Review - Rolife Miniature House Kit - Corner Bookstore

I was sent this kit in exchange for a review

I love working on Rolife miniature kits, and when I was given the chance to choose another kit to complete I knew straightaway which one I would like to try. The Corner Bookstore miniature house kit is a tiny bookstore, crammed with books and other knick-knacks along with cosy corners and intriguing little nooks. 

This kit is perfect for book lovers, and just like the Silent Corner Study it's a great model to display on a bookshelf. I really like the muted colours, and I love the piles of books and plants.  

The miniature kit comes with everything that you need for assembly, you just need to add two AAA batteries for the lighting kit. Small strips of double sided tape are provided, but I found that it was helpful to have glue on hand, just to make sure that everything was stuck down firmly enough to withstand slight knocks. 

The Corner Bookstore kit has a difficulty rating of 2 1/2 stars and I assembled it in a few hours over about a week. It's always worth checking the difficulty rating of Rolife kits as they do vary, and this is a medium difficulty kit. There are a lot of tiny wooden and cardboard components to slot together and some gentle force was required to get everything into place, there is also a small amount of measuring and modification of parts.

I felt that this was one of the more open-ended kits that I've worked on - you can move away from the instructions a little and really make it your own by arranging the pieces to suit you. Although there is some plastic in the kit, many of the components are made with more natural materials like wood and paper.

The first step is to lay out all the pieces, but don't remove items from the bags as you will use the bag number to find a piece. If you do this by accident there is a materials list and part guide to identify similar looking pieces.

The instructions are really easy to follow and guide you through the assembly process. Each section has a clearly labelled list of the parts required and step-by-step directions. I found it helpful to set aside an area for components after I had finished them - the box works well for this. I also removed rubbish as I went along to keep my workspace clear.

With these kits I try to make sure that I don't rush, I slow down and enjoy the process of putting them together. It's a very meditative activity, and a wonderful way to switch off as you concentrate on what you are doing.

It's a great moment when you can fix the walls in place and the whole thing begins to take its final shape. I really like the way that this kit fits into a corner, and all the tiny props are really imaginative and full of detail.

As you would expect, even a miniature bookstore is going to be filled with books, and I had a lot of fun making the heaps of tiny books to stock the store. This is just a handful of them! They are made by covering a tiny wooden piece with a printed sticker - these books each measure around 1cm across. There are many familiar titles - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre and The Old Man and the Sea - as well as non-fiction books and a variety of interesting and attractive covers. It seems such a shame that when assembled many of the covers are hidden! 

There is a suggested way to arrange the books, but I found it much easier to just work it out for myself, especially making sure that my favourite books had more prominent positions. But one tip for this kit in particular - take care to keep the different sized books separately as they can appear quite similar.

When the assembly is complete, it's lovely to take a step back and have a proper look at what you've just built - sometimes it's difficult to appreciate the whole when you've been concentrating hard on all the tiny details! I loved assembling the Corner Bookstore kit, and it is a wonderful addition to my miniature house kit collection.

You may like to see my other Rolife Miniature Craft Kit reviews:

Super Creator Kits - Fascinating Bookstore, Lovely Pink Bedroom and Sweet Sips Tea

Cathy's Flower House

Silent Corner Study

Elsa's Tailoring

Gingerbread House

Christmas 3D Frames

Double-sided Impossipuzzle - Golf Balls and Tees - Solving tips

Having enjoyed The World's Most Difficult Jigsaw Puzzle - Kittens edition so much, I enlisted my Mum to help me search for similar puzzles on our charity shop trawls. 

I was delighted when she recently found this one for me - Impossipuzzle - Golf Balls and Tees!

This jigsaw puzzle has 550 pieces. The pieces are large, so when assembled it is almost the same size as a standard 1000 piece puzzle. It's double-sided with a different image on each side - one side has repeating rows of layered golf balls, the other a scattering of different coloured tees. It seemed pretty obvious to me that the golf balls would be the easiest side, so this is where I started.

It was very easy to sort the pieces and assemble the edges, but this is when I got stuck. I just didn't know where to start! I spent several sessions just sitting and staring at the pieces trying to work out a strategy. I was initially thinking that I was going to have to do the whole puzzle just by piece shape.

But then I realised that you can use the shadows on the balls to work out which way many of the pieces should go. There are also white diamonds in the spaces between balls, and these always the same way up. I also noticed that many of the individual pieces had the same design on them, and I think this is the key thing to notice when it comes to solving jigsaws with a repeating pattern.

