LeKessa Pearce won big playing Carolina Cash 5 and she plans to use the $342,292 jackpot to craft the tiny backyard oasis of her dreams: a she shed.

“We’re not really big spenders,” said Pearce, a stay-at-home mom of three. “We’ll put most of the money in savings, use it for practical things. Something fun I’d like to do with the winnings is build a she shed!”

A “she shed” – the newly popular backyard hideaway for women equivalent to a “man cave” – would allow her space to relax and have fun crafting and exploring her other hobbies.

Pearce bought the lucky ticket Friday at the Food Lion on Hicone Road in Greensboro, but didn’t realize she had won until her husband, Brock, thought to check her ticket on Saturday.

“I saw the numbers on my phone and I had to rub my eyes,” he said. “I couldn’t believe they were real.”

“I thought something was wrong with his phone,” she said. “So I checked on mine and they all matched. It still feels so unreal.”

Pearce kept the winning ticket on her in her fanny pack all weekend, constantly checking to make sure it hadn’t disappeared.

“Holding onto this ticket, keeping it a secret for the whole weekend felt like a year,” she said. “We didn’t tell anybody except for our moms, and Brock’s mom thought we were joking! They are so excited for us.”

Pearce claimed her ticket Monday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal withholding, she took home $242,172.

Cash 5 is a statewide draw game that gives players the chance to win a jackpot every single night. Tickets cost $1 and players can buy tickets at most lottery retailers and through Online Play on the lottery’s website.

Ticket sales from draw games like Cash 5 make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $650 million a year for education. For details on how $33.2 million in lottery funds made a difference in Guilford County last year, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website.