Leila's Back!!

I slacked on the ANTM recap last week, and I'm not sure if I'll do any the rest of the season, but I had to celebrate the fact that Leila came back!! At the end of the last episode, Tyra left us in suspense by telling us that one of the eliminated was going to come back, but we didn't find out until yesterday who it was.

I actually didn't watch the episode until this morning since I had plans last night, but my friend texted me and told me Leila was in. Woohoo!!! Now Kristen needs to go. Laura and Leila for the final two, I say!

America's Next Top Model: College Edition Episode 7 Recap

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Within the first few minutes of the episode, it was pretty obvious that Allyssa would be eliminated in the end. In past episodes, she was practically invisible; but Friday, she was talking nonstop about how she had to win.

As the preview showed, we also got to see more of Victoria's antics throughout the whole episode. She explained in the confessional how she can't taste food while she's there and that she's just not hungry. Many of the other girls sounded off about it, too.

But then who should show up but good ole Bryanboy with the new challenge assignment. I still don't know why he rubs me the wrong way, but he does. Bryanboy was joined by Marissa Montgomery from Nylon TV. The models were going on a ROAD TRIP in two RVs, and they were challenged to take pictures of themselves doing random acts of modeling and also do video segments for Nylon TV.

As the challenge progressed, we got a better idea of what "random acts of modeling" were and were not. Posing next to a statue - not a random act of modeling. Pretending to hail a cab while looking fierce - random act of modeling. Basically, they had to do a random act while modeling, but some of the girls struggled with the concept.

Speaking of struggling, Victoria and Kiara made quite the dysfunctional team (Nastasia was the third member of their team). Although Kiara said she felt like she needed to be a mother to Victoria, it came across more as nagging most of the time. It only made matters worse when Victoria mistakenly didn't record one of Kiara's video segments and they had to pull over again.

With all the dysfunction in that RV, it was no surprise that a member of the other team won the challenge, and it was even less of a surprise that the winner was the seemingly unstoppable Laura. When they arrived at their hotel in Palm Springs, Johnny showed up and told them that there would be no need for showers. The photo shoot happening immediately would work with their dirtiness.

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When I saw the setting for this photo shoot, I was reminded of a couple notable past ANTM shoots that happened on the toilet. I don't know what it is with toilet shots, but Michelle from Cycle 7 and Marjorie from Cycle 11 worked it.

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Again, we saw Victoria's method modeling when she created a backstory of a Baptist girl who had lost her virginity and needed to take a pregnancy test. The look on Johnny's face was priceless. His jaw dropped, his head snapped in the photographer's direction, and he was like...what? But it worked well for Victoria, so who are we to judge.

Kristin had to chug a gallon of milk, and this time I actually don't blame her for complaining. I probably would've complained about it, too. She ended up doing pretty well in spite of it. Kiara's setting in the dumpster hit home and reminded her of her past life being homeless. I felt bad for her, but she took it in stride. Allyssa had to lie on the floor with the cockroaches while soda sloshed out of a two-liter bottle. While most of the other girls did pretty well, Allyssa couldn't find an angle that worked, and she ended up just licking the disgusting floor in most of her shots.

Back at the house, after a frenzied phone call Victoria placed to her mom, the girls confronted her about her erratic behavior and lack of eating. It actually seemed like they were coming from a concerned place; and although Victoria denied it, it didn't turn into a big explosion of drama.

In panel, the judges gave most of the girls fairly high scores. I didn't notice any crazy outlier scores this time except that Bryanboy did say he hated Kiara's picture although the judges scored her well. The two weakest were Laura and Allyssa. When Victoria's picture came up, Bryanboy mentioned her lack of confidence. Tyra noticed some of the girls in the back shaking their heads and asked them about it. The girls told her about how they never see Victoria eat, and Tyra gently told Victoria that she'd be keeping an eye on her. Hopefully that'll help Victoria chill, but we'll see about that next week.

Callout order:

1. Nastasia (Hooray, she didn't look short this week!)
2. Brittany
3. Kristin
4. Victoria
5. Kiara
6. Laura

Eliminated for now: Allyssa, to Tyra's dismay. She actually started crying when saying her closing words to Allyssa.

Previews:  Go seeeeeeeeeeeees!!!!!!!!! They also showed Victoria arguing with Kristin, which means one of them must be gone next week. For the photo shoot, they're visiting a prison and doing fierce mug shots.

Predictions:
Eliminated next week: Kristin
For the win: Leila

America's Next Top Model: College Edition Episode 6 Recap

I'm so late on this recap that I'm just going to leave you with the notes I took while watching the show.

