Shocking Discoveries

We've been in the UK for less than 5 days and I've already made a few shocking discoveries.  First, I was horrified to discover that there are NO electrical outlets in bathrooms here.  Seriously- none.  It's not allowed.  Apparently, they think people will be dropping electrical appliances into tubs full of water left and right.  I'm baffled by this.  We had 220v in Australia and I never heard of any problems with people being electrocuted in their own bathrooms.  I'm going to have to completely re-work my daily routine and find an alternate spot to use the multitude of electrical appliances that keep my hair from looking like John Bon Jovi's (a la 1989).

I don't want to look like this

My second shocking discovery was made this week while shopping for bed linen.  It seems that people here do not commonly use flat sheets.  Instead, it's just the fitted sheet and a duvet cover.  What happens when they get hot at night and want to kick off the duvet?  Isn't that what the top sheet is for?  I've been to several different department stores and I cannot find flat sheets for a "super king" size bed (which is the biggest size here but still smaller than a California King).  This may seem like a minor annoyance but when you think about how much time one spends in bed you can begin to grasp the magnitude of this problem.

My third discovery this week really cannot be described as shocking.  Everyone warned me.  But I was a bit surprised anyway.  Here's the thing:  the weather here sucks.  It's August for goodness sake!  And it's cold and raining and we're wearing jackets.  It feels like a bad February day in Southern California. I think it's going to be a long winter.

Good thing I got me a pair of Hunter wellies!

Now that I think about it, perhaps discovery #2 and #3 are related.  The weather here is so miserable that no one is ever hot at night so why bother with that pesky top sheet anyway?

I think I may be on to something . . .

How Washi Tape Helped Me Move

Hi Friends!  We're here!  Exhausted, a bit grumpy and overwhelmed, but we're here.  We've settled into a lovely hotel on the river Thames for a few days while we wait to move into our rental house.  I have so many things to tell you about and not enough time to even organize my thoughts! 

So I thought I would just share one little tip with you:  Washi Tape.  Have you seen this beautiful stuff?  I first read about it on Design Mom and quickly ordered some on etsy.

Each member of the family was assigned a different color/design of washi tape.  I applied the tape to the spines of our passports.  I can't tell you how much time and frustration this saves us going through security and immigration.  No more flipping through passports trying to figure out whose is whose!  I'm sure there is some law about defacing your US passport, but nobody said a thing about it. And that's the kind of girl I am- breaking the law for the sake of organization.

Then I made luggage tags and color coded those with washi tape, too.  We have 11 identical black suitcases (yes, our garage looks like we bought out a bag shop).  Now I can quickly identify which bag I need to open to get to the snacks/sweaters/toys or whatever it is that someone desperately needs at any given moment.  So much easier than unzipping 11 suitcases looking for the right one.

I'm sure there are 100 other uses for this fun tape.  I'm just glad I got my hands on some before our big move.

What do you think?  How would you use washi tape? 

I still have quite a bit left and I'd love some ideas.