Martha Part 2

Part 1 is here

Ticket to the Martha Stewart Show are free but they must be reserved and you are sent a list of "do's" and "dont's" including a dress code.  Seriously…a dress code.  We were asked to wear bright, spring colors in business casual.  No Black, brown, white, or grey.  I literally had to go and buy something to wear because everything I own is black, brown, white, or  grey and I wasn't going to let Martha down.

With tickets in hand, and appropriate clothes, Ryann and I arrived at 8:30 for what we soon learned would be the "Easter Show".  Because Ryann is sick, we were able to go right in and sit in the waiting room.

These are pictures of the waiting room.   After we checked our coats with an intern, we had to fill out paperwork.  Besides the expected permissions slips, we had to fill out the "Ask Martha" questionnaire.  Now this threw me because I had a great questions to ask her… and they ONLY wanted questions about Easter or Passover.  I didn't' have interesting questions about Easter or Passover.  Bummer.  I think I scribbled something stupid down and wasn't surprised when the young intern in charge of Ask Martha didn't call my name.   Yes, they screened the questions- and prepped the audience member- but I don't think Martha got any sort of "heads up"; if she did, it wasn't much time. 

Around 9:30 Joey Kola arrived to "warm up" the audience. He tells a few jokes, hints at the swag we will be getting, and goes over the directions.  Directions?  Yes, we had to practice clapping, clapping really loud with lots of energy, saying "mmmmm" for food and "awwwww" for cute.  We actually had to practice the hand signals for each.  He spent a lot of time talking about "high energy".  I take my directions seriously so you know I was yelling and screaming and clapping like a "high energy" fool.  This is for Martha!

Me…front row, middle in my "bright spring" colors

A bunch of interns herded us to the studio were we were directed to our seats by the seat-sitter person.  I'm not joking…there was one employee whose job was to size up the audience member and arrange them accordingly and it didnt take long to realize we were being seated based on how we looked.  No, not pretty vs. ugly but rather bright spring colors vs black, brown, grey, and white.  She wanted the camera shots to look spring and bright and we were warned after all.  Lucky us and my attention to detail because we got to sit up front and center.  It pays to read your email instructions people.  Honestly.  I'm a rule follower so you tell me to dress bright, I will be bright.  It was great to actually be reward for my rule-following issues.

That is one long camera. 

These photos were all from my seat since once they brought us in they wouldn't let us even stand up for photos.  We weren't allowed to take photos once filming started so my pictures aren't that exciting but I wanted to show the studio and the interesting things that caught my attention like the huge camera. 

The woman with the pink shirt was the seat assigner.

I tried to photograph the entire studio from left to right.  So starting from the far left side, this area was used for a segment on table settings (the white chair is at the head of the table) and a table used for a segment on flower arranging….

To the kitchen …panning rightward….

To the craft nook- my favorite….

To the greenhouse area.  The mats on the floor were moved and they set up for a bunny segment that was going to be shot at the 12:00 noon taping and aired 4 days later.

The Martha  show logo made me happy.

 I couldn't believe how big and how many lights were hanging from the ceiling.

I thought this basket was stunning.  Notice the golden eggs in the nest attached to the handle.

As they were counting down the last few minutes there was a flurry of people cleaning. I coudn't believe it but I guess even a single wayward piece of lint would be bad.

Last minute discussion between staff.

Martha was hovering in the kitchen waiting for the countdown and we had to put the cameras away.

After the show, Martha had to tape a few promos for the web so she had time to kill while they did the set up.  She took a few questions...

Joey ran around picking people who raised their hands…..He picked the first person and was running off to get the second when…wait for it…… the heavens opened up…... the earth stilled…..and Martha said "the woman in the front with the orange and pink" OH….MY….GOD…she is talking about me!!!!!!  I got to talk to Martha.

Ryann said she thought I was going to cry or lose it entirely but I was cool.  Somebody shoved the microphone in my face and I said "I'm Danée from Michigan (did she care? I'm not sure)" then I asked something to the effect of what craft stores should I visit while I am in the city.  That's a great question right?  She actually chatted with me for several minutes as she asked her staff for addresses of the places she mentioned and Joey scribbled the on paper for me.  It was so freakin' cool.  She was so laid back about it as opposed to the on-air questions doing the "Ask Martha" segments which were much more formal and not nearly as much fun.

She sent me to:

1. John Derian Co. 
2. ABC Home
3. Toho Shoji 
4. Tinsel Trading and I added 
5. Papabubble which is a candy store she talks about a lot. 

My life is complete.  It was karma right?  It really felt like something happened on an entirely different level because I wanted to soooo tell her how much she has meant to my creative life and how inspiring she has been to me from my wedding to most of my craft projects and then there she was, speaking over Joey, over-ruling his choice….to pick ME.  For a moment the Earth stopped spinning…DIVINE MEMORY.

And you know the next day I visited all those stores.

I linked this post up to:

•  Serenity Now Blog
• The Shabby Creek Cottage

Laters Baby….