Readers Share Their Holiday Martha Moments

Every so often it's nice to showcase the talent of the wonderful people who read this blog and who take part in the Martha Moments discussion group on Facebook. There are so many talented people out there who turn to Martha for ideas and inspiration and then fuse that vision with their own creative designs for a meal or a table setting. I'm lucky to have connections to so many of these great people from all over the world, united by our interest in Martha's books, television shows and magazines - and all of the ideas they proffer. Below are some highlights from the holidays, submitted by Martha Moments readers from France to Australia and throughout the United States! Enjoy!

Martha by Mail ornaments mix with Martha Stewart Collection ornaments and Martha Stewart Everyday ornaments on Bernie Wong's feather tree in Wisconsin. It's a vision of pure elegance!

Along with Martha's ornaments are collectibles that Bernie discovered at tag sales and flea markets.

 Bernie and his friend Dennis Landon decided to make Martha's chocolate snowflake cutout cookies this year for the holidays. It was a Martha Moment from beginning to end, starting with her chocolate cookie dough recipe and the use of these Martha by Mail snowflake cookie cutters.

Dennis has kept all of the spice tins from the Martha by Mail catalogue days and continues to use them to store his spices. (There's even one from Dean & Deluca in New York).

Dennis's Martha by Mail Kitchenaid mixer in "Martha Green" was put to good use this year!

Anthony Picozzi, in Rhode Island, also made some Martha cookies this year. This recipe is Grammy's Chocolate Cookies, one of Anthony's favourites.They look beautiful stacked on this Martha Stewart cake stand.

John Roberts's Martha Stewart cake stand and "Martha Green" mixer play backdrop to his beautiful croquembouche, which he made for the first time this year. John lives in Michigan.

Maria Newcomer loves Martha's gingerbread recipe from her new book "Cookie Perfection." She made three batches of it!

Sue Mauro made Martha's classic sugar cookie recipe with royal icing.

Paul Neumann did a fabulous job on Martha's Birch de Noel - a variation on the classic Yule Log - complete with meringue mushrooms, coconut snow and sugared thyme 'boughs'.

 Here is Bernie Wong's pretty version.

James Richmond in Hollywood had quite a spread at his holiday gathering, which was used to gather donations for a local toy drive.

Todd Reyes says that Martha was the inspiration behind his Jadeite-laden table setting for his holiday brunch this year.

Jeremy Lambertson makes beautiful Christmas vignettes throughout his home in Cleveland.

Jeremy's Christmas trees are utterly, fabulously maximalist!

Josh Modory created this whimsical forest scene on his entrance table using faux-bois planters and beautiful pine cone pyramids he made himself.

 Deborah Ann Hrubesch used this classic Martha "Good Thing" to display her holiday cards.

Lisa Foust made a beautiful wreath for her front door this year!

Aude Ihcseb in Paris, France, also made her own pretty wreath.

Kathleen McCarthy's Martha by Mail feather tree looks beautiful dressed in vintage glass ornaments.

Todd Hall hangs his Martha by Mail kugels outdoors in his Japanese maple tree to striking effect.

Inside, Todd put up one of Martha's gold tinsel trees and dressed it entirely in blue and green ornaments.

 Yen Neri Arboleda's tree is so expressive and exuberant!

Ramona Barry in Australia used the Scandinavian themes and colours featured on the cover of the December issue of Martha Stewart Living to guide her table setting this year.

I hope you are all having a happy and memorable holiday season!

Martha Stewart Living: 2019 Year in Review

In her editor's letter in the March issue, Elizabeth Graves nicely sums up the Martha Stewart Living ethos: "Living has never been about filling its pages with mere trends, but is about showing creative people who live colorful lives and embrace newfangled ideas as they see fit." While she is referring to a specific home in a specific location (Mexico, to be exact), she is also revealing what the foundation of the magazine is all about. And the 2019 roster of issues, I feel, is a very good reiteration of this foundation.

Martha Stewart Living has become a very different magazine than it was even ten years ago. Its evolution has been swift and there were indeed some growing pains in those in-between years when it struggled with its identity and how best to present itself to the world. In 2018 it started to feel right again. The ideas were a little more sophisticated; the recipes were a little more elevated; the design improved; the flow of the magazine from cover to cover felt more like a discovery. This was achieved without falling back into nostalgia, which I feel is dangerous in the publishing world. The magazine had to feel modern and it had to appeal to the widest possible demographic in order for it to sell ads and sell subscriptions as well as copies at the newsstand. That meant not alienating the longtime subscribers who have come to expect a certain level of innovation and inspiration but who still want something fresh and of-the-moment. It achieved that too.

By January of this year, it was evident the editors and art directors had hit their stride. The January/February issue arrived in my mailbox like a burst of sunshine with its citrus-bright cover. Inside, too, was a great blend of healthy meal ideas, Valentine's Day treats, organizing solutions and decorating ideas: Brilliant Starts, indeed. This consistency of great ideas and great information continued throughout the year, issue to issue, with great confidence and very few missteps.

In the September issue, things went a little awry with the introduction of QR-codes in some of its features. (The recipes for the cookies featured in "Bite Club" were not printed in the magazine and could only be accessed by code. The code, however, did not work, leaving most readers without a way to actually make the cookies depicted in the magazine).  I understand there are sometimes technical difficulties but I still maintain that the recipes for all of the food depicted in the magazine should always be printed in the magazine; that's ostensibly what a magazine buyer is paying for: printed content. The editors were very quick to rectify the situation, however, so kudos to them. They quickly fixed the technical issues and then developed a downloadable booklet containing the recipes for even easier access. In subsequent issues, the QR codes were still present but were only used to take readers to additional content, not missing content. It was a speedy recovery!

