I'm With Martha...

I'm sitting at the Martha Stewart Show, waiting for her to come on... Today's Martha Stewart Show is all about blogging. There's going to be Perez Hilton, Matt Bites, a gardening blogger, and of course ... Martha Stewart!



I'm in the center of the audience section - three rows up - wearing a red shirt. I'm sitting next to a man (author of What I Saw Today) wearing a checkered black and white shirt and Deb Smith from Jersey Bites who is wearing an orange turtleneck. Can you see me? The show airs today at different times throughout the country.

I got up ridiculously early and commuted in with Steve on the bus. I got that same pit in my stomach I used to get before a stressful day at work until Steve reminded me that I didn't have to do it again tomorrow. You need a wild adventure like this to make me realize how much I love being a stay at home mom.

My little munchkins are at home with their awesome supportive grandparents.

I'll be blogging this live - so more to come soon...

The warm-up guy keeps calling us cute - not sure that's the image I'm trying to portray...

Martha just came on. SHe looks great. She just took some pictures oteh audience - cute... Turns out it's a Canon G9 - a small camera with a great memory. They keep telling us we're going to get us some great stuff today - maybe that's what we'll be getting... (greedy blogger here.)

She's explaining all about blogs and encouraging everyone to get their own blogs started. There's info about how to do that on her blog. Her sister Laura manages her blog.

She's introducing some of the bloggers on today's show:
- Smitten Kitchen
- Darcy from the Wedding Blog at Martha Stewart
- Meg Frost from Cute Overload

We're back after a quick commercial break, and it's time for Perez Hilton - my personal guilty pleasure. I guess I'm one of many - he gets 9 Million visitors a day. What happened to Perez? It's the new preppy Perez. No more blue hair, big weight loss, a huge image overhall.

Martha's getting into it with him - trying to figure out how he makes money. He used BlogAds and makes enough money to move his mom out to LA and have his sister work for him. Mario Lavenleda is his real name - he came up with his new name when Paris Hilton didn't show at a club and he said that PEREZ Hilton was in the house instead. He wakes up every day at 3:57AM and then blogs for 12 hours straight. He's been doing it for four years. His advice: "find a niche and milk it. Find a way to make it different. Be prepared to work hard. He puts in 16 hours a day. He thinks he is the Michael Phelps of blogging. Don't be afraid to network and ask for things. That's how I got on this show." When Martha pressed him to find out how much he makes, he answered, "Enough... a lady doesn't discuss his finances. How much money did you make last year Martha?"

Now we're back with Matt Bites who's making cookies. I have to check out his blog... He's a charter member of Martha's circle. He's been blogging for four years. He gets 50 to 60 thousand readers a month. Sweets are his most popular posts. He's making some yummy dulce de leche cookies. Do WE get some????

Turns out - no cookies - no yummy smells wafting through the studio...

But moving on to crafting with Eddie Ross? - they're going over flea market finds. So not my cup of tea. I'm still hung up on not getting to taste the dulce de leche cookies...

Now on to political blogging. Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin from Politico. I think Martha just referred to Sarah Palin as Sharon Palin??? Yes, she just confirmed that she called her Sharon, "I'm so embarrased. She reminds me of somebody." Senior moment? Pretty big slip.

Now Martha is back on more comfortable ground, talking about how we need people to come out and vote in this election with everything that's going on with the economy and the war.

Gardening is the current segment. Another ex-employeee named Margaret Roach who has a blog called A Way to Garden and a new book. Seems like a fun blog with sex talk, and frog boys in addition to gardening tip. If you combine cute with lots of good information, you'll get noticed. Sharon told Martha, "You taught me that." She just had her first over 100 comments post - on garden no nos. Including garden gnomes and died mulch. Martha promised to comment and share LOTS of garden no nos.

And now for the big suprise swag item... we're all getting an HP wireless printer. I hope I don't have to lug it home on the bus...

Perhaps the nicest part of the day was a long lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant on a sunny terrace with some of my SV Mom blogger friends. We chatted about politics, the tooth fairy, movies, and of course, blogging. I had a chance to get to know Liz from this Full House, Amy from Filming in Brooklyn, Lollie from Deep South Moms Blog, and finally meet in the flesh Deb from Jersey Bites.