Back in the golden days of the internet - about 9 years ago - I followed so many blogs regularly and Dani Hampton was one of my favorites. She has a series of posts called "Currently" and it's basically just all the things you are currently doing/loving/enjoying. It's been awhile since I've done one so I figured why not?!

Listening To 

For the last year I really haven't been listening to music the way I used to. I haven't made a mix cd in ages which is really abnormal for me. Recently I've been trying to get back into it and listen to more songs on spotify since I pay for it. I don't want to put all the old and new songs I've been enjoying right here because I'd like to make that into its own post but I Lied by Lord Huron is a new soothing favorite.

Loving

The golden hour sunshine pouring through our bedroom windows each evening. A freshly made bed. Sunny/blue sky days. My ice face roller. Buying presents for the people I love. Falling back into reading again. Our dog, Rhodes. My favorite short sleeve palm tree sleep shirt. Watching Dateline episodes with Jeremy. 

Thinking About

I am trying to not think so much. I feel a compulsion to obsessively think of things so I'm trying to do better about it. And think joyful and hopeful things if I am thinking. There's just too much to overwhelm the mind with right now. I am thinking about how I can't wait to celebrate Jeremy's upcoming birthday and try to make it special and how nice outside it was today.

Dreaming Of

Since it's a dream, and we can dream of anything, I'm dreaming about the world not being crazy. The day I get to meet my soon to be born twin nephews. Wishing I could go to Maine  again when the world wasn't crazy. Dreaming of my friend Ashley being able to visit me and our house and the fun times we could have. Of miracles.

Watching

Ugh. I have been watching entirely too much TV lately - need to encourage myself to do other things more. Trash reality tv. Dateline episodes with Jeremy. I've been re-watching LOST again. Jeremy doesn't like it but I can tell sometimes he is drawn into the crazy storylines. And our go to happy favorites when we just need some easy watching: Seinfeld (Literally had an almost 24 hr marathon of Seinfeld this past weekend when I got sick and could not sleep plus we can watch them all a million times and still laugh), Gilmore Girls (duh) and some episodes of Reba. 

Reading

I'm always reading about a thousand books it seems. It's a running joke at work that I have way too many books checked out at all times (I work at a library) and can't keep up with them. I am going to try and do more book reviews soon but I recently finished my 40th book of the year (!!!) and that feels good. It was "Faith, Farming & Family" by Caitlin Henderson and I will go more in depth with it in a book post but there were some truly good faith/life reminders that I took away from it and kind of wish I owned it so I could go back to those pages and highlight. I am currently reading book #2 in the Paradise series by Elin Hilderbrand: What Happens in Paradise. They are fun beachy stories and I am enjoying it like usual. 

-Katie 

On the Bookshelf: January 2021 Reads Vol. 1

2021 has started off with a ton of books. My work has been doing staff reading challenges for the past few years and I was really excited to do one this year. I was in a reading funk for most of 2020 so I really wanted to jump back in to reading more often. The reading challenge was 24 items in 24 categories to be read from January - December 2021. I finished the challenge by March 1st haha. I'm not sure why exactly it was so important to me to finish it quickly but I just wanted to embrace my reading mindset and knock out the categories so I could then just focus on reading only things I truly wanted to read the rest of the year and not have the stress of it on me. I read majority of my categories in January so I am going to split up this book reviews into a few different posts. I also want to be clear that I am NOT good at writing book reviews so these are going to be short and sweet with minimal description on what the book is about. I feel like I end up babbling and typing way too much if I try to describe the story. Hopefully this format will work for me but I might try something different next time.

