The Sprinkle on Top

Anyone who knows me knows that behind my sweet exterior crawls an inner darkness. How else do you explain the novels I've written like " The Harvest ", my love of scary movies, or the countless times I've hidden at the end of a dark hallway crouched like the Grudge girl to welcome Justin home. And you better believe that Evie will find me hiding in her closet scratching on the wooden doors more than once. So it's no surprise that Halloween is one of my absolute favorite holidays. Over the past 5 years Justin and I have slowly collected Halloween decorations - a lot of which are homemade and cost very little. Unfortunately I've had to get rid of a lot of them over the years as we moved 3 different times and certain (sad) decisions had to be made about what got to come along to each new home. But having to start my stores of haunted paraphernalia over again just gives me an excuse to Pinterest new ideas and nerd out making them. Shadow Monsters ...

Easter is here and the weather has been perfect for this beautiful spring holiday. I've never been one to decorate much for Easter as it typically leads up to one of the busiest months in the Benson family - May, filled with 7 birthdays AND Mother's Day. But I wanted to add a little spark to our main floor this year without breaking the bank to do it.  I wanted to use as much as I could of things I already had laying around the house to avoid having to spend much money, if any. I rummaged through our house and pinned a lot of ideas on Pinterest, but ultimately used the simple items below. Silver Placemat: Already owned Green Basket: Already owned Easter Eggs & Grass: Already owned Square Vase: Already Owned Jelly Beans: $1 Daffodils: $1 Tip: Fill the vase with a candy that you aren't particularly fond of. The level of those jelly beans kept getting lower and lower the closer we got to Easter. (Some of us can't help ourselves). I wa...

For the past three to four years, my life has been a whirlwind of changes and all I've been able to do is run with it to keep up. Justin and I got married in 2012, we moved to Virginia in 2014 where he was a full time grad student and I had a full time job as an Account Manager at WorldStrides and a part time job at Book Review 22 . Needless to say we were very busy - the dishes often stacked up in the sink, the hamper overflowed with dirty laundry, the fridge was barren except for condiments and unidentified leftovers. We made it work and loved every moment of it... Justin graduated from the University of Virginia in 2016 and we moved to Vernal, UT where he started his career as a Speech Language Pathologist at Ashley Regional Medical Center . I still work part time for Book Review 22, but the deal was if I put my sweet hubby through grad school, I could wash my hands of working full time. And he's honored that ten-fold. One thing I love to do, but rarely had time ...