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August 31, 2006
more of the hot couple
There's more at flickr! Not quite all, because there are so many and I can't sit in front of the computer screen that long.
Now these three abide. But the greatest of these is....
www.flickr.com/photos/braehoward
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August 29, 2006
The two became one flesh
Here's a small entry on the wedding of my cousin and Kiko....
I'm way too exhausted to be exisiting right now. Slept too few hours over the past jubilant days. So just a few photos for now. More tomorrow. Love, Brae
The bridesmaids. (And one bride's man.)
The (even prettier) groomsmen.
custom made m & m's from my grandparents.
Kiko and her two new brothers. My brother Lowen on the left, and my cousin Vernon on the right. Vernon is Vincent's older brother.
Yukari (Kiko's sister), and her two new sisters, Sienna and Kyrie.
Me and the sisterhood. Chalice, we missed you. Sienna and Kyrie, you all are cuter than buttons. Hotter than buttons too.
Kiko and Vincent, we love you and are blessed by you. More aesthetic treats tomorrow.
love.
love.
love.
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August 23, 2006
Vincent and Kiko
photo courtesy of Adam Belz I think.
These two are getting married this weekend and I'm about to take the 12 hour drive to Chattanooga in about 45 minutes. I'll visit old college friends, visit my most wonderful church, and stay with my sisters at Covenant.
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Tamara and ViSiOn
I spent the past weekend visitng my best friend Tamara! Her brother also came out to visit from Wyoming and her mom Ida and I drove to her house together. Her brother's dad was also there briefly. Tamara's husband was gone for the weekend at his grandfather's expected funeral.
We went to the Visionary Art Musuem in Baltimore! This museum is a place of fantastic creations. I was deeply inspired by the revolutionary, funky, homegrown, spunky, folky attitude of the art inside. Get an impression of it at their website! Click http://www.avam.org/
A piece by Howard Finster, honoring Francis Scott Key.
Tamara wearing a shirt I bought for her from Guilin Lu in Chang Chun and looking at quilt squares with unexpected images. Example below. ;-)
Funky wonderful decoration on the outside of the building.
A very large pedal bike with a gaint poodle on top named FiFi. The poodle is made of tutu chiffon.
There was a room of Chinese paper cuts!!
Tamara standing outside the museum. She looks like a piece of visionary art herself.
Here I am in the bathroom. I liked the red doors.
And now Tamara's home and town....
Ida, her ex-husband and friend Ted (Scott's father), Tamara, and Scott.
Tamara's arresting living room wall. (!!!)
Ted went in there to buy cigars and old cigar boxes for his art supplies. We stayed outside and had a photo shoot with the indian.
The living room again. So electric.
Tamara's persona has an international flavor. I think.
Tamara's dog, a puppy boston terrier named Cash after the great Johnny.
I leave you with a quotation from the wall of the museum. And a picture of me with my favorite art tool and machine below. LoVe.
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August 22, 2006
bye bye Sienna, Kyrie, and Lowen
I feel so lost and scared and strange without you all! (Sike, just wanted to upload this very yellow picture.)
Sienna and Kyrie left for college! Lowen drove them down in his van and he'll live right near them in Chattanooga for his girlfriend, Liz Anne, who's also a student at the same school. Sienna and Kyrie are both freshman, and they even get to be room mates. Isn't that sweet? I'm actually going to visit them the day after tomorrow because I'm in my cousin's wedding in Chattanooga! I'll get to see their cool space and revisit my dear old school.
Kyrie contemplates her luggage.
Last moments of togetherness in the Howard front lawn...
saying goodbye...
gONE! (This picture is so boring, but it makes me laugh really hard, and I know my sisters will agree.)
Now it's my parents, Chalice, Pax, and I here on Talbot Avenue for the year, and I've got my vERy own room! Kyrie's old room is all mine now....my adorable little haven of good music, comfy bed, photos of friends, art, hello kitty things, and other self-expressions. I love my space. I'll post a shot of it when I'm finished decorating. Gonna keep it simple though.
Posted by Brae at 06:42 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 21, 2006
Beautiful Chinese people
Check out my flickr site for a bunch of new shots I just uploaded from when I was in China. These shots are taken with film, but I digitally photographed them.
Please enjoy.
Here's Sea, my student and rollerskating buddy. Except he was a roller blader. Hey Sea, if you see this send me an email! Ivy and Edan, can you tell me Sea's email?
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August 18, 2006
Introducing Kate
Yesterday I drove to Annapolis after I got off work to visit my friend Kate Webber. She is living in Severna Park this summer nannying for a family and living with her college friend's family.
Her and my family have been friends for many years. I don't even remember how we met.
She is 20 years old and in her 3rd year of college at the Unversity of Deleware studying fashion design. She is a talented little thing. She is also a commited beleiver in Jesus.
The last time I saw her was in Hong Kong! She took a one month fashion tour of China while I was living there and we got to hook up.
(Here are our feet. We are in a thrift shop.)
Yesterday evening we drove around town taking pictures of eachother. Here are a few of them...