1. The Doll Maker by Richard Montanari

Click here for the full goodreads description

The first book I chose for the year was to re-read this gem. This mystery is book #8 in the Detective Byrne & Detective Balzano series. First things first, I love Richard Montanari's books. Normally I do not like mysteries/thrillers that are part of a detective series. I tend to find them to be dull but Richard Montanari creates really detailed and interesting plotlines that I enjoy + they tend to have disturbing qualities that I look for in a good thriller. This is actually the first book I ever read of his - I found it randomly on the new shelf at work, probably back in 2014/2015 when it was released - and instantly fell in love with the cover art. I haven't read it since then which was nice because there were elements of the story that I forgot so it was fun to be a bit surprised again. It's a long book but fast paced reading. I love the detectives and their partnership and I also appreciate that Montanari never writes them as love interests for one another. Whenever you have a male/female detective team in a book I feel like that is always eventually used as a plotline and it is never used in this series/

It is book 8 in a series but can be read as a standalone. The only thing that may throw you off is a few spoilers/references to past storylines in the detectives lives. If you like creepy mysteries that involve dolls and people being created into human dolls then this one is for you.  It is a 5 out of 5 stars for me.

I chose this book for the "Adult Fiction Title" category of the reading challenge.

2. Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Click here for the full goodreads description 

Oh, this book. I do not have enough words to describe how much I adore this story. Attachments is one of my favorite books EVER. A very different one from The Doll Maker that's for sure haha. I chose to read this because 1. I love to re-read this in January each year since it goes along with the new year portion of the book and I finally received my own copy for Christmas - I had rented it so many times from the library I figured I should just buy it - and 2. It fit the "Book Chat Title" category for the reading challenge. A win-win.

In the romance/chick lit genre, this book tells the story of Lincoln, a late twenties young man, in the years 1999/2000. He is lost after constantly going back to college for different things and living with his mother so he decides to take an IT job at a local newspaper. His job does not involve a lot, these are the early days of the internet after all, but he is supposed to monitor the email of the newspaper staff. If they get flagged for inappropriate content or doing things that do not involve work he is supposed to warn them. Emails from two best friends begin appearing in his flagged email box, emails containing personal details and practically nothing work related and while he should be warning them to stop, he chooses to say nothing. He is drawn into these conversations, enjoys reading them and and before he knows it he develops a crush on one of the friends, a woman he has never seen.  

There are so many reasons to love this book. The time period of 1999/2000 with all the fear of Y2K is too much fun and makes this plotline work. I love that this is a chick lit novel told mainly from the side of the male character, something I haven't really seen before. I find Lincoln to be adorable and charming and I loved getting to read along with all the details of him trying to figure out his life. Even the fact that he is in to Dungeons and Dragons doesn't weird me out and is another strangely charming part of his story. Beth and Jennifer are two more lovely characters and the fact that you can get to know these women through mainly only reading their back and forth emails shows that Rainbow is an excellent author. There is only a tiny bit of them outside of the emails back and forth but it works. This story is cute and sweet and while it did receive some scathing reviews on goodreads  - one girl claimed Lincoln was a stalker and creepy and a nerd and would never be attractive lol - I really truly love this story. Some foul language and very minor sexual content which makes this book a very clean story for the romance/chick lit genre. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. 10 out of 10 if I could.

 

3. The Walking Dead, Vol 1: Days Gone Bye

Click here for the full goodreads description

I feel like I need to start this off on a clear note: I do not typically read graphic novels. They are just not the type of book I enjoy. That being said, one of the reading challenge categories was to read a graphic novel and I instantly knew what I would pick. I am a huge fan of tv series The Walking Dead and loved all of the earlier seasons. There is solid character building and I have always wanted to read some of the comics to see how they matched up. There are MANY comics in the story so this is just a small bit of the story. I have to be honest and may receive some hate for it but I have to say I am a bigger fan of the tv series than the comics. Maybe it is just because I can't seem to get used to the style of reading graphic novels. It never once felt enjoyable or like I could really focus on what was going on. I feel like I can get a stronger grasp of the mood of the story if the scene is being described to me with just words over words and illustrations. So that may be part of it but there are also MANY plot differences that I did not like and enjoyed the show's version better. I am just gonna outright spoil it and say the character of Daryl Dixon does not exist in the comics. Not. At. All. Daryl is one of my favorite characters so as you can see this was a problem for me. I was reading the story and kept waiting for him to show up and then it hit me: he will never show up. That doesn't completely ruin the story for me but it did have a huge impact on my thoughts because it completely eliminates some of the best storylines that the show had from being in the books. I'd probably read more just to see how certain characters die off but it wouldn't be my first choice and I probably wouldn't ever read it again. It's a quick read so if you like the show you may like the comics. I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. It wasn't the best and it wasn't the worst but it gained more points because it is the reason a good show existed lol

4. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

Click here for the full goodreads description

I chose this classic children's story for the "Audiobook" category of my reading challenge. Like the graphic novel, I do not enjoy audiobooks. My brain is way too scattered most of the time to be able to focus on a story being read to me and I prefer to be holding the book in my hand. However I tend to do better with a shorter book and children's stories typically have good narrators. I've read the story of Willy Wonka before and love both of the movies but it was a fun quick read. I listened to it off and on over the course of a few days, mainly while washing dishes or cleaning and it went by fast. It is truly a fun children's book and I think one almost anyone could enjoy. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

5. Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist

click here for full goodreads description 

The next category I decided to tackle for the reading challenge was "e-book." I prefer to hold a book in my hands over reading on a device but since this was available through our library for ebook and I have always wanted to read this book, I decided to give it a try. I typically love Shauna's books and her writing. I love the way she tells stories and that they are written out like short stories/blog posts almost. It makes them easy to read an enjoyable. However. I did not enjoy this book and was actually really disappointed with it. There were a couple faith related things that had me raising my eyebrows and questioning some things she was talking about. I don't want to jump to conclusions but I don't think I'm going to be reading Shauna's books for spiritual advice/wisdom. Besides that it was just simply not well written. I get that she was trying to not focus on perfection but it was not good. Every essay felt like a repeat of the last one. I kid you not she repeated so many things so many times that I had myself confused thinking I had already read that part even though I hadn't. I don't want to be overly critical and mean but it just was not a good book and I would have been upset if I had paid money for this. 2 out of 5 stars for the few small good parts that existed. I highly encourage you read her other books: "Bittersweet", "Cold Tangerines" and "Bread & Wine". Basically any of her other books would do fine. Just skip this one.

6. A Christmas by the Sea by Melody Carlson

click here for the full goodreads description

This book was a Christmas novella. I chose this for the "Holiday read" category for the reading challenge. Most of the time I do not like Christian fiction. I find them to be the most annoying unrealistic dull stories and so cheesy I want to throw up. But when it comes to a Christmas book? bring on the cheesiness.  This book had all the usual elements of a cheesy Christmas book and could easily become a Hallmark movie. Single mom that lost her husband? check. Poor, trying to stay afloat? check. Has an adorable child that is almost perfect? check. Inherits a cute fixer upper cottage in an adorable small town on the coast of Maine? check. Hunky guy just so happens to live in the town and be single? check! So yes it was very cheesy but once again that is what I expected and I don't feel like I can really hate on this book because it did live up to the expectations. The descriptions of Christmas at the Maine seaside sounded dreamy and was something I truly enjoyed. But the ending? No. It felt SO rushed and had me rolling my eyes. I get it needed a "good" ending but it felt so pushed to get there in just the last few pages that it was like the author realized she needed to be done with the story fast so she tried to shove the happy ending together before we had much time to get there. If you like cheesy Christmas books this may be for you but just a warning that the ending leaves you wishing there had been more pages in-between to make it seem realistic at all. I gave it 2 out of 5 stars because I am mean.

