FAMILY PIECES: PUZZLES FOR FOR A PARTY

For the most part, puzzling for me has been a solitary event.  On occasion, I have enjoyed the opportunity to gather with one or two others and enjoy some camaraderie and conversation over a puzzle.  But those moments have been few and far between lately.  But I have a dream.  

This Christmas, my sister gave me a puzzle.  It was a Cobble Hill 350 pc Family Pieces puzzle ("Happy Pawlidays") .  The puzzle comes with three different sizes of puzzle pieces.  Instead of doing my regular assembly, tape up and store... I decided I wanted to share this puzzle with others.  I had one opportunity on my Mother's birthday to gather with a friend of the family and we had two glorious hours of puzzling. 

I want to collect not only conversation, but memories.  So the deal is everyone who helps me with these puzzles signs their last piece.  It is my hope going forward that I can collect signatures.  I have yet to have another puzzle party, but I am hopeful that maybe I can find others to join me in a cheerful day of puzzling.  

I was puzzle browsing in town and found another Cobble Hill 350 pc Family Pieces puzzle.  It was a summer scene ("Call of the Wild").  I thought I might add that one to my collection in case the puzzle partiers aren't into the wintery Christmasness of the other puzzle.  

Puzzles take time, and what better way to foster conversation than by participating in a time consuming activity.  These puzzles are great for all ages.  I hope to discover just how much fun people can have together by just assembling a puzzle and maybe... I can invite them into some great exchange of thoughts, hopes and dreams.  

 

THE PUZZLES OF MY PAST

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Not until I remembered that I had saved these puzzles, did I ever think that I would save more. 

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It was about fifteen to twenty years ago that these six puzzles found life.  In a Calgary basement suite, in my late thirties, I found time in my busy social schedule to assemble some puzzles.  I don't remember much about the assembly process, but the table was special.  It is the same table I have now. 

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It is a folding table that I picked up specifically for doing puzzles.  About three feet squared, it had a black leather top.  My dad thought the soft top might not be suited for puzzling, so he measured the table and during his next visit, brought me a piece of glass that he cut himself.  It fit the table perfectly.  He was right. Puzzling on glass was easier.

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As I peruse the puzzles, I am surprised to find that they aren't all that colourful.  I can't say they would be on my top picks for puzzles now.  I like a lot of vibrancy and colour in my puzzles.  Some even had the same shape and those are challenging with colour.  I am amazed at what I challenged myself with twenty years ago.  I don't feel that brave now.  

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These six puzzles didn't get broken down after they were assembled.  I sandwiched them between cardboard, untaped and unglued.  They made their way into storage at my Mom's farm, and when the pandemic hit and I was laid off from work,  I found myself wanting to puzzle again, I dug these puzzles out of storage and taped them up.  It gave me the idea of saving my work instead of letting it dissolve back into the boxes.  Now I have a growing collection of saved puzzles and with them, are these treasures of my past. 

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FILLING HOLES WITHOUT HIDING THEM

Someone warned me about the risks of purchasing puzzles from second hand stores.  

This is my third puzzle that I have assembled from my thrift store purchases and my second of my Bashaw haul.  It is, however, the first to be missing pieces.  The other two puzzles had no missing pieces at all.  I think the most I have had for missing pieces on other puzzles has been two.  Up until now, I have been creative enough to fill the holes and hide them as much as I can so they blend in with the puzzle.  This puzzle challenged me in a different way.  When I finished assembling everything I was given, I was missing ten pieces.  I probably could hide the pieces.  Most of them are in rather insignificant places, so a little colouring would blend them in more, but after some thought... I went in a different direction.  

The more I thought of this puzzle, the more it started to remind me of me.  Some of the elements of the picture painted a portrait of my life.  There is breathing life (the cat), there is imagined life (the bear) and there is a container with unknown contents (the basket) and some added bling (the plate and birdlike container).  All of it is staged for the camera against a rather dull background.  It seems rather orderly, but with the presence of a cat, one wonders how long the order would last.  

Thinking of the stage play that has been my life, I realize that it doesn't appear that orderly for the most part, but sometimes, I am trying hard to make it look that way.  What lacks in the original picture is colour.  That bothered me.  I thought colour was a necessity for me in choosing puzzles, but something called to me in this picture and I added it to my collection.  

In trying to figure out how I would complete this puzzle, I thought maybe I could do something different.  Maybe there was a story in the missing pieces, and hiding them would do a disservice to the story.  I pulled out a collection of sticky notes that I had and went to work.  

This is what the puzzle looks like after some creative colouring.  

What completed this puzzle as a picture of my life is the many holes.  How could I then try to blend in the missing pieces when I haven't been too successful in my real life to blend in the holes.  What could I do with the holes in my life?  Holes like missed people, missed opportunities, missed skills,  health issues, conflicts and wasted moments.  What can I do to add colour instead of hiding them to match the rest of the staged portrait?  If I can do it with a puzzle, it bears further thought as to what is possible with life.  

A PUZZLE HAUL IN A VERY JOYFUL DAY

 It must have been quite the sight at the Bashaw Thrift Store yesterday.  There I was, sitting on the floor, making my pile of puzzles.  I discovered that most of the joy of puzzles is in the acquiring.  I really discovered how amazing it is to find a stack and not need a huge investment.  These puzzles were paid for by my friend Marlene for a birthday gift, but I was blown away that she only paid $2.00 for each puzzle.  So for a total of fourteen dollars, I walked out with 9050 puzzle pieces. That is 0.0015 cents for 1 puzzle piece.  What a bargain!  I might be back there again. 

