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ABOUT ANDREA

My designer's Tale

I am a longtime professional designer.

I am a lifelong intuitive.

One day, these gifts come together,

To create a new design concept,

Your Sacred Space Interiors™.

This is my story in small chapters.

Ancestral Inheritance
I come from a family of creators: furniture designers and makers; home builders; artists and artisans. The Carini men in Sicily were generational members of ‘The Royal Artisans’, a distinguished group of wood artisans employed to create only for royalty and the church. It is in my DNA, as is my passion for the origination of ideas.     

I also inherited an intuitive gift that runs through my bloodline, mostly through the women in my family. Those who possessed this gift regarded it as quite natural, using it in their daily lives, and they also revered the responsibility of it. Being Italian, my family home was always the centre and the heart of family life. We rested, healed, nourished, loved, debated, celebrated, prayed, gave gratitude, and created our own sacred space. My ancestors expressed their creative talents and intuitive gifts (with discretion, as their Catholic upbringing dictated) in their own distinctive ways for generations, helping, healing, loving, and creating. They were my first teachers.
 

Practice Makes Perfect
Educated in New York City, I have designed professionally for more than 30 years. My learning and experiences at the Fashion Institute of Technology, and the Studio and Forum for Stage Design, along with a variety of extracurricular courses and thousands of working design hours, created a solid foundation and my own fountain of wisdom and knowledge. In my early years, living in Manhattan, I began as a fashion designer and later, after further study, I became a theatrical designer in the film and television industry. I worked professional design by day, and studied numerous esoteric and spiritual practices by night, honing my intuitive skills. For many years, I lived simultaneously in two completely different worlds. Being a Gemini, this was easy, and I enjoyed my duality. 

 

Diversity, Respect, Reverence
I was blessed with good fortune in my early design years in the fashion business, as they were filled with worldly travels. These travels led me to other magical experiences outside of the mission at hand. I met many people with similar intuitive gifts and incredible stories to tell. I lived and worked in many countries including India, Taiwan, Philippines, Egypt, and Haiti. This time in my life gave me a mind-blowing understanding, respect, and love for cultural diversity. This opened my heart to the full awareness of these experiences amidst a visual euphoria of cultural and exotic palettes. 

I could feel a comfortable, natural connection inside of me with each place I visited. This revelation allowed me to breathe in the colours, people, surroundings, sounds, emotions, feelings, and spiritual beliefs in a much richer, more all-encompassing way. I found reverence for that which was different from myself and boundless inspiration from my stories on the road. That was truly an astounding and inspirational time that showed me endless possibilities.
                                                                                                                                                       

Two Worlds Collide
In 1997, I found my own unique way to express my ‘magic’, as my ancestors before me.  While raising my two small children, having taken a break from the film industry, I felt at a crossroads in my life. I needed to create again, but in a different way. I asked myself if this was the moment and the time to explore how to blend the two worlds I loved: design, an earthly pleasure, and the spiritual, nonmaterial world. The ah-ha! moment came one evening after a relaxing meditation, reliving precious memories including my ‘secret’ life in Manhattan. I needed to connect the dots.

Over the next months, and hours of feverish review of notes compiled from past studies, the dots connected in the The Chart™ and the YSS Process™. Your Sacred Space Interiors™was born. I was ecstatic and relieved, having finally bridged my two worlds. The Chart™, my life’s work, borne from my ancestral gifts, remains my trade secret.

Design Without Ego
My background as a theatrical designer for film and television gave me the experience to  express a ‘design chameleon’ sensibility, making it easy to embrace various design styles. 


Seeing through the eyes of the director and the story, gave me the inspiration and artful direction for the project. These inspired design elements, existing purely for the story’s essence, the collective vision, and the psychological and emotional effect on the audience. 


I realized that a truly successful design project happens when ego is out of the way, making a clear pathway for the artistic talents and energy to flow without disturbance and in harmony with the intent. 

This experience gives me the wisdom to help me better connect with you.

 


Colour As Science
I have always been fascinated with the colour tool in my creative kit.  I have done extensive research and analysis on the science of colour and its effects on the human experience. Initially, using what I had learned through my work in the entertainment business, I clearly saw the effect that colour actually has on the audience. Colour can manipulate a person’s emotions and psychology. We experience it every day. 

Later I discovered the physical effects colour can have on our bodies and, through my own observation, research and experimentation, the more uplifting effects the energy of colour has on us. From this work, my concept of meta colours was born, an important part of the YSS Process™. A meta colour palette promotes good health, well-being, and positive energy! 

 

Bringing It Together
The Chart™ and the YSS Process™ bring all of these chapters together, and the results are unique to each and every one of you, because each and every one of you is different and needs different kinds of nurturing and support. The Chart™ reveals many things including what colours are healthy and beneficial to you in your home.


Owning It All 
I have always been a woman ahead of my time, a visionary of sorts. Your Sacred Space Interiors™ has put me in a category all my own due to the groundbreaking process and its compelling nature. 

I have been very fortunate to be featured on television and in magazines over the years and remain in gratitude for all the opportunities. Having worked behind the camera in the film and television industry in the past, it has been an adjustment being out front as the face of YSS but I happily embrace it because I believe in this work. I honour each of you that I have worked with, and your homes, with my powerful elixir of care, gratitude, and grace


Design Fairy Godmother
One of my clients, a journalist and writer, worked with me and the YSS Process™ on the design of her ‘ farmhouse’ home. After her experience she referred to me in an article she wrote , quite literally, as the Design Fairy Godmother. Truth be told, I do express my magic and years of artistic expertise in some rather interesting ways to make dreams come true, one sacred space at a time. 

A very good listener, with a positive perspective on life and an analytical and intuitive mind, I am also a practical problem solver with a hands-on work style.  I surround myself with capable and talented magic-makers, all team players who appreciate my wicked New York sense of humour. We make it fun and I love my ‘Pearls of Wisdom’ moments designed just for you. I should also add I do have a collection of magic wands!

I love my work and the people I work with.  Each experience has been unique and enriching. My Grandmother used to say, ”My home is my church”. I say, “My home is my sacred space.” We both believed in creating a home for our souls.

I look forward to meeting and working with all of you who are new to Your Sacred Space Interiors™!

The End – or, rather, The Beginning.

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