If you were to look up into the sky just a wee bit, you know what you might spot?

Me!

(hehe)

Martin and I were invited to check out a little flying club outside of Berlin.  These types of groups are pretty common in Germany.  They fly together, eat traditional German food on the air strip together, work on planes, and drink bottles and bottles of beer when it’s all said and done.

It’s quite funny.  It’s also quite exciting.

No one had to tell me to hop in twice!

When you say that you “fly” in Germany, it’s pretty much assumed you are referring to gliders.  These planes have enormous wings.  They’re very light.  And they have no engine.

See what I mean?

Glider flying is really the only way your average guy can afford to fly in Germany.  With auto gas prices coming in at $8/gallon right now (it was less than $4/gallon in the US where we were), I am too scared to even ask Martin what aviation fuel runs in Germany.

Aviation fees are out of this world here, too.  Want to land?  There’s a charge.  Want to call on the radio to tell people you’re going to land?  There’s a charge.

Our plane was attached to a thick cord.  Someone at the little red and white checkered van and the man operating the pulley would be on radios together.  When everything was good to go, the cord would start streaming across the runway, taking the plane with it.

You angle your wings upward, and whooosh.  Up you go.

Disney World’s got nothing on that quick ride up.

These flying clubs are so awesome.  Anyone can join… anyone, of course, who can communicate with the instructor in a quick and cohesive way.

Can you just see me attempting that?!

“Katrin, you’re going to stall the plane!” my instructor will say in a stern voice.

(Remember, no one can actually pronounce/remember “Katie”; I’m Katrin.)

“Stall?  Stall… What does stall mean again?” I’ll be asking.  (You only have seconds to correct some stalls, and I’ll be thinking of vocabulary.  I will not be flying the plane.)  ”Stall?  Stall?  Hmmm.”

**insert his German cuss words here**

So then I will pause, thinking about which WWII movie I heard those sharp German words on.  You know the ones.  The words are so bad they’re not actually translated into anything more than some wild #!(!# symbols.

“Okay, okay.” I’ll tell him.  Sheesh.

A few minutes later…

“So,” I’ll begin.  ”What’s stall mean again?”

“It’s kaput,” he sighs. “We’re going to be kaput.”

I’ll panic.  ”Oh my gosh.  KAPUT!”

We hosted our first “Kaffee und Kuchen” today. Martin biked to the bakery to pick out several cakes (the Kuchen). I opted to make tea instead of coffee (the Kaffee).  Then I made a top secret American addition to our event.

In Germany, “Kaffee und Kuchen” is served at exactly 4:00.  It’s the classic German social hour.  You’ll see signs at cafes that host Kaffee und Kuchen.  You might also get a peek in someone’s window and see a group of gabbers.

Our doorbell rang, and our little party began around our little table.

I ate cake slower than anyone else.  It’s funny because I also talked the least.

As it turns out, I cannot eat neatly, taste, and understand German all at once.

Fortunately, Martin was amazing at keeping teacups filled and cake on plates.  He and I were the only English speakers.

There was a time when meeting with older German speakers around the table would make me feel so alone. I would have absolutely no idea what was going on.  I would want to cry.  I would want to just leave and go read a book.  Disappear.  Each time there was a laugh, I’d feel even more isolated.  My brain felt like someone had placed a big, thick glass between me and everyone else.  I thought that if I could just disappear, I could be happy.

My brain told me that the people around the table did not want me there.  I was convinced.  (And I was soo, soo wrong.)

Those were the days that I wanted to always be comfortable.  I wanted to make sense of everything around me.  I wanted the least amount of change from the American world where I could understand.

Those were horrible demands for a life in a foreign country!  (not to mention foreign in-laws!)

When we’d sit around the table, Martin was really awesome with trying to connect me to everyone else.  I kept thinking, “I will learn German.  I will learn German.”  I guess that my mind was telling me if I spoke the language, everything would be perfect.  Poof.

Those days, I chose based on fear.

