It’s that time again – the end of the month means a new post detailing who all of our super-amazing sponsors are and why we love ‘em. We have some of the best sponsors out there, so be sure to pay close attention because you’re going to want to know who these guys are.

I adore ModCloth‘s clothes and accessories – they have some of the cutest dresses I’ve ever seen in my life, and the quality is absolutely wonderful. I’ve bought from them before and have never been disappointed, and I constantly find myself browsing their new clothes and home decor and wanting to spend my entire paycheck on the cute stuff they have. But, uh, I have a mortgage, a car payment, and three dogs (and a husband) to feed, so I usually refrain.

Layla Grayce is one of the best places to go if you’re looking for amazing stuff for your house. They’ve got some of the most gorgeous lighting, accessories, and furniture ever, and I’m regularly inspired by the drool-worthy images all over their site. They’ve amazing, and you should absolutely check them out of if you haven’t before. They’ve got 15% off of Valentine’s Day gifts right now with the code “15pink” – it ends tomorrow, though, so use it fast!

I haven’t ever had the pleasure of using SpareFoot personally, but I’ve done quite a bit of browsing on their website to make sure it’s up to my (high) standards for a good service and, y’all, they’re pretty awesome. This site is all about making storage for all of your extra stuff as easy and headache-free as possible. You can search their huge database of storage facilities (including storage for things like cars or wine!) and read reviews, find deals, and scope the place out entirely to make sure it’s a good fit for you before you choose which place to store your stuff in. I feel like trusting a company to keep all of your extra furniture and memories safe is a pretty big deal, and having a site like this to make sure you can do all of your research first is huge. They’ve also got a pretty hilarious blog that I read pretty regularly. Who knew a storage facility blog could be so entertaining?

Oh, Blurb. I love them. I love them so much. I know I say this almost every month, but Blurb is the only company I’ll trust with my photo albums – I’ve tried several different photo companies and Blurb is the only one that consistently delivers flawless books that I’m incredibly proud to display in my home. I’m actually in the process of making our 2012 yearbook with them right now, and I can’t wait to order it. I’ll probably be using the 15% off discount they’re currently offering with the code “LOVEBOOKS” – if you haven’t made any photo books lately, you should try this company out – they’re the best! 

This site is basically  the mecca of all things amazing for your house. Seriously. I check One Kings Lane on a pretty much daily basis to drool over their sales (they’ve got rotating flash sales that change all the time, so it’s always something new!) and I’m consistently surprised by how well-priced their stuff is. They’ve got some seriously awesome deals on some seriously gorgeous stuff, so if this site isn’t currently on your must-check-every-day list, add it now!

And finally, we’ve got Cutting Edge Stencils who is absolutely awesome and if you haven’t heard of them, you need to listen up. They have an absolutely insane selection of stencils that can be used on your walls, your floor, fabric, or whatever else you think needs a little bit of excitement. We used one of their stencils in our own home and regularly gaze at it in awe of how awesome it is. It’s the one thing we get compliments on every single time someone new comes over. Their stencils are so well-made, beautiful, and incredibly easy to use – and Cutting Edge makes it even more simple for you with their how-to videos (they totally saved my life when I was doing my own) and their blog that will give you a ton of ideas if you want to use a stencil but can’t decide what to paint!

And, of course, Cutting Edge Stencils has offered Love & Renovation readers a 10% discount just for being awesome! Just enter “LR10″ at checkout to save some cash!

And those are our lovely and wonderful and amazing sponsors! Give ‘em some love because they are pretty much the best sponsors a girl could ask for!

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Those of you who read Young House Love (everyone, right?) probably know where I’m going with this post. They issued a challenge last Friday to head to a thrift store with $20 in your pocket (just like in the song!) and see what you can score. They’re hosting a huge link party this week so everyone can share their spoils and we can all see what you can snag for $20 at thrift stores all over the country.

I was, of course, thrilled about the challenge and couldn’t wait to head out to our local Goodwill to see how many awesome things we could find.

We ended up finding way more than I would have expected for only twenty bucks, and I’m super excited about it. Ready to see what we bought?

First up, this cute little frame. It was a whopping $0.99, and I’m a sucker for a good frame with a fun, different texture. We’re constantly looking for new things to add to our gallery wall (and we’re starting to build one in our bedroom, so we’re even more in need of frames)! I don’t have anything to fill it with yet, but I’ll figure it out soon. All I know is I’m loving the rope-like texture on this guy, and the nice, natural color.

We also grabbed this little flower art for $1.99 – I love that it’s three-dimensional and, while it wasn’t exactly…pretty…as it was, I knew with some paint it would look fabulous.

And, as usual, I was right. We had some white spray paint hanging out in the workshop (don’t we always?) so I gave it a couple of quick coats and just like that it was looking modern, crisp, and super fun. I love it, and I can’t wait to find a spot for it in our gallery wall!

Next?