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- Yvonne called home. Never a good sign.
- Why is Victoria always exercising? Is that what it takes to be skinny? If so, not interested.
- Chrissy Teigan
- Challenge: do a sequence in a video game where they grab the camera and jump over a couple obsatcles including a high jump.
- Laura did well.
- They liked Kristin
- Yvonne was eh.
- Victoria was awkward.
- Brittany did well.
- Laura won.
- Brittany's talking a lot this episode.
- Victoria called home. Girlfriend needs to get out more.
- P'trique is back with Tyra Mail.
- Steam punk photo shoot
- Victorian style with 19th Century mechanics
- Brittany, stop saying Disney; it's freaking me out. Not even my Disney fanatic BFFs like Disney that much.
- Yvonne is bitching about life and got snippy with Bryan Boy but later apologized.
- Kristin was scared of the owl.
- Kiara did eh, and Kelly finally said what I said in Week 1 - Kiara looks old. Rob and Tyra liked it.
- Victoria did eh; Tyra didn't like it; Kelly kind of did.
- Kristin's face was strong, boring pose.
- Nastasia - Kelly hated it; Tyra loved it, but they all agree she looks short; Rob hated it.
- Yvonne sucked.
- Allyssa was OK.
- Brittany - Kelly hated it, Rob loved it, Tyra loved it. For the love of god, Tyra brought up Disney.
- I wonder if they have to pay Disney royalties or something every time they bring it up. They should.
- Laura awesome of course, three 10s.

Callout order:

1. Laura
2. Brittany
3. Allyssa
4. Kristin
5. Kiara
6. Nastasia
7. Victoria

Eliminated for now: Yvonne

Previews: Road trip?? Wind turbine. Victoria is spazzing out on the phone again. Someone said, "I never see you eat."

Predictions:
Eliminated next week (today): Victoria
For the win: Leila, oh she'll be back. Or maybe Laura.

America's Next Top Model: College Edition Episode 5 Recap

I should've been worried about Leila being eliminated when they showed her talking so much at the beginning of the episode. Instead, I remained blissfully unaware until the end. There was a little bit of drama when Laura picked Kristin to join her in the Tyra suite instead of Lelia. I did feel bad for Leila when all the girls thought she was obsessed with Laura. I've been there, girl. That part gave me unwelcome flashbacks to sixth grade. Plus, Kristin's just kind of a B.

Anyway, then the girls got a visit from Alicia Keys, whose music actually reminds me of freshman year of college. I guess it was a nostalgic episode, heh. Alicia told the girls that they would be participating in a charity fashion show to raise money for Keep a Child Alive. The girls would be doing their own styling, the looks would be auctioned off, and the girl whose outfit raised the most money would win the scholarship money AND get to visit Alicia Keys on tour.

First, they practiced their walks in the house, where Leila struggled to impress Tyra. There was also a funny part where either Tyra or Alicia asked Brittany if she had a boo, and she was like, "Leonardo Dicaprio!" Haha, between that and her love of Disney, I'm pretty sure she could be BFFs with some of my BFFs.

Brittany (source)

At the actual fashion show, all the girls did pretty well. Except Leila. The girl who raised the most money ended up being Kiara, who was definitely the best one on the runway. Maybe this wasn't a coincidence, but she also may have been the most enthusiastic Alicia Keys fan. She picked Nastasia to join her to see Alicia Keys on tour.

Leila continued to be down on herself throughout the episode, but I guess I still didn't want to believe that she might be eliminated. She and Laura had another confrontation, and Leila basically called Laura conceited or something. Laura broke down crying because she had been picked on in high school for having famous parents, and all the girls seemed to side with her. Laura, you're an awesome model, but I'm still on your side, Leila.

Photo shoot time! The girls posed as cheerleaders while being hurled up in the air by four male cheerleaders. It proved to be as potentially dangerous as it looked when Allyssa cut one of the guys in the eyebrow when she was coming down. Kristin actually was a cheerleader, so she found the whole shoot pretty effortless. Nastasia, being the tiniest one, flew the highest and rocked it. As for the girls who struggled, Brittany looked extremely awkward, and Laura was terrified of heights. And then Bryan Boy showed up randomly.

Allyssa (source)

In panel Tyra wore a fierce cutout illusion dress. Most of the critiques were pretty expected based on what we saw from the photo shoot. Brittany and Leila looked awkward, Nastasia and Yvonne looked great, but there were a couple surprising scores from the judges. I didn't like Laura's picture, but the judges did; Allyssa's picture was eh, but Tyra gave her a high score. On the other side of the spectrum, Kristin's picture was pretty good even though Tyra thought she looked more cheerleader than model, but Rob lowballed her and gave her a 6. Teehee, I kind of take pleasure in how much Rob doesn't like Kristin. Evil.

