Great expectations of what the offices would be like comes to fruition.

This morning was more fun than I could have imagined.

Group B met at the reception area to sign in and wait for our tour guide.

This is me in front of the official door once again.

Do I look happy or what 

Here is that famous logo once again with guess who is beside it.     The entire wall is covered with quotes and inspirational words.   Group B really hit the jackpot with our tour guide Hannah Milman.

Hannah is the Editorial Director of Crafts and is very passionate about her work. She took us to her office to store our coats and purses.

While we were there she shared some of her recent projects.

This is a wreath made from glittered acorns and leaves that she made to hang in

the Blair House in Washington, D. C. for Christmas.This bird is a decoration made using a copy of a bird in the wallpaper that was blown up,

glued to stiff paper board, and then glitter and gold paint was added. 

It was beautiful to see in person.

Hannah loves working with and glittering shells. (Actually I think she would glitter anything.)

This shell was glittered to make an ornament.

As we started our tour we met Lucinda Scala Quinn and Sarah Carey in the hallway.

Lucinda is the Editorial Director, Food & Entertaining

Sarah is Deputy Food Editor Martha Stewart Living. 

If you watch Everyday Food on PBS you know them very well already.

They were so kind to us, just talked to us like we were neighbors.

Lucinda has a great blog called Mad Hungry Feeding Men and Boys.   From there we went to the test kitchens. In this kitchen they were testing recipes for Everyday Food.Some of the things they were testing were - Feed your family of four for $10, healthy snacks, etc. 

      From the test kitchen went to a room called the cake room.

If you read Martha Stewart Living, Weddings, or the Wedding Cakes book, then you have seen these cakes. This  is another huge test kitchen. Wouldn’t you love to cook here? 

I am not sure what they were testing here but you can be sure it was good. These are cabinets in the hallway full of cookbooks. 

We then went to the Prop Room or ROOMS!

The beautiful ladies below run the prop room, and what a job it must be.

Please bear with me on the amount of pictures. You just can not imagine how much stuff is here.

 

   Stools & Chairs

  Candlesticks

Tables, stools, chandeliers 

Dishes and more dishes!!

Cutting boards

Linens

More dishes

Cake stands

Vases

Wall boards and floor tiles.  They sometimes create a whole room.

This is Fritz Karch. He is the editorial director of collecting.

He told us his office is Martha’s nightmare!  

This is the view of the river out of one of the windows.

We also got to meet Emeril Lagasse    He has a new television show starting in March.

Half of our tour was on the side of the offices housing the magazines where we met

Gael Towey.

Gael is the Creative Chief Officer. She was very friendly also and talked with us for a long time.

She talked about helping with the first Martha Stewart Living magazine. She has been with Martha for 20 years.

Gael also told us they are anticipating the arrival of the new Apple Notebook or iPad as we now know it.

All magazines are checking out alternative delivery methods.

Maybe someday we will be reading Martha Stewart Living on our iPad.

By the way Gael’s husband is Stephen Doyle. He designed the logo we love so much.

When you have a little time check out this video about Gael and Stephen’s collaboration on logos for Martha.

We could not take any pictures while we were in this area because they were working on future magazines.

The April issue of Living was spread out on boards. I was great fun to see what no one else has seen yet.

Hannah then took us to see the marketing area for furniture, out door items, linens, all things Martha.

On to the craft supply area. Oh my gosh!!

Glitter of every kind, color and size. Punches, punches, punches and more punches. Paper goods and tools.

I have never seen so many wonderful craft items.

We also got to see the corporate offices but those are private sanctuaries and so no pictures here.

Alas, after 1 1/2 wonderful hours we had to leave to go to the studios for the taping of a show.

It was a great joy to tour offices and meet wonderful, friendly and happy people.

Everyone seemed to love their job.

THANK YOU HANNAH!!!!!!

Check back tomorrow to read about the taping of the show.

If you have not figured it out already, Emily and I are what is known as Foodies.

Emily is the chef de cuisine at Bolla restaurant in Dallas, Texas.

She is married to my son Jason who is chef de cuisine at The Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas.

