Project Runway - Let's hear it for the old guy!

The new season of Project Runway premiered last night. I love this show. Heidi, Tim, Michael and Nina were all back, with special guest judge Christina Ricci. (I didn't find a picture of Christina.  You can google her. The other photos are from the Lifetime TV Project Runway page.)

Heidi Klum - Host and judge

Tim Gunn - Mentor



Nina Garcia - Judge



Michael Kors - Judge

To be honest, I was a little disappointed. The first bit of the episode showed Heidi and the others interviewing the twenty semi-finalists. This seemed redundant to me since I had watched the hour-long casting special just before the regular episode. That one had previous PR winners Seth-Aaron Henderson and Leanne Marshall and runner-up Mondo Guerra evaluating contestants and we saw the same contestants and the same outfits they brought to show. Curiously, they never identified Leanne or Mondo, although Seth-Aaron got some face time on camera.

So the first thing that happened was that Heidi "auf-ed" four people immediately. Surprisingly, they kept the former Miss Trinidad who admitted that she only started to learn to sew last year. Well, she is beautiful so I guess that counts for something. But, I thought this year's cast was pretty bland. No really strange ones like that chick who spit on her fabric because she liked to make herself part of it. Or Ping, who just sort of draped fabric on her models. Or the guy last year who designed an outfit that was like an egg for the maternity wear challenge. It represented "fertility" and he went home that day.

The always-dapper Tim Gunn leads the just-rolled-out-of-bed designers on Project Runway for a 5 a.m. walk to the Parsons School.

The first challenge had Tim Gunn waking them all up at about 5 a.m. They had to wear their pajamas, or whatever substituted for pajamas, and to bring one bedsheet. Yep, they had to make their first runway look from the clothes on their back and their sheet. Actually, most of them were decent which made for some of the episode's blandness.

Rafael Cox - "Auf-ed" on Episode One

Several were spectacularly bad and Rafael went home because he didn't seem to know that his outfit was bad. That doesn't seem to deter many very popular designers who seem to enjoy being really, really bad at their art. Or craft. Or whatever it is. But, I'm glad to know that Project Runway does not encourage that sort of behavior.

This week's winner, Bert Keeter, aka "The Old Guy"

The best part of the episode came when Bert won it. Bert is a 57 year-old recovering alcoholic that all those sassy kids had ignored. Of course, he had been a designer with Oleg Cassini and Halston before his personal downturn so you know he has the chops. Still, it was nice to see even if Michael Kors hated his styling.

Bert has immunity so he won't go home next week. Hopefully, I will find myself feeling a little more interested in the rest of the crew soon. If not, I may have to say "auf weidersehen" to this season's PR. But, I'll always love Tim.

One down...eleven to go!

I have been quietly working on my bird project each day and have finally caught up on the photography. Taking the pictures is proving to be the hardest part of the whole thing. I can't get enough natural light and the flash makes the colors look funny. I took the last batch outside, but now it is either too rainy or too hot.

Without further ado - I present the June collection of birds...

A June-ful of birds. Don't they look cute all lined up on their calendar square?

For those who might want more details, here is the photo mosaic with each bird's individual portraits. If you click on the date at the bottom of the photo mosaic, it should take you to the Flickr page where you can read my comments for that particular one.

june 17, june 18, june 19, june 20, june 21, june 22, june 23, june 24, june 25, june 26, june 27, june 28, june 29, june 30

I'm still making birds each day so I'll update July soon!

(P)Interested?

Have you discovered Pinterest yet? (By the way - that's a link that you can click and see Pinterest for yourself.) It's a very cool site - sort of like your own bulletin board on the Internet. I don't know about you, but my bookmarks folder is filled with sites and things that I want to remember. The only problem is that there are so many of them, I have no idea what they are anymore.

For instance, I love, love, LOVE this:

I found it when I was blog-surfing one day (thank you, Dottie Angel.) I could bookmark it and add it to the list that is already way too long. But, I won't know be able to remember what that bookmark is for. Trust me on this. I've tried.



(Here's another thing I pinned. Cool, huh? Wanna come wrap fabric around styrofoam balls with me? This idea came from aprettylifeinthesuburbs.blogspot.com.)

Pinterest solves that problem. It uses photos so you can actually remember what you liked. And, they automatically link back to the original source, giving both credit to the person who deserves it and letting you find it again. You decide how to organize your photos by setting up and naming your "bulletin boards" yourself. And, it's easy to do. You get a little widget that says "Pin This" to add to your toolbar. When you see something you like, you click that widget and it lets you pick the picture you want, add any comments and then put it on the board you want. It's easier than I'm making it sound. Really. I promise.

If you want to, you can click here and see my pins: My Pinterest pins. Here's another preview:

See - you can pin things just because you think they are beautiful. Like Anne Hathaway in this stunning dress. Don't you love her tiara? (This image came from justjared.com, although I am a little ashamed to admit it. I don't read that site; just came across the photo somewhere else.)

But, there is one more fun part. It's sort of like "show and tell." You can see other people's boards and comment on their loves or even re-pin them to your board. You can easily post your pins on Facebook so that other people can see them. Oooh - maybe birthday or Christmas hints? I wonder if the people at Pinterest have thought of that?

In case anyone is interested, I need this flowered tape in my life. Unfortunately, it came from etsy.com and it says it isn't available anymore. Maybe someone can find something similar?

If you give it a try, let me know and I'll follow you. And, maybe you'll follow me? And, while you are in the mood to tag along with me, perhaps you'll follow this blog as well. Okay, finished with the shameless bit of self-promotion!

Have fun pinning!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Anniversary to the United States! I love the Fourth of July - cookouts, fireworks, family. But, I love it for another reason. The Fourth of July is also my parents' wedding anniversary.

In 1953, my father was a reporter covering the Alabama legislature for the United Press. As he explains,

"I had checked that the legislature would be in recess the week after the Fourth of July and told Albert Boutwell, who was Alabama's Lieutenant Governor and Senate President, that I wanted to go on our honeymoon while the legislature was in recess. But then, surprising both of us, somebody called for a vote to recess the week before the 4th and be in session afterward."

"That's when Albert jumped up and said, 'Paul Wills is covering the legislature for the UP and plans to get married on the Fourth and they will be on their honeymoon the week after. Her mother won't let her go on their honeymoon before they are married so we have to recess the week after.' So, the recess and the honeymoon came the week after the Fourth."

Among my earliest memories of growing up in Tallahassee is watching the Fourth of July fireworks over Lake Ella. Every year, Mama and Daddy celebrated their anniversary with my brother and me, with a hot dog bought from a sidewalk vendor as their dinner. I thought it was perfect - and I think they did, too.

We celebrated my folks' 55th anniversary in Blake Hospital where my mother was being treated for leukemia. My brother and nephew were in town so we took pineapple upside-down cake and homemade ice cream to a hospital family room and had a party there. While it wasn't as perfect as other years, it was lots of fun. My mother had a special talent of making everything fun.

That was the last anniversary we all celebrated together. My mother passed away a few months later. This year, my husband, my father and my godfather (who was also their best man) will have a cookout and enjoy celebrating our country's 235th anniversary. But mostly, we will remember the even more special anniversary of Paul and Martee Wills, with thanks Lieutenant Governor Albert Boutwell.