Screenshot from full episode

The callout order was:

1. Nastasia
2. Laura
3. Kristin
4. Kiara
5. Victoria
6. Yvonne
7. Allyssa
8. Brittany

Eliminated for now: Leila

Here was my reaction as documented in my notes:

LOAD OF CRAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
PIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSED
SHE BETTER COME BACK!
WOW BRYAN BOY IS CRYING!

The previews showed a pretty cool video game challenge for the next episode. I'm not sure how it relates to modeling, but it'll be fun to watch. It looks like the girls are doing some kind of steampunk photo shoot, where Yvonne snaps at Bryan Boy.

Predictions:
For the win: Leila...oh, she'll be back.
Eliminated next week: Yvonne. Might as well admit that the previews have shown the eliminated person every week so far.

America's Next Top Model: College Edition Episode 4 Recap

The episode began with some drama between Kristin and the rest of the girls in the house, especially Destiny. First, Kristin complained about always getting the "too pretty" critique and not wanting to rely on the fan votes each week. Then, she angered Destiny by taking a lighter out of Destiny's bag without permission. It escalated to Kristin yelling "hit me!" and then stating she was going to piss off all the girls in the house in order to get them to hit her and be kicked off. Well, that's one strategy, I guess.

Next was the acting challenge with Tyler Perry. Tyra and Tyler assigned each girl a persona (diva, tourist, rapper, and street performer) that they had to act out in public on the street. Most of the girls did pretty well since they had Tyra and Tyler in their ear the whole time.

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The only one they really showed struggling was Leila. Although Yvonne boasted about her acting experience, the winner of the challenge was Kiara with her portrayal of a diva.

For the photo shoot, the girls headed to Universal Studios to the War of the Worlds set, where the girls would be transformed into zombies.

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Along with Jonny Wujek, Bryan Boy also joined them on set to give them some social media feedback to incorporate into their photo. Some of the standouts were Brittany, Laura, and Leila, who have all been doing consistently well so far. Johnny told Allyssa she was being too sexy, and he said once again how he didn't enjoy working with Kristin because she relied too much on being pretty. Destiny gave her standard dead eyes, which you think would've worked with taxidermy and zombie shoots, but they didn't.

It's a pretty short recap today since not a whole lot happened. Plus, I was distracted by Bridget while I was watching, so I may have missed stuff. Anyway, in panel, the callout order was:

1. Laura
2. Leila
3. Brittany
4. Allyssa
5. Kiara
6. Nastasia
7. Victoria
8. Kristin
9. Yvonne

Eliminated for now: Destiny

On the next episode, Alicia Keys visits, and the girls do a cheerleading photo shoot and a charity fashion show. We also see Laura crying about Leila saying she's obsessed with herself. Oh no, hopefully that doesn't mean one of them is going home! They're probably the two strongest in the house right now.

Predictions:
For the win: Leila
Eliminated next week: Kristin...wishful thinking

America's Next Top Model: College Edition Episode 3 Recap

From the very beginning of the episode, I could tell that Darian was probably going home from the way she was hating on Leila for getting best picture even though Darian had experience walking in New Orleans Fashion Week.

But who cares because it's MAKEOVER WEEK! The happiest week of an ANTM cycle. Did anyone notice how freakishly tan Cristophe, the owner of the salon was?

So. Tan. (Source)

With another twist to the norm, they announced that for the first time, the girls could decide whether they wanted to receive a makeover or not. Not surprisingly, Maria turned down the makeover, as did Victoria. The difference was, Victoria felt horrible about it afterwards and left her hair wavy as a change. I couldn't help but notice Victoria said "simular" instead of "similar." Sorry, that grated on my eardrums a little.

Here's how the other makeovers went:

Nastasia and Laura (Source)

• Darian went from braids to a long layered bob.
• Krisitin got bangs and shoulder-length hair.
• Nastasia's hair was about the same but even fuller and curlier than before.
• Kiara lost part of her eyebrows (???) and now has super long hair.
• Destiny was crying because she didn't feel pretty with her short hair. There's always gotta be one girl who hates her makeover.
• Brittany got a short auburn bob.
• Leila got light brown, blondish hair.
• Yvonne is basically the same.
• Laura is the bleach blonde chick of this cycle. There' always one of those, too.
• Allyssa got long layers.

A little more drama involving Kiara broke out in the house when she told Darian not to be loud and all hell broke loose.

And then, we got to the photo shoot! The girls were told that they would be modeling nude with Rob Evans! Right off the bat, we saw Darian struggle, another sure sign that she was out this week. Then, no shocker here, Maria decided that modeling wasn't what she wanted to do and left the competition. And Destiny still had a hard time accepting her makeover.

