’s favelas?  We said yes!

We pulled together a  Slow Luxury, holiday pop up shop with our friends at Ornare within their beautiful showroom of state-of-the-art custom design solutions for living, along with SohoMuse as a fund-raising event for The Brazil Foundation and the Vivo à Beira sailboat adventure.  Did I mention, the delectable, traditional Brazilian Pão de Queijo cheese balls, plus our favorite Prosecco from Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG to make the evening sparkle?  So good.

Rio Hamilton hosted an expert panel with designers, Marie Aiello, Consuelo Vanderbilt Costin of SohoMuse, artist, Joana P. Cardozo and myself, Jade Dressler.

Slow Luxury pop up treasure vendors left to right clockwise in the image above: Esenshel hats; Immortal Beloved Goddess Perfume + Coloring Book; jeweler, Lorae Russo; Stephanie Seal Brown, handwovens; The White Weave pillows and home decor; Shop Zuri, dresses; and Gold Hart candles.

December
12  What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander. #Metoo!

What’s Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander essentially means what is good for a man is equally good for a woman; or, what a man can have or do, so can a woman have or do. It figures with this being so prominent in 2017 that I’d have a restaurant client serving up traditional goose for the holidays. Thank you to Charles Passy of the Wall Street Journal for catching scent of a culinary holiday trend, goose on the menu. 

With our agency ending the year for Paulaner with a total 800 million+ media views for 2017, including placements in both New York Times and this goose half page in the Wall Street Journal in the same last weeks of the year, it is kind of like the goose that laid a golden egg with lots of shiny, shiny for 2018!

*** and…

(Duck, Duck Goose…beware of a little lit within, honest, humorous trend segue here, my resolution for 2018.)

The goose. While I have been mostly a vegetarian in my life, I do understand and don’t judge anyone’s taste for eating animals. I understand that it’s all based on ancient ways, like ingesting the spirit of the creatures. Yes, I wear vintage furs, I get the hunter-huntress power traditions, I’m just not a fan of factory farmed animals vs. reverence for life.

For this next year however, personally, I’m honestly feeling a new interpretation of #Metoo or What’s Good for The Goose is Good for the Gander. In my own life, I’m seeing how I could only do good for animals, ever more sensitive, internally lit to the meek that shall inherit the earth, feeling deeply the human cruelty to other humans and other species … I’m going with Love for the small, love for all.  Full veg, all the way for 2018 is my re-soul-ution.  In spirit animal talk of the goose, treasure hunting ala golden eggs, being a mate for life, protective of territory and community, I want THAT power.

So here’s my trend suggest.

How to goosestep in line for what’s going to be BIG IN 2018?
Two words my friends.

Go Goddess.

And in terms of Mother Goose, aproned country-goose-lady, Mom of all songs, and speaking of equality between geese and ganders, timeless stories, myths, and legends, take a gander at my Immortal Beloved Goddess Coloring Book and get the Lit from Within Power! Order up copies for the gals (and guys) in your life! Read more here. Buy on Amazon here. Shop the collection of illustrations here.

Thank you friends! (I know, such a weird-segue;-)

I am a weird egg. We all are. And that’s immortally lovable, yes?

PS! Amazon reviews make a girl happy lit from within like an aurora!

And see? All the goddesses wrote their reviews on the back of the book to inspire you! They read the book and they like it, they do! xoxo