7. The English Son by Wanda Brunstetter

click here for the full goodreads description

In the book world there is this special genre called "Amish Fiction" and it is very popular with the old ladies. It is not popular with me. These stories are the book version of nails on a chalkboard. And that is why I chose an Amish story for the reading challenge category "a genre you wouldn't normally read." I picked this one mainly because it was short. Wanda Brunstetter has a couple different series that have 6 books each but each book is short enough that if you combined them all together it would almost make one full length normal book. This book was silly and ridiculous and everything else you'd expect from it. Long paragraphs describing what they are eating. Why do I need to know that she eats low sugar strawberry jam? I do not care. No one else does either. The main character, that I am sure will have a major life change by the end of the series, is selfish and a liar and should NOT be getting married. I'm sure he will magically be a wonderful Christian and reconnect with his Amish family by the end of the all the books but none of these characters were enjoyable to read about. I was very happy to be done with this book. I give it 1/2 out of 5 stars. 

Long story short of these reviews: read 1, 2 & 4 and skip the rest. You're welcome haha

Will try to share the rest of the books I read in January in my next post :) 

My kind of Halloween movie picks

I am not a big Halloween kind of girl. The candy is yummy and it's fun to dress in a costume if you have a place to go but otherwise I could do without it. Lots of time Halloween = horror movie marathons. I don't know about you but I'm not really into the horror genre. Sometimes I'll watch one (usually a really cheap B movie that is more funny than scary) but overall I could do without. I like disturbing stories, don't get me wrong, but I prefer my stories to be more of a thrill and less of a normal horror flick. I wanted to share a list of movies that give me the Halloween feels without being your typical slasher flick. Here are some movies that I personally love - some of them being my favorite movies EVER - and that I especially enjoy at this time of year. So grab a cozy sweater and some hot cocoa and settle in for a chilling movie night.

The Prestige 
A short and sweet plot summary: Two magicians strive to have the best magic trick. Which turns them from friends to enemies. I can't say any more because I promise too much information would spoil it. Just watch it anyway.

This is not a movie that would be labeled in thriller or scary BUT I feel like this movie has enough twists and turns and messes with your head to make it a good exciting movie. It's dark and dreary and there is a lot going on but I HIGHLY recommend it. DO NOT GOOGLE IT AND READ SPOILERS. I say this because spoilers will ruin the viewing experience. Just find a place to rent it and see for yourself! 

Here is the trailer:



Rear Window
The Story: "A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder."

Jimmy Stewart is a classic for a reason. He is one of my favorite old actors and Jer and I love watching his movies together. This movie has been a personal favorite of mine for many years. You can't beat a classic Alfred Hitchcock film. Also likely to make you suspicious of your neighbors.




The Birds
The story: "A wealthy San Francisco socialite pursues a potential boyfriend to a small Northern California town that slowly takes a turn for the bizarre when birds of all kinds suddenly begin to attack people."

I absolutely love this movie. It is another top favorite of mine and another Alfred Hitchcock film. This is everything a thriller should be. The unknowns of why the birds are attacking is eerie and while I don't find this movie scary there are definitely some chilling scenes. Plus Tippi Hedren was beautiful and I love getting to see all the old clothes and things. 

The Village
The story: "An Amish-style community lives cut off from the outside world by the woods, in which they believe dangerous creatures exist. They have an uneasy truce with the creatures - if they stay out of the woods, they are left unharmed. When one of the young villagers becomes ill, the boy who loves her ignores the elders of the village to make a bid to the next town to fetch medicine."

This is a movie that you either love or hate. I am one of the people who loves it. It is creepy, thrilling AND it messes with your mind a little bit. If you like the horror bits more in your movies this will be the one for you because it does have moments to make you jump.


Secret Window
The story: "While in the process of an ugly divorce from his wife (Maria Bello), writer Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) relocates to his remote cabin in upstate New York for solitude. Attempting to recover his mental health, Rainey has the misfortune of being found by John Shooter (John Turturro), a farmer who claims Rainey plagiarized his work. At first, Rainey ignores the accusations, but Shooter has no intention of quietly disappearing. Soon, Shooter becomes increasingly vicious in his quest for retribution."

