spinach

spinach talk, my first grey hair, and some past and future events and projects

I made a poll a bit ago about what to make my next comic about. Without even looking at the results- I internally decided that I would make spinach comic regardless of how everyone voted. But spinach comic actually did win the poll!

Rare full color comic... I color all my comics in greyscale cause it’s way easier and way faster. No fussing over palettes or coloring every piece on different layers (I color all the greyscale comics in one layer lol). The point of making these comics is to get an idea out really fast, not to make a polished finished piece. I don’t think this is a very polished comic either, but it’s a step above the usual. I actually think the original thumbnails I drew for this one were more charming. A common “problem” I run into with my boards, even! Many such cases…

Shoutout again to Antoine for teaching me this extremely useful life hack. I mentioned to a bunch of people that I would make a spinach comic soon, and everyone was like “ugh I hate how tedious it can be, I hate having to put the spinach in an ice bath!” and I’m like bro I just throw cold water on and I don’t even boil it on a stove top. Granted, I’m not sure if pouring cold water on the hot spinach is AS effective as immediately throwing it into an ice bath, but it works enough for me! Also, I know I drew the cold water running from the sink faucet, but I actually pour my cold ass fridge water on the hot spinach via a pitcher cause it’s way colder than my faucet. Do whatever works for you!

Why blanch your spinach? Throwing your spinach in an ice bath right after a quick boil quickly stops the spinach from cooking more. Which keeps it that nice green, stops nutrient loss, and makes it taste better. It makes it less bitter than if you were to keep cooking the spinach down. I’m not sure how long this spinach lasts in the fridge, but I always throw it in an airtight container, labeled with the “made on” date so I remember when I made it and know how many days have passed when I eat it later. And I usually finish it pretty fast since a tub of spinach is not a very large serving in actuality. So I haven’t noticed it go bad when I make it… if you try this out and let it sit in your fridge for a while, please report back to me! Would love to know when this will start to hurt me. When this will start to hurt… us.

On another note, I think I got my first grey hair recently!

I posted that comic on instagram a week or so ago and so many people relate to the picking habit… it’s been funny walking around and having people come up to me and go “I pick too…” If anyone has any protips on how to quit the habit before I rip a hole into my skull, let me know! Thanks!!

popups? projects? pastries?

Thinking of Her did a final run of the cafe popup to help fundraise for the studio owners’ move! The tattoo studio (and generally the studio we do the popups in) is moving down the street. So, same area, different unit! It’ll be street accessible and have central AC, so it’ll hopefully be an even better experience to come and enjoy our little popups and events. Hoping to do another cafe early next year, and resume the monthly mahjong nights! Stay tuned for more updates on that- and thank you to everyone that came through to support the last cafe! <3

I’ve also been attending other popups and events! At least, I’m trying to since I’m not too busy with my own lately. I finally got to attend Tiffany’s cafe popup: Little Loaf Cafe in early December. This is her second one, and I sadly missed the first one because I crashed out and went off to New York in October. I’m a huge fan of Tiffany’s mochi krunchies, which you can also order directly off her website. But the cafe had so much to offer! I loved the pudding sooo much and the shrimp katsu sando by Sloth and Tortoise was the best I ever had. I’m so excited for whenever the next one will be!! And please go support Tiffany and chef Allen on their other endeavors.

Yamanaka Family Store had a popup collaboration with the stationery store Mt. Fo’rest in Pasadena last month. Mt. Fo’rest is one of my favorite stationery stores in LA, so it wasn’t that hard of a sell to show up… Me and Corey got the mango coconut kakigori + ice cream and it was really nice. I also perused the stationery store for a while and may have gotten a bunch of stickers or something… can’t remember…

Antoine convinced me to attend this community hike hosted by Sama Sama Studios and Shala Social Club. I’m not usually one to attend an event like this. I think I’m too shy, and I’d rather just go hike with a friend or two. I didn’t even finish the hike… I was not warned that we would be hiking uphill from ferndell to the observatory, and my knees kinda gave out at some point. We were SO close to the top, but alas… better to not push myself and end up unable to walk again (this happens to me so often). Would love to attempt this hike again at a later date! I think it would be nice to work up to it. I haven’t been very active this year due to my deteriorating health, but hoping next year will be kinder and I can do stuff again! Also the KACE definitely motivated me to even attempt this, haha.

As for upcoming projects and pastries and whatnot! I’m *currently* working on my holiday cookie boxes to share with my friends. Here’s a sneak peak at what’s in the boxes, but I’ll write more in depth about the cookie boxes in the next newsletter. I’m literally still baking them! I just took a tray of cookies out of the oven like 30 minutes ago. So I’m not ready to share quite yet…

I also finally put my leftover zines/comics from the recent zinefest onto my website! So you can purchase them and I will ship to you. Feel free to ask me to draw in them through the little notes section when you check out. I also reordered some of the old sticker sheets since they’re all sold out, along with a new design that I designed around 2 years ago and forgot to manufacture… those will hopefully come soon! I’m hoping to invest more into my store next year. I kinda let it die a bit this year, but I wanna make stuff! With the rise of ai slop, it’s kind of nice having physical art of any kind. I myself buy a lot of sticker sheets and stationery from other artists, so I hope people will be interested in mine! Or at the very least, I can use my own stuff lol.

Anyway! Hope you all have a good holiday! Stay warm. Stay safe. My health is still HORRIBLE. And I don’t want to prattle on about it, but I will say that my eyes have been red and swollen and itchy for weeks now. But I’m hanging onto the hope that somehow my body will become normal again… but hey, thanks again for being here and see you in the next one! :-)
-nicey

picture of my baking armor instead of a doodle