I began to group together pieces which looked the same, in particular those that formed the bottoms of the golf balls, using the dark shadow at the bottom to help. I was able to match up centre, left and right side pieces to make blocks of three which formed the base of a ball. These could then be linked to form an entire row across the puzzle.

I used the same strategy to add in a few more rows, sorting the pieces by the height of the black shadow on the piece. Each ball fits neatly across three pieces.

Once I had worked out this strategy I was flying! As you can see from the picture above, every remaining piece will attach to a piece of the puzzle that is already in position. It was pretty quick to solve the puzzle from here, using a mixture of shape sorting the pieces and the knowledge of the puzzle that I'd acquired so far.

There were very few false fits, and these were easily checked by flipping the pieces over and checking that they line up on the other side. Because of course the puzzle has another side, which to my eyes looks much more tricky! 

I flipped the puzzle over to take this picture, but I'm not sure I'll be attempting it from scratch any time soon!

There is a repeating pattern, with clumps of tees that are the same colour. But although the pattern is obvious when you see the completed image, it's much more difficult to see when you are looking at the individual pieces. I'll be hanging on to this jigsaw with the intention of giving it a go at some point in the future!

What I've been up to lately - May 2026

It has been ages since I last did one of these posts! 

I've been a bit quiet over here lately, so here's what I've been up to lately: 

Reading

I've been working my way through a very long book over the last few weeks - 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. Strictly speaking it's three books, but it was cheaper to buy them all in one volume. Although large, it's easy to read and there aren't many characters to keep track of. It's an unusual book, vaguely referencing George Orwell's book 1984 and set during a fictionalised version of the year 1984. Narrated by two and then three characters, the plot is surreal and covers a parallel universe, a religious cult and strange beings. It's a good read - and I always enjoy books that are set in Japan!

Watching

We are enjoying the new season of For All Mankind which explores an alternative history where the Soviet Union is the first to land on the moon. It's now on season 5, and with each season covering about a decade we've now reached the 2010s. After losing the space race the US ramped up their space programme with significant investment which means that they are far ahead when it comes to technological innovation. This season takes place mainly on the well established Mars base and while I'm not finding it quite as exciting as the first few seasons it's still very watchable.

We've also just started The Testaments which I think is shaping up really well. I'm enjoying seeing a different perspective on the world of The Handmaid's Tale.

Finally another series that I'm part way through is Twenty Twenty Six, a spoof documentary following the organisation behind the World Cup, and a follow up to Twenty Twelve which was based around the Olympics. It's really funny!

Enjoying

I am really appreciating the glorious weather that we've had lately. I love seeing the garden come to life in spring, and I'm spending as much time as I can either in the garden or admiring it from the house. It makes such a difference to my mood when the sun is shining.

Crafting

I decided that I wanted to get my watercolours out again, and so I decided to attempt a small painting each day in May. Each day I'll fill a page depicting something in my garden. It's early days, but so far so good! I have a tiny sketchbook, about 12cm square, and I work very quickly aiming for just a quick impression - I just do a quick sketch in black pen and then add paint. In no way do I claim to be an artist but I really enjoy working on these little paintings.

I also have some more miniature craft kits to work on which I have been sent to review. I will be sharing those shortly!

Sorting

When my Dad died last year he left behind his life's work - an extensive archive of our family history. It was all filed according to his own personal system, and I took on the job of sorting it all out, choosing what to keep and how to organise it all so that it made sense to me. He also had a lot of things related to local history that it would have been a shame to throw away, so I was really pleased to find a local historian that shared many of his interest and happily accepted some boxes of artefacts and ephemera. It's a relief to have the job done, and I discovered lots of really interesting things that I'll be keeping accessible so that I can look through them from time to time.

Looking forward to

We are having work done on our house at the moment with the replacement of some of the bathrooms. It's something that we've been putting off for years and it will look amazing when it's done, but I'm looking forward to being on my own in the house again!

Not letting comparison be the thief of joy

Recently I wrote about how I had been inspired to craft after spending some time on Instagram. I have my Instagram feed pretty well curated, and I'm regularly greeted with gorgeous finished craft projects and some great mini tutorial videos. 

