A Halewood hairdresser has taken some time out of her busiest time of year to turn her property into a magical gingerbread house, using donations and scraps to create the festive display.
Adele Best, 38, has gained thousands of followers on Instagram by transforming her ex-council house with DIY projects .
The list of things she's created is endless; she's made her own curtains, built and upholstered a king size bed, made a table from an old sleeper in the garden, installed coving and even laid her own panelling on the walls.
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For Christmas, Adele told the ECHO she wanted "to do something fun" and the outcome is a magical gingerbread house, complete with fake snow, huge lollipops and candy canes.
She added: "I've had the idea going around my head for a few years actually, but then didn’t have the time - it’s my busiest time of the year as a hairdresser."
Adele made the display from scratch "to give it more of an authentic feel". She added: "The ginger bread man and woman were my favourite to do. These where made out of polystyrene and so cheap. I think they cost about £20 to do them both."
She also relied on donations for the jaw-dropping end result. Adele said: "My mum's neighbour gave me a load of old plant pots that I spray painted. My brothers gave me a few cans of expanding foam, which I used as the fake icing."
"I spray painted old food prep boxes to look like sweets. Cut conifers out of my friends garden. Nothing was really planned, I just used what I had. I literally raided all family members vans, lofts and gardens for anything they didn’t want and anything I could make things with, just to keep the cost down really as well.
"With everything that's going on at the minute with cost of living I didn’t want to be spending hundreds of pounds just on Christmas decorations when there’s people struggling to heat their homes and eat. I would rather give the money to the local food bank."
Overall, Adele said she "probably spent about £86".
Living by a school, the house has gained a lot of attention, with children stopping and getting pictures.
Adele added: "The neighbours all know what I’m like and some have even stopped and said they'd been wondering what I'm up to and why there’s been no decorations - I was late this year but I think it was worth the wait.
"One of my neighbours even joined in. He runs a mascot company called MTL Mascots and could see me taking pictures for my Instagram, so they came over with ginger bread man for a few pictures."
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