The beginning of devotion

Its official - I’m bad with phones. Last year, I lost/broke three phones and recently, my latest mobile was stolen. Every single time, I’ve thought, ‘what is God trying to tell me?!’



After phone loss number two, I opened one of Crystal Moody’s newsletters on creative habits and came across the quote: “Attention is the beginning of devotion” by Mary Oliver. 

Bam! Could this be my message?  

I want to need it

I do pay a lot of attention to my phone (except when I’m not...and then I’m losing it. Haha). I’m not big on chatting via typed messages (I prefer face-time) but I do love Instagram.

I need it or, as I tell my son when he says he needs something he doesn’t really need, “I want to need it.”

I love taking photos with my phone. It’s almost replaced my camera, which is sad because I have a really awesome camera.

Is it meaningful?

From a creative perspective, maybe I’ve allowed adding an Instagram filter and crop to a quick snap to fill my creative void a little too much.

Of course, it’s fun and creative in its own way, but is the process enriching and meaningful? And could time spent scrolling be better used reading, writing, drawing or just being?  Maybe.

One of my goals this year is to start writing again - for myself and not solely for work. 

So I’m spending a little less time on my phone and writing, in the little insta chunks of time being a working mom allows. It’s a new beginning.

Photo by Linda Xu on Unsplash

Dreaming #PortraitaDaySA Day 12, 13, 14 & 15

For Day 12 of my #PortraitaDaySA project, I did a pencil drawing from a photo I took of a lovely friend of mine. It almost looks like her... almost. 


The hardest part of drawing portraits is achieving a likeness. The second hardest part is finding the time. I like very few of my quick, I-almost-forgot, late night sketches. After the jump, you can see that drawings for Day 13 and 14 were rush jobs. Oh well, even making bad art is good practise. As for day 15, I completely forgot - oops. 

A Baby & Tipex #PortraitaDaySA Day 11

A baby and Tipex (AKA white-out) is never a good combination. However, when the cross-hatched ballpoint pen chin shadows, on a drawing of a baby girl, end up looking like five o'clock shadows, finding Tipex offers some light relief. 


And once there's one white squiggle, I just had to make more. Go figure! 

This is Day 11 of my #PortraitaDaySA project - a pen drawing from a photo I took of a friend's baby. 

I used to think that drawing a baby was harder than drawing an adult. After drawing my youngest nephew and this little darling, I've come to enjoy the challenge of following curved lines of rounded cheeks and pudgy arms. I couldn't ask for sweet subject matter. 

Oh, yes, and I know I'm way behind on the blogging bit of this project. There'll be more soon. In the meantime, check out all the published drawings here

Somewhere In Between #PortraitaDaySA Day 8, 9 & 10

Old family photos can only tell you so much... but, somewhere between the pencil and the page, I think I saw a little more. I'm not sure if it was me in you or you in me.



A Moment of Joy #PortraitaDaySA Day 7

This was a moment of pure joy, captured on camera and now in black ink. I love being the aunt to this little guy.


Oh, and JOY! I'm one week into drawing a portrait a day for the month of April. Click here to see more #PortraitaDaySA pictures.