Last week, I was beyond honored to join the Home Depot in Atlanta to swing my hammer in support of our military veterans.  The Home Depot (and it’s non-profit Home Depot Foundation) is wrapping up its “Celebration of Service” projects, where it completed 200 service projects and donated $9 million in grants to enhance the lives of U.S. military veterans and highlight the needs and opportunities they face.  Friday (Veterans Day) was the final day of projects, which is where my hammer swinging came into play.

A group of 9 bloggers, along with many Home Depot employees, worked on refurbishing housing for homeless veterans.  There were quite a few projects being worked on that day, but my specific task was to build a few wooden benches.  Kate from Centsational Girl (left) and Stacy from Not Just a Housewife (right) were on my build team, so we certainly had a team that knew its way around power tools.

For the next three years, the Home Depot Foundation is placing special emphasis on serving U.S. military veterans who are facing growing financial and physical hardships at home as they return to civilian life.  They will invest over $30 million to help ease the burdens of this deserving group by repairing and renovating homes for military veterans.  This year alone, they have contributed $9 million toward that goal.

My little part of the “Celebration of Service” was building this bench for the group of homeless veterans in Atlanta.  It was a fun project (once we deciphered the plans!), and it’s a nice, solid bench.

Your little part is going to be to help me.

I am looking for a Central Texas (Austin Area) military family who has a ‘Wish List’ of services from Home Depot for the Gift of Good Program. The family will need to provide 2-3 photos and a brief statement of needs.

My chosen family is guaranteed to receive $500 worth of goods and holiday décor from Home Depot (I’ll be knocking on their door!) and then entered to win a $20,000 prize of home improvements from Home Depot.  The family must own their home.

For the purpose of this program, a military family is defined by a household that includes a resident who is either currently serving or is a veteran of any branch of the U.S. Military.  Please send submissions or nominations to livingwithlindsay@gmail.com.  Submissions must be sent by Sunday, November 20th. The nominated family will be confirmed via email on November 28, 2011.

If you don’t live in my area, but know folks who do, please, please, please forward this blog post to them in case they know of a family who deserves to be nominated.

Update: If you know of a military family in need in another metro area, check these out these blogs:

Anywhere in the US: Military Avenue
Northern Connecticut area: My Military Life
Pensacola, FL area: Wife [Widow] of a Wounded Marine
Knoxville,TN area: Wife of a Wounded Soldier
Austin, TX area: Living with Lindsay
Salt Lake City area: Not just a Housewife
Montgomery, AL area: Perfectly Imperfect Blog
Northern California: Centsational Girl

This post is sponsored by Elmers’s.

A few weeks ago, I hosted a Craft & Tell party at my home thrown by Elmer’s and X-ACTO.  I invited friends, readers and local bloggers to join in the fun.  Elmer’s sent me a huge box of just about every craft supply you could think of – glue sticks, glue dots, photo corners, paint pens, X-ACTO knives, circle cutters, self-healing cutting boards, gel pens and so much more.  Each party attendee got to take home a ton of supplies, so you know everyone was excited to attend!

Instead of coming up with one craft for everyone to work on, I decided that it would be fun to have a pumpkin decorating party.  I asked my guests to bring a craft pumpkin to decorate, and I put out a few more craft supplies that I thought they may want to use.

We had such a great time crafting and enjoying some adult time together.  This was the perfect, low-key girls night out.

We loved how easy it was to cut through the craft pumpkins with the X-ACTO knives, and I was amazed at how everyone was able to come up with such vastly different ideas using the exact same products.

Kim used pre-cut letters that I had on hand to spell out Harvest Time.  She attached the letters with Elmer’s Glue Dots and then used them as a template to cut out the phrase with her X-ACTO knife.  Kristen used her X-ACTO scissors and circle cutter to create all sorts of cute cute Halloween themes and attached them to her pumpkin with glue dots.  Melissa free-handed her jack-o-lantern face and cut it out with an X-ACTO knife.  She came up with the idea of outlining her cut outs with a Elmer’s Painters Paint Marker, and the rest of us thought she was a genius!

Allison used her paint markers to draw an amazing argyle pattern on her pumpkin, and she cut out Trick-Or-Treat with an X-ACTO knife.  Lindsay (not me, but my friend!) carved a fanged P out of hers, and it looked fabulous.  I covered my pumpkin in strips of curly brown craft paper using my glue dots.

Here’s everyone modeling with their new masterpieces (click Play Again if the slideshow has already cycled through).  Are there any bloggers in the mix that you recognize?

Elmer’s and X-ACTO wanted to make sure that the fun could be spread around to everyone, not just those who live locally.  So, they are providing Craft & Tell prize packs to TWO readers of Living With Lindsay!  Each Craft & Tell prize pack includes:
·         3  X-ACTO Retract-a-Blade knives
·         3  CraftBond Extra Strength Glue Sticks
·         3  CraftBond Tape Runners
·         3 Mini Bi-fold 9×12 Foam Board packs
·         1 Painters Markers pack
·         1 X-ACTO Decorative Edge Scissors pack
·         1 Circle Cutter
·         1 X-ACTO Self-Healing Mat
·         1 Glue Dots pack
·         2 Photo Corners packs (various colors)
·         1 Gel Pens pack
·         1 Tacky Glue bottle

You could have your own mini craft party with your friends!  To enter, simply leave a comment below.  Two winners will be randomly selected from contest entries.  The giveaway is open through Thursday, November 3rd.

Good luck and happy crafting!

Disclosure: Elmer’s supplied me with craft supplies to host a Craft & Tell party with the understanding that I would write about my party.  No money exchanged hands, and there was no encouragement to review the products in a positive fashion.

Giveaway rules: Giveaway open until midnight on 11/3/2011.  No purchase necessary. Odds of winning are based on the number of entries.  One entry per person.  Open to US residents, 18 and older.  Winners will be randomly selected using Random.org and notified by email.  If winner doesn’t respond in one week, another winner may be randomly drawn.