Martha Stewart freed
From Mary Snow
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- With cameras watching her, helicopters overhead, perhaps Martha summed up her situation best as she set out to make lemonade out of lemons.
"People make jokes about making lemonade. I actually like lemons. These are my first lemons in five months," Stewart said.
Lemons to lemonade -- convicted felon to media darling -- Martha Stewart was out with her dog, petting her horses, on her first day of freedom after five months in prison.
With Camp Cupcake now a memory, Martha Stewart returned to her role as host, offering hot chocolate to the press and sharing a story about the lack of cappuccino in prison.
"This is a funny story. We'd asked the guards every day for cappuccino. You know, just as a joke. And they'd come in with their cups of coffee and stuff. And so I get here and I have a spot for a cappuccino machine, and it didn't work. So I don't have any cappuccino ... I didn't miss the cappuccino, I missed the idea of cappuccino," Stewart told reporters.
Unlike her entrance to prison, Martha Stewart made a very public exit with her daughter Alexis by her side. Stewart's company even went out of its way to accommodate the press. Cameras captured a smiling Stewart boarding a charter plane in Greenbrier, West Virginia, shortly after 1 a.m. ET Friday.
Stewart issued a statement on her Web site saying the experience in Alderson had been "life altering and life affirming," adding, "You can be sure I will never forget the friends that I met here," and saying, "I'm thrilled to be returning to my more familiar life."
But as Stewart returned to her 153 acre estate in Bedford, New York, all is not familiar.
For the next five months of home confinement she'll be allowed to leave for 48 hours a week, mostly for work, and she'll have to wear an electronic bracelet to monitor her movements.
