In Focus | Sallie Ritchey of Align by Designs

In Focus is our gift to the community. A way for us to help show our recognition for the people, businesses and organizations that help make our city great. The team at KelownaNow.com is passionate about this community and the people that make it amazing. We want to show our friends, neighbours, family and colleagues that we notice them and the fabulous things that they do.

What is your name?
Sallie Ritchey

What do you always find yourself saying?
“We all have gifts, some of us just have not unwrapped them yet.”

If you could spend one whole day with anyone in the world who is currently alive, who would you select and why?
Bono from U2. I love his passion for music, and better yet, for humanity.

If you were to receive any existing public award, what award would you like to win?
Saving the Humpback Whales from Extinction.

If you could spend a day with any historical figure, who would you choose and why?
Buddha, I love his simple approach to life and people. He taught through the essence of love and divine serenity.

Who inspires you?
My daughter. She makes me want to be my best and live it!

What are three things on your bucket list?
1. Marrying my sweetheart in Maui in February with the humpback whales nearby.
2. Paragliding over the Canadian Rockies.
3. Exploring historical sites in the UK.

If you had an enormous yacht, what would you name it?
“Beautiful Day”

If you could foresee a single day of your future in its entirety, what date would you select?
My daughter's wedding.

What are you passionate about?
I am so excited about having the opportunity to do the work I do. I love how energy works to heal people in their spaces. Injecting feng shui into professionals' businesses such as interior design, landscaping, births, weddings, and special events. I get to help people feel amazing and promote healing in their lives.

What has been your favourite day of your life, up to this point?
My daughter’s birth was a huge challenge, so I cannot say that was my favorite day due to the complications, so I would have to say the day I opened my studio/school in the Arts Space building in Calgary, “The Centre for Decorators & Designs”. My studio was the part-time home for many interior decorators that have gone onto owning businesses for themselves and have created many amazing interiors. I am so proud of them.

What has been your proudest accomplishment?
Training in Rembikai karate to gain my brown belt. I started at the bottom with the youths and children and eventually worked my way up to assistant instructor.

Where is your favourite place to dine in Kelowna? What do you like about it?
I enjoy going to Lake Tai, as they have an extensive vegetarian menu. The owners are so polite and honour people of all walks of life.

What is your favourite activity or event in Kelowna? Why?
I love the Free Hugs Day, on New Year’s Day. It is so much fun to see how people respond to a free hug. It is amazing how people really do want to care, and be appreciated. A hug is just the start.

What is the name of your business/organization?
Align by Designs

What does your business/organization do?
We inject feng shui into businesses such as interior design, landscaping, builders, births, weddings, and special events using birth charts for a more accurate calculation.

Where can people find you or your business online?
www.alignbydesigns.com

Where can people find your business on Facebook?
Align By Designs

How do people connect with you on Linkedin?
Sallie Ritchey

What is your mission?
“Enriching Your Environment” and “Enhancing Your Life”. To be able to help others to enhance their lives with positive energy so they can be all that they can. We all need one another.

If you could achieve one thing within your field, what would it be?
I would love the opportunity to have a non-denominational holy house and healing centre with a camp where people of all modalities could help others, teach others, and gather to enrich the lives of other practitioners. Of course, feng shui would be utilized in all areas to enhance the spaces for heightened energy.

Where do you want your business/organization to be in five years?
Across Canada and online consulting in northern regions, as well as in the USA.

Who do you consider to be a forerunner within your field?
Patricia Gray Interior Design – Vancouver.

What three qualities do you feel that your business/organization exemplifies?
1. Dedication to quality of service.
2. Discretion and confidentiality.
3. Affordable and accurate.

What would you like to say to your employees/volunteers?
I appreciate all your input and support.

How does your business/organization impact the community?
This service is one of a kind. We do not compete with fellow designers/landscapers/builders/midwives/wedding planners, we want to help and enhance their business and their customers.

If you were trapped in an elevator with several wealthy investors from any field, which field would you want them to be experts in? What would say to them/talk about?
Definitely light workers or visionaries that know how energy works. Deepak Chopra, Louise Hays, Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, Oprah, or Tony Robbins. These are all people that understand this and have been writing about energy work for decades. I would talk about how energy works in people’s environments, special events with accordance to their birth charts. We all have a map in this world to be the best person we can be, I am just helping you read the map.

If I could change one thing about Kelowna, it would be:
The way we shop. I would love to see Kelowna be modelled after some of the most beautiful towns in B.C. , such as Sechelt, Gibsons, and other small towns with artisans in store talking to shoppers and experiencing their works of art. I love to go back to the independent shops, less big box, more of a neighbourly environment.

What do you think makes Kelowna great?
The beaches, the parks, the hiking trails, and the arts.

My choice for the Kelowna In Focus spotlight is:
Dr. Michael Schmidt of Okanagan Health & Performance

Some general comments I would like to share are:
From 1981 - 2006 I spread my wings in both Vancouver and Calgary to gain a Bachelors and Masters with experience in my field of Interior Design and feng shui. I have been blessed with many amazing projects such as X-Files, Millennium, TV productions and movies, such as Jumanji, in Vancouver's Film & Animation industries.

In Calgary, some of my accomplishments include the 1988 Winter Olympics, ATCO Structures, 11 years in St. John Ambulance Volunteer program, residential new builds as well as renovations, as well as writing for Home Improvements Magazine and Calgary Real Estate News.

I relocated to Kelowna in 2006 to be closer to family and raise my beautiful daughter. I have found friends in many fields of holistic healing and energy work, and that community is growing by leaps and bounds. After six years of study, I also gained my Masters in Reiki.

I am so grateful for those who enrich my life, and understand my passion. It has not been an easy road, but it has been a very rewarding path.

Create a great day,

Sallie

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