Ramblings on a really rough month...

April was a really rough month at our house. Our oldest daughter has been struggling with depression for some time now, and in April spent eight days in a psychiatric hospital, followed by three more as a "partial patient" in an attempt to diagnose, treat, and teach her how to better manage the emotions she's dealing with. On top of that, we had three birthdays to celebrate (and Easter, too)! How do you celebrate when your life is in the midst of a storm? Carefully. I'm definitely not an expert at this, but I'm learning to recognize the truly important, and focus on one day at a time (sometimes one minute or hour at a time).
We all deal with life's ups and downs differently. I eat...and craft...and cry (in no particular order). Crafting is one of the few "positive outlets" that I have, so I refuse to let that go completely. A few of the cards I've made recently were for family, so I thought I'd share them here.

The turquoise card uses Stampin' Up!'s "Natural Beauty" set, and I simply watercolored the bird image a bit. The flower strip was made using an EK punch.

The birthday card was made for Brenna's birthday (I still have a hard time believing that she's actually 17!). I used the Vintage Vogue set from Stampin' Up!, along with a Nestabilities die, and some vanilla seam binding. This is one of my personal favorites. :-)