Sometimes I still see myself making decisions in Germany based on fear.

But I’ve also learned to follow my heart. To hold bravery.  To be okay with the enormous unknown.  I conquered something big today.  In my heart, I realized it wasn’t so big and fearful as I thought.  It wasn’t the all horrible thing expats so often gasp about.

Yes!  I’m learning to face more fears here.  Seriously, every day comes with new victories.

Sometimes, I wish I could go back in time to those days when I felt so alone at the table.  Ha – I think I’d trick that girl to check out Making This Home.  I’d tell her about this confident expat.  I’d tell her about joy.  I’d tell her that the language isn’t the most important part of connecting with others.  It’s not what your brain says is logical.  It’s all in the heart.  It’s all the kinds of things I get each time I connect with one of YOU.

meeting in person : sweet Juliette of Zu Haus in Germany + me

So readers, thank you.  I know I would never be so brave or so in love with this foreign world if I didn’t have you to share life with.

If there were a way, I’d squeeze all of us into this little apartment.  We could have Kaffee und Kuchen and…. ummm… lemonade!  Oh yes!  Our little party sampled some cool homemade lemonade.  My surprise for our table was a little splash of Americana.  It was my contribution.  It was a piece of me. And the little taste test was a hit.

Hello to a new week!

Our morning started with a visit to the dentist.  After last year’s visit (do you remember that day?  I think I was petrified with fear after that horrible, horrible trauma!), today’s appointment was so simple.  I’ve lived to tell!  And no one told me, “Sorry Katie.  You have two kaputt teeth.”  SHIVER!

Martin was in the room while the dentist examined my teeth.  Then they both headed out while my teeth were cleaned.  The dentist had to get ready for a day of house calls for elderly patients.

Do dentists do that in the US?

I thought it was so awesome!

With extra sore gums, I headed out for a few errands – including getting fresh milk.  I walked to a very small organic grocery store and shot this photo for you:

Do you see the plastic milk bag from the video in my kitchen?  (It’s on the middle shelf on the far left.)  Most milk comes in 1 liter milk cartons.  (Those are all on the bottom of this picture.)

My father-in-law figured the bag packaging was far better for the environment than the waxy paper cartons.  Both are recycled here.  When he poured me a glass of milk from a bag at his apartment last year, I was sold on its taste and support of local farmers.

Just want to make sure I’m clear.  There’s no backspace when you’re talking on a video like there is with a keyboard… and that bagged milk is a local food.  So for all of you in Germany – I’m not sure I’ve seen bagged milk anywhere else.  (wink)

And here’s a photo I snapped of Martin over the weekend.  It’s the shot for the {Love Letter} I’m writing him every month.

So yes!  Here is to a very good week.  Let’s hope it’s one for the journal.

Hi everyone!  I have a little video to share with you.  It’s a peek into our 36 square foot kitchen.  Yahoo!  I hope you like it.  The quick film basically has two parts:

• how building this kitchen inspired me to start blogging and then to create the {Love Where We Live} journal
• peeking at some favorite German foods from our fridge and how they’re packaged (the milk package is really weird, but the milk tastes so good it’s worth it!)

Celebrating Where We Live : Journal Inspiration & German Foods from Gadanke on Vimeo.

I’m such a fan of celebrating where we live.  It’s such a huge part of who we are.

Remember back in the good ol’ days when this was our full-time gig?  (Here’s the play-by-play of our kitchen remodel in 2008.)

pssst… in case you haven’t seen, you can flip through the pages of my {Love Where We Live} journal and a very heartfelt one from Jane over at Gadanke.  I like to flip through them from time to time.  But that’s okay.  I spotted Martin doing the same!

Where do you live?  What do you love about it?

Thank you all for the incredible feedback on Monday’s post, Keeping a Focus When You Blog.  My heart is full!

