When I got wind of Martha Stewart planning a show about blogging, I made sure to apply for a ticket.
They wanted only bloggers in the audience and you had to fill out this whole questionnaire — I might have mentioned that Martha is my “neighbor” and that I am, after her, the person with the most Twitter followers in Katonah. A few days later, I received an e-mail that I was in. I was exited but, gulp, they wanted us there at 8:30 in the morning! How was I going to wing that?
After some back and forth, I decided to go, mostly because Don was able to take Landon to school and pick him up after lunch that day. Thank you, Sweets! So after only a few hours of sleep I got up at 5 a.m. and off I went on my Martha Stewart blogging show adventure!
I was amazed how many people board the train in Katonah at 6:30 in the morning. That’s a lot of sleep-deprived people hurdling toward New York City! After taking the train, a shuttle, and the subway, I arrived at the Chelsea studios at about 8 a.m. Can you tell that it was early in the morning?
While waiting to get into the show, I met Nicole, who blogs a The Pink Chandelier. She couldn’t have been nicer and was there with her mom.
Once we got our official ticket and passed through metal detectors, we were ushered into a room where we signed our life away and then got to mingle for half an hour before they let us in the studio.
Martha, Martha, Martha . . . and me, and merchandise.
After some instructions, were were let into the studio in groups. It’s beautifully decorated.
I have been on sets before when I lived in Los Angeles, so it wasn’t a surprise to me how many people it takes to make this show happen.
I got to sit right in the middle of the set and next to Dina from BabyCenter who I remembered seeing at my first blogging brunch a few months back.
They had planned to interview her on the show but then ran out of time, which was disappointing.
Everyone attending the show had to bring a laptop or a Blackberry so we could tweet and blog while the show was going on. Since I don’t own a Blackberry, read here why, I badgered Don into giving me his, only to find out that the “p” and the @ button didn’t work!
I somehow still managed to tweet about 10 times during the show.
Martha interviewed her daughter Alexis — who was unprepared for the show and a bit rude, actually — and her sidekick of the “Whatever” Girls, and made Pad Tai with a food blogger, Pim.
It smelled delicious and I was starving at that point. We all received her cook book after the show. I had secretly hoped that we would all get a cool little gadget, but this book is beautiful and I can use a lot of help with our new kinder, vegetarian diet.
So this book was a welcome gift, especially because it has a lot of pretty pictures.
Martha also iced a cake and did a craft project with two other bloggers. You can read more about all the guests on the show here.
Martha took a few questions after the show. She was very engaging and friendly and had great tips for everyone.
After the show, I said good-bye to a few bloggers, like Dina and Colleen, who blogs at Classy Mommy.
After I got turned around a couple of times and spent an extra $4.50 in subway fare, I made it back to Grand Central Station.
I had almost an hour to kill before the next train to Katonah, so I ate a quick bite and then remembered that a girlfriend of mine told me that the market there has a stand with German food. I had to check it out, of course.
Look at what I found! These are chocolate-covered marshmallow-ish “kisses” that I grew up with. No, I didn’t buy four boxes, not because I have that much self-control but because I am simply too frugal — I bought one and a few bags of licorice and gummy candy.
I even refrained from buying my favorite hazelnut Milka chocolate. That took some willpower, let me tell you.
I was a bit disappointed that the blogging show was really not about blogging but about a few blogs that mainly had to do with Martha, but I still had fun.
The most exiting aspect of the whole day was that I got to make some new blogging friends I intend to stay in contact with and learn from.
It would have been great if the show would have touched on how amazingly supportive the community of bloggers is.
I had taped the show, and you could see me about seven times. Landon was exited to see Mommy on TV. Martha, if you are ever short of a guest, swing by on your way to the studio!
