I enjoy doing puzzles. I always have. I can remember doing puzzles as a kid at home and up at my grandparent’s cabin. I have fond memories of puzzles.
I know puzzles aren’t for everyone. Some people don’t like the time they take to complete them. Some people don’t like being challenged by them. Some people get frustrated by not being able to figure out where a certain piece (or pieces) fit. And while I have experienced all those frustrations, I don’t have issues with them. In fact they can make the process all that much more fun in the end.
When I get a puzzle I love looking first at how many pieces there are. I always think this is related to how long it will take, but does it? I don’t think so. You can have a 500 piece puzzle that has big pieces and you can see how they go together quickly, or you can have one where a lot of the pieces have basically the same color on them and you can’t tell where it goes other than – over there. Once I do that I move onto the picture. What is the puzzle all about. As you can see in the post I have done a variety of puzzles recently (the last couple years). I don’t have a preference really. I mean I don’t want to do a cat puzzle since I am not a cat person, but as you can see I have done still Iife, landscapes, silly, space, and more. I like to find the sections I think will be easier or harder. I start looking for patterns, but not much at this point.
Then then it is time to open the puzzle and get started. Like many people I am a fan of sorting out all the edge pieces first. Now, while I do this for all the puzzles I do (whether square or round) I also keep my eye open for patterns or key pieces along the way. If I happen to see something that stands out I will set that piece aside so I can place it once the edges are done. I quite often will start to separate the inner piece by color as well. This sometimes allows me to same time when it is time to start the inside section. But sometimes it doesn’t help at all.
Once I have done that I start the edges. I am not a corner first person. Meaning, I don’t find the 4 corners first. I tend to just start determining where the edge pieces go and work my way around. As I find corners I place them where they need to be. Now, if you are like me I will work my way through my nice pile of edge pieces until it runs out and undoubtedly there will be at least 1 or 2 missing edge pieces. This is always a, “Really!” moment. But I was so sure I was super careful this time and didn’t miss any edges. But clearly I have, and so it is back to the inner pieces to sort through again. And I usually find them the second, or third, time through the pile and then the edge is complete. YEAH!!!
Time for the inside. What I tend to do now is look at the picture and find an area that I think I can easily find the pieces for. Maybe there are words, a waterfall, a fruit, or something that I can focus in on and start finding those pieces. Now, as I mentioned before I may have already started some of this sorting. If I have a good pile if inner pieces already I will tend to start with those and try and work those out first.
I will always stop along the way when I see a piece I wasn’t looking for specifically and I say to myself, “wait, I know where that one goes.” And then I will get that one put in or in the general area where it is supposed to go and then move back to what I was working on. I like to go section by section. I don’t tend to jump around much. I say that, but if I start getting to the point where there are only a few pieces left in a section I may at that point move on since it is more beneficial to clear out more pieces in another section before finding the few I still need in that previous section.
I love watching the puzzle come along. Seeing sections develop into a picture is fun. Seeing a mountain grow, or a castle being built, from my pieces is exciting. I take my time doing puzzles. But as the puzzle comes together and I get more excited to see the completed work I am less likely to go away from it. Does that happen to any of you? When I get to the point where I can see the “light at the end of the tunnel” I don’t want to stop. There have been times when m wife has said, “dear, when are we having dinner?” and I have forgotten to get dinner finished up (or started) because I was so caught up in getting a puzzle done.
I tend to take days, if not weeks, doing a puzzle. Over the last many years I have started doing puzzles up at our cabin in the mountains. I love the quietness of doing the puzzles up there. Of course since we only tend to visit for a few days every so often it can take me months to complete at puzzle. But that is fine. I know that when I get there it will be there waiting for me to work on. And I try my best to get some done every time I am there, even if it is just 10-30 minutes the entire time we are there. I have still added to it, and gotten a few steps closer to completing it.
I have shown you a few of the puzzles I have done in recent years. A few of them are wooden puzzles and have fun pieces. They are shaped like people, animals, trees, fruits, etc. My wife got me one a few years back and it was a lot of fun. I like how the puzzles look, and the pieces are fun to work with. I will admit that these are easier puzzles to finish since the pieces have less ability to fit with other pieces. The golfing puzzle is one that my grandparents had and I remembered doing it many times as a kid when visiting them, and then one day I found it and thought, well I am going to do this one right away. My girls helped me a little on it.
Speaking of my kids, they sort of like puzzles. “A” likes them more I think, but she hasn’t been interested in doing it with me that much but she has completed her own puzzles. “G” has sat down with me a few times to help me with puzzles, but she tends to get bored and wants to do other things. Both are totally fine with me. I want them to do things they enjoy, not things they think I want them to do.
So, in a nutshell I like puzzles. I feel so accomplished once a puzzle is completed. I don’t have the time to do them much at all. I think that is why I enjoy them so much more when I am at our cabin because it is a time away from the regular day to day life stuff and I get to relax and do a puzzle (assuming there isn’t some kind if housework/repair that has to be done on the cabin).
What do you think of puzzles?