I've always loved doing patchwork, and I found that I had been presented with a number of videos featuring a patchworking trick that is new to me. The reel below explains it much better than I can - basically you cut out your squares and lay them out on some fusible interfacing, meaning that you can iron them into place before you sew your seams. The edges of the patches should line up perfectly, and it's a really easy way to make beautiful patchwork fabric.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Maggie Eason (@sunshinestitches.bymaggie)

I have lots of odd bits of fabric lying around, and so I decided to try this method out. I didn't really have a finished project in mind, but I thought I'd quite like to have a mat to put on my table for when I have a project on the go, or some drinks and snacks out. I used mainly 2" squares, with a few 2" by 4" rectangles. Here are my squares after they've been ironed to the interfacing.

And here is my finished mat, once the patchwork squares are sewn together and a fabric backing has been added.

It's not that good! I hear you politely protest, but it really is very wonky - some of the squares look more like rectangles, and you can see the white backing around some of the border.

But do you know what, I am really proud of it. I've seen reams of finished projects on Instagram that are absolutely perfect, and mine isn't anywhere near that quality. But I have learned to remind myself that what I'm seeing there are the very best pieces that the maker can produce. They are often made by people that are selling their work, and an Instagram feed is their shop front. They need to show the very best that they can do - and what's more they are showing the final results after many hours of practice.

I expect their first pieces looked a lot like mine!

I'll keep practising here and there, and in the meantime I'll just enjoy what I'm doing.

Consume less to create more?

There is a phrase that I often see shared on social media - create more and consume less. As well as going out and shopping, consuming also means the digital content we absorb, like scrolling social media feeds or binging television shows. It's a great motto to live by, because removing the clutter of consumption leaves your mind free for more worthwhile pastimes like writing, drawing, playing an instrument, gardening or baking.

I don't use social media a great deal, but one channel that I've recently rediscovered is Instagram. I've managed to curate my feed really well and it's filled with lovely scenery, tempting baked goods, pretty interiors and my new downfall which is craft tutorials. 

Recently I posted about how Instagram influenced me to buy a stamp punch and how much fun I was having with it. I'm pleased to say that it has not sat idly on my desk, I've used it almost every day to make little punched stamps from all my junk mail and food packaging. A recent travel brochure led to a page in my journal which I love.

As soon as I showed an interest in short videos of sewing projects I started to see lots of things that I wanted to make. I love the idea of this pen pocket which wraps around a notebook and is used to hold a pen - I have lots of lovely fabric and some basic sewing skills but I knew that I would need a pattern to make it properly. So I bought the pattern from the creator (you can find it here - Pen Pocket Bookmark) and I soon managed to make myself a couple.

I'm so happy with them, and I even managed to make them with the fabric going the right way up! I love making things that are both pretty and practical.

So even though Instagram has led to me consuming - both in buying the physical supplies that I needed for the projects and also the time that I've spent scrolling in order to find them - it has also led to me taking the time to create some lovely things.

And it's not just crafting. I often find myself thinking about the longer articles that I've read online and I've read many things that have spurred me on to learn more about a subject. Things that definitely wouldn't have popped into my head unbidden.

So I find that I need to consume in order to create, and that's something that I'm completely happy with!

What I did while my husband was away

I'm used to my husband being away for work one or two nights a week, but occasionally he goes away for a longer stretch. Recently he was away for over a week, and now that the children don't need my attention quite as much as they used to I enjoyed having some time to myself.

The first thing that I did was to build myself a 'nest'. I set myself up on the sofa in our orangery and I had plenty of space to lay out all my things without being disturbed. There is space to do a jigsaw, keep a pile of books, my cross stitch and my notebooks. Of course I have a lovely warm blanket, cushions, and space for a drink and snacks.

On the screens I had a list of television programmes to work through. My son and I watched the latest season of Percy Jackson, and we also watched the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures that we didn't get around to over Christmas. I had a playlist filled with longer Everest documentaries - my current fascination - and I've also recently been investigating Substack so I had fun setting that up and finding some new writers to subscribe to.

I wanted to make sure that I had plenty of screen free time too. I'm working on a cross stitch which although small is quite complicated, and it's stitched on dark fabric which means that I can only really work on it during the day. It's vaguely Christmas themed, so it would be nice to have it complete ready to display this winter!

I treated myself to a book order from World of Books, delivering me a nice new selection of Everest books. I'm building up quite a collection! Some of them are quite niche, so buying second hand is the cheapest way to get them. I also had a big pile of fiction books borrowed from a friend to add in the mix.

