Our apartment is in an old old mill building and right now there are like 100 loft style apartments. One of which we live in. Anyways, the building is giant and there is still more than half the building that is run down. They just started a second phase and are making another 100 apartments, a pool, and park area outside. There are lots of cool places to explore when the workers leave. Lots of things torn down and lots of old rooms exposed. We went for a walk on sunday to check it out and to take some pics. We were having a good time until Kev stepped on a nail. Doh! That is why you dont walk around construction zones. Whoops. He is ok- now worries. We did take a picture of the nail though.

Totally losing my balance and afraid of nails…

BB Dakota Dress: Courtesy of Modcloth
Sweater: Banana Republic
Necklace: Forever 21
My Pet Octopus Cuff: Courtesy of Modcloth
Shoes: Thrifted Dexters

I am totally diggin’ thinking about dressing for spring. I love spring coats! My favorite and a classic is the trench. It’s funny how no matter what you are wearing underneath as soon as you put a trech over top you instantly feel chic. Well at least I do. I pulled this plaid shirt from Kev’s side of the closet and wore it over top a pair of Jeggings (did i really just use that word?) and then pulled out my peeptoe flats that I thrifted when we lived in Hawaii. They have been hiding away since last fall. I love this early spring look!

I like ice cream but I have always been a smoothie girl over ice cream. I just love fruit. So I decided to use some of the black berries to make a smoothie as well. I always keep the freezer stocked with frozen fruit to make smoothies. Let’s just say this dinner was AWESOME!!! Kev woke up this morning and even said “I just have to say dinner last night was soo good.” I think we were both wishing this morning that we could be eating the waffles again for breakfast- as I quickly chugged down a breakfast protein shake. Blah!

1. Mix flours together in a bowl. Add flaxseed, and next 4 ingredients (through salt) in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.

2. Combine milk, butter, and eggs, stirring with a whisk; add milk mixture to flour mixture, stirring until blended. Mix in mashed banana.

3. Preheat a waffle iron. Coat iron with cooking spray. Spoon in batter and cook until your desired crispiness.

4. Place on Plate and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top, banana slices, blackberries and real maple syrup.

Smoothie:
Ingredients
Frozen Blackberries
Frozen Strawberries
Banana
Orange Juice (our hand pineapple juice in it as well) MMmmm!

1. Add all ingredients to blender. Blend to desired consistency. Top with Fresh blackberries.

We are super excited and of course a little nervous!! It has been super hard keeping it a secret for so long. We found out over Christmas while we were in FL. We wanted to keep it quiet to make sure everything went well with my first trimester, but now that I am safely into my 2nd and my expanding belly is getting harder and harder to hide in my style files- it was time to tell you all!!!!

We will be doing a photo series once a week on Thursdays, dedicated to documenting my growing bell (just like the one below) but other than that Jenloveskev will go on as normal. Recipes, home decor, I’d wear thats and of course daily style files. No worries I will not bombard you all with baby things. I will keep it to a minimum. I plan on keeping style files going until the end. It’s going to be a whole new challenge for me because well I have never dressed a pregnant belly before. I am excited though! So, I hope you will all stick around and join us on this journey.

This week our photo post comes a little early. I am 15 weeks…

Usually these posts will come on Thursdays.

This is one of our favorite spots on the island as well. Its up on the North Shore. Its super country out there, with beautiful mountains and the air just smells so sweet. There are hundreds and miles of Pineapple fields up there. I love it. It’s so different from the hustle and bustle of Waikiki.

Dress:Forever 21
Belt: Thrifted
Neckalce: Target
Sandals: Steve Madden

They graciously sent us some prints a little while ago and we couldn’t wait to get them framed and hung in out new place. They look awesome! We still have lots to do in our place (having a hard time with such high high ceilings and not being able to paint) but we are getting there. I am really excited to start sharing pictures as we get things finished.

Here are a few sneak peaks of our Roll and Tumble Prints hung by the best book shelf (the expedit) ever. I love that thing. It holds so much. You can also see a little of our bedroom, with my favorite thing in there- our fake fireplace! I can not fall asleep with out in on. The sound lulls me to sleep every night.

Prints Courtesy of Roll and Tumble Press

I wanted to share a few random things with you…
I know Couturious.com has been up on other blogs but I have just been slow to post about it. When I got an email a while back asking if I could try it out and make some looks, I wasnt really sure what I was getting myself into. Lets just say, when I logged on for the first time I was thinking I would sit down and do something really quick but ended up playing around for like an hour because it is so fun. Seriously, it is like playing dolls with cool clothes. I can’t stop. I am totally addicted. Have you played around with it yet?

Also are you part of Weardrobe? They are having an awesome new contest that lets you win some beautiful spring clothes from Pac Sun and to be a part of the Spring Break Crew. The crew is made up of me, Julie, Indiana and other awesome bloggin’ ladies. Its going to be lots of fun so upload your best spring break outfit to weardrobe today!

Also I wanted to share a few of my favorite links from this week…
1. Tieka styled my Rainbow Raw Honey Modcloth dress this week for the Delightful Dozen and she looks amazing!!!

2. I am totally in love with this artist. Every painting she post instantly makes me want to get out my water colors and try to paint something as beautiful. I just love this maid picture she posted…

3. Trashy! Who doesn’t love recycled clothing? This party seemed like a blast and totally inspired me to make a senior art project out of it!

4. Spring! Spring! Spring! Can I please look as cool as this girl. I need those yellow shoes!

5. Can I also please have matching hunter boots with an adorable little girl…

6. Boy by Band of Outsiders always melts my heart. The want to wear everything!

Happy Weekend my Friends. Make sure you hug someone that is special to you. Or even not. I love hugs. I like hugging as a greeting instead of handshakes. Way better in my mind.

