Martha Back In Business

A beaming Martha Stewart returned to work on Monday, blowing a kiss and waving as she arrived to speak to cheering employees.

"All of you are my heroes," Stewart told the crowd.

Stewart, dressed in a fashionable black suit, held up the gray and white poncho she wore when she left prison on Friday. She said it did not come from a fancy store — but was crocheted by a fellow inmate.

"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."

After five months in prison and a weekend spent more comfortably at her 153-acre suburban estate, Stewart spoke to staff at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. in Manhattan, as members of the media looked on.

With barely a pause since she was released from a federal women's prison in Alderson, W.Va., on Friday, Stewart addressed a staff diminished by layoffs in her absence but also no doubt encouraged by a rising stock price.

"It's really wonderful to be back. I've missed you, as you can imagine. I've thought about you every single day," Stewart said. The several hundred employees gave Stewart a standing ovation and applauded several other times as she spoke.

Stewart, 63, said she had had "the tremendous privilege" of meeting a cross-section of people in prison and "learned a great deal about our country."

She also poked fun at her reputation as a perfectionist and promised to share credit with her employees in the future.

"I don't always do all of my own ironing, even though I wish that I could. I love ironing," she said. "What I want everybody to know is that I have been supported all of these years by all of you. ... I am extremely proud of each and every one of you."

Investors, counting on a positive bounce from Stewart's return, have bid up her company's stock to triple the level it was when she was convicted on March 5, 2004, of lying about a stock sale. She was released from a federal prison on Friday.

Stewart was fitted for her electronic ankle bracelet this weekend that she must wear as part of her house arrest, reports CBS News Correspondent Trish Regan. She also is confined to one building on her sprawling estate. She may leave home for 48 hours a week for work and can also work an unlimited number of hours from home.

The weekend after her release was filled with visiting with her pets and walking the grounds of her estate.

"This is better orchestrated than the richest magazine cover shoot," Forbes magazine managing editor Dennis Kneale told CBS News Early Show co-anchor René Syler.

"Rarely do you see a TV movie of the week happen before your eyes, and now we're led to believe Martha is a better person, but we want to see that and test that, especially the wild dogs in the press want to get a chance to test that."

Stewart, 63, will have to make some adjustments in her new working life. She will be answering to a new chief executive and president, Susan Lyne, who replaced longtime confidante Sharon Patrick last November.

"Martha now has got herself a very solid organization that has been running in her absence," Hayes Roth, vice president of worldwide marketing for Landor Associates, told CBS News. "The question is, do you put both hands back on the wheel, or do you allow them to continue to drive?"

Last week, the company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $7.3 million, compared with a profit of $2.4 million for the same period a year earlier — reflecting continued declining magazine advertising revenues and the hiatus of its syndicated daily cooking show starring Stewart.

The stock actually slid more than $3 on the day Stewart was released.

Stewart was convicted of obstructing justice and lying to the government about her 2001 sale of nearly 4,000 shares of the biotechnology company ImClone Systems Inc., run by her longtime friend Sam Waksal.

She was released from federal prison early Friday morning.

"I've never seen such a choreographed exit from prison," said Newsweek reporter Charles Gasparino, author of "Blood On The Street," about Stewart's conviction.

"This really is her attempt to rebuild her brand and her image the question is, will it work? I think it's turning off ... some people," he told CBS News.

"America loves a comeback kid and if she pulls that off, stand back!" countered Roth.

Stewart resigned as chief executive and chairwoman of her company in June 2003, after her indictment. Following her conviction, she stepped down as chief creative officer and resigned from the company's board, but remains as founding editorial director.

Rebuffed twice in her attempts to obtain new trials, Stewart opted to enter prison early rather remain free pending her appeal. An appeal hearing is scheduled for March 17.

Besides looking out for her company and writing a column for her magazine, Stewart also is slated to star in two television shows: a revival of her daily homemaking show and her version of NBC's "The Apprentice" hosted by development billionaire Donald Trump.