This is a hard post for me to write. You see, one of my best friends, Rachael, moved away yesterday. A huge part of the military life is saying goodbye. You say goodbye to your families when you move away to your duty station, you say goodbye to your husbands when they deploy, & you have to say goodbye to friends when they exit the military or move to another station. & the goodbyes never get easier.  She wasn’t just my best friend of 5 years, she was the one who got me through deployments, the one by my side when my husband was always out of state, out of country, and I was there for her when her husband was gone as well. It’s not easy being that kind of friend, you have to be there through lots of tears, lots of lows, but with those lows, come the highs. The highs of homecomings, buying our first houses, getting pregnant, having her baby, going on couples vacations, morning coffee dates, & endless shopping trips. She was the one who captured all of our family photos through the years which is one of the best gifts she could have ever given us. All of the memories will never be forgotten. This isn’t going to be easy not having her around the corner, but it’s going to be worth it. Thank goodness for skype, iphones, computers, facebook, and the fact that when we move home to Michigan she will only live a few hours from us. This girl, her beautiful daughter, & her amazing husband have been such a big part of our life & I will never trade our friendship for anything. A little trip down memory lane.. sorry for the picture overload, but I had so much fun going through old photos & each one holds a special memory that I will never forget…

Ok. so you may be wondering what the DIY chalkboard secretary has to do with anything.. well I wanted to paint one last piece of furniture for her before she moved away & this secretary was very special to her and it really needed a makeover. So in a couple days that I had to work on it, this is what I came up with…

This was the piece before, you can tell they used it a lot…

She wanted something shabby chic & I knew that her husband and her used this piece as one of their main office pieces so I wanted to create something very functional yet pretty…

I decided to chalkboard the entire inside so that they could label the shelves, write notes, take messages, and little their beautiful daughter can draw mommy and daddy pictures.

The best thing about secretary desks is the fact that you can close them up and hide the “office” & it turns into a beautiful piece of furniture. Also they have great storage in all of the drawers at the bottom. Secretarys are great in any room to make an instant office anywhere in your home.

This piece was so last minute, that I only had about a day to work on it, but despite the fact  that I was rushed, I love how it turned out. The paint color I used is Valspar’s Woodlawn Valley Haze with a dark wax over it. The white popping through was the paint before. I’m loving all of the layers and how shabby chic this piece looks.

I hope this piece always reminds her of me in their new home & that it makes her happy when she’s missing me 😉 Love you so much Rach! I hope you all had a great weekend, other than helping her pack up her house against my will { I was tempted to unpack every box}, hubby and I have had the most relaxing Sunday we have had in quite sometime because guess what?!? THE SEMESTER ENDED THIS WEEK! The hardest semester of my schooling is over, & I couldn’t be happier. How was your weekend? Do you have a secretary desk  in your home? What do you use it for? Have you had to say goodbye to a good friend before? What has helped you get through it? Share your thoughts in the comments below or {here} on the facebook page.