I know that I have said this for every single one of these movies BUT I LOVE THIS MOVIE. This is one of my top favorites ever (actually almost all of these movies are my top favorites! oops haha) but this movie is a great piece of work. Johnny Depp is excellent. The storyline, the atmosphere, the ending, all of it is wonderful. Make sure to pay attention because it is a psychological thriller and you don't want to miss it. 


Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein
The story: "Comedy meets horror when Bud Abbott and Lou Costello encounter Universal's classic monsters in the frightfully funny Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. The world of baggage handlers Chick Young (Abbott) and Wilbur Grey (Costello) is turned upside down when they receive the remains of Dracula (Bela Lugosi) and Frankenstein (Glenn Strange) bound for the House of Horrors museum. When Dracula and Frankenstein escape, complete chaos ensues as Chick and Wilbur get mixed up in an evil plot to switch Wilbur's brain with Frankenstein's and are aided by Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney, Jr.), who turns into The Wolf Man when the moon is full! Featuring a perfect blend of laughs and thrills, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein is one the 'all-time great horror comedies."

This movie is a comedy but it's a perfect comic relief from all of the spooky stories. I love old movies so much and this combines all of the greats: Frankenstein, Dracula and the Wolfman into one great entertaining film. I love watching this. Never gets old. 



and last but not least...

Halloweentown
The story: "In a place called Halloweentown, good and evil look very different than one might expect. Thanks to a visit from Grandmother Aggie (Debbie Reynolds), Marnie (Kimberly J. Brown) and her family's tradition of ignoring the Halloween holiday are about to change in the extreme. It seems that Marnie's mother Gwen (Judith Hoag) has been hiding a big secret from her three children--all of them possess supernatural powers. Now that it's Marnie's thirteenth birthday, she must begin her training as a witch or lose her powers forever. While Gwen wants nothing more than to see her children grow up as "normal" humans, Grandmother Aggie and Marnie have other ideas. A brewing crisis between good and evil in the alternate world Halloweentown soon pulls the entire family through a portal and into an intense battle."

I grew up watching this movie on the Disney Channel. We weren't always allowed to watch it so it's kind of fun to be able to watch it more as an adult. It's definitely a cheesy kids movie but I love it. It's classic and it's fun and it makes Halloween fun.

Those are all my top spooky favorites. What is your favorite part of Halloween? What are your go to Halloween/scary/fall movies? 

Also, I do realize I did not include Hocus Pocus. I do love that movie and it is a classic but EVERYONE loves that movie and I just felt like it didn't even need to be included cause DUH. You are going to be watching it anyway.

Wedding Planning Tools

For those of you that may not know - I am a newlywed. Jeremy and I got married on August 10th. It's hard to believe we are already approaching a month into marriage, the time has really flown by. There's still a thousand things to do when it comes to name changing and those darn thank you notes that are haunting me but still trying to find time to just enjoy this new time in our lives. And sooo thankful wedding planning is over. Don't get me wrong - wedding planning did have enjoyable aspects but it was exhausting and one of the most stressful experiences I have ever gone through. I don't think I was ever a bridezilla but I had multiple emotional meltdowns and panic attacks over it so it is a relief to finally be past that. I wanted to start writing and sharing about my experience with planning our wedding. What tools we used, what vendors or services we used, where I got decorations or my outfit, why I chose the music I chose, and so on. I always thought being a wedding planner would be a fun job - HA - and now after going through that I have my doubts - but one thing I always loved was reading through the details of how someone planned their day and what they used. And if something I did helps someone else out with their wedding planning then I'm all about that.

Jeremy and I planned the majority of our wedding ourselves. We did have a small amount of help from family and friends here and there but the majority of it was simply us. Hiring a wedding planner was not something I wanted to do nor did I want to spend money on it. I didn't like the idea of entrusting what I saw in my brain to a stranger either. Would hiring a wedding planner have been a less stressful choice? Yes, most definitely but it just wasn't something that fit our plans and I think it did work out well for us.

