Whether you love Martha Stewart, resent her, or laugh at her, she’s an important figure in our collective cultural consciousness. What would happen, I wondered, if I took a year and tried to live a Martha life? Nine months ago, I undertook that challenge.

The Beginning

It all started because of a birthday. My fortieth. It was a biggie and it was staring me down as a reminder that I was supposed to do something significant or take control of my life and steer it in a meaningful direction. Midlife crisis? Possibly. I loved my life, but I just felt as if somehow it could all be better – more joyful, more purposeful, and more beautiful.

Martha and I were already acquainted casually, but I decided to become a disciple. I subscribed to the magazines, bought the books, and DVRed her show. My goal was to do one Martha project each day and see if it changed my life. I started a blog, MarthaAndMe  where I chronicled my journey and gained some loyal supporters.

The Food

One challenge was to open myself up to Martha’s recipes. In the past nine months I’ve learned to like capers, lemongrass, fish sauce, and kale. One of my earliest and most terrifying challenges was cutting up a whole chicken. I conquered my salmonella fears and did it quite nicely. Baked Alaska for eight? No problem. In fact, I made it for my eleven-year-old’s birthday party. Martha has taught me to make challah, steam a whole fish, dry brine a turkey, and corn my own beef. I also laughed a lot. The night the shrimp bisque gushed out of the bottom of the Cuisinart and then exploded out of the top of the blender was perhaps the most comic moment of my life. While it wasn’t funny at the time when I had an allergic reaction to Martha’s sole or got sick from her quiche, in retrospect it is comedy of the absurd.

The Organizing

If you know Martha, you know she’s an organizing nut. This is a woman who labels the shelves in her linen closet. I’ve never been a complete slob, but I had my hidden messes before Martha. Now my linens and towels are folded uniformly (well, almost), my medicine cabinet is pristine and I installed slide-out drawers in my baking cabinet. I’ve come to appreciate order. I now make my bed every day and sometimes I complete my monthly household to-do list.

The Crafts

I always got high marks for effort in art class, but my skill level is in the basement. The crafts were what I dreaded the most. And rightfully so. I tried to sew a stuffed pig (“Cute! Simple!” the magazine exclaimed) but it ended up looking like a rabbit that exploded. Whitewashing wood was the “new trend” I tried and was left with a cabinet that looked as if it had been in a paint accident. I did make a fabric oak leaf bowl that was passable and an ink print of a fish that was so good I framed it and hung it. A true crafter I will never be, but I did learn that some things are so easy, even I can do them.

The Decorating

Martha’s homes are gorgeous. There’s no way to even aspire to her level of decorating, but she has inspired me to work with what I have. We redecorated a bathroom and chose an ocean color scheme and hung some art that evoked that. I’ve created groupings to emphasize and accentuate collections that I’ve put together over the years (my cranberry glass looked nice scattered around, but even better when I grouped it on the center of mantel). I might not have Martha’s cash, but I can still find beauty at my budget.

The Products

Martha has an overwhelming product line, however you don’t see her products in the photos of her own home. When Martha began personally recommending products she herself uses, I had to try them. I’ve tried her shampoo, facial wash, moisturizer, and lotion and have concluded that while Martha might have $35 to spend on a bottle of shampoo, I don’t and there is almost no discernible difference between her high end favorites and my drugstore finds. It was fun to wash my hair knowing she was washing hers with the same product, though.

The Garden

Gardening is one of Martha’s favorite hobbies. And let me stress it is a hobby since she employs a huge staff of gardeners to do the real work. I don’t have a gardener, but Martha inspired me to plant a vegetable garden, which I started from seed. This was a double failure – the seedlings were killed in a frost and an animal broke through the fence and ate all my tomatoes. Next year I’m going to focus on container gardening on my deck.

The Lessons

Clearly, Martha has taught me some hard and fast skills. But I’ve learned some more important things, and this experiment has truly changed my life. First and foremost, I’ve lost 20 pounds. I’m cooking Martha food every night AND making Martha desserts, but I’ve listened to what Martha says when she talks about what and how she eats. I taste everything, but pig out on nothing. I focus on fresh, tasty, and healthy ingredients and I find I am fully satisfied.

In a year in which I turned forty, lost my ninety-nine year old grandmother (my second mother), watched my youngest graduate from elementary school and my oldest enter the workforce, and traveled to Europe for the first time, I took every event and experience and asked myself “What would Martha do?” I saw the world through her eyes, and it is a beautiful world. Martha appreciates and finds ‘good things’ everywhere she looks and I learned to do so too.

Living the Martha life has been like going to cooking school, opening a store on Etsy, hiring a decorator, living on a subsistence farm, joining a new religion, and undergoing an apprenticeship in an unfamiliar trade, all at once. I’ve become a more well-rounded person (and not just from all the cupcakes Martha had me make in February) and have learned to appreciate and understand so much more about the world that is wrapped up inside our homes. My kids have experienced a wide variety of new tastes. The family has a home environment that I think is more pleasing and organized. And the projects and recipes have brought my husband and me closer together, as he often stepped in to help me when I was drowning. I’ve learned I can incorporate Martha Stewart elegance into every facet of my life by taking small steps each day.