This month marks TWO YEARS since Martin and I stopped buying new clothes.  Wowzers.  I don’t think we would have survived without my sewing machine.  There has been a lot of hole patching, sock darning, and repurposing.  (In case you’ve missed it, you can catch the whole crazy journey here.)

In the past, my preferred clothes were a little baggy.  It was all about hiding my shape. I did not have the same shape I saw in clothes advertisements or store mannequins.  It made me feel less.

But removing that pressure to be perfect has made me so excited to embrace ME.

That’s why I am soooo excited to introduce you to Suzannah from Adventures in Dressmaking.  She’s put together an awesome little tutorial for us on how to alter a sweater.  It’s still getting a little chilly right now, so this tutorial feels so perfect.

Let us know in the comments if you’re going to give alterations a shot.  Me?  I can’t wait!

Take it away, Suzannah…

Hello, Making This Home readers!  I am Suzannah from Adventures in Dressmaking, a blog about sewing and decorating with a DIY, on-the-cheap, eco-friendly twist.  I am so happy to be part of Katie’s wonderful blog.  I love checking out her posts about and ideas for her (two!) great homes!  I love the eco-friendly ideas she shares to help us all embrace a simpler, healthier, greener lifestyle.

One great thing Katie has done is the No New Clothes Challenge.  If any of you out there have undertaken, or are considering, a similar challenge, I encourage you to pull the ol’ sewing machine out of your closets and make some existing clothes work better for you!

I haven’t taken a No New Clothes Challenge, but I do spend very, very little money on new clothes and almost always shop at Goodwill or creatively on clearance and sale racks.  I love being able to alter things as I need in order to make them fit or look better, or be more like what I want!  You’ll find lots of tutorials on my blog on how to make old tees into something new and cute, how to mend jeans, how to make over an old top… etc.

Here’s a short and simple tutorial on how to take in a sweater so it fits you better and looks great!

So often, you have a cute sweater but it’s shaped like a square instead of a human torso, and unless it’s snug and you’re relying on the knit to hug your curves, it may need a nipping in at the waist.

The problem is that knitting is soft, and thread does not give the way the sweater will, so when you sew on it you create a place that does not move and stretch naturally and it can look very off.  Also unlike taking in a blouse or woven garment, a knit sweater is not attached with thread at all!  There’s no seam allowance, even, so you have to make your own by pressing carefully.

Okay, let’s just go to the tutorial:

• Take your sweater.  This is a cute cardi from the little girl’s section of Old Navy, super clearance, that is shapeless like a kid’s body.  Not flattering.

• There is no true seam allowance, as I mentioned, but turn your sweater inside out and press it as if there were, folding it along the side seam.  You’ll be taking in this seam, so it must be totally flat and symmetrical.  Add some pins to keep it in place.

• Now you can do your seam.  Starting below the armhole (if it’s too big there, there’s not much you can do about it so don’t bother! ;)), slowly taper down toward the part that’s too big.  I started taking in mine just below the bust.

• Stop sewing before the ribbing or whatever hem substitute your sweater has at the bottom begins. That means you’ll  have to taper it back and not take in too much; otherwise you’ll have an odd-looking flip out at the bottom.  The ribbing makes it look smaller than the sweater, but it probably has the same number of stitches, so this technique gives you only a gradual dart to the sweater.

• Turn it right side out and take a look.  Should look pretty much the same at the ribbing.

• Take in the same amount on both sides, of course.
• Try it on.  If that 1/2″-1″ of take-in on each side was enough for you, yay!  Perfect.  But if not (mine was still baggy), read on.
• You can continue your dart seam to the very bottom of the sweater, through the ribbing or hem finish, but you have to make sure you line up the bottom on both sides.  Depending on the cut, it could be longer or shorter in front and this can make the bottom look like a stair step if you sew it closer together and the bottoms don’t match.  But with an even cardigan, you just need to pin carefully to make sure the front or back doesn’t stretch more than the other, keeping both sides together all the way.

