Happy February!
Hi, friends!
I woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow over our neighborhood-- what a great start to the month!
I live on the traditional lands of the Lenape people in what's called Brooklyn, NY, and we just broke our record for the longest period without snow. Not exactly something to celebrate, so I'm grateful to see some snow today, even if it melted with the sun.
January Recap
I had a great January overall! Celebrated Gregorian New Year, finished up my planner and setting goals, celebrated my birthday, Lunar New Year with my partner, and our 13th anniversary together! All in all, a busy, but somehow also very chill month 🥰
Here are some highs and lows from January for me:
✦ High: watching The Last of Us with my partner; we really enjoying having a show like this to savor together, and it makes me so happy to listen to him get excited about the show and to share our thoughts about it overall
✦ Low: I caught some sort of cold and threw out my back halfway through January and still haven't fully recovered 😩 I'm honestly grateful it wasn't COVID, the flu, RSV, bronchitis, pneumonia, or any other nasty beastie, though; I'm high risk for these issues, so it's a relief this time around
✦ High: I accomplished one of my big goals for the quarter by finishing setting up this Patreon! I've even stayed on top of my schedule for it so far despite starting the content to share later than I'd like. I'm hopeful that this will be a good pace for me to continue this year!
✦ Low: dealing with my landlord. We live in... unstable housing, to say the least 😅 My landlord lives above us and has been increasingly becoming an unsafe and very stressful person to be around, and my partner and I have decided that it's time for us to leave as soon as we wrap up some critical health issues and can raise the finances. I'm looking forward to a quieter, safer home, for sure!
✦ High: my favorite memory of January for last! My three friends surprised me with a COVID-safer birthday party the weekend before my birthday! 🥹 We were outdoors, masked, and all tested (we're also all boosted), and we hung out outside with my friend's kiddo who we all absolutely adore and ran around goofing off with her, taking it in turns to nurse our aching backs and lungs 😂 It was such a beautiful and unexpected experience, and I still tear up in happiness thinking about it! 🥲
^Love my 2023 wall calendar from Lianne Pflug! Image description after my signature!
February Plans
I feel like February is when the year is gonna really start to feel like I'm settling into things! I've got all my plans in place, all my new habits tested and set, and my body used to being back in work mode a bit more again.
Here's a little of what I'm hoping to be up to this month:
✦ making hourly comics for the annual Hourly Comics Day on February 1st (already started! 😃)
✦ slowly returning to being active on social media again after being away since 2020
✦ working on a short, multi-page project for my portfolio or perhaps to offer in my shop in May's shop update
✦ reading more comics (if this is you, too, might I recommend the Libby app for borrowing from your local library?)
✦ continuing practicing my new habits and schedule
✦ working here and there on my longer form graphic novel that I shorthand as W+C for now (W+C = Witch and Child)
✦ posting at least one comic review or other blog post on my website
✦ piecing blocks together for my quilt coat, a neglected project that now feels more urgent with the cold returning!
✦ trying to remember to take more photos throughout the month to share with you lovely people! I always forget lol
^A sneak peek at three random, rough panels from the Hourly Comics I've worked on so far today. I'm hoping to have these finished tonight-- or tomorrow at the latest, and you'll be able to see the full version on my portfolio when I do!
Fun Fact: My partner is very adverse to being perceived on the internet by anything other than an avatar, so he has declared his online name to be Corg (short for Corgi, one of the many dog breeds he loves) whenever I share about him online 😂
I'm also looking forward to attending Virtuous Con online for their Black History Month convention later this month! If you haven't checked it out before, I highly recommend it! They have a lot of great people making a lot of cool things in the science fiction, fantasy, and comics industry and sharing their experiences and insights that I've really appreciated when I've attended.
I also deeply appreciate them continuing to make this convention available virtually-- and twice a year! 🌟
Oh! That reminds me-- I watched this really beautiful and moving documentary last month about Alvin Ailey on Hulu, and I really recommend checking it out, especially if you're interested in dance/choreography! I've been trying to make it a point to look for more queer-centric focus when I watch a documentary, and this was a great one.
If you don't have Hulu, it looks like PBS also did a documentary about him, too. They seem to require a donation to access their online content, but it looks like it can be a one-time donation if you can't do a recurring option!
I think that's all for today!
If you enjoyed this newsletter and would like to receive it in your inbox, you can sign up for Into the Bramble or follow me for free or as a Patron on my Patreon! And as always, you can find image descriptions listed after my signature should you need them!
What are you up to this February? Hope you stay cozy! Thanks for reading 💕
With love,
Jessi
Image Description of Calendar: An illustrated calendar hangs on a white wall, showing the February page with a brown squirrel amongst green pine leaves and brown pinecones. The squirrel is labeled as "American Red Squirrel," and the pine is labeled as "White Spruce." Next to the calendar are some wooden crates stacked onto each other to form shelves. There are several clear glass jars on the shelves, some with paint on them are set upside down to prevent dust, and the ones on top are smaller and filled with a variety of paintbrushes, each jar labeled accordingly: gouache and watercolor.
Image Descriptions of Comic:
The three panels are all done in a vibrant pink color that I love and use in my branding a lot. The panels are each square and show very rough pencil stages of the comic.
Panel 1: A square panel divided in half, the top half showing a rough sketch of Jessi blinking in the darkness from under a flower blanket at their phone and saying, "5:23. Why." The bottom half shows a bunch of wavy lines to indicate Jessi going back to sleep (brain waves).
Panel 2: Jessi rubbing testosterone gel onto their shoulders while wearing a glove, looking bleary-eyed and mostly asleep with frazzled hair. There's text that reads, "Wake up routine" in all caps.
Panel 3: Jessi and their partner goofing off with each other by basically doing WWE moves at each other with silly looks on their faces. There's text that reads, "Second wake up routine" in all caps, as well another text that points to Jessi's partner, identifying him by the code name "Corg."