Souce

In panel I noticed that Tyra was giving everyone surprisingly generous scores. Maybe she's being good cop to Kelly Cutrone's bad cop? Most of the photos did turn out well, though. Victoria's wavy hair is a big improvement even though she said no to the makeover, and she ended up getting the best photo of the week. Rob commented about how much he loves Nastasia's hair and how he's never seen anything like it in the modeling world although I thought of Nik from Cycle 5 when I saw her hair. It looks great on both of them, though. Speaking of Nik, I just learned from Googling her that her real name is Erika and she was born in Milwaukee. Crazy!

The callout order was:

1. Victoria
2. Brittany
3. Allyssa
4. Leila
5. Laura
6. Nastasia
7. Kristin
8. Destiny
9. Kiara
10. Yvonne

Eliminated for now: Darian

The previews showed an acting challenge with Tyler Perry next week, and we'll see some drama between Destiny and Kristin. I knew Kristin would cause some trouble eventually.

Predictions:
For the win: Leila
Eliminated next week: Maybe Destiny. Her hair is just going to keep bugging her. I believe Tyra said she wanted to change it a little, or was that someone else? So we'll see what happens there.

America's Next Top Model: College Edition Episode 2 Recap

Since I was on vacay when the episode aired, I didn't end up watching it until last night. But I wanted to get a recap up in the hopes that I'll actually keep it up the entire season. We'll see about that.

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Friday's episode began with Tyra revealing a new aspect of the show - the Tyra Suite! The suite is furnished with a bigger bed and a fashion closet that the best photo winner that week can enjoy with another person of her choice. Not only that, challenge winners now earn $10,000 scholarship money for each challenge they win, but they can only collect if they are deemed America's Next Top Model in the end. Those are some pretty sweet incentives!

Victoria is a character, isn't she? I know Tyra loves oddness in a model, so Victoria could actually go pretty far. She seems to have some natural modeling talent although she's so socially awkward. "I was a groundbreaker tonight. I broke the ground." So yeah, besides being obsessed with her mom, she may be delusional, too. Being a mom myself, while I like the idea of being best friends with my daughter in theory, I'm hoping Bridget stays independent and wants to have a boyfriend someday.

Anyway, we are...moving on! I may have just quoted an attraction at Universal Studios, but I digress.

Hottie Rob Evans came in with a bunch of dancing fellas (random) and announced that the girls were headed to Hollywood. When they arrived at the club, the girls met Jonte (pronounced Jon-Tee), their movement coach/Miss J replacement?, and learned that they would be doing a runway show. Normally, at least in past cycles, the point is not to be too hoochie. That rule has apparently gone out the window completely. Yvonne ended up winning by kicking her leg up to her head a couple times. At least Leila ran into the ring that was hanging in the middle of the runway. Running into things mid-catwalk always makes for good television. (Anyone remember the pendulum from Cycle 14?)

After the runway show, P'Trique, made famous by Sh*t Fashion Girls Say, gave the girls a hint about their photo shoot.

Cut to the girls in the house, where some drama is erupting. It was inevitable, but surprisingly, it was Destiny and Kiara duking it out. I was sure Kristin was going to start something. Maybe in time. Destiny got offended and thought Kiara insinuated that Destiny was a stripper. I thought she was being too sensitive, but I'm sure I'd get upset about everything if I were living in a house with that many girls I didn't know.

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Next up was the taxidermy photo shoot where the girls posed like animal heads on a wall. It was kind of a cool concept in that they had to learn how to portray the desired effect just using their faces. Most of the girls did pretty well, but the few that struggled were Destiny, Jessie (because she couldn't put her best asset through the hole instead...her booty), and Maria. Is it just me, or do the highly intellectual girls tend to struggle? Maria reminded me of Victoria from Cycle 9, who just seemed to think she was above the whole competition. Now Elyse from Cycle 1...she's a different story - an intellectual with actual modeling chops. By the way, this is what happens whenever I watch ANTM. Current girls always end up reminding me of past girls.

Cray (source)

As much as I miss Mr. Jay, I don't hate Johnny Wujek. He's nice to look at, and he seems to be pretty positive during photo shoots. I'm not sure he's quite as fierce and funny as Mr. Jay, but maybe we just haven't seen all sides of Johnny yet.

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As for blogger Bryan Boy, we found out his role during judging. He appeared to deliver the fan vote totals, give the girls feedback from the public, and show some videos submitted by viewers. So far, I could take or leave him.

