I’ve always envisioned myself as a domestic goddess.  In my early 20′s when my friends were reading Cosmo, I was reading Martha Stewart Living.  When dinners at their house were pizza delivery, dinner at mine was Chicken Divan casserole with homemade fudge pie.

In those years, I learned that the creative and hospitable genius I envisioned myself as was rarely the reality.  One particular project, an upholstered headboard, suffered dreadfully from an impulse fabric change from neutral and beautiful to bold and busy, not to mention my mediocre-at-best sewing skills.  I can now admit that it was super ugly and a total failure.  But I chose to live with that thing in my master bedroom for 4 years, rather than shatter my self-imposed identity as the next Martha.

Now that I’m married and living in my dream house, I still seek out opportunities for creativity at home.  Decorating, entertaining, gardening, and an occasional craft project are my favorite ways to pass my free time.  But since the mistakes of those early years I’ve become a copy cat.  I won’t settle for that shitty headboard anymore, I want real beauty, durability, and creativity in my home life and I want the finished product to look like it was done by a professional.

So, I steal good ideas and take all the credit.

This blog is where I’ll out my secrets and share the tear-outs, links, pics of friends’ and stranger’s houses, etc that I rip off.  You’ll see pics of the outcome when I attempt the project all by myself.  And since my ultimate goal is to create my own ideas for beauty and functionality in my home, I’ll walk you through my journey from ideas ripped off, to ideas inspired by what I see, to ideas that are all my own.  I’ll occasionally post tallies from the “Ripped Off”, “Inspired” and “Julia Originals” tags to track my progress.

They say imitation is the best form of flattery.  I’ve flattered before and I’ll flatter again.  But hopefully this blog will help direct my journey to originality.  I look forward to your feedback!