Another Trip to the Martha Stewart Show

It was a cold, wintry day, when my niece and I headed to the city to see The Martha Stewart Show for a 2pm taping. After a delicious turkey blt panini at The Dish in Chelsea,we walked over to 26th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues.

This was my third time at the show and my niece's first. She was so excited.

Wearing our bright colors as requested by the Martha team in their confirmation email, we were seated on the floor. Yeah! As I posted here, these seats are very close to Martha and all of the action.

It pays to be nice to people and follow instructions. You will get good seats. However, no matter where you sit in the studio, you will most likely be watching the monitors because there is a team of about 20 surrounding Martha during the course of the show. Cameramen, cue card people, studio directors.

The studio is set up in three sections. Cooking, crafting and gardening.

Here are some photos of the studio.How gorgeous are these tulips?This is her crafting area.This photo is much further away than it actually is. In reality, this group of seating was about 3 feet away.Imagine this next photo with 5 more cameras and 15 more people. This was pretty much what I saw the entire time - this cutie pie cameraman. Eye candy.Usually Martha and her crew are spot on with the time but the taping which was to start at 2pm, began around 2:30pm.

This show was not as good as the two others I had been to. I felt as if this was a "Hey, we need a show. Let's get some guests."

The 10am taping that day which was live was a Citrus show and the guests received juicers and a $50 gift card to Talbots and were invited back to the afternoon taping because they were some people short.

The first two segments featured John Baricelli. You may have seen him before. He has been with Martha since CT days and is a great baker. He baked a hazelnut cake and I would love to visit his SoNo baking company in South Norwalk, CT - hence the SoNo - South Norwalk. Sort of like SoHo which stands for South of Houston Street. How many of you knew that?

I digress.

Next up was Margaret Roach who is Martha's former editorial director. She gave it all up to live on a farm in Upstate NY. We received her new book as a gift. It sounds like an interesting read and I love the title.After talking about her book, she cooked vegetarian baked beans and we received this bag o' beans.Joey Kola, Martha's audience guy hands out free stuff during the commercial breaks. He handed me this item which I saw a few weeks ago on her show. It is a scallion slicer.The last segment was with some farmer from Idaho or Iowa and poor Martha. It was like pulling teeth with this guy. Boring. He made some kind of bratwurst dish.

After taping, Martha sticks around for a few questions. I have to say, she looks terrific for 69 and is much thinner than what you see on tv.Here are her shoes.Some questions asked were, "How involved are you in the wedding issue?" She said she chooses the cover and photos.

Another question was, "Do you get nervous on camera?" Her reply - no.It was a fun day with my niece who had a great time. She was however, bummed about the beans.

If you are in NY, try to get tickets. I have to say that everyone associated with the show from the audience wranglers on the street to security and everyone inside the studio are some of the friendliest people I have encountered. Super sweet and they do a great job.

Hope you enjoyed spending the day with me and Martha. Stay tuned for more photos of our day in the city.