Always more at www.flickr.com/photos/braehoward
byebye.
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August 15, 2006
Japan calls my name
Lately I'm compelled more than ever to live in Japan. I must go there. My digestive system would thrive off their fresh and raw foods and my eyes would thrive off their cuteness, just like in China. These are some wonderful postcards I bought at a cute gift shop in my town.
Enjoy their colorful, quirky graphic quality. I do immensely.
I think I will go when I'm 23 or 24. Hope I don't have to teach English, but I'll do whatever it takes. I think I'll be there this January for a few weeks, but I want to stay longer than that in the future because knowing the Japanese people is more important to me than seeing them.
p.s. If you want to see more Asian cuteness, check out femmetopia.blogspot.com
Posted by Brae at 10:58 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 13, 2006
Escape
I want to do an art project of photos of people jumping fences! I love what it symbolizes...freedom, rebellion, escape, spontaneity, fun.
If you want, photograph someone hopping a fence and send it to me! Students, I would especcially lOVE to have one of a Chinese person hopping the Hua Qiao fence.
My email is braebrae@gmail.com
My friend Rene took this one of me in Ocean City the other weekend.
LoVe, Brae
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August 12, 2006
run run run
Just got a new little digital camera. I'm sooo excited. But I thought I would be more artistic than this...I'm going crazy with insane ideas like the ones below. Tonight I photographed my mom and her 50 year old friends acting like Charlie's Angel's at Wal-Mart.
Oh Sheesh. We're cool.
Sienna and I decided to do some night running last night.....
Then we looked at these pictures and we laughed so hard we couldn't stand up.
Dang, I know they're not going to be as funny as they were to us to anyone else. So this post is for my sisters.
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August 11, 2006
Smile Happy Land!
Check out shopkawaii.com! It's filled with ridiculously adorable, inexpensive, non-sensical sweet nothings...stationary, stickers, and other cheerful paper products. I think all of it is Japanese. I need to get myself to that country as soon as possible.
Here are some of my favorite bits of non-sensical sweetness.
Donuts, fast food burgers, and milk: 3 things I secretly enjoy but cannot digest.
This cuteness is killing me. I'm so in love with Asia.
But then along with the sweety cuteness, there is always a provacative mixture of morose or disturbing matter. For example, my students were big into Emily Strange, a gothic cartoon character who is always angry. I also remember my students wearing Gloomy Bear sweatshirts. I loved discovering the stories behind the cartoon characters when I was in China. Check out the story behind Gloomy Bear! (aahhhhhhhh!!!!???)
This is the story of a little boy and an abandoned
pink little bear cub. The little boy brought home the pink bear cub
and raised it. But the cute little cub grew up, became Gloomy Bear and
bear attacks became more and more gruelsome as time goes on. The
morale of the story? You can take the bear out of the woods, but you
can't take the Gloomy out of the Bear.
Dang, that's a bit biblical, is it not?
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August 10, 2006
pink necklace and Buddy Holly
Nice photo Sienna!
Thanks for the necklace, Tamara.
Last night my grandparents took Sienna, Lowen, my cousin Vernon, his wife Emily, my uncle, and me to a musical about Buddy Holly.
Yo, Buddy Holly is so cool. I'd forgotten. Lowen and I actually used to listen to a tape of his greatest hits when we were about 7, so every song was part of the fabric of my identity or something....the way stuff stays with you when you're exposed to it at a young age.
Students, if you want to, you should download some of his songs. I like "That'll be the Day", "Peggy Sue", and "Maybe Baby."
This is Buddy Holly, the originator of nerdy-chic. He made dark rimmed glasses the bomb diggity. Students, 'the bomb diggity' means 'cool.' Of course, Korea and Japan and China know very well about the coolness of dark rimmed glasses. I wonder how or why they know. Any ideas, students?
Here is Buddy Holly with his famous band, The Crickets. However, they weren't as famous as the band that named themselves after them. Can you guess which one it was?
Yup, it was the Beatles.
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August 09, 2006
Better late than never
Here's what I did on my birthday. It's such old news now, but I'm finally able to upload photos again, so I think it's better late than never. I wrote this on my birthday night.
Here are my siblings and dad (without little Pax and my momma) in front of a thrift store. We went out for breakfast at a sweet local place and then the bunch of us went thrift shopping next door. Found way too much cool stuff.
At last, I could not rollerskate on my birthday. The closest rink seems to be an hour and a half away in Baltimore! And my best friend had already traveled 2 hours to see me. So sad that this beautiful and funky pastime is becoming (has become) obsolete. I'll take my sisters another night though, and put pictures up so that you can see them, Edan and Ivy.
I had a lovely day anyway.
Started out with thougtful gifts from my father. He gave me this tank top that he made himself! But what's cooler...he got the idea from an Emily Strange tshirt. I adore emily strange, and I love the message of this t-shirt because it related to being born (my birthday!), it's biblical, and it sounds real cool.
Here's my daddy's creative handiwork.....
