A Very Polished Thank You {Free Printable}

I know I've been a little M.I.A. from the blog for the last week or so. Reason: I've been moving. Was it planned? No. Was it fun? No. Do I have 500 ugly bruises scattered all over my legs? Yes! Was I reminded of how much crap I have that I don't need, that tends to weigh a ton? Yes!

So through some enormous miscommunication, our property management company thought that we were moving out and we...thought that we were renewing our lease for another year.

They called us on a Friday, wondering why we had dropped off a rent check, since we were supposed to be out of the house the following Tuesday. The house had been rented to someone else. WHAT?! That was news to us.

After the initial anxiety and shock factor, and visions of us living out of storage unit, we decided to roll with it. I mean, we weren't really in love with the location of our house anyway.

The property management, being very apologetic, was willing to show us a new house immediately. We ended up signing a lease for a new place that night. The house is a little bit smaller, but in a much better location. It also has a huge fenced in backyard for our puppy, complete with kiddy pool, which Stella loves.

You just never know what life is going to hand you. One thing I do know - I have amazing friends. Family and friends, who I know had much better things to do, rallied together to help us move on such short notice. I will be cooking many thank-you dinners in the near future.

This post is dedicated to my friend, Jen, who came out and helped clean, after being at work since 5 am. Not just a "what can I dust for you" clean? She bee-lined it to the bathroom. She got down and dirty, scrubbing showers and toilets. Basically, she's a rock star. 

I wanted to make something for Jen to say thank you. The problem: I still didn't know where most of my crafty supplies were, so it had to be simple and fast. Jen loves to paint her nails, so I came up with this little bucket full of polish (complete with cheesy tagline). Luckily, she thought it was cute.

To make a polished thank you, you'll need:

• 3-4 bottles of nail polish
• small bucket (check the dollar section @ Target, Michael's, etc.)
• shredded paper
• free printable label
• glue stick
• paint chip
• ribbon

To start...

I picked out three funky shades of nail polish. The silver one apparently crackles over the top of other colors. Cool, right?

I found this bucket in the dollar section at Target. Then I ran some book pages through my paper shredder...

stuffed the bucket...

and topped it off with the nail polish.

I came up with these little tags. If you want to make your own "polished thank you", you can download the free printable tags here.

After printing out the tag and rounding the corners, I ran it through my sticker maker (you could use a glue stick). Then I stuck it to the back of a paint chip and trimmed off the edges.

The final step was to add a name to the paint chip, then wrap it around the mini bucket with ribbon.

I'm sharing this little thank you over at My Girlish Whims, The DIY Dreamer, Uncommon Designs, Mommy By Day Crafter By Night, 52 Mantels.