leia131 | Don't try to understand me; your hands already know too much anyway...

-Just FYI, Samantha still didn't deserve to go home. Also, you can now buy Michelle's winning dress on Lord and Taylor for a mere $259.

-The girls want the teams to be girls against boys. I could get behind that. (They think the boys have large egos that would not allow them to work together. Ummm... ALL SIX OF YOU DO.)

-Another field trip, this time to the Guggenheim. I've never been there.

-It's sad, Daniel is my favorite, but I don't think he's a strong enough designer to win. :(

-The judges have mixed up the teams again. Stanley & Michelle, Patricia & Richard, (Richard is not as angry as I thought he would be, and Layana is THRILLED not to be with Richard anymore), and Layana & Daniel. (Layana says she likes Daniel, but not as her partner. I used to like her, but she's really been getting on my nerves for the past few weeks. And now she's hating on my Daniel and I may have to kill her.)

-HP Intel Challenge: Use the super innovative HP tablet/PC thing to design a "work of wearable art". Each team has to make two garments: one that's avant garde, big, grand, and over the top, and one that is a wearable companion to it. This is also the challenge where they get to design their own textile, which has to be in both garments. I'm pretty excited for this challenge.

-Oh man, how cool would it be to be allowed to wander around the Guggenheim (or any museum really) all alone because it's not open to the public at that time? SO COOL, that's how cool.

-Layana and Daniel are having some friction, but Daniel is being flexible. Layana feels that she needs to direct him, which I feel is not going to end well. They've been inspired by this ugly-ass twisty gold wire sculpture.

-Michelle and Stanley are working much better together than the other teams. I don't really love either one of them, for different reasons (Michelle can be so damn mean, and Stanley's looks bore me), but I think that they're definitely two of the strongest people on this season. If either of them won I would not throw things at the TV. (It's a shame I didn't liveblog last season, because I was pulling for Dmitri, and he totally KICKED ASS AND WON.)

-SERIOUSLY!? In the whole Guggenheim, Patricia and Richard have gravitated to the same ugly-ass sculpture that Layana and Daniel liked.

-They have super fancy HP computers with touchscreens, and a room full of art supplies (paint, bubble wrap, etc.) to make their avant garde looks.

-I do not like Stanley and Michelle's print. Not even a little.

-Can I please have Layana's wardrobe? I love pretty much everything she wears on this show. Not that I would ever look that good in that hat, but I still want it.

-Michelle and Stanley are going with "brink of insanity" as a theme. I can dig that.

-Richard wants futuristic, Patricia is concerned about it being gaudy. Since they didn't really show what they bought, I don't know who's right.

-The winner of this challenge will get $10,000 (from HP and Intel), and an HP Envy X2, whatever the fuck that is.

-Apropos of nothing, I miss Blondejamin. I bet he would have rocked at this challenge.

-Richard and Patricia are not quite getting each other... And Richard has made a bracelet but no dress. Apparently since his dress has to be based off Patricia's, he's like waiting for her to make it before he starts his. I don't think that's exactly what they had in mind with this challenge.

-Layana is working with chicken wire; I'm intrigued to see where that's going. Daniel feels that she's being too controlling, and given what she said earlier about needing to direct him, I kind of have to agree. Also, her interview about him is just so... bitchy. I hate to use that word, but DAMN. If he's not really helping you, just tell him! Don't tell the camera crew, that's not solving anything! Motherfucker.

-The textiles are here! Stanley and Michelle's is a bizarre gold woman's head on black (ugh). Stanley and Patricia's is a pretty cool triangular thing. Layana and Daniel's is a neat abstract square design that I like, though I'm not crazy about the colors.

-Richard has still made nothing but a bracelet. Patricia is stressed about this fact.

-Oh dear, Layana has used up all the fabric they designed, leaving Daniel less than a yard to incorporate into his design. He's determined to make it work, but clearly annoyed with her. As I would be. At least (instead of keeping it inside and seething like pretty much everyone else on this show) he told her she needed to save some fabric for him, and tried to persuade her to loosen her pleats to leave him more.

-Richard is uninspired by Patricia's design, and Layana has lost her inspiration. Oy, people. Thank God Tim is here to tell them to make it work.

-Michelle has painted a six yard long train, which has given Tim chills. I am intrigued by that, although I still am not crazy about their print. Although they've used it minimally on the avant garde look, and I approve of that.

-Layana, STOP HATING ON EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING.

-"No one really understands what I'm doing." No shit, Patricia.

-Tim is confused and saddened by Patricia and Richard. Richard has still made nothing but a bracelet, and Tim is (probably correctly) accusing Richard of waiting to thrown Patricia under the bus during judging because her work didn't inspire him.

-"I feel very disabled with your team. If two people ever had a make it work moment, it's the two of you." Oh Tim, I don't even know what that first sentence means but I love that you said it.

-Layana's skirt is much smaller than it was the last time I saw it. What happened to the chicken wire? Tim says it isn't working, but he (and I) both love their print. (Layana's leather interview jacket, on the other hand, needs to be in my life.)