My father is my creative inspiration. I shouldn't get any credit for any of my ideas...I have them because I came from him!
I spent the rest of the day with my best friend Tamara. I've known her my whole life and my mom and has known her mom Ida for 25 years. Ida is a good friend of mine also, and I used to live with her last summer. We went out to dinner at a local seafood restaurant right on the river. I ordered a crab cake...one of my favorite hometown specialties. yum yum.
My mom and Ida....
and Tamara and me....
Do we look like our mothers?
I've been away from Tamara for a year, and yet a common phenomenon still occurs between us. We match without planning to. We both wore pleated black tank tops and funky necklaces. Purely coincidental. It astounds me every time. An even freakier detail: I bought my necklace in China. She bought hers from a Chinese person in America. That's the truth.
Here's a boat that passed by the restaurant while we were eating.
We went back to Ida's house after dinner to eat some frozen wedding cake from Tamara's wedding last year. It was delicious. Isn't that scary that you can freeze wedding cake and eat it a year later? I didn't realize that was possible.
Tamara is my lifelong buddy and my fashion ispiration...look at her get-up for my birthday....
She got the skirt when we were thrift shopping together a few weeks ago for $1. That's how we do it. Work it cheap, baby.
I had a lovely, meaningful day. Everyone I celebrated with I've known since before I could speak or walk.
One more picture...Here's my youngest sister Chalice and I in front of church the day after my birthday. I'm wearing one of Tamara's gifts. Look at that crazy necklace! I love it. All the babies at church did too. They were mesmerized by it and they all would reach for it.
Love,
Brae
Posted by Brae at 12:18 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
August 08, 2006
I don't understand
I've been trying to post my own photos for a long time and it hasn't worked. So I try a random image from the internet. It works. I must work harder and get my own shots to work.
Anyway, the picture is from postsecret.blogspot.com, which I posted about before. Check it out again! It's provacative.
Posted by Brae at 12:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
my future life & my last night
Sheesh.
My blog has decided not to let me upload photos. I've been trying for more than a week and it hasn't worked. I have an entry about my birthday with about 5 pictures ready. Until I fix this, some words of mine will have to suffice.
My Future Life (this is for you, Grace.)
My plans for the future feel pleasantly certain and exciting to me. I plan to be a successful artist and things seem to be working out so far. (I will tell you when I crash and burn...haha) I'm working for a photographer in Easton (20 minutes away) who shoots for American Baby and Parenting magazines. I'm her assistant and I'm helping her create photo shoots and I'll be doing computer work for her 3 days a week soon. My job entails setting up and taking down backdrops, lighting, and helping with finding appropriate clothes for the children in the shoots. Soon Linda and I will be photographing little boys at a big tire junk yard. The little boys should look like little mechanics and workers. It'll be real cute. I found antique carpenter aprons at an Antique store (antique are old things that modern people think are beautiful or interesting) in little boy sizes! Linda was very proud of me.
So far, assisting has been very fun and non-monotounous. I do everything from picking up stuff at Wal-Mart that she needs for a shoot, to mailing copies of the magazines to her models, to calling Apple to order new parts for her computer, to ironing clothes for the children.
She tells me the magazines give her fewer assignments in the summer than the school year, so work should pick up in September. She goes to New York City sometimes throughout the school year for studio photo shoots and she's going to take me with her for a shoot in September! I'll get to observe and learn from the more experienced assistants then. I can't wait.
I will be living at home, cooking healthy food for my father and spending time with my littlest sister Chalice (she's 16) and my youngest brother Pax (he's 10). I'll have my own room because Sienna and Kyrie are going to Covenant College. Lowen is also leaving. He's moving to Chattanooga right near their college because his girlfriend is a student there. There are 8 people in the house now. Soon there will be 5, and I will be able to unpack and breathe better. There's alot of fun and alot of stress in this home of intense personalities.
My Last Night
I wish you could have been there! I spoke to the people in my church during the evening service all about my year in China. I created a slide show presentation much like Sienna's that she showed all of you about her time in Africa, and I spoke for 15 minutes. My slide show was set to a Sigur Ros song (they are an Icelandic band that would greatly appeal to the Chinese musical taste, I think), and the theme song from the broadway musical RENT. This song is called "Seasons of Love" and it's about measuring all 525,600 minutes of a year in love. I thought I would be nervous when I gave my speech, but I wasn't at all. In fact, I spoke with my teacher personality, so I was very bubbly, laughing alot, and quite comfortable.
I explained why I wanted to go to China, the logistics of my year (where I was living and teaching, what a day in my life looked like), what my ministry looked like, and what I learned from the Chinese. My favorite part was talking about what I learned, and I told them that I learned way too much to be able to tell them last night. But I told them 3 things. I will do a blog entry on what I learned for all you, my students. I think I will do it tomorrow.
I will also burn my slide show onto a cd and send it to all of my classes.
Love you all! Pictures coming soon. I promise. For now, you can always check my flickr site. Click www.flickr.com/photos/braehoward
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