Two different recently-married readers contacted me this week about dryers.  (Hi Lindsey and Michelle!)

1. Michelle wants to know if she should get a washer and dryer, and
2. Lindsey bought a washer and no dryer at the beginning of the summer.  Now her clothes feel crunchy, and it’s making her crazy!

What do you think?  Does a person need a dryer?  Does that crunch bother you?  I thought we could brainstorm a little and come up with some solutions for these girls.  And while we’re at it, there’s a third thought that’s come up in the comments sometimes.

3. Does your line-dryed laundry every smell moldy?

Stretch those typing fingers, ladies and gents.  Let’s tackle these drying dilemmas!

• When do you need a dryer?

We have some friends in Hamburg, Germany.  It is so rainy, overcast, and humid there that their car actually has moss growing on it.  You walk around the neighborhoods, and you can tell who has a garage or comes from another part of Germany based on the roof of the car.  In Hamburg, Germany,  you need a dryer.

I suspect there are plenty of other situations where you might need a dryer.

But I’d rather not buy one.  I’d save the money to visit a cute little family in Berlin.  (I hear they know of some awesome basil + tomato pizza places…)  Or I’d use the money to invest in a higher quality top-loading washing machine like Miele or Bausch that could last for 20+ years, save energy, use less water, and make my whites WHITE, not dingy-white.

Buy a drying rack or line for indoors or outdoors, and see what you think.  You don’t have to commit to anything.  It’s just so much easier to start without a dryer than to start off with one and decide you don’t want it.

What do you think?

What would you tell Michelle?

• What do you do about the crunch in your air-dryed clothes?

Confession: line drying clothes takes more time.  In Europe where line drying is prevalent, everyone I know also wears the same clothes longer.  They just don’t do laundry as often as Americans.  (Remember my classmates in German class in Berlin?)  Clothes are only crunchy at first.  If you wear them 2-3 times before washing, that’s a little less crunch in your week.

Sun and breeze help a lot.

I think I’ve heard vinegar in the washer helps.  (anyone know?)

I think it’s just something you get used to.  It was weird to use my first line-dryed towels.  Now I don’t even think about it.

Can you offer Lindsey any advice on coping with the sandpaper feel some line-dryed clothes get?

• Does your line-dryed laundry every smell moldy?

In the middle of January in Berlin, we had no sun and everything was cold, humid, and gloomy.

We had a problem with stinky towels and jeans.

They were not drying fast enough.  We put our drying rack by the heater.  We aired them outside.  And if we would have had sun, we would have put them right in it (the best solution of all).  Yes it was a pain.  I guess we all have to weigh the pros and cons.  One month of struggles is worth the savings of not having a dryer in our apartment.  (Where would we even put it?!)

In the Rocky Mountains where it is sunny and where it’s so dry you have to beware of serious lip gloss addictions, we have no problems… except lip gloss addictions.  But no moldy smells here.

What about you?  Can you offer any suggestions on this topic for struggling Making This Home readers?

Oh and just some last food for thought – make sure you’re preventing the moldly smell in your washing machine with this two-second trick.  And here are 4 reasons we love line-drying clothes.

Here’s hoping for a good mid-week (without too much laundry, of course)!  I look forward to your thoughts, as I know these lovely ladies do, too.

We got hooked to pizza in Germany.  Our neighborhood shop is actually run by some Eastern European (maybe Russian?) men.  They used to laugh at my German – not in a mean way.  It was more like, “Yeah, we’ve been there.”  So they’d talk with their hands, and so would I.  Then I’d walk away with an incredible pizza for less than five bucks.

They have a large plastic container with dough in it.  They cut off a piece and roll it out in front of the window looking out on the town.

The best part of their pizza was something I’ve never, ever seen in the US, which is such a shame.  It’s so easy!  After the pizza is cooked, add fresh basil.

Wherever you go in Europe, order basil or tomato and basil pizza.  Skip the meat because trust me – this is the most incredible pizza experience you could have.

We’ve been getting fresh ingredients for pizza at the farmer’s market here in the US a lot lately.  About a month ago, farmers started bringing out their basil.  We’ve been happily eating pizza ever since.

So now that you know the KEY for the top of the pizza, how about some dough?  I use a recipe adapted from How to Cook Everything (the vegetarian version of the book).  We’ll double it when guests come over.  Or we’ll make one recipe, stick half in the fridge, and imagine we’re back in Germany with a fresh pizza any time we want.  Well except I’m the one who has to pull out the dough and roll it out.  No funny Russian guys to gesture with.

Homemade Pizza Dough

1 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
3 cups (about 14 ounces) flour, plus more as needed (I’m experimenting with various flours without problems)
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1 to 1 1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons olive oil

Combine the yeast, flour, and salt in a food processor or bowl.  Slowly add water and oil as you mix.  The mixture should forma  ball that’s slightly sticky to the touch.

Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead for a minute.  Grease a bowl with olive oil and place dough in it.  Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in size (1-2 hours).  Or rise in the fridge overnight.

Split the dough in two.  Roll out, add toppings (but not the basil), and bake at 350-375.  The pizza should be done when the cheese is bubbling and starting to brown.

Add fresh basil, slice, and serve.

Have you ever had fresh basil on your pizza?  Any favorite toppings out there?

These little guys came home with me last week when I went to town for groceries.

They were on clearance at Pier One – I suspect because they are supposed to be salt and pepper shakers.  The holes are so big that I’d call them salt and pepper dumpers.  Which is just perfect.  I needed a little sugar bowl/sugar shaker to keep on hand for tea and quick recipes.  That takes care of one bird.  Any ideas on the other little guy?  He’s just hanging out at my desk for now, enjoying the easy life.

