groupings.

Growing up, I collected keychains.

I would grab a keychain on any family trip we took or even something that seemed interesting to me on a shopping trip.

Family members even started buying me keychains and bringing them home for me when they traveled.

For several years, I looked through the keychains and remembered some fun times with family.

And then one day, I stopped.

They just weren't that enjoyable anymore and they ended up in a big metal coffee can, where they lived until I eventually threw them all away when we moved to the home my parents live in now.

At that point in life, the keychain collection just didn't MEAN anything to me.

In the end of my high school years, Willow Tree angels were just coming out and I loved them.

Do you know the ones I'm talking about?

Beautiful, creamy-colored angels that were were replicas of Susan Lordi's hand-carved angels.

My parents started getting me an angel for big life events...my 16th birthday, high school graduation, holidays.

And I loved them.

Each angel represented a time in life that was important and special to me.

At first, I housed these angels altogether on top of my piano.

Until there were too many.

Then I split them up and put half on the piano and half in my Great-Great-Grandma Hannah's antique secretary that sits in our home.

They were fine there, but I just felt like nobody ever really saw them.

It felt like they were kind of thrown out there much like the keychain collection of yesteryear.

Like when people looked at my house, at my angels, it was hard to appreciate each angel for what it was...a representation of a very specific moment in life.

I had an angel from the day I became a teacher...the day I lost my grandpa...the day we found out we were expecting a baby.

I had an angel that represented my relationship with my parents, Mr. Farmhouse, and each of the girls.

These were reminders of monumental occasions and my most cherished relationships...and they were collecting dust instead, seemingly unloved and unappreciated.

Until I began to decorate using what I call "groupings".

I would take important pictures or meaningful angels and I would put them together.

You can see in this picture that our pictures with our siblings are grouped with the angels that represent these brother-sister relationships.  Gerold & I are the angel pair on the left and Matthew & Ashley on the right.

The primitive framed print of Proverbs 22:6 was a purchase several years ago in a flea market with my mother-in-law on vacation.  I cling to this verse daily in raising the girls.

Again, for years, it sat on a shelf somewhere in the house, unnoticed and just blending in during day-to-day life.

When I began grouping my decor, I paired the framed scripture with these two angels...Matthew & the two older girls along with Mattie & I.

Now, it makes a statement.

I'm still waiting on five pictures from the photo lab for this grouping. Can you tell where they will go?

The two metal prints on the left and the larger framed print on the right are John Deere pictures.

John Deere runs deep into both sides of our family history.

Mr. Farmhouse and I have both lost our grandpas in the last eight years and they were both John Deere men.

I have a picture of each of them with their tractors getting printed to be hung on this wall, as well as pictures of the girls in their Key overalls.

(Sidenote: Having the DVDs on display like that just about makes me crazy. Still trying to find a way to hide them that won't cost a fortune.)

Pictured above:  
(top left, represents the stages of our life - marriage, pregnancy, baby, toddler, big girl)
(top right, in my office - my praying & praising angels, my "create" sign)
(bottom left, education - the two books on the left were Matthew's great-grandparents', my reading and teaching angels, and a primitive framed alphabet from my in-laws when I became a teacher)
(bottom right, give thanks...Matthew & I with the girls, displayed in the gathering room)

I love having all of my favorite things on display in the farmhouse.
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All of our reminders of our favorite memories, our favorite people, and those big moments in life that have molded us into who we are now.

Decorating with groupings has helped to make this happen. ❤️🏡❤️