I used a few different tools to help me plan. They were:

The Budget Savvy Wedding Planner and Organizer - I honestly think I may have bought this book before we got engaged haha but I saw it at the store and thought it fit what we were going for. It had a lot of helpful suggestions and places to write and I will say it helped me think of things I wouldn't have come up with on our own. I didn't fully use it though and there were a lot of sections that I left blank. However I think it was a really helpful book for planning and I did enjoy using it. Plus the cost is reasonable and I think it is a good suggestion for someone who wants to stick to a smaller budget. I have to admit and say Jer and I loosely planned around the budget of the wedding - we could have and should have done better but we got a little lazy on it. We did end up spending quite a bit more than we had originally estimated BUT I am very happy to say we have ZERO debt over the wedding and are doing fine so overall things worked out good. But if I could say one thing to a girl planning her wedding: FIGURE OUT YOUR BUDGET. I stressed a lot about our budget more so because we didn't have a clear one and I think I would have been wayyy more peaceful had I actually taken the time to invest in it. Be wise and don't go into debt over one day. But also try not to stress over every single penny. Invest in the things that matter to you most and let go of the things you don't care about. Photography was super important to me so that was something I knew I wanted to spend more on but I couldn't care less about ceremony decorations so we literally didn't buy a single one. Most likely people won't notice anyway. Just saying.

The Knot - I used to love browsing wedding websites and blogs so I did take advantage of finally getting to research and plan for a real wedding. I created a wedding website through the knot that I think turned out really cute plus IT WAS FREE. I was never going to use one that cost so take advantage of those freebies, ladies. I also used that for guests to RSVP. It helped out a lot (I also gave the option of having the guests email me) but I will say I did have a few people who had problems using it and getting it to let them submit for more than one guest but the majority of the folks it worked out fine for and it was nice to have that available to us. Just a warning though that it could cause problems. I also set up the app on my phone and that was nice to have. There is a great checklist and guest list feature and a way to budget. I mostly did not use these because it almost felt like another to do for me but they would be great help to anyone and I highly recommend it. I also looked on the knot website at their blog posts numerous times for inspiration on decor, music and how to's that I was unsure about. It was a really nice resource.

Instagram and Pinterest - Honestly, I got most of my inspiration for style from instagram and pinterest. I love following wedding photographers or design accounts so any time I came across a pretty photo I saved that baby. Same with pinterest. I didn't do most of the things I found BUT it was a really nice way to gather inspiration and try to figure out what it was that I wanted and how I could do my own spin on it.

Good ol' pen and paper or word documents - The majority of my wedding planning and lists did not take place on a wedding app, website or in a planning book. I created a wedding binder. I wrote out a thousand lists (not much of an exaggeration) on basic paper or I typed up documents on word and I saved and printed and edited them over the 8 months we planned. I prefer being able to write stuff out the way I wanted and this worked for me. But do be cautious because I ended up with so many lists that I felt insane towards the end and wanted to cry over the stack of papers that I had. Basically: use real paper but be more organized than me.

I didn't use many tools but I am happy with what we did. I know we could have done better and used our resources and time better. There are things about the planning process that I could have changed that would have made it easier on us but now that it is all said and done I truly do think we did pretty good. It's a hard time and it is a hard time to stay organized. My biggest piece of advice would be to not procrastinate. We got lazy in the earlier months and so when it started hitting 3 months to go - I was a trainwreck. Do your best to stay on top of it even if it feels like you have plenty of time. You want to be relaxed and able to enjoy your day.

Thanks so much for sticking around and reading this. I am hoping to share more wedding posts soon. Stay tuned. 

On the Bookshelf: The Turn of the Key

I am always reading something new, usually multiple new things. Working at a library you are always seeing what new books are out or coming across books that look good when returning them so I almost always have a stack of 20+ books waiting to be read and that doesn't include the books that I purchase. On the Bookshelf is going to be where I will review or talk about what I have been reading. Note: I am NOT very good at this whole book review thing so you have been warned.

