Martha: The Comic Book

File this one under pop culture. A colleague of mine recently informed me that there was a Martha Stewart comic book available. I assumed he was joking and abruptly chuckled. "No, really," he said with a serious stare, "there is." I looked it up and found that Martha is the latest leading character in an ongoing series of comics under the "Female Force" brand by Bluewater Productions. (This is not an MSLO release, folks. Let that be clear!) The series aims to highlight the lives of powerful, productive women - mostly American - through a fictional retelling of their life stories in comic-book format. Michelle Obama, Hilary Clinton, Anne Rice, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Barbara Walters, Madonna, Princess Diana and even Barbie have their own comics. You can view the series of comic books here. The comic will be available for purchase in July through the official Bluewater eBay site, for anyone who may be interested.

Summer Grilling Station

In the early issues of Martha Stewart Living there was a great column called "Find of the Month." It was usually a DIY project that involved converting an everyday item into a useful tool or decorative item: turning an overturned flower pot into a twine dispenser, or a garden-storage bench into a bedroom trunk for blankets and sheets. In the June, 2011, issue there was a similar homekeeping column that really impressed me: turning a folding, wooden potting bench into a grilling station.

We all know that most portable grills provide only a tiny space to keep the necessary tools in place. The editors expanded the outdoor work surface needed for regular grilling by outfitting a wooden potting bench ($122 from csnstores.com) with add-ons that include stainless steel bins to hold basting brushes, wooden skewers and thermometers, file dividers and mail trays to hold cutting boards and dishtowels, s-hooks to hold oven mitts and larger grilling tools.

The bench was painted a lovely green (Martha Stewart Living exterior latex paint in Feldspar) and provides ample surface to keep the food you are preparing to grill. The brilliant thing about it is that once the grilling season is over, you can use it as a potting bench for fall bulbs and transplanting, or simply fold it down flat against the wall until next summer. I love ingenuity and the unimagined!

The Best of Martha on Oprah

Martha Stewart has been a featured guest on Oprah Winfrey's show numerous times, beginning in the early 1990s. During each appearance, Martha shared her domestic knowledge through craft and cooking segments and by giving tours of her homes. Oprah.com has now compiled a great resource of online videos that feature the best of Martha's segments. You can view the site here. The mini-site includes several videos, including a tour of her Turkey Hill home in the early 1990s, a tour of her catering kitchen at Turkey Hill, which was located in a separate building from the main home, and a tour of Skylands, her home in Maine. There are also how-to videos with Martha and Oprah, such as how to fold a fitted sheet. There is a whole batch of holiday tips, a Q&A with Martha and various segments of some of Oprah's interviews with Martha. Have fun viewing these clips! I did!

Martha's Early TV Ads

To help pay her way through college, Martha frequently worked as a model at retail stores like Bonwit Teller in New York City and was also the star of several print-ad campaigns in American newspapers and magazines. She also starred in two television commercials: a 1956 spot for Lifebuoy soap and a 1963 ad for Tareyton cigarettes - back when tobacco advertising was trendy! The Lifebuoy ad, which was filmed on Shelter island when Martha was still a teenager, was played recently at a conference in Cannes.

It's a Good Thing

One-third of a year. That’s what it took, I guess, to clear my mind, gain some much-needed perspective and enjoy some free time. One-third of a year (four months) to come to terms with what this blog is all about.

When I left, I was in a strange state of mind and could not really express – even to myself – what I was feeling about the blog. It was a mix of frustration, trepidation and even some anxiety stemming from a reaction that I had not expected. I wasn’t sure how to proceed and so decided not to proceed at all.

But I have to tell you that I have missed you! I miss all of the great people who continue to visit this blog even in its time of slumber. I still have thousands of hits a week, still have hundreds of followers and still get emails from people who miss the blog. Obviously, you’ve not gone anywhere, so why should I?

Rest assured, I have missed those of you who left wonderful comments and sent special emails when I said goodbye four months ago. And I have missed Martha too. That’s why Martha Moments is coming back.

Two exciting new books on the horizon: Martha Stewart's Handmade Holiday Crafts on September 27th and Martha's Entertaining - the much anticipated follow-up to her 1982 authorial debut, Entertaining - on November 1.

I think Martha Moments is a great site, a fun resource for fans and collectors of the brand, such as myself, and a great place to meet like minds. I know I have met so many amazing people from all over the world through the blogging experience and that is something I want to continue: people who love Martha and what she does, most notably the themes of domestic arts she supports in her magazines. Fans of the Martha Stewart brand are, in the end, all connected by a great sense of curiosity, a love of creativity and an understanding of home – and everything that beautiful word entails.

Based on what you have told me, I’ve realized now what you need and want from Martha Moments. These facets, to the exclusion of almost everything else, will be the focus of the blog going forward:

You love to hear news about Martha's upcoming projects, books and product.

You love the archival quality of the blog: documenting Martha's history and the history of her company for posterity: her magazines, her houses, her various projects and endeavors.

You love the links to Martha Stewart resources and information about where to find her products.

You also love the little sprinkles of me that I put into the blog, whichis so flattering: my own Martha Moments, which can be described (somewhat obscurely) as moments in my life where the influence or energy of Martha is felt. Each time I find myself thinking, “This is so Martha,” or “Martha would love this” it is worthy of a post: an excursion to the country, a visit to a flea-market or a great store, a wonderful garden, etc.

I may not blog quite as often as I once did, due to the constraints on my time, but I think most of you will be pleased with what I will have to offer. (There are always those people out there who insist on leaving ugly feedback, but thankfully that’s what the delete button is for!)

I want to look back on Martha Moments and feel as though it met its mandate, certainly. But more than that, I want to look back and know that it was a fun place for you to visit: a repository of informative and exciting ideas, a portal to the bigger sphere of Marthaness, a library and archive of ventures and adventures in her world – and mine.

It’s nice to be back everyone! Stay tuned!

This August watch for a series of wall calendars, engagement calendars and postcard calendars from Martha. Created in partnership with Te Neues, the calendars will be based on some of Martha's core-content themes: gardening, cooking, crafts, collecting, etc. They will include templates and/or recipes.