Needless to say we like to eat and New York City is a favorite place to eat.

We went to Momofuku Ssam Bar for dinner on Tuesday night.

I actually had learned about the Momofuku group of restaurants by watching The Martha Stewart Show.

Martha is a fan of the restaurants. Shortly before going to New York, Emily told me she wanted to go out to

eat at the restaurant of a friend Tien Ho. He is a chef part owner of the group. Lucky us, he met us for dinner and sat with us and

told us about all the food, how it was made etc. It really made the evening fun. 

This is Emily and Tien.

First course – Edwards Wigwam Country Ham. Very smoky and delicious! It is like prosciutto, only made in America. 

This is a plate of house made seasonal pickles.

Carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, radishes, peppers, mushrooms. romesco or Roman cauliflower.

Honeycrisp Apple Kimchi with jowl bacon, maple labne (yogurt cheese) and arugula 

This was delicious!!!!

Fried Brussels Sprouts –fish sauce vinaigrette and mint.

I don’t know if this was my favorite or second favorite dish.

I did love it!

Hanger steak with romesco, cauliflower and marcona almonds Spicy Pork Sausage & Rice cakes – Chinese broccoli and crispy shallots 

Emily and Tien with the menu

We went next door for dessert at the Momofuku Milk Bar.

They have fabulous cookies, cakes and muffins. 

They also have soft serve ice cream that is really weird.

Salt & Pepper with Ritz cracker crunchies, Cereal Milk flavor with corn flake crunchies

This was not my favorite thing, but they were doing a booming business while we were there.

To each his own!

Alas, Emily left at 3:45 AM to go back to Dallas.

It was a trip with my new daughter-in-law that I will remember for a long time.

Be sure to keep checking back or better yet sign up on the blog to be notified of new blog posts.

My next post is about the Martha Stewart office tour with Hannah Milman, 

Editorial Director of Crafts for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Trust me you don’t want to miss it. I still can’t believe all that I saw.

I am off to teach in Florida at a retreat for Quilting By The Bay quilt shop in Panama City, Florida

so the next post may be delayed.

When you enter the Martha Stewart offices there is a very long wall covered in inspirational quotes. I just loved reading them.

This one says “We’re not just a company, but a laboratory for ideas”,

After our cooking class we had a little break time and then we had our luncheon for the ladies from the Safe Horizons

This is Alexis Tirado. She is our hero! Alexis was the official Martha Stewart contact.

She is in charge of the website and really worked very hard to be sure all had a good time

and that we accomplished our goal for the ladies of Safe Horizons.

   Fellow Dreamers Karen Keller-Eyer, Terry Grahl, GiGi Page, Beth Baker and me.

The tables for the lunch all had beautiful flower arrangements of multi colored roses.

The ladies from Safe Horizons got to take the roses with them.

The blue bags are the gift bags that the ladies received.

Check out the Enchanted Makeovers page to see all of the donations, some of which were in the bags.

We had fun visiting and getting to know each other as well as getting to know the ladies from the shelter.   Mary Richey has a concept called “ Wallberries” that she used to put a very inspirational sign on the wall.

This sign of Hope now hangs on the wall at Safe Horizons.

More pictures of Dreamers having fun. 

This picture is of the director of the shelter and me getting ready to give away the three quilts I donated for the event.

Looks like I was having a crazy hair day.

Look at the pin on my jacket. Taryn Sisco of Poppy Chic Designs made these for all the Dreamers and all the Ladies at the shelter.

Check out what Etsy had to say about her by clicking on her name.

This is the first quilt we gave away. The fabric is called Taxi by Timeless Treasures fabric.

Don’t you think that is great for New York?

The young lady who won it cried so hard that it almost broke my heart.

This quilt was made with Moda Fabric and it’s winner was also thrilled. 

This quilt has butterflies on it and as I was describing the butterflies a young women from the shelter told her friend

“I am going to win that” and she did!!  She said she knew when I described the butterflies it was to be hers.

It was so heart warming for me to see three young ladies, so deserving in all ways go home with a quilt to wrap up in

and feel the love that went in to making them. These are the gift bags that were given to us.