• Both sides, baby!  I matched mine up and used a fabric pen to mark where one side’s new seam was, to make both match.
• Try it on again.  Does it fit better now?  Make sure you’ve pressed both sides flat.

• Ta-da!  See the more feminine hint of a waistline?

Thanks for reading!  I’d love to see you over on my blog sometime soon.  Nice sharing with you!

When I started Making This Home, I was an expat blogger.  I was a home remodel blogger.

I did not pause to figure out what direction my blog would take.  What about when we were in the United States?  What about when our remodel was finished?  You can only do so much remodeling to a 480 square foot apartment; I didn’t even think about it.

I just wanted to write.  Swap experiences.  Connect.  Celebrate the moments.

“Your blog,” I’ve heard so many times from other bloggers.  ”It’s a little unfocused.”

The sweet Di (an expat from South Africa) contradicted that and said, “No Katie.  Your blog is Making This Home.  You’re blogging about whatever place “this” is right now in your life.  ”This” doesn’t mean the exact same thing all the time, and that’s actually a really good thing.  For most of us, “this” is always changing somehow, too.”

She said I was genius.

(hehe – that cracks me up just to think about.  I think I spelled genius wrong until I was about 22.)

The truth is that I don’t think Making This Home will ever be more focused.  I’m always challenging myself and – as you know so well – daring you to challenge yourself, too.

The constant in Martin’s and my lives (and I hope this blog) is simply this:  a constant challenge to try new things, a constant challenge to learn, and a constant challenge to be the best people Martin and I can be – for ourselves and for others.

One week ago, we didn’t have a single human neighbor within earshot of our home… make that earshot using a megaphone.

On our last night in the tire house, we woke up a little early when two geese landed on our roof.  They were honking and flopping their big feet on the roof.  It made me laugh and laugh.  Geese feet sure are noisy – who knew?!

Then our second night here in Berlin, our neighbor hosted a party with thumbing techno music and drunk German singing until 5 in the morning.  (Now that did not make me laugh!)  Then another neighbor was vacuuming the entrance to her front door at 9 the next morning.

I’m living in two very different worlds.  It is night in one when it is day in the other.

When I compare my life or Making This Home to other blogs, I think, “Ha!  You’re such a weirdo, Katie. Where’s the uniformity?  Where’s the calendar to keep your topics right in line?”

Yes, this is a giant bike thingy called “A Beer Bike”.  Those aren’t American or German tourists taking a ride, so you know.  It’s noon on Sunday!

Sometimes I ask Martin if I should start blogging about just ONE thing.

You know what he does?  He laughs.

“You’d be soooo bored, Katie!”

A couple of days go by, and I come up with a plan.  ”Maybe I should just call Making This Home a lifestyle blog.”

“Or,” Martin responds.  ”Maybe you shouldn’t worry about any of that.  Just keep doing what you love.  Ultimately, isn’t that what makes you happiest?”

Just keep doing what you love, people!  (I love that!)  Besides, what do you even call our lifestyle?  We haven’t even figured out how to answer that basic question:

“So where do you live?”

Writing Making This Home has made me so much more aware of the beautiful differences in all my experiences in Germany and the United States.  It makes me so much more aware and grateful.

Blogging has actually connected these two different worlds for me.  Old posts give me a chance to refresh myself before each move and share my experiences with family and with you.

You want to know a secret?  I find the most happiness in life when I forget about normal and celebrate who I am and what I have.

If you always focus on being normal, you can’t stretch yourself.  You can’t be yourself.  You can’t become the greatest version of yourself.

So there are home bloggers and minimalist bloggers, food bloggers and fashion bloggers.  Put me down for “follow your heart blogger”.  I think that’s what I’d like to be.

Would you do me a favor?  I’d love to know two things about you, too. (picture those sad deer eyes here!)

1. What draws you to Making This Home?

2. What’s a way that you follow your heart or celebrate you and your world? Obviously, untraditional and not-normal are totally expected and accepted here. I think someone just called us nomads last week… and it wasn’t because of the bikes.