Um, yeah, I know that doesn’t look like much but this may be the find I’m most excited about. I recently read a blog post by The Nester about how to keep your pillows looking fluffy – apparently the key is feather or down pillows!  Our throw pillows are constantly looking pathetic, because we have dogs who do this…

…so, um, I’m always looking for ways to help out our pillow situation! We knew this would work for us, because we have one feather pillow on our couch and it’s the only one that consistently looks nice and fluffy, no matter how many humans or dogs use it. So, I walked through the pillow section at Goodwill and felt up all of the pillows – this was the only feather one they had and it was in a super ugly cover. Luckily, it was removable so for $5.99 I had a nice sized feather pillow! I brought it home, washed it, and replaced the ugly cover with one from a pillow already on our couch.

I’m unreasonably excited about how awesome this is. I can’t wait to replace the rest of our pillows!

I’m having a huge gold moment right now and I’m totally drawn to anything gold toned that I can put in my house. Love, love, love. These super simple little candleholders were $7 for both, and I’m obsessed. We haven’t put any candles in them yet because all of our candles are buried in the garage with our Christmas stuff, so I need to gather up the energy to track ‘em down. But I have a feeling they’ll look fantastic.

And, finally, one more find that you’re probably going to give me the side-eye for. But just trust me – I knew what I was doing.

I know. It’s awful. BUT, with a quick coat of gold (I know – I have a problem) spray paint, it looks shiny, fun, and amaaaaaazing. And for $0.99, I couldn’t resist it!

SERIOUSLY. Adorable, right?

And, just for a quick recap – here’s all of the stuff that we were able to buy at our local Goodwill for just $20. Not bad, right?

Did anyone else participate in the challenge? What can you find at a thrift store in your area for just twenty bucks?

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I’ve had a few people ask about the full story behind all of the things I’ve been posting about Ranger on Twitter and Instagram this week, so I thought today would be a good day to explain what’s going on with our poor baby.

Ranger has had a cut on his ear that has been there for at least a year and a half. I actually blogged about it way back in July of 2011 when he was bleeding all over our duplex in College Station. We took him to the vet once or twice about it back then, but they told us ears just take a while to heal and there wasn’t much they could do. So, they bandaged him up and we crossed our fingers that it would heal.

And really, it kind of did. It would open up every once in a while, but it always promptly clotted and it was never really a huge issue. It’s been opening up on and off for the past year and a half, and we’ve just been dealing with in the best way we can. But last week, it opened up and got worse. We were concerned, so we called the vet and brought him in on Tuesday afternoon.

After looking at it, the vet told us that he had a bad ear infection that would require him to be put under to fix – they said that while he was under for the ear infection, they could also stitch up the cut. We agreed, left him there over night, and planned on picking him up in a few days.

Well, the next day we got a call that he was ready to come home. We were surprised, but headed to the vet to grab him anyways. We got the poor thing four steps into the house before he shook, opened up the cut, and started bleeding all over the place. He was home less than 3 minutes before Corey had to turn around and take him back to the vet.

Hadley sat at the door and cried for about 10 minutes.

The vet told us we could get him back for real on Saturday, since the stitches should have a good scab by then, so on Saturday afternoon after running some errands we went back to the vet to pick him up once again. As soon as he came out from the back, he saw us, got very excited, and shook.

Blood. Everywhere.

They immediately took him back once again (we went with them this time because Ranger wouldn’t let us leave his sight), and put some super glue on the ear to hopefully stop the bleeding and prevent it from happening again. They recommended that we get some liquid bandage stuff at the drugstore and keep an eye on him, and assured us that they didn’t think it would be a problem.

We got him home, applied the liquid bandage and…he shook.

I’m not even joking, there’s blood on my ceiling.

He was home closer to 10 minutes this time because we tried to figure out a way to stop the bleeding on our own, but in the end we realized it just wasn’t going to heal properly if he was at home with the other two dogs, playing and shaking constantly. So…Corey took him back to the vet.

This time? I sat on the floor and cried with Hadley.

We don’t know for sure yet when he’ll be able to come home, but the vet wants to make sure that it’s as healed as possible before we try it again. Apparently ear injuries are very difficult because of the blood vessels that are in the ear – he said they’re always a pain to figure out how to fix. We’re hoping that the stitches end up being an okay solution and once he has a chance to heal up a bit we’ll be good to go.

Really, I’m just hoping we get to bring him home soon. And that’s where we’re at right now – between Hadley’s ears being cropped and all of this with Ranger, we’ve been dealing with doggy ear issues in our house almost non-stop since September, so I’m just a little bit ready for this to all be over.

Have you ever had a problem with your pet that just wouldn’t go away?

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Okay, let me warn you – this isn’t going to be a post about anything groundbreaking, Pinterest-worthy, or even heavy on the DIY skills. In fact, it’s a downright ridiculously simple way to freshen things up in your house that costs exactly zero dollars and just a few minutes of your time. Yes, my friends, I’m talking about working with what you’ve got and actually changing out your decor every once in a while.

