My Domestic Hero

Martha Stewart is honestly my domestic hero.

I don’t mean that in a naive sort of way. What draws me closest to her is the idea that she’s made an empire out of what every woman has ever wanted. She is selling the “American Dream” to the modern housewife. Style, fashion, pets, gardening – you name it. Her magazine is aptly named “Living”…which I perceive could easily extend to “Living: the way that you always wanted to and really unless you have millions and an army of people to help, you never will, but by all means, continue to strive towards unachievable perfection”

Am I setting the bar too high? Probably. But that’s what Martha wants. It keeps me coming back time and again to do the latest do-it-yourself project, to find that perfect heirloom tomato for my hand chopped salsa recipe, to stay up for weeks planning the perfect party (not to mention lack of sleep for a perfect wedding). She’s found a way to get into the heart and soul of every woman and tug on a string that we all want – to create a place of love and giving to those around us and let our home and life reflect who we are.

She helps to underline us – not make us into her. She finds our want to be the cook or the photographer or the horticulturalist and spins us into a frenzy over the latest design or gadget. She has her workshops, her TV show, her blogs, her magazines. She has created an industry out of a army of women waiting at home to be inspired who may not have found the inspiration in the day to day work.

Some say she’s a b----. I could see how that could be true – it’s easy in today’s day and age for a full-steam-ahead sort of woman who tends to set out, get things done at all costs and doesn’t care what it takes to deliver the perfect product. I could see how having to captain the ship to make sure what she’s turning out is absolutely perfect could turn a few happy smiles into frowns. But that’s what’s making us dream – the idea that she’s doing it, and we aren’t.

I salute you Martha. Hard business woman doing what I achieve to do, continue to set the bar, I will continue to follow.