Tyra explained that eliminations would be based on the judges' scores (each judge gave the girls' pictures a score from 1 to 10) + the challenge score + the fan vote. The girl with the lowest score would go home. Or would they?? The eliminated will actually participate in the rest of the photo shoots, which we already knew, and have the opportunity to win a spot back into the house if they received the highest social media score. I'm not exactly sure how that will all work, but it'll be interesting if it happens.

Here was the callout order:

1. Leila 
2. Nastasia 
3. Brittany 
4. Laura 
5. Kristin 
6. Kiara 
7. Yvonne 
8. Allyssa 
9. Victoria 
10. Darian 
11. Maria 
12. Destiny

Eliminated for now: Jessie

Tomorrow's show should be highly entertaining. The previews showed that for the first time, the girls get to choose if they want to get a makeover or not. Not surprisingly, it looks like Maria thinks she knows best and is resisting. As for the dynamic in the house, Kiara continues to get into arguments and stir up more drama. And if that's not enough draw, for the photo shoot the models are posing topless with Rob Evans.

I guess I should make some predictions.
For the win: Leila. It's too early in the cycle. At this point, I'm just stealing other people's predictions.
Eliminated next: Maria. This may be too obvious and thus not true based on the previews, but there's no way she's going to last too much longer.

America's Next Top Model: College Edition Premiere Recap

First of all...U-DUB-DUB, represent!

There was a lot of school spirit going on throughout the episode, so I had to get in on the action and give a shoutout to my alma mater.

College. Good times. Anyway, moving on.

I was all ready to give up on Top Model and boycott this cycle, but Tyra took the show back to its roots and drew me back in. The format was much what I was used to in past seasons - they had a little background about some of the girls, did a mini photo shoot, brought the interview portion back (yesssss!), and then announced who made it into the house. There was a slightly cheesy and gimmicky sequence at the beginning, but that was fine. It wouldn't be Tyra's show without a little bit of that.

The show began with Tyra and a man in drag, whom I felt like I should probably recognize, talking about the revamp of the show while Tyra wore an OMS Oh My Smize T-shirt. Then, she introduced the new people on the show - boxer and model Rob Evans as the new judge; Johnny Wujek, who has styled Katy Perry, as the new creative director of photo shoots to replace Mr. Jay; and blogger Bryan Boy as the social media correspondent. I'm not sure what his role will be exactly, but we already saw some interaction with the CWTV website and Facebook in this show.

Tyra, Kelly Cutrone, Rob Evans, Johnny Wujek (source)

Next, the 30 contestants, which would be weeded down to 13, came in to a college party setting at the sorority house where they would live to do a runway show and a photo shoot. The girls introduced themselves and excitedly announced their schools, which included universities, cosmetology schools, and even one home-schooled girl who attended school online.

The first thing I noticed was that Taryn Manning from Crossroads was the DJ for the party??? OK, apparently she's been in dozens of things since then, but that's what I recognized her from. (At least I didn't say Zoe Saldana from Crossroads. Although she was.)

While the girls assembled, Tyra came out, followed by the other judges, including the "sexiest model alive." Oh heeyyyy, Rob Evans. You can talk all day, kthxbye. Tyra explained the new rules about how the fans are the fourth judge, and their vote will hold an equal weight to the other three judges' votes. Then the runway show commenced.

Jessie and Allyssa (source)

I don't know how much each girls' runway walk matters in the grand scheme of the competition, but I always like to critique them myself anyway. There were a handful of solid walkers; some of the not so promising ones were a few girls who didn't make the house, Kristin, and Jessie. After runway, the girls went right into a mini photo shoot, while the judges continued to watch on and make comments about each contestant.

From the photo shoot, the girls got to go into a room with computers set up and check right away how fans were responding to their pictures on Facebook. They also were encouraged to interact and encourage friends and family to vote. I can already see how that might actually be a fun aspect to the show. At first, I was rolling my eyes about the whole thing (although I did vote a few times), but the models are going to be able to get instant feedback from their public. Whether that will end up being good or bad for the models is to be seen, but they'll definitely need to develop a thick skin quickly.