I worked my way to the end of my pile of new and new-to-me jigsaws, and I'm planning on re-doing some of the older ones in my collection before passing them on to new homes. I very rarely want to do a puzzle again, especially when it's so easy and cheap to find new or secondhand jigsaws in charity shops. This large Zodiac puzzle was only £5 new from Hobbycraft, and free to me as I used my Hobbycraft birthday voucher to buy it!

As well as indulging myself in my hobbies, when my husband is away it gives me the chance to clear the decks a bit. I gave his desk a good clean and got all the washing done that he had left lying around. I also saw the chance to work through any food that needed eating up. We spent the week eating leftovers from the freezer - like the roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings from Christmas that I had forgotten about! 

Of course I can and do indulge myself in my hobbies when he is at home, but it is nice to be able to catch up on some of the things that I enjoy doing by myself so we can do things together when he gets back!

Simple Hama bead snowflakes for Christmas

I know it's been ages since I shared a new Hama bead craft on my blog, so this week I've been working on some Hama bead snowflakes! They are a great way to add a bit of homemade craftiness to your Christmas decor.

The designs for these snowflakes are mainly based on the snowflake pattern that I came up with for my Hama bead snowflake bunting many years ago. I used designs which are created on the hexagon shaped pegboard. I also experimented with some smaller designs. The hexagon pegboard works really well as it easily divides into six sections, so you can just start by placing beads in the centre, head out towards the corners, and see what you end up with! 

When it comes to ironing the Hama beads, for this particular craft it is especially important to make sure that you iron the beads until they are well fused, and to iron them on both sides. Even though some areas are only one bead wide, as long as they have been well ironed then they will be sturdy enough to stand up to being used in your Christmas decor.

If you are new to crafting with Hama beads then you might find this post helpful - Ironing tips for Hama beads. 

This craft was a bit of a de-stashing exercise for me - I've been lucky enough to hoover up lots of Hama bead collections from friends and family which has left me with small numbers of beads across a huge range of colours. So I mixed in some of the pale blue, transparent and glitter blue beads to add some interest to my Hama bead snowflake collection!

I don't have a final home for these snowflakes yet, but it would be easy to add some festive cord or ribbon so that they can be used as ornaments on the Christmas tree.

I can also imagine them hanging from lengths of cotton in a window or over an unused fireplace. They could be attached to gifts, or enclosed with Christmas cards.

These Hama bead snowflakes were so fun and simple to make, and I loved coming up with different ways to place the beads in order to create new designs.

If you are looking for more snowflake crafts then you might also enjoy these:

Mini Hama bead snowflake embellishments

Free simple cross stitch snowflake designs

Snowflake cross stitch embroidery frame design

Cross stitch felt snowflake bunting

Lollipop stick and button snowflakes

You can also see some of my favourite Hama bead Christmas crafts.

All my free Christmas themed cross stitch designs

Over the last few years I've shared a few simple cross stitch Christmas themed designs, which can also be used for other pixel crafts like Hama beads or diamond painting. I thought I'd gather them all together in one post, along with links to some of the crafts that I've made using these designs!

Mini Christmas cross stitch motifs

These tiny Christmas cross stitch patterns are very simple and use just a few colours, meaning that they are very quick to stitch up. There are 24 designs which makes them perfect to use for an Advent calendar craft - maybe to decorate the front of small gift bags or as part of a larger cross stitch design. You can see the image below, and this pattern is also available as a .pdf to download - Free Mini Christmas Cross Stitch Designs.

My favourite craft using these designs is my cross stitch gift tags. They are a very sweet way to add a personal touch to your gifts.

I also came up with a red and white Scandi inspired version of these motifs, perfect for any Scandi themed Christmas crafts that you might be working on.

Mini cross stitch snowflake designs

I love these tiny snowflakes which are so quick and easy to sew. They work best for cross stitch as they aren't sturdy enough for Hama beads (if you want to use Hama beads then you can use transparent beads for the gaps as seen here Hama bead snowflake designs). They are perfect for cards, or you could use for gift tags or other Christmas embroidery projects. I used them to make some simple cross stitch snowflake bunting.

I combined some of these snowflakes to make a cross stitch snowflake embroidery hoop design which I really love. I've included the pattern below, or you can also download it as a printable .pdf file here Free Snowflake Embroidery Hoop Pattern.