We all got a Martha Stewart T- Shirt, magazines and other goodies.

Finally, this is a photo of most of the Dreamers Into Doers New York Shelter Event members.

On Tuesday we began our true adventure into the Dreamers Into Doers Shelter Event. 

This is the logo again that was designed by

Michelle Biondolillo who owns Schuylark

We were all in awe of her designs, look at her children’s clothing line. It is so cute.

This is the door going into the Martha Stewart offices. Love that logo too. 

Our first activity was a cooking class in one of the many kitchens.

It was taught by two of our own Dreamers Into Doers.

They are definitely Doers.

That is Rachel Gaffney on the left and Lisa Umansky on the right.

Rachel owns an Irish Butter Shortbread company. Check out that wonderful green apron with her logo.

Lisa is the owner of a baking company called The Polka Dot Pound Cake.

She said her daughters gave her the polka dot apron for Christmas.

This is Rachel getting ready to demo her Bailey's Irish Cream Cheese cake. It was scrumptious!

Go to Rachel’s sight on the Dreamers site to see videos of her cooking demos.

Just click on her name above and it will take you there.

Lisa is using her Chocolate Chip Banana Bread to make cream cheese and jam sandwiches.

How would you like to take that to school in your lunch bag??

This is Rachel in behind of all the goodies she and Lisa taught us to cook.

This is Rachel’s Irish Soda Bread. So simple to make and yet very yummy.Great Dreamers in the audience.       

The view from the kitchen window.

Sisterhood of Dreamers Into Doers Shelter Event

This is the official logo for our wonderful Martha Stewart Dreamers Into Doers trip to New York.

It was designed by Michelle Biondolillo of Schuylark Designs 

Those of us who were there on Monday evening went to a neat little restaurant eighty 8 for drinks or dinner.

Emily and I went there for drinks and to get a chance to get to know some of the ladies.

It was the beginning of the wonderland trip.

More Dreamers Into Doers  Kim McCool, Terry Grahl, Sue Koons

      GiGi Page and Karen Keller-Eyer

After visiting for a while at eighty 8, Emily and I went for a wonderful dinner at

Gramercy Tavern.

  It is my favorite restaurant in New York city.

When you enter the foyer these flowers are there to greet you.

These are the flowers along one wall and below is a close up view of the end of the table.

We ordered a bottle of wine that was very good.

Our waiter brought us an amuse-bouche. I love these little surprises.

On the left is a vegetable skewer, in the middle a little bruschetta, and on the right is a foie gras terrine.

This is Emily’s first course

Shrimp Salad with Carrots, Sunchokes and Apple Cider Vinaigrette 

My first course was Butternut Squash Custard with Quince and Pine Nuts.

It was to die for!

   My main course was Poached Lobster with Turnips, Radish and Lobster-Squash Sauce

Emily had Spanish Mackerel with Foie Gras, Savoy Cabbage, Mussels and Sunchokes.

This was our pre-dessert

  For dessert I had ice cream Caramel, Pumpkin Spice and Milk Chocolate Coconut.  Emily had Peanut Butter Semifreddo with a Chocolate Macaroon. These are the flowers (peonies) in the ladies room.

Roses and Hyacinth in the ladies room also.

I don't know what was in the men's room.

This fabulous mural is above the bar in the Tavern area. I think it is fabulous!

Such great graphic design with wonderful colors.

  After dinner we met Emily’s friend Tien Ho.

We went to a little champagne bar called Flute that is next to Gramercy tavern.

Tien is chef /part owner of restaurants in the Momofuku group of restaurants.

There will be more about Tien and Momofuku later because we ate there on Tuesday night.

It was a fabulous first day in New York.

The view out of the airplane window as I flew into NYC

A view of Citi Field, home of the Mets.

Statue of Liberty

A view of lower Manhattan

The Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges going from

Manhattan at the top to Brooklyn at the lower left.

The middle of Manhattan.

The welcome sign at LaGuardia airport upon landing.

Checked into Hotel Indigo in the Chelsea section of Manhattan.