I was excited to see that they brought the interview portion back to the show. Some of the funniest moments come from when the girls each get to make an impression on the judges. Here are some of my notes from that portion:

Laura - what the hell is tyra doing to her? stripping her and pouring water over her to make her look more model-y (in)
Brittany - Disney lover (in)
(Rob's smile = <3)
Destiny - sad story, similar to Rob Evan's story (in)
Ivory - retainer with a fake tooth (not in)
Allyssa - boss tattoo on the inside of her bottom lip (in)
Amber - terrible dancer (not in)
Briana - sang a song including "pot ledom" (not in)
Christin - did some cheerleading moves with pom poms (not in)
Jasmine - speaks in meows and thinks she's a cat (not in)
Victoria - Jewish and Native American, homeschooled, weird in a good, model-y way (in)
Leila - judges and fans called her a Kristen Stewart lookalike, gap tooth (in)
Maria - Harvard girl, smart girl who kept her modeling a secret (in)
Darian - wore a boa, posed with Rob Evans (in)
Kaci - singer, grandma, who recently passed away, got her into modeling (not in)
Jessie - judges liked her booty (in)
Kristin - mean girl, got suspended from high school multiple times, lots of drama in her future (in)
Nastasia - pop and lock dance (in)
Yvonne - plus size model, beauty queen (in)
Kiara - b'ball player, looks 35 until she smiles, inspirational story (in)

Kristin and Nastasia (source)

So those are the girls. Tyra narrowed them down to 13 and then let them run like crazy into the sorority house and claim their bedrooms. Each bedroom had a theme - sports, geek, and pink. Kristin took the middle bed in the pink room because the world revolves around her, she said. Yeah, drama will ensue.

The previews didn't show too much except we know that it looks like the girls will be doing a sexy runway show. And also, the show was dubbed the "Comeback Series." Here's hoping, Tyra! I hate to say it, but you've done a good job so far. I will definitely be back to watch next week's ep.

Two Dresses and Some Booty Tooching

Black Dress: NY&Co; Floral Dress and Belt: Tucker for Target; Boots: Target; Bracelets: Mexicali Blues

Since I like to give credit where credit is due, this look was inspired by Kayley at Sidewalk Ready.  I keep toying with the idea of getting rid of this Tucker for Target dress, but I love it under this dress. Guess that means I'll hang onto it a little bit longer!

I just watched the end of Top Model, and now this song is going to be in my head forever. UK for the win!

By the way, I was beyond shocked by the elimination this week. I thought she was going to be a finalist.

America's Next Top Model Cycle 17 All-Stars Episode 1 Recap

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Last night’s premiere of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 17 All Stars was just as exciting as I hoped it would be. The show started with a vignette of Tyra in bed, dreaming of the all-star cycle. In her dream, she was pretending to be Camille, Laura, Allison, and I think someone else. Then, she woke up in really cute yellow polka dot pajamas that I wanted to steal, and her dream was a reality and the all stars were in her bed with her.

They then showed clips from the season of how the models will be tasked with building a brand by creating their own fragrance (definitely relevant for a model and celebrity), acting in TV shows (OK, fair enough), and singing in a music video (Really? Must they? Trainwreck waiting to happen for everyone except Lisa.). Guest judges and mentors will include basically some cool people I didn’t bother writing down in my notes and the dreamy Tyson Beckford, who popped up on the show during Cycle 9. The vision of Ebony giddily running through the house is still burned in my brain.

Since we already knew who the cast was, they arrived at their house one by one. It was so fun to see everyone arrive and react to one another. We learned that Bianca and Bre were roommates and BFFs in Chicago, but Bre didn’t even tell Bianca she was coming; and that there was some bad blood between Bianca and Camille, no shocker there. Everyone was basically excited each time someone came in the door except for when Camille arrived...silence and glares.

My initial reactions were: Sheena still wore way too much makeup, Isis looked great--way better as a woman than she did as a man, Angelea is still hilarious to me, and I hated someone’s hair. Probably Dominique’s--I just didn’t think the long, loose curled hair suited her.

Mr. Jay showed up and told the girls that they would be doing a photo shoot in their backyard right away. The theme of the shoot was to recreate their personas from their original cycles. Bianca was immediately upset as they put red extensions in hair, which she shouldn’t have been because A. it was temporary, and B. it actually looked kinda cool. Then when it was her turn, she started doing very basic, Modeling 101 poses and did not wow Jay.

Other comments I had were that Brittany looked just like Janice Dickinson and that Shannon is a PRUDE. I can maaaaaybe understand that you don’t want to do underwear modeling, but when the bikini bottom is smaller than underwear AND they’re going to put lace shorts that somewhat resemble underwear over it to cover you up more, just give up and go with it. We’re all over it.

Next, Tyra announced that panel was going to be held in front of a LIVE AUDIENCE OF FANS! I remember when the invitation went out for this event, and I seriously considered going had I extra vacation time. But alas, I did not. I noted that the fans and panel both love Allison. She’ll be sticking around for awhile. Then, I got mad at Dominique for bouncing back from having a baby in only two months to come on the show. And then Alexandria came out, AND THE CROWD BOOED! She was the only one the crowd booed, and I’m sure it was because she was so fresh in everyone’s minds after just coming off of being the villain on Cycle 16. I have never been a fan of her, but it was still pretty rude to boo. Sheena was wearing a fierce vintage jumpsuit that the panel loved. (Nicki Minaj was the guest judge this week, by the way. She told it like it is.) Laura told Nicki Minaj that she could have her grandma hook her up with some homemade couture, too. “Wanda Sue!”

