New for fall!

Hi there! Sorry, I have been an absentee blogger as of late, we were away at a beautiful cottage and then busy doing little day trips around the city. We visited Toronto Wards Island recently and fell in love with all the little cottage like homes and the peacefulness of the place mid-week. I imagine it gets rather busy on weekends! I actually started thinking about how cool it would be to live there, but apparently many others
have thought the same thing as there is a huge waiting list that would take approximately 35 years to get to the top! In any case, I hope to visit the Island at least one more time before the summer comes to a close.
Aside from vacations this summer, I have also been keeping busy finalizing my new fall line, and now I am just waiting on the production end of things. The complete fall Spruce line will be available at Fresh Collective and Coal Miners Daughter by mid September, but here is a sneak peek at a couple of new Spruce fall tops. Above is the Hanna top with asymmetrical cowl neck & ruching detail (Organic bamboo) $89 and the Jules top with an asymmetrical contrast cut-out & gathers $89.

We have been inundated with giant zucchini's from my in-laws garden in recent weeks, so I decided to try my hand at baking zucchini bread. It is a hearty, dense cake and has definitely become a favorite in our house.

Zucchini Bread

4-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1-1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
3 cups grated zucchini
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 325
Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl
Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini and nits until well combined. Pour batter into bunt pan.
Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester in center comes out clean. Cool in pan or rack for 20 minutes.

New Spruce dress

I have only recently begun to sew again, I forgot how satisfying it can be to go from a design concept to a completed garment! My son, Tavin, is now almost 8 months old and is finally giving me some time to be creative again, and with the added help of my husband I have spent the last few mornings sewing up some cute new summer dresses! They are made from a stretch poplin which is very light and airy for these extremely hot summer days we are having in Toronto. They are available at Fresh Collective (freshcollective.com), Nathalie Roze (nathalie-roze.com) and Coal Miners Daughter (coalminersdaughrer.ca). These are three cute shops that sell the spruce line (www.spruceclothing.com) in Toronto. They mainly sell locally designed clothing and accessories, so they are definitely worth checking out. The Delila dress is available in red and grey $130.