My latest read was Ruth Ware's The Turn of the Key.

I have read all of Ruth's books and I enjoyed her first two - "In a Dark, Dark Wood" and "The Woman in Cabin 10" - but I did not like her last two - "The Lying Game" and "The Death of Mrs. Westaway"

I was excited to see she had a new book coming out but knew it would be a toss up if I liked it or not. I felt like the plot lines and stories of the last two books were just not that exciting or well put together. I remember getting to the end and thinking, "Wait..that's it?" And I will say that after reading The Turn of the Key, I rank it up there with her first two books. I enjoy thrillers and it had the edge of the thriller story to it, more so than Mrs. Westaway. I wasn't as thrilling as I like my books to be and I feel like she really could have gone deeper into the storyline BUT I did enjoy it. I read it pretty quickly - something I haven't been doing lately because of being busy - but this was a book that I wanted to sit down and find out what was going to happen. I enjoyed the garden aspect of the story - read the book to find out what I'm talking about - and I almost wish they would have used that more to make the story a little extra exciting. The modern house element was interesting too and helped me feel the heebie jeebies along with the main character. I didn't find the ending totally surprising - I suspected parts of it - but there was one surprising element that I did not see coming. Overall I think it was a really enjoyable book and it made for an exciting weekend read. I'd definitely recommend it and I gave it 4 out of 5 stars on goodreads. Great for those that like a good mystery or thriller.

Here is the book description for anyone that may be interested:

When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss—a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten—by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family.

What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare—one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unravelling events that led to her incarceration. It wasn’t just the constant surveillance from the cameras installed around the house, or the malfunctioning technology that woke the household with booming music, or turned the lights off at the worst possible time. It wasn’t just the girls, who turned out to be a far cry from the immaculately behaved model children she met at her interview. It wasn’t even the way she was left alone for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from the enigmatic handyman, Jack Grant.

It was everything.

She knows she’s made mistakes. She admits that she lied to obtain the post, and that her behavior toward the children wasn’t always ideal. She’s not innocent, by any means. But, she maintains, she’s not guilty—at least not of murder. Which means someone else is.

Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, The Turn of the Key is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.

[This description is taken from the book jacket]

Check out my goodreads account and follow along with what I'm reading by clicking here

Welcome!

Once upon a time, like 2011, I created a blog because I wanted a place to share and build community. I saw all of these friendships blossom through what was the blog world then (which was TOTALLY different than what it is now) and I wanted a little piece of that. I developed relationships with many wonderful people - including my bestie Ashley that was actually one of my bridesmaids! - but as time went on and as the blog world changed dramatically and as I changed, I basically ended up abandoning that blog that had meant so much. I have decided to leave that blog in the past and start anew with this one. I've recently begun to miss it and what it meant to me. It was also nice to have an outlet, a little hobby to enjoy and so I decided This is Kaits would be the blog to welcome me back. 

This blog will be a lifestyle blog but a very loose lifestyle blog as in I'm not really sure anyone would want to follow my lifestyle and there probably will not be much of a plan or order so follow along at your own risk of boredom.

But basically I will be sharing a little bit of this and a little bit of that:

• Daily life in a small town and as a newlywed.
• How I Planned My Wedding (and survived).
• Book recommendations (I have about 40 books in a pile waiting for me to read).
• What I'm Loving on (because there is always something).
• Music (It would not be a blog of mine without sharing the music I'm listening to).
• The shows I can't stop watching on Hulu and Netflix (someone ban me from TV asap).
• My attempts at decorating our rental home.
• Outfit posts that would not ever qualify me as a fashion blogger.
• Recipes I've attempted (and most likely failed).
• and a whole lot of other things such as: faith, friendship, my lipstick collection, how to not go blind while applying false eyelashes, pepperonis and chocolate milk and multiple random babbles at 1 am.

Thanks for reading and I hope you stick around. xo

Kaits (or Katie)