The public part of the show was done, and while the girls headed to the private panel area, the Jays polled the crowd about which models they love and love to hate. When I heard that the results were going to have a basis on who was going home, I had a pretty good idea who it would be. During the commercial break, I predicted Brittany would be the first one booted.

And we’re back, and Tyra announced that the grand prize for this season’s winner would include a spread in Italian Vogue, a spread and cover of Beauty in Vogue, a Cover Girl contract, a correspondent gig with...was it E!? Some entertainment television outlet. And, a national ad campaign with Express. Personally, I was underwhelmed with the prizes. The only new ones were the TV correspondent thing and the Express ad, but whatevs.

The first picture called was Isis, which was a little surprising; but not surprisingly, Allison was called second. Bottom two were Alexandria (most hated by fans) and Brittany (most forgettable by fans). I knew being most hated was way more marketable than not even being remembered, so my guess of Brittany going home ended up being right. It’s too bad, too, because she was actually my favorite from Cycle 4. She just needed me there cheering her on! My favorites have been going home first a lot lately.  Like on Bachelor Pad, Alli was my favorite, and she peaced out first, too.  It does suck to get kicked off of your Cycle, then to come back just to get kicked off first. Reminds me a lot of my regional spelling bee experience in eighth grade actually...but anyway.

Previews for the rest of the season consisted of DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA. It’s going to be awesome!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait for next Wednesday already.

Right now, I hope Shannon goes home next because she was being whiney and impossible this week. As far as who I want to win...I’m going to go with Isis for now. Or Sheena. I guess either Cycle 11 girl would do.

Did you see last night’s show? What’d you think? Who’s your favorite all star?

America's Next Top Model Cycle 16 Finale Recap

It may not be the exciting blowout I originally hyped up, but there are definitely some funny moments as we recap the finale episode.  And we give lots of love to contestant Hannah and past winner, Whitney.

It can also be turned into a fun drinking game--every time I take a sip (gulp) of my wine, take a shot! Haha. I think we did edit out a few sips, but it still seemed a tad excessive. Mmm...wine...anyway, onto the recap!

Can I Stop with the Awkward Today and Start the Awesome Already?

I haven't done Awkward and Awesome Thursday in awhile, but this day merits it.

Brittany from Cycle 4, one of the members of the ANTM Cycle 17 All Star Cast (Source)

Awkward

• Checking my blind spot while driving and pulling something in my neck. Now, whenever I turn my neck to the left at all, it hurts.
• Accidentally dragging the toe of my shoe, thus walking like a doofus as I walked by someone at work.
• Family dynamics and the mixing of two families. Awkward AND stressful. Bridget's Baptism is coming up Sunday, so planning for it is starting to stress me out.
• My work email not sending or receiving anything yesterday. That issue resulted in me giving people blank stares as they talked to me about emails they had sent.

Awesome

• The ANTM All Star Cycle! I would've liked to blog about the cast, but you can just read about it and see pics at A Blog About Things and compare it to my predictions. A couple girls that I really liked that were in my original 20 before I pared it down made the cut (Brittany and Laura, yay!). Then, there are a few that I think were just thrown in for the drama aspect. I am shocked that Heather from Cycle 9 isn't on the list.
• Wine tasting tonight! I will hopefully blog about that this weekend at some point...
• Birthday dinner tomorrow for one of Nate's friends. That I'll hopefully blog about, too, 'cause it's at a very tasty and kind of unique restaurant.
• Bridget's Baptism! The event is awesome in and of itself, but she'll also be wearing the dress I wore when I was baptized. Doubly awesome.
• Cookie dough was the flavor of the day yesterday at Kopp's! Pretty sure I had a cone while there and then a scoop later with the fam from the 1/2 gallon I bought. Clearly, the diet is going really well this week...
  

America's Next Top Model Cycle 16 Episode 11 Recap

I said "episode 10" in the recap, so I'm not really sure what episode number we're on now, but here we go!

America's Next Top Model All Star Cycle

It has just been announced that for Cycle 17 of America's Next Top Model, Tyra will be inviting back memorable girls from past cycles to compete. As someone who has loved every cycle but sometimes questioned the winners, I CANNOT WAIT! This announcement got me thinking...if I were to create an all star cast, who would be included? As much as I'd want to pick my favorites from every cycle, there would need to be some drama, too. It was really hard narrowing it down to 14...but here's who I would choose:

Mercedes - A lot of people thought she was robbed when Yoanna won (I was a Yoanna fan), and no one was angrier than Janice Dickinson about it, so I think she should have another go.

