The Martha Stewart Show

Yesterday I sat in the audience of one of the last tapings of the Martha Stewart Show. I am a HUGE Martha Stewart fan so I was super excited to be invited as an audience member on the Etsy episode.

The episode will air Thursday, April 26, 2012 and is all about Etsy!  All the guests and audience members were either Etsy sellers or employees of Etsy.  We learned a little bit about the operations of Etsy, did some crafts with owners of successful Etsy shops, and even watched an all-Etsy fashion show.  Plus we walked out of there with lots of presents from Martha - craft supplies, gift certificates to HP, and books - SCORE!

Going to a show taping is a lot of waiting in lines and being quiet and clapping for two hours, but loving Martha and Etsy so much definitely made it a very exciting day for the audience.  We all showed off our products to the cameras and Martha requested that we all have our individual photos taken so they can be put on The Martha Stewart Show website/blog.  That is huge to all of us small business owners and we really appreciated Martha's support.  It was obvious that she recognizes and appreciates that our group of people - craftspeople - are the ones who helped make her such a success. 

A little "behind the scenes" dish:  Martha is seriously no-nonsense when she is working.  No small talk during breaks and she is not interested in any delays, but then the camera turns on and she is all charm.  It was pretty awesome to observe.  I love that she is so successful and such a strong business person.  The staff of the show were hustling non-stop and I'm sure it's beyond tough to work for Martha Stewart, but they seemed to really respect her and were proud to work on the show.  What really made me like Martha was to see how she interacts with dogs and kids.  With adults she was all business, but when there was a dog in the room - or even when someone talked about a dog - she lit up and got lost in animal land.  As a fellow animal lover I really enjoyed seeing her in those moments.

Dinner Leftover Deliciousness

The other night for dinner I made this Sweet Chili Lime Tofu and Butternut Squash and Coconut Milk Rice.  It was delicious, but I ended up with tons of leftover rice.  So, for dinner tonight I made a soft boiled egg and sauteed the leftover rice in a cast iron skillet.  The rice got nice and crunchy like bibimbap.

Sure, I'll Be Your Guest! Our Night on the Disney Fantasy

One of the perks of having Piper as a best friend (aside from unconditional love, support and non-stop laughter) is that she gets invited to press events and sometimes takes me as her guest to things like the christening celebration of Disney's newest cruise ship, Fantasy.  

I'm not a Disney fanatic and I've never been on a luxury cruise, but we knew the Disney company would throw an amazing party and figured it would at least be a funny night.

But here's what happened: the party wasn't amazing, it was UH-MAZINGGGG.  Like, blow your mind, knock your socks off, insanely, incredibly nuts.  The ship is opulent and I now totally understand why so many people go gaga for Disney cruises. Guests can easily imagine they are in a fantasy world, living the life of a princess.  

First on our itinerary was the Entertainment Showcase in the Walt Disney Theatre.  I honestly expected to watch some promotional material on the jumbo screens.  Instead, we got several live musical Disney performances hosted by Neil Patrick Harris!

Mary Poppins showed up.

Oh, and then Jerry Seinfeld performed on stage for 15 minutes.  You know Jerome, right? 

And then Tony and Grammy award winner, Heather Headley, performed three Disney numbers.

And then Neil Patrick Harris walked around the room greeting celebrity guests like Tim Gunn, Alan Cumming, Ty Pennington, and Mayor Bloomberg (we were surprised at how excited we were about seeing Mayor B., I like that guy.)

When the show was over we were all given a glass of champagne and lead to the Atrium for the Christening Celebration.  

More Bob Iger, more Neil Patrick Harris, and then guess who waltzed down the stairs to give a toast

MARIAH CAREY (!!!!).... and Mickey Mouse! (Not gonna lie, when I was 13 I waited in line at Disney World to get Mickey's signature).

At this point Piper and I were pretty much losing our minds, but luckily a kind staff member directed us to the Animation Palette restaurant for dinner.  After dinner we went to the Europa District (think Epcot Center, but all bars and clubs) for more snacks and fancy drinks.

Oui, oui. Champagne bar for France.

Ciao! We're in Italy!

Getting randy in London.

If you want to read more about our magically enchanting night check out Piper's post on Yahoo Shine.

Baked Eggs and English Muffin Bread

Once in a while you stumble upon a recipe that changes your life, or at least the part after work when you're starving and need to eat like, now. That happened to me Monday night while hosting an Oscars party. The food theme of the party was "Breakfast for Dinner" so along with strawberry syrup and waffles, raspberry squares, carrot cake, and bacon corn muffins I also decided to try out two recipes I found on Pinterest. 

Abe and I eat a lot of English Muffins so when I saw this recipe for English Muffin Bread I couldn't wait for an excuse to make it.  The best part?  The recipe makes two loaves.  I had also filed away a recipe for Baked Eggs Cups.  The best parts?  They're only 100 calories and take only 12 minutes to bake (and about 30 seconds of prep time).

Preeya and Davis Visit Beacon

Last week we were fortunate to have our friend Wisconsin friends Preeya and Davis stay with us for a few days.  They're in New York for a month to work and to escape the Wisconsin winter. Davis came up by himself earlier in the week (while Preeya was working) and we introduced him to the miracle that is The Bachelor.  Then, over the weekend, he and Preeya both came back to Beacon and, lucky for Dave, he was able to catch Bachelor's hometown dates episode! 

We also took them to The Walkway Over the Hudson, which was fun, but soooo cold and windy. 

Me, Preeya and Colleen,established in 1999What else did we do beside make them watch awesome reality tv?  We feasted.

We also squeezed in a quick sleepover with Meredith and Ari while they were upstate checking out wedding venues.  Ari was dying to go bowling so we took in a little Cosmic Bowl.  He must have been feeling the black lights because Ari creamed all of us with the highest scores in every game.