Anyone relate to a need for a sugar container other than the large one used for baking?  What do you use?

And for a quick flashback, here’s our simple trick for storing salts.

Sometimes we just need to sit down and embrace the little details that make life good.  I came up with this idea while biking to the grocery store in Berlin.  There are so many beautiful details that I loved about that weekly trip.  Some of them where the things I saw.  Others were bits I felt in my heart, and I wanted to create a way to record more of those thankful thoughts.

Autumn, the season of thanksgiving, feels like just the time to welcome the newest journal to Gadanke:

{The Little Things}

It’s a list journal of all the little thankful thoughts.  The concept is so simple.  The book is so powerful in the way it moves our hearts.

I like to write in mine each morning when the world is still quiet.  It’s perfect for keeping by the bed or carrying with you while you wait in the car or at the bus stop.  Pour your heart out all at once or celebrate the little bits piece by piece.

Each handmade book has 24 pages of thought-provoking pages of fill-in-the-blank gratitudes printed on 100% recycled paper.  Martin handpicked the new Italian patterned paper of red roses especially for this book, and I just love the feel of the blue bird trellis paper as a cover, wrapping up all of these beautiful thoughts for $9.

Or at least they’ll be $9.  I’m feeling grateful for all of you, which means it’s time to celebrate with a nice discount.  {The Little Things} journal is just $7.75 until next Friday.  That’s one week of sweet savings.

I imagine there is a little pocket in our hearts labeled “all my thanks”.  That’s where this book tucks in perfectly.

Today’s the day!  I’m excited to introduce you to the very first creative talents that are otherwise known as: our first sponsors on Making This Home!  I’ve enjoyed getting to know these inspiring women, and I hope you do, too.  (If you are interested in becoming a sponsor yourself, I’d love to welcome you.  Please visit this page for more information.)

Now are you ready for some beautiful inspiration?  Let’s go…

Our first sponsor is Robin Norgren, an American artist over at Well of Creations.  Her family just spent 6 months in Germany while her husband was stationed there with the Navy. She told me, “We lived in an 800 square foot basement while we were there and my daughter and I had to learn very quickly to adapt to a new place which included the shock of moving from sunny Arizona into the dead of winter. Needless to say, color and economy of size were KEY when is came to brightening our home.”  Swing by her blog or twitter to get the latest on Robin’s bright and beautiful work and expat discoveries, too.

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Joyefulart is an eclectic shop full of artistic surprises by Joye, an artist of over 20 years.  These paintings, colors, and creative flair have inspired Joye to develop all sorts of beautiful things: an upcoming jewelry line, limited edition giclee prints of paintings and photos, award winning vegetarian recipes soon to be compiled into a vegetarian comfort food cookbook, and fabric art one of a kind creations. This month Joye is featuring a giclee of an oil seascape called “Sailing Home”.  It’s painted from a photograph of a Jersey Shore scene after a hurricane – quite relevant to today’s happenings of Hurricane Earl.  Visit Joye’s beautiful, beautiful online art gallery and catch her on twitter.

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The Borrowed Abode is the story and blog of a not-so-plain girl named Jane, her boyfriend, and their two cats and two dogs.  They’re incredibly busy making their rented house a personalized home. Whether Jane’s busy creating landlord-friendly décor solutions, organizing a closet, refashioning old clothes, or building her own furniture, I think she’s having a blast sharing her adventures in DIYing. And she’s doing it all while trying to make the world a better place, through simplifying, upcycling, and shopping for fair trade goods.  Check out her bedroom progress and her friendly tweets.

I’m here to report:  my third decluttering project in our challenge was a huge success!

#1 - Papers are under control at our house.  I’ll be back to report on #2 next week.  For now, it’s time to celebrate.  Did you get your three projects finished?  It’s a busy time of year.  Doesn’t it feel good to have some of that disorganization under a bit of control?

The third item on my list was a bit tricky.  Fabric is pretty pricy in Germany (think 30 bucks/yard!), so I try to buy fabric at locally owned shops in the US or at traveling fabric markets in Berlin.

I only planned on taking maybe 8 yards of fabric to Germany.  My mom had a different idea, I suppose.  We attacked her sewing supplies earlier this summer (more on that later), and lets just say I walked away with far, far more than I ever expected.  Suddenly I had a whole bin full.  (The other bin has batting, scraps, unfinished projects, and some clothes that need repaired – and you know my plans for half-finished projects!)

Chemical smells and I aren’t the best of buds, so I always wash, iron, and fold fabric.  I keep my fabric on a bookshelf in Germany, so having everything look nice (and dare I admit – color coordinated) makes all the difference… ahem – until you run out of room, as I successfully did with the bins.

I really like these large containers of German thread you can get (mine’s from JoAnn’s).  You can see a few colors poke out a little higher than the rest.  That’s because I’ve used those colors and keep the bobbins full of that color of thread right below the spool.  There’s nothing worse than a tangle of bobbins when you sew.

My pincushion was something I made in my Junior Girl Scout troop when I was around 10 years old.

I threw out some scraps, pulled out a few things to donate, put unfinished projects first in my mind, and really got organized.  Now I only wish it were Saturday because I’m ready to sew!

And how about you?  Was your third decluttering project a success?  Have you been onboard all this time with your projects?  Huge cheers all around because guess what, ladies and gents – we may not have done everything we wanted, but we did something.  And you have to start with something.