Eek! The Internet Stole My Creativity!

I can't tell you how often I loose an entire afternoon looking at images online to help illustrate an idea that I have.
It's a huge problem.
How do we stay original when really we are just riffing on something that has been done?

Partial map of the Internet based on the Jan. 15, 2005, data found on opte.org. Each line is drawn between two nodes, representing two IP addresses. The length of the lines are indicative of the delay between those two nodes.

I looked up best interior design and this image came up.  ACK.  What is that about?

I'll tell you, it's not easy to be original.  When I can't perfectly illustrate what I mean to create,  I pull a disparate amount of images together with a messy sketch on my recycled stack of printer paper.
Then, I have a revelation of sorts.
This is what it means to design, right?

John Saladino's Entry Alcove.  Symmetry, nature and patina all make for beautiful design

If you want to make a cake, you don't start from literal scratch.  You find the best flour and sugar

and ingredients that predecessors have created, adopted, perfected.  That is in the same vein as design.  You are building on ideas and concepts and materials that exist and assembling them together to create an environment that is unique or at least has satisfying flavor.

Yum.  Now I want coconut cake.

Jean-Louis Denoit.  Good fancy French design.  Also very yummy.

A Stephen Volpe designed dining room with Zaha Hadid's Dune Table, vintage chairs by Tobia Scarpa and a Jeff Zimmerman chandelier.  Dem is some real designers.

A Jacques Granges living room in Portugal.  Did I mention it was a LIVING room?

OK, so the internet hasn't stolen my ability to be creative, but it can hinder me as much as help me.  Sometimes I need to literally gather and assemble.  For all it's seeming endlessness of resources at my fingertips, the world wide web is often a time suck and a frustrating rabbit hole that I need to pull my head out of.  My head, eyes and heart need to be out in the world to really see what is going on, what is new and what is beautiful.

Like Mother Nature's palettes...

Or that beautiful might just be a neon sign of the sun.