Makely

Let's Make Life Awesome

New Ideas for a Handmade Holiday

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Can you believe that this is the last weekend before the Holiday Season descends upon us?  It won’t be long before the presents will be ripped open, the cookies will be eaten, and I will be ready to get that needle-dropping tree out of my house.  🙂

As I ease into the holiday spirit (we can still wear shorts here most days, y’all!), I was delighted by the new digital magazine Splendidly Homemade put out by a few great bloggers, including my dear friend Gina from The Shabby Creek Cottage.  The magazine has some neat decorating ideas (Gina’s found object holiday mantel on the cover is gorgeous) and handmade gift tutorials (the yo yo socks are darling!).  There are also some yummy looking recipes, but we all know that I’ll never try them because baking makes me crazy.  Y’all will just have to tell me how they taste!

I’ve been working on some handmade holiday gift tutorials myself, and I hope to start bringing you those early next week.  Get your paint brushes ready!

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I have a few giveaway winners that I have neglected forgotten to announce!  The winners are:
Congrats!!
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Don’t forget that Sunday, November 20th is the last day for me to receive entries in the Home Depot Gift of Good program.  All of the details are here.
Have a fabulous weekend before the holiday weekend!

Giving the Gift of Good

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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