There were no significant editorial or design changes in 2019 to note. Elizabeth Graves is still leading the charge as editor-in-chief; Abbey Kuster-Prokell is still the design director; James Maikowski is still the art director and Sarah Carey is still the editorial director of food and entertaining. It's a small editorial team but one that seems to be working extremely well.

I won't review each issue as I have done in the past. I will simply say that as a reader I appreciate the level of consistency and quality. I am pleased that each issue has one article on each of the core-content areas: cooking, crafting, decorating, gardening and homekeeping. I am pleased with the ever-excellent photography and the inclusion of Martha's personal touch from time to time.

The most "Martha-esque" issue in my opinion was the April issue. It really ticked all the boxes for me: a glorious cover, beautiful and innovative craft ideas, simple but elegant recipes (the citrus cornmeal cake on page 87 is delicious) and a wonderful gardening feature by Martha Stewart Living alum Margaret Roach, the magazine's founding garden editor and a former editor-in-chief. The inclusion of that essay by Margaret made me realize the magazine is being run by people who really understand and embrace its legacy - as well as those who helped build it.

While I no longer keep every single issue of the magazine (I literally have no more space) there are a few issues from this year's offerings that I will make room for in my collection; certainly the November issue, which contained an answer to my query in the Ask Martha column!

Living still has a flavor all its own among its cousins at the newsstand. It still stands out as being just that little bit more creative and hands-on. It's not so much about trends, as Elizabeth noted, but about embracing creativity and providing ideas and solutions to make life a little brighter, a little more inspired and a lot more colorful. I look forward to the 2020 issues, which will celebrate the magazine's 30th year in print!

The lime pudding cups from the May issue rank as one of my favourite Martha Stewart Living recipes of all time: so simple and so delicious. Click here to get the recipe.

 The December issue of the magazine marked the 300th issue: an incredible milestone!

New Special Weddings Issue

Even though Martha Stewart Weddings magazine is no longer publishing its quarterly subscription, it's nice that Meredith Corp. sees fit to release a special issue every now and then. The latest is on newsstands now and is being touted as an "Annual Planner" with a plethora of how-to content to help you get organized for the big day. Look for it on newsstands now, until March, 2020! (Gorgeous cover, no?) And click here to read more about the issue.

Preserving an Heirloom

I don't hold on to 'things' the way some people do. I'm probably as far away from being a hoarder as possible without being a minimalist. If it doesn't mean something to me, I really don't mind letting go of it. The collections I do maintain, however, always have some special meaning. Very often, the objects that I showcase in my cabinets have belonged to a relative, such as my grandmother's Wedgwood and Minton, my aunts' crystal glassware and some of her handmade pottery.

Not on display are items that are just as meaningful but perhaps need a bit more care in their preservation. I was recently given the tablecloth my great grandmother hand stitched and embroidered in the 1960s as well as the tiny outfit my grandmother knitted for me to wear when I first came home from the hospital after being born in December, 1976. Both had been stored in a cardboard box in my parents' basement for quite some time. When my mother offered them to me, I simply couldn't say no.

My grandmother knitted this ensemble for my mother to bring me home from the hospital after I was born. Because I was a winter baby and was born in the second-coldest capital city in the world (Ottawa, Canada), it had to be warm. Included is a pair of leggings, slippers, mittens, a sweater, an outer sweater and a cap. My great grandmother's tablecloth (below) is another masterpiece of homespun skill: each flower was embroidered by her. There are over 100 flowers in total. 

I decided to invest in a proper storage box for them and set about making sure they would be stored properly. Heirloom textiles and linens should always be as clean as possible before they are put into storage. The knitted outfit had developed a slight musty smell after having been stored in a basement for over 40 years. I hand washed it with a mild detergent and laid it out to dry completely. It needed some air, too, so I left it laying flat for several days to really breathe. This got rid of the smell and I was assured it was clean before I put it back in storage.

The tablecloth was another matter. Some of the thread my great grandmother used to embroider the gorgeous flowers is not colorfast and can easily bleed. I consulted the Smithsonian website and discovered that a gentle vacuum would remove any grit or dust particles that may have accumulated in storage. (The Smithsonian's page on preserving antique linens is an invaluable resource, by the way. Click here to view it.)

As a general rule, all vintage linens should be kept in cool, dry, dark places that are free of dampness. Basements and attics are not, therefore, the best choices since temperatures and moisture levels can be difficult to moderate. The Smithsonian suggests keeping them in an acid-free storage box in a bedroom closet or in a dresser drawer. I opted for the bedroom closet since I had a free upper shelf available. The box I purchased is a Lineco Museum Storage Box, readily available in multiple sizes and colours on Amazon. It is acid-free and is very nicely made: sturdy but not heavy. I also invested in acid-free tissue paper to wrap the garments and the table linen. This further protects them from dust, light and moisture.

I wrapped each item separately to reduce any fraying from friction.

They all fit nicely in the box.

I made a tag with the names of my great grandmother and grandmother and included the approximate dates the items were made. (The snowflake decoration was an added touch, since the package contains winter baby clothes.)

On the outside of the box, I used my P-Touch label maker to denote what it contains.

It's all ready to be placed in my closet, with easy access any time I would like to look at it. (Textiles should, in fact, be taken out and refolded from time to time to prevent permanent creasing or wearing along the folds).