A place where I can share my thoughts and experiments on becoming eco-friendly, entertaining little ones and creating interesting family history projects with you. Enjoy your stay! - Katie
CuriousKatydid
Recent Articles
Recent Eco-Friendly Product Reviews
Typesetting a Book Using Apple Pages
Even though these default word processors seem fairly basic, I’ve found that, at least with Apple Pages, I have everything I need to typeset a book. This means beautifully typeset books can be made by most anyone, not just those who can fork over money for professional word processors!
Creating Your Own Paper Sample Collection
I love printing books at home, but quickly realized that I needed a way to consistently test and compare print results. I couldn’t find anything that fit my needs, so I made my own.
Printing Book Signatures on Epson ET-8550
Digital tools and how-to to print folio, quarto and octavo signatures on an ET-8550.
Help Your Audience Connect with Your Family History Project
You’ve spent countless hours creating your family history project - don’t let it go to waste! Learn how to help your audience quickly connect with the content by creating context.
Experimenting with Cloth Diapering for My 72-Hour Kit
I wanted to know if cloth diapers are a good alternative to regular diapers in a 72-hour kit. It turns out…
Using AI to Generate a Children's Book
I’m no children’s author, so I used AI (ChatGPT and StableDiffusion) to help me write and illustrate an animal themed children’s book.
Introduction to Creating Custom Family History Books At Home
Over the years I’ve learned how to curate, organize, provide context, frame and share my family history in my “mini museums,” books.
Preparing Handwritten Poems for Book Binding
Follow me as I prepare my great-grandfathers 80-year-old poems for binding. In this article I go through my process for taking inventory, organizing, digitizing and transcribing.
Why Be Eco Friendly
When I decided to be “eco-friendly” I really wanted to make it something I could keep doing even with a busy schedule. This covers how I’ve decided to make this possible.
Build Your Own Sensory Bins
Create farm, safari, forest and dinosaur themed sensory bins for your little one! Includes a shopping list with prices and links, directions and images.
Kids Learning Activities by Age
I’ve spent a lot of time researching activities to do with my little ones. These are the ones that I think are worthwhile.
Eco-Friendly Hand Soap
Blueland foaming hand soap is the perfect low-waste, easy-to-use hand soap.
Eco-Friendly Toilet Paper
Plant Paper comes out on top when compared to CloudPaper and REEL.
Tissues
STATUS: Still looking. I don’t typically have tissues on hand, but recently had guests who do frequently use tissues, so I bought some to test out on them. Other Eco-Friendly Tissues I’ve tried Cloudpaper Were the only ones I could find. Guests said it was scratchy and felt like it was tearing up their noses. Disposal method. Packaging.