I’m the worst at this. If you’ll remember, I threw a bunch of milk glass vases on our mantel on the day we moved in and then proceeded to change absolutely nothing on that mantel for the first 17 months that we lived here.

So, so boring.

Putting away our Christmas decor, however, was a great reminder for me that it was time to switch some stuff up, and since our house was already in shambles and our accessories were scattered all over the place, it was already halfway done! So, rather than just putting everything back exactly where it was before, I took a few minutes to find some ways to switch things around and give several small areas in our home a new life.

I know. Not exactly newsworthy material here, people. But, I’m telling you – I have to force myself to remember to do stuff like that, and if I don’t, my house accessories never ever change except when I bring something new in. And that’s no fun. I can’t tell you how much of a difference it made (to me, at least) to change things around, and it has made me look at all of the little tchotchkes we have in a whole new light. I’m not completely convinced that I like all of the different vignettes I set up, but that’s part of the fun – sometimes  you’ve gotta live with it for a few weeks and then change it again.

And here comes the part where I stop babbling and actually show you what I changed. I know most of you probably don’t have my house memorized (gasp!) so this may not look like anything new to you, but trust me – it’s different! If you really care and want to look back, you can follow the links to see what the bookcase, the mantel, the entryway, and the kitchen cabinet looked like previously. Or, you can just keep scrolling and see what they look like now!

Let’s start in the living room – I didn’t change much in our bookcase because I still need it to actually, you know, hold our books (or at least some of them), but there are a few small changes.

You’ve already seen our updated mantel, but I’ll include it here again since it has been one of the most-neglected spots in our home since we moved in. This is one of the areas that I’m not 100% in love with. It needs some variation in height and a few things to soften it up (maybe some flowers or greenery?), but it’ll get there.

And, also in the living room is the console by our front door. This one was the most difficult for me, as I’m used to having a tiny little table here that doesn’t fit anything, so it was intimidating to have all of that blank space staring at me. I’m not completely sure about this one, either, but I like the idea behind it and I think it’ll grow on me.

We still need to figure something out about that way-too-small-and-hung-way-too-high mirror, but this is still a major improvement over what we were working with before!

And, finally, let’s step into the kitchen to check out our hutch. Previously, this was used mostly for decorative items with a few serving pieces thrown in for good measure (along with our fancy china that we never ever use) , but I’ve changed things up so it now houses some of our cuter drinkware (I got these beauties from Anthropologie for Christmas!), some cute bowls (also a Christmas gift), and all of our pitchers in one spot. It’s much more functional now, and I think it’s still pretty cute to boot!

And that’s my not-at-all exciting but completely free and totally refreshing idea for how to make yourself love your home a little more. I love to switch things up like this when I’m feeling like I want something new for the house but don’t want to spend the money – it’s a great way to remind myself that I have a ton of really great accessories already and I just need to utilize them better!

Do you switch up your accessories often, or do you keep things the same for a long time like me?

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Happy Friday!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I’m on a big organizing kick right now, and I’m continuing that again this week with some more amazing ideas for keeping your home organized (as well as a couple of things to keep it looking good, too)! I received several emails last week with requests for Craigslist Friday Finds, so you’ll be seeing those over the next few weeks, but for now I had too much awesome inspiration not to share. Enjoy!

(Via Infarrantly Creative)

I’m obsessed with this idea and I’m doing it as soon as I can talk Corey into helping me out with it. The drawer that holds our measuring cups and spoons is absolute insanity right now, and anything that will make it easier to access these guys would make a world of difference. This is so simple and quick – I’m in love!

(Via Tikkido)

I also love this idea. The doors on the cabinets next to our sink aren’t wide enough for this, but we could do it on different cabinets. I’m constantly cursing the cabinet that holds all of our cutting boards and baking sheets right now because, like the drawer I mentioned above, it’s a hot mess. This looks pretty simple and cheap, and I bet it makes life a whole lot easier!

(Via Garr Den of Love)

Um, wow. I never would have thought that $10 worth of hardware would make that much of a difference on a garage door! I’m definitely going to keep this idea in mind for when Corey and I finally get around to painting the exterior of our house (it seems silly to do it when the door is currently a color we hate).

(Via Little Lucy Lu)

Um, this is adorable. I have to hang dry Corey’s shirts so they don’t shrink and, while we have a good place to do that right now, when we update our laundry closet we won’t really have anywhere to do that. I love that this is out of the way since it hangs from the ceiling, and it’s super cute to boot!

(Via The Family Handyman)

Another awesome way to keep the cabinets organized. This is a great idea for those not-often-used baking sheets and pans – you know, the specialty ones, not the ones you make chocolate chips cookies on since those get used on a near daily basis (at least they do if you live in my house!). Anything that helps make my cabinets more organized is something I can get excited about!

And that’s my inspiration this week. I’m feeling pretty excited about a few of these ideas and will definitely be trying them out very soon. I’ll let you know how it goes!

What have you been doing to keep your house organized lately?

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