The Travelling Apron!

We are SUPER excited to tell you about our next project! It is one of our 25 things which might even involve you!

Because of our love for cooking and baking, and simply being in the kitchen, we have decided to spread that joy and to get others involved! Enter, 'the Adventures of Anne-Marie the Apron'. Rather cheesy, we know, but phonetically pleasing (not to mention Anne and Marie are our middle names - just a little fun fact).

Here's what the project entails...

• Anne-Marie must go to 25 different people/households
• Those receiving her will then follow the instructions laid out in a fancy dancy letter included with the apron package.
• Take a picture of themselves with the apron
• Cook/bake a favourite recipe and include it in the travelling cookbook
• Creatively make their mark on the apron
• Upon completion of these steps, Anne-Marie's package will be sent on to someone else. The only catch is that Anne-Marie can't go somewhere she's already been.

Back of the cookbook!

The Cookbook!

After our apron has had 25 different experiences, she will be sent back to us! We are so excited for Anne-Marie and wish we could accompany her on her travels!

We have no idea what path our special apron will take, but we're beyond excited for her journey and to make a connection among those who share our same passion for cooking! We can't wait to create a diverse kitchen family. How far will Anne-Marie go? Only time will tell!

Let the adventures begin!

Melissa, Laura and Anne-Marie

At the start...how will it turn out?

The Books have been donated!

Hi everyone!

Just a quick update to share where the 250 books we collected have been donated! We are so happy to have been able to drop them off to the YWCA Durham this afternoon in Oshawa. The books will be distributed among their programs, including to the Early Years program as well as to their Supportive Housing Shelters. We are so glad that we could help and offer the gift of reading to so many!

Thanks to the wonderful staff at the YWCA for being so friendly and supportive! It's organization's like yours which are helping to make the community a better place!

Let's continue to spread the joy of reading! :) You can help by donating to our Reading Room fundraising campaign.

Check it out in our 'Giving Back' page or at this link: http://roomtoread.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=319894&supid=354507667. 



Heading West

Hello!

After much thought and deliberation, we have finally decided to HEAD WEST this May! We are off to Edmonton for a couple of days for a cousin's wedding and then we're going to visit our old stomping ground in Vancouver! We couldn't be more excited! Not only will we get to spend a ton of time with family we don't get to see often, we have a few adventures planned for while we're there!

First - as scary as it may be....while in Vancouver, we are going to go skydiving. Yup, you read that right, SKYDIVING!!! ahhh....it's rather frightening just thinking about it, but it's definitely something we have both wanted to do for a while. Let's conquer those fears and have the experience of a lifetime! Even though I say, we can't wait, I think there's a small part of us that can.....lol. Seeing Vancouver from above is sure to be breathtaking!

Second - Laura's has ALWAYS wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride (a rather strange dream, but we're not judging!). So, why not go for a ride while in a city with incredible landscapes! From the mountains to the ocean, this will surely be an amazing adventure!

On top of these exciting events, we can't wait to spend some time with family and friends in a city we absolutely LOVE! And who knows, maybe the Canucks will still be in the playoffs and we could attend a playoff game - that would just be the icing on the cake! The cherry on top would be to meet the Sedins/players, but that's a different story....connections anyone??

So there you have it - even though this first trip of our 'Drive' isn't overly exotic or new to us by any means, we are going to make it one to remember!!

Let's make a CAKE!

As many of you know, we are avid bakers and love to be in the kitchen! Nothing says happiness like a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie, a decadent brownie, or carrot cake with cream cheese frosting!! YUM! So, to keep with our passion for baking and to broaden our horizons, we've signed up for a cake decorating course at Michaels!!!! We are actually over the moon and are anxiously awaiting our first lesson! We will learn all the basics to cake decorating, like making little flowers and who knows what else! So the month of April we're devoting ourselves to the art of cake decorating - and the best part is that we get to taste along the way :) We'll post pictures of our creations and the progress we make along the way! We've always wanted to do something like this - now's the time!! 

Let's hope we can mimic this??



Ready to get crafty!!!!!!!!!

We are soooo excited!!!!!! We just got back from Fabricland in Whitby with all of our fabric to make 25 baby blankets!!!!! Not sure if people usually get that excited at a craft/fabric store, but we just couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces as we walked out with 4 huge bags filled with fleece. We had a blast picking out adorable pastel colours - pink, yellow, blue, purple, white and green. This is going to be so much fun!! We cannot WAIT to get started!!! So many will benefit from these blankets, which makes this process all the more important and meaningful!

A HUGE shout out and THANK YOU to Sue and the Whitby Fabricland store for generously donating some of the fleece, the cutter, and a ruler - we are so appreciative of their support to this cause.

So, now the real fun begins - we are ready to get our craft on.....we'll keep you posted on how it goes!!!

Tweet Tweet.....

