Puzzling

When it looks like this outside ...... day after day after day ....... what do you do?

I like puzzles. Love of my life does not. In past years I would occasionally get the urge to assemble a puzzle. I would set it all up and spend hours happily fitting pieces together. It is a great activity for insomniacs and it goes well with Lifetime movies. If I happen upon a puzzle with a theme I really like I will mount the finished product and display it.

Just imagine the joy when I realized that my new best buddy, Deb, loved puzzles, too!!! Add to that all the Coca Cola puzzles we have found .......... I am singing "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!


Here you see a masterpiece in progress. It must stay that way until I return from my visit with the grandchildren. Deb and I won't be spending another weekend together until then. I admit that it is tempting to escape from my day and sit a spell while pondering colors and shapes ....... but, no, I won't do it.

This is Deb's side. We have different approaches to this activity. I have a method and rules, while Deb would sit pawing through the box looking for a piece that she might could use.

This is my side with the pieces lined in rows just like my Daddy taught me to do. There are rules! First you pull all the edge pieces out of the box, then carefully get all the pieces lined up neatly so that you can see them all. This involves some accessory boards to put all the pieces on. With these you can walk around the puzzle with the pieces in your hand like a tray while studying the colors and shapes needed. If it a difficult puzzle, then you separate these pieces into colors and shapes. First you construct the outer edges of the puzzle and then start filling it in. You never start the middle until the edge is done.

I am trying to teach her, but she is a rebel. She insists on doing it her way, although she has admitted that my way is beneficial and she likes having all the pieces face up and lined up neatly instead of jumbled in a box. And I have started a middle before the edges were done. She has yet to line up the pieces neatly, though. I am still working on that.

Here you see our first puzzle. It is mounted and ready to be framed and displayed in the store. We spent a whole weekend listening to the sounds of the sixties and singing along while putting the pieces together. Love of my life was at work while we played puzzle.

This one was fun! Lots of red. It is ready to mount and frame. I really like Coke ......... it's the real thing!

So, what are you doing while the snow is falling?