Martha's Back on the Job

True to her driven nature, Martha Stewart wasted little time in getting back to work.

The domestic diva, who was prohibited from engaging in anything work-related during her five months in jail, returned to her Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. offices Monday after spending her first weekend of freedom at her farm in Katonah, New York.

"It's really wonderful to be back," Stewart told several hundred cheering workers, as she blew kisses and waved. "I've missed you, as you can imagine. I've thought about you every single day."

The Living employees rewarded their leader with a standing ovation and broke out in applause several times during her remarks.

"All of you are my heroes," Stewart told them.

She said that she had "the tremendous privilege" of meeting different demographics of women from all over the country while she was imprisoned at Camp Cupcake.

She also displayed the gray-and-white knit poncho she wore upon her departure from prison, explaining it was made for her by a fellow inmate. Since she appeared on television wearing the garment, she said, she's been flooded by emails and other messages asking about the poncho and its pattern.

"The night before I left she handed me this...and said, 'Wear it in good health,' " Stewart said. "I hope she is reading the news and looking at television because I'm so proud of her."

Light conversation aside, the homemaking maven and her staff face serious challenges ahead in rebuilding her fallen empire.

Though investors have bid up her company's stock to three times the level it was when she was convicted last year for lying about a stock sale, the company still posted a fourth quarter loss of $7.3 million.

While Stewart is likely prepared for the challenge of making a comeback, her hours in the office will be limited by the constraints of her house arrest.

Beginning Monday, she will only be allowed to leave the confines of her home for 48 hours a week and must pack everything that she needs to do outside the home--work, garden, run errands, shoot her two television series, etc.--in that time frame.

She may be allowed to do some of the filming for her TV appearances at her home, as long as she obtains a permit from the town.

To ensure that Stewart complies with the house arrest, she'll wear an electronic tether bracelet that will allow her probation officer to monitor her movements.

Over the weekend, Stewart took advantage of her final hours of unrestrained freedom, roaming her property, feeding her horses treats, tossing snowballs and wandering through her greenhouse.

She hosted close to two dozen friends and relatives at her home and met with and accepted gifts from some of her supporters at SaveMartha.com, which included a window box planter so she can garden indoors. (Her movements are restricted to specific parts of her estate--her garden excepted.)

"Thank you for doing what you do," Stewart told her fans, per the New York Daily News.

Meanwhile, in order to give viewers a taste of what home confinement might be like for the lifestyles guru, Inside Edition host Deborah Norville will host Monday's edition of the newsmagazine from her own home in Long Island after being fitted for the same electronic tether Stewart will wear for the next five months.

Norville will also keep a record of everything she does over a 24-hour period and report on what the experience is like.

Sounds to us like someone didn't feel like making the commute into the office.