Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my 54th birthday!

I celebrated with my quilt group yesterday. Three of us have March birthdays. Our leader, Diane, made us each a personalized dessert, with coordinating ice cream! Mine is chocolate mint. What a treat! 

Tonight, Steve and I are meeting Trevor (and his roommate, who also has a birthday this week) for dinner. And on Saturday, I'm celebrating with friends... in a very Cindy way. 

On Sunday I will be leading a spring craft after church. We're making decoupage flower bouquets and I can't wait to see how everyone's turns out. I spent time yesterday prepping kits. 

Tomorrow I'll share the tutorial. I think you're going to like this project. 

Paper Quilt Cards

A friend gave me a big pile of 1.5" pre-cut squares of gingham paper in rainbow colors. They looked like tiny quilt squares, so I decided to turn them into cards that our quilting group can use to thank people who donate supplies to us. I started out ambitiously, cutting the squares down into even smaller shapes before gluing them onto a cardstock base. It was fun playing with the itty-bitty squares, rectangles, and triangles. I experimented with different patterns, designs, and color combinations, just like our group does with fabric. I even changed up the dimensions of the cards. Eventually, I realized that I was spending WAY too much time cutting the squares apart when I could make perfectly functional cards using the squares as is. 

Here is a look at some of the cards I made. If you want to see the supplies I used, click the affiliate link below. 

Quilt Square Cards (affiliate link)

All the quilts we make go to people in need and we rely on donations for our supplies. If you're local and have extra fabric, thread, or batting you're not using that you'd like to go to a worthy cause, let me know. We also appreciate sheets (they make good quilt backs). If you're not local, look into whether there is a group near you making quilts for Lutheran World Relief or another charity and consider donating supplies to them. Thank you!

Biodiversity Museum Day 2026

This was my third year attending Biodiversity Museum Day at UC Davis. This free event takes place each February and it is awesome! You can read about all the cool things we did in 2024 and 2025. This year, Steve and I started by strolling through campus and seeing all the plants in bloom. Then we went to Bee Haven for the first time ever, checked out the Village Homes exhibit at the Design Museum, toured the Moo-vin' Moo-seum, and saw our favorite Aggie answering audience questions about Whistler, the Swainson's Hawk, at the California Raptor Center. 

Biodiversity Museum Day (affiliate link)

We had such a good time at Biodiversity Museum Day. It's such a great event, with so much to see and do. I'm already looking forward to next year!

Honoring George

In my post about the weekend trip to Spokane Steve and I took last fall, I mentioned that I'd seen my aunt, uncle, and cousins twice already that year, both times for memorial services in Idaho. My dad's service was in July; in March, we gathered to remember George, my brother-in-law Brian's dad. 

I'm not sure when I met George for the first time; I certainly knew him by the time my sister married Brian in 1996. I usually saw him a few times a year at family gatherings and I always enjoyed chatting with him. I remember George as kind and friendly, quiet, but with a quick sense of humor. 

Honoring George (affiliate link)

While George was not technically related to me, he felt like family. I'm glad I was able to be there for his memorial service. 

Decoupage Tissue Paper Cross

Easter crafts are some of my very favorites. Over the years, I've shared 60+ ideas for crafts related to bunnies, chicks, and eggs, as well as dozens more crafts featuring flowers, butterflies, and rainbows. I've been making an effort over the past few years to add more religious Easter crafts to my blog. Last year's Palm Sunday project and kid-friendly Crown of Thorns were popular; today I'm adding another classic cross to the collection of Easter projects. It's made with tissue paper and Mod Podge. Affiliate links below. 

Decoupage Tissue Paper Cross

Materials:

• Neenah Bristol vellum
• tissue paper (light blue, light green, brown)
• Mod Podge
• decoupage brush
• scissors
• craft glue

Steps: 

Cut a piece of Bristol vellum into a 8.5" square. This will be the background. The 8.5" x 2.5" piece is for the cross. Tear thin strips of light blue and light green tissue paper. Remember - tissue paper has a grain! Cut a piece of brown tissue paper that is slightly larger than the small piece of paper. 

Pour Mod Podge into a cup and dilute it with a small amount of water (approximately 3 parts Mod Podge to 1 part water). Spread a coat of the watered-down Mod Podge onto the smaller paper - you want it to be moist but not puddly. Carefully place the brown tissue paper onto the moist paper. Load the brush with more Mod Podge and paint a coat over the top of the tissue paper. With the brush, smooth any wrinkles as best you can. Set it aside to dry. 

To make the background, work on one area at a time. Add a coat of Mod Podge to the bottom inch of the paper, lay down a strip of light green tissue paper, then paint over that to seal it. Add Mod Podge to the next section of the paper, then add the tissue paper, slightly overlapping the previous piece. Seal it. Repeat until you've covered half of the paper, then switch to light blue tissue paper. When the whole sheet is covered, set it aside to dry.  

Use scissors to trim the excess tissue paper from the background paper. Cut two 1" strips from the brown paper, one longer than the other, to form the cross. Glue the cross to the background.