Everything was new, sleek and contemporary. The rooms have beautiful textile murals over the beds.

Don’t you think they look like quilts?

My daughter in law, Emily Winkler Maddy who is the chef de cuisine at Bolla in Dallas, went with me on the trip.

After checking in we were ready for lunch.

Restaurant Blu is located in the Indigo. This is the dining room.

Another view of the Dining Room.

The lunch menu and the bread basket.

One of the things I love most about NY restaurants is their wonderful bread.

I ordered short ribs with parsnip puree and broccoli.

After lunch we went to the Bowery to shop the kitchen supply stores.

What do you think about the ladle that Emily found?

They have every size ladle, scoop, tart pan, etc., etc., etc. that you can imagine

We had a great afternoon.

Check back soon for Part Two of Day One.

Be sure to sign up for automatic notice of new blogpost, so you will not miss out on

my Dreamers Into Doers trip to NYC.

Debbie spent her last day in NYC visiting friends and finding new stores with unique offerings. This followed her day touring the MSO studios and offices and attending a taping of one of Martha’s shows.

She retook the picture inside the MSO offices and this one is a bit better.

This morning she headed out for a visit to The City Quilter. She will expand on her visit with the owner, Cathy Izzo, and have more pictures to share of the shop after she gets home.

This is the outside of the shop just before they opened.

This is inside the shop with Cathy and Elana Adler.

After a visit to Timeless Treasures where she hoped to get a sneak preview of Spring fabrics (with the promise not to share the details-there are spies out there) she walked down one of her favorite streets in NY, Bleeker St. There are wonderful boutiques, cheese shops, the Magnolia Bakery and an assortment of funky stores.

All the pictures were taken with her phone, but after she is home, we will download the ones taken with the camera and share all those along with a lot of the details that she couldn’t relay by phone. She is on her way back this evening and we will look forward to many more details over the weekend.

Debbie toured the Martha Stewart studios today with a group of Dreamers into Doers this morning. The tour was hosted by Hannah Millman with MSO. Debbie was in the audience for the afternoon taping. The show included an appearance by Emeril Lagasse and included some of the best giveaways done by the show. Six trips were given away (alas-Debbie did not win any of those) and everyone received a Kindle player. Michelle Biondolillo was kind enough to furnish the picture of Debbie in the studio. After the taping, all the ladies in the group were headed out for Pizza at one of Martha’s favorite places. As soon as Debbie can get us pictures and more details we will get those updated to the blog. Tomorrow she will visit The City Quilter and the offices of Timeless Treasures.

Waiting for the taping of the show to begin.

Debbie had a busy day at the offices of Martha Stewart in Chelsea, attending a cooking demonstration and a lunch hosted for some of the women at the shelter. She donated three quilts to the shelter and they decided to have a drawing to give them to three of the shelter residents. No pictures were taken of the drawing to respect the privacy of the residents, but the response was heartwarming. Debbie did get a combination of pictures with the camera and her phone of other activities and we will be posting those tomorrow.

She and Emily went to dinner at Momofuku Ssamand should have pictures to share of that experience.

Keepsake Qulting’s new catalogue is out and they are including Cosmic Jewels in their offerings. They have the pattern as well as a queen size kit. The quilt is a stunner done in batiks with a black background. The picture in the catalogue and on the website is the quilt Debbie made and showed at market. The people at Keepsake did a beautiful job of photographing it. From what we have seen, it is going over very well. Take a look at the Keepsake website.

I have arrived in NYC for the Dreamers Into Doers event

Daughter-in-law Emily joined me for the trip and we met other Dreamers for drinks in Restaurant Blue at the Indigo Hotel Chelsea

This is the restaurant at the hotel

Our room is beautiful

Emily and I then had dinner at Gramercy Tavern after going to the kitchen shops down on Bowery.

I found great scoops and cookie/biscuit cutters.

The picture is a little dark, but I have finally arrived at the studios and am ready to start the day’s activities which include a cooking demonstration and events for the Safe Horizon Shelter.

More updates at the end of Tuesday. It has been a great trip so far!!!