Kahlen - She definitely gave Naima a run for her money. Their final runway show was one of the fiercest.

Melrose - Yes, she had an older look, but she knew what she was doing. Now she's probably like 30, though, eh?

Brittany - This girl was a total brat, but I loved her look.  From her bad weave to her hissy fit after go-sees, Brittany was always whining about something.

Jenah - I don't know if she'd do it, but she was my favorite from Cycle 9. Oh no, I just realized that Tyra will not be able to resist bringing Heather back. Dangit.

Anya - This girl with her crazy accent and European-type beauty is the definition of high fashion.  Anya or Katarzyna should've won Cycle 10. Sorry, Whitney!

Katarzyna - One of the many girls Tyra didn't think had enough personality.  Still, Anya or Katarzyna should've won Cycle 10. Sorry, Whitney!

Analeigh - !!!!!!!!!!! Nuff said.

Sheena - We need an Asian winner one of these years, and I think either Sheena or Jennifer (below) could do it.

Jennifer - Although she was in the shorty cycle, she was very talented and had potential.

Angelea - She was hilarious and surprisingly good.

Alexandra - A plus size girl who took really good pictures.

Jane - !! Love her.

Ondrei - Sabreen reminded me of this one. She went home early this cycle due to a family tragedy, so she deserves another shot.  She's beautiful and showed a lot of potential.

Those are the girls I would like to see. My predictions of who Tyra will really bring back are Toccara (which I would be fine with), Jade (for the drama), Heather (overrated in my opinion), Naduah (Tyra has said she went home too early), Tahlia (has a good story but wasn't a great model, I don't think), and maybe Isis (transgender model).

Can't wait!

America's Next Top Model Cycle 16 Episode 8 Recap

This will probably be the last recap for awhile because the show is moving an hour later starting next week.  And it's a work night, and we're old ladies who need our sleep.  But we'll definitely be back for the finale (in May sometime?) and hopefully have something special cooked up.  I'm hoping to get a guest vlogger to join us, but we'll see!

America's Next Top Model Cycle 16 Episode 7 Recap

I'm happy to be back watching Top Model with Sabreen and vlogging about it.  We started off the night with some delicious appetizers and wine, a decent meal concocted by me, and Bridget as our cute, babbling centerpiece.  Then, it was time to watch a drama-filled episode of Top Model!  Here's what happened:

America's Next Top Model Cycle 16 Episode 5 Recap

I didn't have my partner in crime with me tonight, and I was trying to be a little quiet since the baby was sleeping. So hopefully the vlog this week doesn't put you to sleep.

America's Next Top Model Cycle 16 Episode 4 Recap

Recording the vlog went SO MUCH smoother this week thanks to the friendly folks at VODBurner.  They saw my post on Twitter and gave me suggestions to be more successful with recording the second time around.  Although I look like a complete dork with my headphones on, it did make all the difference.  No more echos and much less lag than last time. 

I also want to give a shoutout to Gracey at Fashion for Giants because I totally used her scarf tying technique for my vlog accessorizing today.

America's Next Top Model Cycle 16 Episode 3 Recap - Makeovers!

Today's vlog was definitely a labor of love.  Mostly a love of makeovers.  Since Sabreen and I weren't able to get together, I found a program (VodBurner) that would allow us to record ourselves Skyping.  I downloaded a 14 day trial, and we were off.

After 15 minutes of yapping about the show, I got an error message and had to hang up the call and try again.  The video saved, processed, and loaded itself into the post-production editing tool.  Neat!  When I played back the video, Sabreen's side was echoing.  Had I been smart, I would've gone straight to the website for help.  But I like troubleshooting things myself, so I adjusted my microphone and speaker volume down, and we started over.  This only succeeded in making my voice a lot quieter while Sabreen's stayed the same...and still echo-y. 

Finally, I turned to the site and found advice on how to try to fix it in post-production.  But no promises that it would actually work.  It seemed to work while I was editing in the console; but once I generated the video, the echo came back although not as bad as it originally was.

Sigh.  The advice on the website says to move the speakers so that they're not near the microphone or use headphones.  Now I know.  Anyway, onto the recap if you can make it through the whole thing!

America's Next Top Model Cycle 16 Episode 2 Recap

If this vlog seems rushed, that's because it was.  Haha.  The episode itself wasn't terribly exciting, and Sabreen needed to get home at a decent hour tonight, but we still had some fun with it.  And next week promises to be exciting because it's MAKEOVER WEEK!  Those are always fun.  Anyway, onto our recap.