Friday, January 15, 2010

More on Martha

Yesterday, I posted a few pictures while I was at the Martha Stewart Show. I thought I'd give a little more detail of what it was like.

Despite arriving very early, we got awful seats. My understanding was that its usually first come, first serve, but this wasn't the case for the day we went. I haven't had the chance to watch the show yet, but its unlikely we were ever on camera. They started letting us in and after producing ID, getting our bags searched and a stroll through a metal detector, we went in to one of the waiting rooms. There were some items available for purchase and I actually needed an umbrella and there was a very pretty one on display so that was my souvenir from the show ...

Next, they started calling people in ... yellow line on your ticket, blue line on your ticket, star on your ticket, number on your ticket (us) ... a little chaotic and it seemed like it would have been easier to just do numbered tickets but we finally got on line. Walking into the studio was pretty exciting. You walk in near the kitchen area and its really even more incredible than what you see on TV. So much to look at. I really liked the way the pot rack was hanging over the window. I wonder if I can do this over my own smaller window with my much smaller stainless set.



Once in our seats, we were given instructions to connect our computers since it was a blog show. It was tricky initially to post and upload because the connection was incredibly slow, but I eventually got on. My mom wasn't so lucky. She never connected. Before the show started, I watched someone very carefully arranging everything on the tables for the segments so that it was absolutely perfect. Then, Joey Kola came out to warm up the audience and we were given instructions about when to clap for commercials. It was actually pretty fun. They played a lot of fun music during the breaks, Forever (Chris Brown), Let's Get Loud (Jennifer Lopez), etc.

Martha came out and I said to my mom "She's so pretty!". I've seen her a million times on TV, magazines, everywhere, just like everyone else, but there just seemed to be something different about her in person. The scheduled guest was supposed to be Brian Williams, but he was in Haiti covering the earthquake. The "Whatever girls" - Alexis Stewart and Jennifer Koppelman Hutt - were the first guests followed by a foodie who made Pad Thai with Martha. We were all given a copy of her book The Foodie Handbook. The next guest was someone who was following Martha's cookbook a la "Julie and Julia" and the last guest did some crafting with Martha.

It was actually hard to see anything that was going on during the show because the cameras were right up close to Martha during the segments. Particularly during the cooking and crafting, all I saw what you saw by watching the monitors.

The show wrapped up and Martha took some questions from the audience. Sorry the pic is blurry. I was pretty far away.


The last question was about her shoes. I couldn't really see because the cameras were in my way, but she had some impressive gold platform heels on. I think she said that they were Yves Saint Laurent and that she got them on sale. Here she is displaying them for the audience. I thought it was funny how she just hiked her leg right up there!
After that, she shot some commercials. It was interesting to see how they do these things. There is an incredible amount of work and coordination to everything and its hard to believe that they do this every single day. Martha thanked us for coming and that was the end of the show.

Towards the end of the show, my battery ran out so I spent some time looking at the rest of the set instead of blogging. Next to the kitchen where most of the show seems to be shot is a craft area. The only shot I was able to get of that was the shot of Martha above. I was, however, able to get a few distant shots of the gardening area. This area wasn't used for the episode we attended.


Love all the jars and those rustic pots ...

We were ushered out and a bag with my purchased umbrella was waiting for me. We picked up our coats at coat check and on the way out were given our books and a little pin.

That was it! It really was fun and if you have a chance to go, I really recommend it. I would LOVE to do it again.
EDIT: Colleen from Freshvintage just posted a recap on her blog as well. Little did I know that she was sitting right behind me!

11 comments:

  1. I watched the show but the audience shots were so quick and I didn't really think I would be able to get a view of you since you were way off to the side. I was slightly disappointed with the guest bloggers Martha chose. With all the famous decor bloggers out there I wasn't interested in any that were on including Martha's plug for her daughter. Did you catch Martha asking daughter what blogs she read and the blank look said daughter gave her and then finally answered she didn't read any other blogs! REALLY...I was very unimpressed with her daughter but the other girl who apparently shares a blog with her was cute. I thought Martha seems very tall and now I know why - because of those high heels. Enjoyed your post and thanks for sharing your experience!

    Teacup Lane (Sandy)

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  2. Sandy,
    I completely agree with you about the guests. I would have loved to see Bryan Williams. I think her daughter may have replaced him last minute. Still, she could have had others on and it seemed like that first segment went on for SO LONG. I heard that she had a blog show last year and she had Perez Hilton as a guest. That makes more sense to me!

    I did think it was nice that she acknowledged the girl with the blog who wants to work for her.

    Martha is also taller than I imagined as well. Those shoes certainly helped!

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  3. I just had to leave a comment to let you know that the picture of Martha with her foot up on the table has made my Friday. She's surprisingly bendy. Thanks for sharing your experience! I'd love to visit the show someday.

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  4. How fun. I love the set and those gold shoes...need I say more? You got great photos and what a great looking umbrella. I met Martha once at a Junior League luncheon and you could really tell what a perfectionist she is.

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  5. How funny that she just put her leg on the table! Thanks for sharing your story!

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  6. What a fun story!!! I hope you get to experience it that again.

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  7. It was fun right. I am glad you went.

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  8. Willie! It WAS fun. Thank you for giving me the push I needed to go. I loved it!

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  9. Hi Melanie! I can't believe you were in front of me - I rememeber that your mom had problems with her laptop, too. They really were bad seats. I thought about yelling out your name in the waiting area, but I didn't want people to think I was an obnoxious blogger.

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  10. Isn't it funny to think that all those people around you were bloggers too. Did you think of that when you were there? You might even read there blog and know them, but not recognize them. Thanks for the details about the show - it is always interesting to read a behind the scenes account.

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  11. Gracie, I guess I actually didn't think too much of it because SO many people blog these days and there are so many TYPES of blogs ... food blogs, mom blogs, fashion blogs, etc. and I typically only visit decor, and vintage blogs.

    ~Melanie

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