Have you ever found something whilst thrifting, and you just cannot get over it, to the point that others are probably sick of hearing you mention it? I found a holy grail Christmas pick a few weeks ago- the most beautiful vintage Santa blow mould, and man, was it a rollercoaster of emotion.
Now if you’re in the states you’re going to be thinking, “seriously, a blow mould?” but here in the UK, finding one in a charity store, is just unheard of, these are not something we really have here in the UK in general, so I was SO excited to find this. However, he nearly wasn’t ours at all, and just even thinking about this gives me anxiety! He was on the counter in a charity store, and when we asked if he was for sale, they said sorry no, he doesn’t have a plug, which means he cannot be PAT tested, and here in the UK all electrical items in charity stores have to be tested before they can go on sale, and because this had had the plug cut off, they couldn’t test it. I was just in utter panic, I was so close to owning him but yet so far. We hung around for quite a while, knowing we didn’t want to leave without him. We managed to spot the manager and asked about Santa, pleading with him to let us have him, telling him we only want him for display, we wont use him for electrical. But of course the manager said he couldn’t sell it because it had a wire, so we told him to cut the wire completely off and we’d take him then…and this worked! The manager cut the wire off and said we could have him for £3, I was SO EXCITED! I didn’t care if he never lit up, I just wanted him so much!
When we got him home, we removed the part that holds the bulb at the back, meaning he’s now not waterproof for outside, so even if we did want to add a new wire, we couldn’t, but, to be honest, I love him so much I don’t want him to be outside. I did thought still want to see him light up, so I got some of the small plastic hooks with the sticky on the back and managed to squeeze my arm in the hole at the back and hook fairy lights inside of Santa, meaning the light didn’t just gather at the bottom, but spread all the way to the top, and he looks beautiful. We will be hopefully moving into our forever home, in the new year, so this year Santa has had to stay in my Mum’s kitchen, but I LOVE how he looks inside, I didn’t imagine he could ever look this cute inside, or even fit in so easily, being quite a bulky item in a smaller house, but he does, and he looks perfect.
I am so happy that we got him, and every night I switch him on, it puts a smile on my face.
This was my little Christmas haul for that day, I also picked up this small tree, which will be great for next year. Even though we won’t be in our house for christmas, we have been picking up so many christmas bits from the charity stores for next year, including our main 8ft tree! It’s such an amazing way to save money, help charities and help the planet too. The majority of our house will be all thrift finds, and I am so excited for when I can start sharing the journey with you
Have you ever found something in the charity or thrift store you never dreamed of finding, something that may seem like tat to others, but is everything you ever wanted?
Much Love
Natasha x