Simple cross stitch bauble designs

Finally I have some little cross stitch Christmas bauble designs, which also work really well for Hama beads as seen in my Hama bead Christmas baubles. There are two shapes of bauble - a round one and an elongated one, and you can come up with lots of different ways to personalise them.

I hope that these come in handy for some festive crafting!

Some of my favourite Hama bead Christmas crafts

If you've been following my blog for a while, then you'll know how much I love crafting with Hama beads. As the children have grown they haven't been used as they used to be, but I still have a Hama bead cupboard in the kitchen and I have some upcoming Hama crafting plans!  

Until then, I'm sharing some of my older Hama bead posts, all with a Christmas theme, in case you are planning some festive crafting for either children or adults.

I love using Hama beads for Christmas decor, and one of my favourite things to make is Hama bead snowflakes. A long time ago I made some Hama bead snowflake bunting, and I'm currently planning some more crafts using the patterns that I created for that post. I've also created some more intricate Hama bead snowflake designs which use transparent beads to keep the structure of the snowflake intact. I've used them as mini embellishments and also to decorate a glass jar lantern.

I really love this colourful Hama bead fairy light bunting. I used a variety of beads from my stash, including a mix of solid and transparent beads, which really makes the fairy lights seem to glow. The pattern is so simple but I think it's really effective, and the finished pieces could also be used as individual hanging decorations as well as bunting.

For a sweet, personalised Hama bead gift I love these little Hama bead Christmas wreath hanging ornaments, which can also be turned into magnets. You just need to make a simple circular frame using a random selection of beads in different shades of green, add a ribbon, and find an image for the centre. I used offcuts from old Christmas cards, or you can also insert a photograph of a loved one.

Another type of ornament are these simple Hama bead bauble tree decorations. I made them with a specially shaped piece at the top which can be used to showcase some festive Christmas ribbon in a large, decorative bow. In the post I have shared the designs for two different shaped baubles.

One of my free Christmas patterns is this collection of mini Christmas themed Hama bead designs which can also be used for other pixel art crafts like cross stitch or diamond painting. I used them to make some tiny embellishments using mini Hama beads which can be used to make pin badges or as decorations for homemade Christmas cards.

I've also shared another take on the Hama bead baubles by using a palette of red and white and some different motifs to create Scandi themed Hama bead baubles. You can find the patterns in the post, and I love how customisable they are. You can make them in any colour you choose to match your decor!

These baubles even went on to inspire a selection of different Scandi themed Hama bead crafts. 

Finally, something from deep in the archives of this blog - my Hama bead Gingerbread House! This project uses the Hama bead house pegboard which is one of my favourite larger boards. You can customise it in so many different ways! This Christmas I definitely need to work on an updated version.

If you would like some more Christmas themed Hama bead craft projects then you may like these older round up posts:

Hama bead Christmas crafts and projects - a selection of festive craft projects using Hama beads for both children and adults.

Hama bead Christmas crafts for adults - more Hama bead festive crafts, but these are particularly aimed at adults with more emphasis given to working with the fiddly mini Hama beads and creating functional and decorative items.

Finally, if you are new to crafting with Hama beads then you might find this post useful - Ironing tips for Hama beads.

A curated selection of Christmas themed jigsaw puzzles, with a literary twist

This post contains Amazon affiliate links

Two of my favourite things in life are jigsaw puzzles and books, and when Christmas is approaching I love to sit myself down in the living room with a hot drink, surrounded by festive decorations, and work on a Christmas themed jigsaw puzzle. Today I'm sharing my current wish list of Christmas jigsaws, and all of these puzzles have a literary theme, featuring Christmas related books, festive bookshelves, and cosy surroundings.

All of these jigsaw puzzles are from top brands which I trust to give a good puzzling experience (which can sometimes take a bit of hunting!)

First are two 1000 piece puzzles from Ravensburger. 

The first is called Home For Christmas (affiliate link) and the image shows a woman sitting in a comfy armchair knitting a long stripy scarf, in a very cosy living room scene framed with bookshelves. Maybe books aren't the focus of the image, but I love how they frame the picture and the whole thing makes me feel all warm and happy inside! 

The second is a puzzle that I received to review a few years ago and I still love - The Christmas Library (affiliate link). This image depicts a bookshelf filled with Christmas classics, like The Nutcracker, A Christmas Carol and The Night Before Christmas, alongside a range of different festive titles which all have beautifully illustrated covers. Because the covers of the books are quite large and distinctive it's not too difficult to sort out the individual books, and I love all the little Christmas accessories hidden on the shelves. It makes me wish that I owned some of these books!

