There's a lot on my mind these days, as I plan my moves for the next few months (and year). This is in lieu of a New Year's Resolution. I think it's much better to have goals rather than "resolutions". As far as wanting to change oneself - true change happens over time, in the things you do every day. Not what you decide you want to be on the first day of the year. Besides, I am Jewish, so I've already made my resolutions four months ago ;-)

While 2014 was dedicated to completing my book, I still have some lose ends to tie with this project, namely bringing it to you in an electronic format that you can easily purchase through iTunes, and read on multiple devices, including your smartphones! I'm proofreading it already, so this shouldn't take too much longer. But will be a great complement for the book I've written as it is an interactive format and it will make a lot of the studying easier (in some ways - for those who love digital formats, that is).

This year I'm planning to continue my educational work - with a vengeance!
There are several courses already planned out for this spring, and even as far ahead as fall 2015.
Citrus & Colognes Week (May 4-8)
Leather & Tobacco Week (May 11-15)
Fougere (Fall 2015 - dates TBA)

For additional workshops, classes and salons, do check my calendar for more workshops, as it will be updated this week.

The highlights of which I will "warn" you now are an incense workshop in February (there are still 2 spaces left) and in March I will be making history (well, personal history, at least) by offering a perfume workshop in my home village Clil in Israel, and most excitingly - a fragrant hike that I will be co-guiding with my brother Yotam, a certified tour-guide extraordinaire and a most captivating storyteller. I'm not only excited to be teaching classes and workshops in Israel for the first time, but most honoured and touched by my brother's invitation to work on such a fun project together!

Last but not least on the educational arena: Starting this month, every last Thursday of the month, I will be holding a Scent Salon at my studio. Each salon will be dedicated to a different raw material or olfactory tradition, for example exploring vetivers from around the world, or learning about the Japanese koh-doh ceremony and experiencing different kinds of oud. Spaces for these salons are limited to 10 people, and although you don't have to sign up to all monthly sessions - it is highly recommended! It is a great opportunity to not only connect to ancient traditions that have graced civilization for hundreds if not thousands of years - but also form new connections to fellow humans and perfume lovers in our community. The "pilot" of this series will take place Thursday, January 29th, from 4-6pm, at my apothecary in downtown Vancouver.

As far as the business side of things go, I will be truly focusing only on my online store. No more markets or events for me (at least for now), and I'm pretty much done with retail. At the end of the month I will no longer be at Giving Gifts & Co, and my retail presence will boil down to only one shop - Dream in Gastown.  Of course you are still welcome to book private sniffing sessions at my studio, and my online store is open 24/7 and ships worldwide. This focus will enable me to do what I do best, which is have an online business with top-notch customer service that truly connects to my customers, worldwide. This will also enable me to have adequate time for being creative, adventurous and daring. At least as far as perfume making and product design goes.

Which brings us to the last but not least: the creative side of my life, which means more perfume and other goodness to incorporate into your daily self-care rituals. Here is what I'm hoping to achieve:
1. Rebrand and repackage my Zodiac perfume line.
2. Greatly improve the packaging for my body oils, hair oils and facial serum.
3. Create some new body and skin care products, namely a deodorant and a lip balm. And hopefully also a new soap or two. Wish-lists from you guys are most welcome, by the way.
4. Complete an experimental perfume-meets-art project that involves a collection of short stories.
5. Work with a professional editor (Shauna Rudd, I'm staring at you) on my publishing my next book project.
6. Put some serious effort in the manual of raw materials that I've been postponing and neglecting for more years than I can count. Now that my first book is completed and out of the way, I can put some real work into that (even though I know this is going to take many years). Rome was not built in one day. But what people did every day towards building it sure did make a big difference...
7. The usual, and probably what every blogger wishes for at the beginning of the year: Blog more!

It may be a little too ambitious, but I've always been a firm believer of setting the bar of expectations high, so that I don't ever get too arrogant and proud of what I did achieve. It makes for a constant feel of falling too short. But it does get the work done...

What are your hopes and dreams, plans or resolutions for 2015? Please do leave a comment! Which brings me to one more thing regarding SmellyBlog: I am returning giveaways to this blog. However, in a very different format. Once a month, I will have a lucky draw from among ANYONE who has commented that month, and the person who left the most comments has the best chance of winning a fragrant and/or delicious prize. I have a lot stashed in my "to give" box. So let's get started, now!
For the month of January, the winner will receive a coffret of 5 vintage minis from the 80's, including Bal A Versailles, Animale, Sunwater, Hollywood, 360 Perry Ellis and 273 Fred Hayman.