Hello everyone!

Some exciting news to share!!

As shocking as it may be, we have officially joined the world of Twitter! We never thought we'd get there, and are still VERY much trying to figure it out (as sad as it sounds, we were asking our Mom for help!). We'll get there though and look forward to socializing with you all in this new way! So, if you have twitter - follow us: @thedriveto25 under the name Melissa&LauraMac. Hopefully we can get the hang of it quickly....lol.

Here's to tweeting and following and whatever else twitter entails!!

A Big Change!

Hello!

After some reflection, we have decided to make a change to our 'giving back' section.

We are so appreciative and thankful to the Clarington Public Library for their generous donation of 218 discarded books!! We were thrilled and so excited for their amazing support! Also, we had previously received 28 children's books from a parent at Harold Longworth Public School in Bowmanville. That brought our grand total to 246 used books - all within a couple of weeks!!! AMAZING!!!! Thank you, thank you! We honestly weren't expecting that!!

That being said, we have slightly altered our focus. Instead of collecting books, we have decided to raise money to build a Reading Room library by partnering with the organization Room to Read. This is a rather ambitious task, but we couldn't be more excited to be involved with a project that will create tangible and meaningful results! Check out our Giving Back page for all the details and how you can contribute! We hope to have your support in this new venture!

Happy Friday!!

Melissa and Laura

Upcoming Plans!

Hey guys!

Hope you've been enjoying our blog! This whole thing is rather new to us, so we're definitely learning as we go! We know we haven't had too many fun and exciting things going on quite yet, but we've been doing a lot of talking, planning and organizing - trying to figure out what exactly we want to do and when we can fit it all in! Also, since our budget is obviously limited, we are trying to manage our finances and see what is possible.

Here are some updates from what's been going on in our FIRST week - can you believe it's only been a week???? Crazy!!

1. Meatless March is coming along well! We've taken a lot of vegetarian cookbooks out of the library and have been searching the internet for tasty recipes. We will post some of our favourites as we go. If you have any great ones - feel free to send them along!

2. Next up, we're planning something that is going to take a little while, but something that is LONG overdue! Shocking as it may be, we have not read any of the Harry Potter books, and have only seen the first movie. Yes, you read that right. Since these are classics and a huge phenomenon, we thought we should join the Harry Potter bandwagon to see what we've been missing! So....over the next nine months, you have our word - we are going to read ALL of the 7 books and watch each of the movies as we go. This is quite the task, but as we've been told, it will be well worth it and we will be kicking ourselves for waiting so long! This is an exciting venture because it also ties right into the literacy and education aspect of our 'drive'. We're ready to enter the wizarding world of Harry Potter and see where it takes us! If anyone wants to join our movie screening parties - you're more than welcome!

3. Although we aren't the most crafty, we have tried our hands at knitting and even made ourselves decent looking scarves a couple years ago. During this 'drive', we thought it would be fun to improve our knitting skills, while also giving back. Our plan is to knit and donate 25 baby blankets. We're still in the process of finalizing where exactly we will be donating them; if anyone has any leads or prospective places/recipients, please let us know! We can't wait to get our craft on and post pictures of our creations as we go!!

4. Finally, we have our fingers crossed for a trip in May...which will involve some risk-taking and some mental preparation! Dreams may come true?! We'll keep you posted!!

#2 Meatless March

Ok, this doesn't sound like the most exciting, thrilling or adventurous thing to have on our list, but it's important to us and we think it will be a lot of fun too! It'll be challenging - but we're up for it!

Here's the plan:

-spend the entire month of March, all 31 days (yes it happens to be one of the longest months!) eating no meat
-try new vegetarian foods and experiment with vegetarian recipes

Ultimately, this is an endeavor that we've wanted to take on for a while now. Roughly speaking, about 80% of our diet would be considered vegetarian already - we don't eat a lot of meat. There isn't a real reason for this, besides the fact that we just don't really like it! And that's fine. The problem though, lies in the fact that we really don't pay attention to incorporating or subtituting meat with other protein sources. We basically just 'cut it out' - and that's not good! We know there are so many health benefits to eating meat, but these can be replaced with delicious alternatives (which we look forward to experimenting with!). That's where this month-long challenge comes into play - not only are we not going to eat meat, but we're going to challenge ourselves to try vegetarian recipies and new foods that will contribute to a complete balanced diet.

This doesn't mean that we're going full-out vegetarian for the rest of our lives (although who knows - anything can happen!), it's just a committment on our part to ensure that we're getting the proper nutritional benefits for a healthy lifestyle. This is important not only now, but for the rest of our lives.

If anyone has any great suggestions or tips - we'd love to hear them! Send them our way!

Here's to the second venture on our 'drive': learning new things and trying new foods! We'll keep you updated on how it goes!

Also, stay tuned for more this month!!