-STOP CRYING, LAYANA. MAKE IT WORK. Tim is hugging her, maybe that will help. She apparently needs the prize money to pay off her student loans, and I think the pressure of trying to win it is getting to her.

-Layana seems to have gotten it together during the commercial break, but Richard is still a mess.

-LOL FOREVER. Michelle's impression of Nina is SPOT ON.

-Michelle and Stanley are painting bubble wrap black. I really like the way it looks, actually. (It wasn't dry when they came in the next day, which is creating problems, but it's still cool and weird in a good way.)

-Patricia is a textile designer, and says she'll be pissed if she goes home on the textile challenge. Richard keeps trying to blame her for his failure, but she's really done everything she can to help him get his shit together There's only so much help you can give someone.

-Michelle has made a pretty awesome hat, but I do think (as Stanley said) that it might be overkill.

-Patricia is styling her model with a veil over her face. Ok then.

-Michelle's model is supposed to be "high fashion crazy." She definitely has the right model for that. (She also has the model with the longest neck ever, which works amazingly well with her dress design.)

-I like the strap, Layana. I think it makes the dress look more complete, as well as helping to hold it up.

-Michelle herself is wearing the fantastically weird hat she made, so at least it didn't go to waste.

-Zac Posen is being played by Rachel Roy again. Why didn't they just ask Rachel to be the judge all season? She's there more often than Zac.

-Layana's is like... Victorian trash bags. And yet, I kind of like it.

-Hell yeah, Daniel! That is beautiful and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the coat. Even Layana says she likes it.

-Patricia's is a HOT MESS. What am I even looking at? And why is the model's face covered?

-Richard's, after all that, is boooooring and just... ummm... I don't know. It's not a trainwreck, but it's still bad. It's just kind of there, you know?

-Michelle, I have to agree, your look is awesome. That one's definitely my favorite so far.

-I'm not crazy about Stanley's, mostly because I do not like their print, and the only thing worse than that print at all is lots of it at once.

-Heidi says they all did a good job, and it's going to be hard to send someone home. Let me help you, Heidi: SEND RICHARD HOME.

-Stanley thanked the judges for pairing him up with Michelle. Aww.

-Heidi loves their print. I still don't. Rachel Roy says it's quirky and fun, which is not exactly what 'verge of madness' says to me.

-The judges all love the dresses, the print, the madness, the juxtaposition of ideas, the avant garde, the bubble wrap, everything. And I have to agree; even though I don't like the print itself, they seriously made it work.

-Also, the train Michelle painted is beautiful and amazing. They have to be the winners, right.

-Heidi asks them who should win, and even though the say each other, it should totally be Michelle.

-Nina says she gets Richard's dress, which is more than I can say for me.

-"The two garments don't speak back to each other." Well, neither did Patricia and Richard.

-Heidi says she loves Patricia's dress, and the veil, but I honestly don't know why. The judges are being really nice about disliking Richard's dress, but they still really dislike it. Especially all the pleats on the skirt.

-Layana gives Daniel credit for helping her through her "dark place" and is really nice to him. This pleases me.

-Heidi says Daniel's was her favorite. Me too, Heidi, me too. It's beautiful and I wish I owned it.

-Nina says Layana was a good influence on Daniel. I'm glad, because I love him and don't want him to go home.

-Nina doesn't love Layana's dress, saying it looks like a hodgepodge. It kind of does, I guess. All the judges agree that Layana's dress looks like a period piece, with the guest judge calling it "Eliza Doolittle." So, I was sort of right about that one. (The words 'Southern Belle' and 'Scarlett O'Hara' were also thrown around.)

-Layana is such a drama queen. She's crying and freaking out over Daniel saying he should win. Sorry, Layana, but his dress was better than yours. And even if you did help him with it, he still made the dress. You were busy with yours. Don't worry though, because Patricia and Richard's looks are much worse.

-Someone just said that Patricia's dress looks like a circus tent. That's pretty much true.

-Oh God, they really hate Layana's dress. They're being much more harsh about it in private judging time than they were to her face.

-Heidi, about the suggestion that Daniel should have helped Layana improve her look: "I think Layana think's she really good, so I don't know if she would listen." Wow, Heidi has her PEGGED.

-Stanley and Michelle are the winning team, and Stanley is THE winner. Well, I think it should have been Michelle (she designed the print and did all the painting), but whatever, I'm happy for him. He's just so damn chill all the time, he barely even looks excited to have won.

-Daniel and Layana are in, to Layana's immense relief. Patricia and Richard are the losers, to no one's surprise.

-Patricia is in, (and freaking out about being in the bottom two) and Richard is out, FINALLY. He's deserved to go home for like, three weeks now. WHERE'S YOUR BRACELET NOW, BITCH?

-Ooh, next week they're designing on their own (I wondered when we were going to get to that point), with 'helpers' consisting of eliminated designers. Oh God, Richard is one of them. Can we never be free?

Answer to last Thursday's song: Hey There Delilah by The Plain White T's. This is one of my father's favorite songs, and we call each other every time one of us hears it on the radio. :)