Martha Stewart

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Prison won't stop Martha Stewart from being thankful this Thanksgiving, according to a message on her Web site.

The domestic style setter, who started serving a five-month sentence at the Alderson federal prison in West Virginia in October, told her supporters that she's doing well, despite being in prison.

"As you would expect, the loss of freedom and the lack of privacy are extremely difficult," she wrote on her site, Marthatalks.com. "But I am safe, fit and healthy, and I am pleased to report that, contrary to rumors you might have heard, my daily interactions with the staff and fellow inmates here at Alderson are marked by fair treatment and mutual respect."

The message said she's received thousands of letters during her time in prison and that she cherishes them all.

"I am in good spirits and making the best of this difficult situation," she said. "Visits from my friends, family and colleagues – together with your goodwill and best wishes -- will get me through this chapter in my life. For this friendship and support, I am very grateful this Thanksgiving."

Dawn Zobel of the Federal Bureau of Prisons said that inmates at Alderson will be allowed to have visitors from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving, followed by a traditional Thanksgiving meal. The meal will be prepared by inmate food service workers supervised by prison staff, but she said that Stewart is not one of the inmate food service workers.

One thing Stewart should be thankful for since going to prison is the announced plan of retailer Kmart to buy Sears Roebuck & Co. That deal, announced Nov. 17, should give a lift to sales of her Martha Stewart brand products sold in Kmart.

Shares of her company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia have risen about 11 percent since the deal was announced.

According to the company's proxy statement, which shows her owning about 30 million shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (Research), that means she saw her net worth increase by about $57 million after the deal was announced. Stewart, who is not allowed to transact business while in prison, made no mention of the deal on her Web site.

Stewart was convicted of federal obstruction of justice charges in relation to a probe into her sale of shares of ImClone Systems stock in December 2001, the day before damaging news about the company's key drug became public.

She is appealing the conviction but in September she dropped her motion to stay out of prison pending appeal, saying she wanted to put any prison time behind her.

She faces five months of house arrest once she is released from Alderson, a minimum security prison farm.