I have a date to night with a special someone and we are going to try try try to sneak our way into Alice and Wonderland. Here’s hoping!

Also one last thing. There has been some exciting things going on for jenloveskev. Monday I have some really great stuff I can finally share!!!

Honestly, this week has been rough. I am glad we had these extra pictures from hawaii. It has freed up some time for other things. Sometimes it hard to not let this blog world get the best of you. I love all the readers (you ares are seriously the best!) and all the friends I have made but it is hard to not see it as a competition sometimes. It was my new years goal to not let that happen and I have been really good but I am not perfect and this week has been hard. I don’t know why I am sharing but I guess I need to get it off my chest. Does anyone else struggle with things like this with their blog?

* don’t get me wrong I love my blog and I love blogging. I also love taking pictures of my outfits each day. Its very inspiring and super creative which I love. I in no way wish I was more like someone else or am comparing myself to particular people. I love my life. I want to be me. I am just wondering others thoughts on the whole competition feeling of blogging.

Update: Thank you so much to people who are leaving comments. I really like that we can all talk about this. That was my intention. I was worried about writing I was feeling that way but I knew others had to be feeling it too. I just wanted us to be able to share and learn from each other. I appreciate each and every comment. The link left by MsAmanda is a good one. Keep the conversations going!

Paper Sparrow is having a spring clearance right now and all the pendants are $6 bucks!!! That is just crazy- what a deal! Head over and check it out!

I got this tee at H&M and I love the sailor feel to it. I am really diggin’ the nautical themes out there right now. I knew I wanted to match the navy with red and gold. Please excuse my unpainted toenails. haha I debeate about putting that picture up because who really needs to see a close up of my feet. The week before vacation I told myself I cant wait till next week so I have time to relax and paint my nails. It did not happen as you can see but I had high hopes of having some nice red nails. One of these days…

I think my favorite part was the handmade tortilla strips. They added so much and were so much better than added like corn chips or something. I do with there was a magical spell to ripen avocados right when you need them because it always seems like the grocery store never has ripe ones when you need them. I am not that good of a planner to get them days in advanced to let them ripen.

Tortilla Soup:
1 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano (optional)
1/4 teaspoon chili powder (or to taste)
4 cups vegetable broth
2-3 cups water
3 cups pinto beans, cooked
salt to taste
6 corn tortillas
1 large lime, cut into 6 wedges
1 ripe large avocado, cut into 1/4-inch cubes
4 cups chopped spinach, chard, or kale leaves

1. Add can of tomatoes to a blender.

2. Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook till brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Pour it all into the blender along with the chilli powder and process until smooth.

3. Pour mixture back into sauce pot and heat on medium. Stir consistently for about 5 mins. Let thicken. Add broth, water, oregano (if using), and drained pinto beans. Bring to a boil, then adjust heat to maintain a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes.

4. While the soup is cooking, prepare the tortillas. Preheat oven to 375F. Cut each tortilla in half (can be done in a stack if you have a sharp knife). Then cut each half into 1/4-inch wide strips. Place the strips in a single layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt,pepper, a little chilli powder or cumin if you want. Bake for about 15 minutes, flipping every 5 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven.

5. Add spinach (or chard or kale) to the soup. Cook, stirring, until the greens are wilted, about 2 minutes or so depending.

Serve the soup topped with avocado and tortilla chips in soup bowls. Serve with lime wedges. It taste awesome to squeeze juice of 1-2 lime wedges in soup. MMmmmm Enjoy!

Did you watch the Hockey game yesterday? I am not a sports girl. I really hate all professional sport (sorry) but hockey is another thing all together. Can you blame me? I am from Canada! Anyways, Kev’s Dad went out in the morning on a mission to find us little American and Canadian flags. It was really sweet and we had a blast watching the game with them. I got to wave my Canadian flag proudly in the end! It was such an AMAZING GAME!!! I can’t even believe it. The announcer was cracking us up right before OT started. He was so worked up and excited. So good!

p.s. a little picture from yesterday…

Have you been following all our Delightful Dozen swaps on our Facebook Page? Here are just a few pics of items that have been passed around…

I have been looking around the internet a lot at spring clothes. I am dying to lounge around in the warm sun in beautiful dresses and rompers. Here are a few things I am totally loving right now…

REMEMBER you can save 10% off all purchase at Ruche and ThreadSence thru this weekend!! Use code “jenloveskev”

I will say the travel time out to hawaii is very hard. It is a long trip and everytime I am on the plane I wonder if it is worth it, but as soon a I walk off that plane and I feel the warm breeze, I smell the sweet air and I see the mountains I know there is no other place like this. It was very hard to leave!

As I was going thru our pictures, I realized we really didnt take all that many. I guess when you lived there and you go back, you don’t really remember to take a lot of pictures because we already have so many. I do wish I had more pictures of all the friends we visited with. Bummer.
Here are a few we did take…

p.s. We have been getting our first emails in our withoutyouitsjustnot.us inbox!! It’s so exciting to see other people print out the flyer and send in pictures. Keep them coming!! Read more about our Love Project Here.

Thanks to all that participated!

All you need to do to enter this giveaway is go and check out Roll and Tumble Press on etsy and then leave a comment below. Simple as that!! Every household needs this print hung somewhere in it! I just love it so much!!

You have until Monday afternoon to enter. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced Monday evening.
Good Luck!

I brought some awesome outfits for pictures so when I get back there will be lots if Hawaiian style files. So stay tuned! Have a wonderful week everyone!!!!!