Next, instead of shelves of books, A Book Lover's Christmas (affiliate link) features snowy, winter scenes from books, poetry, short stories and fairy tales. The 1000 piece puzzle is packed with tiny details, and although the image appears simple at first there is a lot to spot. I love the illustrated style of the image, and the puzzle comes with a poster detailing the scenes that you can find in the puzzle, where they come from, and background information about them. 

Season's Readings (affiliate link) from Galison is a 500 piece puzzle with a Christmas scene set inside a bookshop. There's a sweet cat sleeping on the cosy sofa, a gorgeous tree hung with decorations, a broad table filled with festive treats and of course shelves of books. It's another lovely scene that I would like to step inside, and being a little smaller at 500 pieces the jigsaw could easily be completed in an evening or two. 

Another puzzle which would be quick and satisfying to complete is Festive Curiosities (affiliate link), a 200 piece puzzle from Ridley's. I can see this one being a simpler puzzle that you could bring out for the family to work on together, especially if you have younger children. It comes in cute tube packaging and features a lovely bookshelf filled with books, alongside Christmas decorations like a gingerbread house and nutcracker.

Finally, A Christmas Carol (affiliate link) is a double sided jigsaw puzzle which gives you double the puzzling experience. One side features the cover to the classic book, and the reverse is an extract from inside. The clever box is designed to look like a book sitting on your shelf, and I think this would make the perfect Christmas gift for a jigsaw puzzle lover.

I hope that you enjoyed my curated selection of Christmas themed jigsaw puzzles, and if you love a puzzle at Christmas, happy festive puzzling!

Review - Miniature Gingerbread House craft kit from Rolife

I received this kit in exchange for a review

Last week I shared some gorgeous Christmas themed miniature craft kits from Rolife, and today I'm featuring another miniature craft kit from the Christmas collection, the Gingerbread House. 

With this kit you can assemble a Gingerbread House bakery, filled with festive treats that include gingerbread men, candy canes, cocoa and chocolate boxes. It's a 3 star kit which means that it isn't too difficult, but it will take a little more time than the basic kits. Suggested assembly time is around six hours, and I would say that is about right.

The kit contains everything that you need apart from two AAA batteries for the lighting kit, however I did find it useful to have some glue on hand just to make sure that everything is firmly stuck together. Inside the kit you will find plain and coloured wooden boards with snap out pieces, paper cuts and stickers, tiny plastic components, a lighting kit, screwdriver, tweezers, double sided adhesive strips and of course full instructions.

I have to say that I really loved assembling this kit, and I think that it may be my favourite Rolife kit so far. I really enjoyed the festive vibes, and all of the miniature components were really sweet.

One thing that I particularly enjoyed about this kit was that I felt the assembly order worked really well. First you assemble the larger pieces that fit inside the bakery - the dresser, cupboards and so on. I found it a good idea to use one the box lid to store the pieces as I finished them.

 

Then you assemble the structure of the house, putting the walls and door in place (this was a bit like building a real gingerbread house!) and installing the simple lighting kit. Finally you put together the very small pieces and glue them into place on and around the furniture to complete the bakery.

I found the assembly of the kit straightforward and the instructions easy and logical to follow. There were a few times when I felt that I needed some extra glue, although the adhesive strips provided are very sticky. The instructions lead you clearly through each step, and this kit didn't require any measuring or cutting pieces to size which you find in some of the more difficult kits.

I loved all the tiny details in the kit. The little coffee machine with a mug of hot chocolate to go, the tiny cakes and biscuits, the miniature boxes of chocolates in all shapes and sizes. It takes time to spot everything that is packed inside the shop as there is so much attention to detail.

The kit includes a lighting kit which lights up the inside of the shop. The battery box and on/off switch is accessed from the back of the house, it cleverly slots inside one of the cupboards. It looks so good when the light is on, especially on a dark winter's evening when you need a bit of festive cheer.

I can see this Gingerbread House being part of a larger Christmas village, which is something that I've always wanted. You could buy and assemble a kit each year as a festive tradition that builds up into something really spectacular that is much more personal than buying the pieces readymade. There are a few other kits which would fit the theme really well, like the Christmas Candy Stand or the Honey Dessert Talk Miniature House.

I know that this Gingerbread House is going to be a part of our Christmas decor tradition for a long while to come!