For a story about the growing trend of historic house museums emphasizing the stories of slaves and servants, Marketplace reporter Ashley Milne-Tyte recently visited Philipsburg Manor and Van Cortlandt and spoke with our interpreters and our curator, Kate Johnson.

The story aired nationally during the Aug. 7 edition of Marketplace. You can read the transcript or take a listen to this compelling piece online.

It took a while to get, but, here is the long-awaited image of Blaze guru Michael Natiello on the set with Martha Stewart and the collosal skeleton he carved during the Martha Stewart Show on Oct. 9. Unbelievable!

Got ideas for Blaze '09? Send 'em our way...

The New York Times published an excellent article about Winter WonderLights on Sunday, along with this stunning image by longtime Times photographer Alan Zale, who was kind enough to share it with us.

The article talks about the "enchanted, walkable winter forest" visitors will discover at Sunnyside, the homestead of Washington Irving and all the lights on display.

In an elaborate display of outdoor illumination, the first-ever Winter WonderLights will make use of tens of thousands of LED lights, two miles of electroluminescent wire, 1,500 feet of rope light, 571 theatrical lighting fixtures and 14.7 miles of electrical cable. In all, that's 68,965 individual points of light along a half-mile path.

Make sure you're not left in the dark this December. The illumination begins Thursday.

Could there possibly be a better Halloween week than one in which the Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze is featured on The Martha Stewart Show? Well, actually, there could be: a Halloween week like this one where Blaze and Historic Hudson Valley will be featured not once, but twice!

If you're not home during the morning hours, set your Tivo for Martha on Monday, at 11 a.m. on NBC, when Blaze creative director Michael Natiello joins Martha in her studio to carve a truly spectacular life-size skeleton.

Then, on Wednesday, watch again as Martha hosts a dinner party for Historic Hudson Valley.

In the meantime, you can check out a preview of the episodes by clicking here.

For those of you who subscribe to Sirius Satellite Radio (and if you don't you should, really), check out the Martha Stewart Living channel 112 today at 1 p.m.

Sarah Price, landscape director extraordinaire at Montgomery Place, will be a guest on "Homegrown Gardening," a live call-in show hosted by Martha gardening gurus Tony Bielaczyc and Andrew Beckman.

As those of you who have visited MP lately know, Sarah is doing a stellar job restoring its elaborate gardens using planting plans original to the estate.

Not a Sirius subscriber? (Really, you should be.) Well, you can go to Sirius.com and listen on a trial basis.

Good luck, Sarah!