Yesterday was a day of joy and my puzzle haul was only a part of the joy.  My mother came along with me and has thanked me three times already for the trip. I figure she had a lot of joy too.  We got to spend some quality time with two amazing friends and even got to meet up with some other people at a community gathering at the church that my parents had worked on back in 1987.  My dad (with some volunteer help) built a new steeple to replace a leaking one.  

My road trips with my Mom are a treasure for me.  I don't mind driving two hours to have a great big hug and the words "I love you, Ruby" ring in my ear.  Love is an amazing thing and I was reminded yesterday that I don't need to be fully known to be fully loved.  Love takes care of the rest.  I wrote a poem about that.  

PUZZLING MEETS SPRING PLANTING

When I am out and about, I have my favourite places where I go and look at the puzzles.  I don't always buy, but I am always on the look-out for a new story.  Some of my favourite places include Dollar Tree, Dollarama, Walmart, Home Hardware, Cabellas and Canadian Tire. 

This 1000 pc Sur-lok puzzle is a find from Canadian Tire.  I can't remember what month I picked it up, but I was waiting until spring to start this one.  It marks my flower seed planting this year.  Assembly started the day I put my sweet peas to soak.  I worked on it the next day, when I planted my sweet peas and finished it the day after.  

This puzzle was one of the same shape picks.  I am leery of buying puzzles that don't offer me more variety in shapes.  This one offered me a lot of colour and variety in the image, so I figured I could wade through the challenge.  

Most of the flowers on this puzzle don't show up in my garden.  Maybe it's an invite to expand my floral selection.  This year I have tulips coming up for the first time in my Calmar gardens.  I was given some marigold seeds from my sister-in-law for my birthday.  My gardens change every year because I love the variety of flowers offered and wish I could find a home for them all.  

Spring work will eventually take me away from puzzling as I enjoy the outdoors compared to being in my office desk mulling over what piece to place next.  I would rather be digging in the dirt than digging through puzzle pieces.  But I also had another thought.  What if I brought my puzzling outside.  What if I spent time in the sunlight instead of my office.  I might find that to be an enjoyable experience.  It's something to think about.  

REMEMBER THE JOY

 This puzzle is one of my Dollar Tree finds.  Dollar Tree has quite the selection of lower quality puzzles ranging from small size puzzles up to 500 pc puzzles.  But the colour and vibrancy of the images is what attracts me the most to these beauties that only cost a mere $1.50.  

Most of the puzzles I like to acquire are nature themed, but this puzzle was telling me a story from the moment I picked it off the shelf.  It was bringing back to me some very joyful memories of my life.  

Carousels, Roller Coasters, Ferris Wheels... and all the sugar that went with the amusement park experience... this puzzle tells me off those precious things I miss about a different time in my life.  I enjoyed wild rides, carnival music and the culinary delights that came with the experience.  Candied apples take me as far back in my memories as grade school.  Looking back, I don't know if I actually liked eating them, but they were also part of a happy story.  

For three months of my life, I had the opportunity to work in the West Edmonton Mall Amusement park.   It was the summer of 1990 before I went to agriculture college.  So many memories.  I was given free passes to all the attractions and was able to bring my family along for many of the "rides".   I am also taken back in my memories  to my trip to DisneyWorld and Epcot Centre with my parents and sister...That was in 1985... so many memories.  

Now, when I pass a carnival, I stop and reflect.  I don't automatically think of the joy that came with every ride and every game I played.  I look at the whole experience as a grand waste of money.  It's amazing that a little thing like the awareness of the world of commerce can pour so much disappointment on top of what used to be filled with so much joy and happiness.  

The puzzle didn't bring back me to that place... it only brought me to the joy.   

LENTEN PUZZLES COMPLETED.

 Today is the day on the calendar identified as "Good Friday".  Forty-nine days ago, I started three puzzles.  (See original post here) Every day I added a piece to each puzzle. Today the puzzles were completed.  

I wanted to do something to mark each day.  Maybe the farming theme doesn't have much to do with Lent, but I liked the colour and activity of the pictures, so I chose them as my puzzles.  Lent, like Advent, is my way of finding space during a season to minimize the pain at the end.  I still want the journey to matter, even though the destination ceases to have meaning for me now.  

This puzzle has a little personal controversy for me that I just noticed this morning. This tractor is spraying his crop, and I am a supporter of organic farming.  How do I find beauty in the puzzle when the picture seems to remind me of what I don't support in my world?  Maybe that is the part of the journey.  How many other things in life do I need to find space for that I don't support?  What a lesson for today.  

This is my most favourite of all the three puzzles because of the beauty of the sky.  The colours and the birds make this harvest scene come alive.  I guess it symbolizes the end of the journey.  Or is it the beginning of the bread.  Did I also mention that I don't eat bread anymore.  My gluten free diet also makes this picture not part of my world.  But somehow I still get to find beauty in the pictures, even though the inspiration is a little foreign to me now.   

After I photographed them, I collapsed these puzzles, with the hope that I can find someone else that might enjoy assembling them again with me.  I still long for the opportunity to puzzle with others.  There is so much joy in the community of puzzling.  

THE TREE OF LIFE

If ever a puzzle told a story, this one does.  It is what draws me to the artistry of jigsaw puzzles.  

This was a birthday puzzle.  Enroute to my 55th birthday party, I did a puzzle hunt at the Camrose Dollar stores and this one I got at Dollarama for five dollars.  Eeboo's puzzle quality is amazing.  It is not like the puzzles I get at Dollar tree.  The pieces are glossy and thick. It is a 23" square.   For five dollars, I am getting a good puzzle.  

This puzzle has so many attributes that draw me to the story.  It has so many animals that I long to connect with.  It is a kaleidoscope of colour.   

It wasn't easy to assemble.  This puzzle is a "one piece at a time" assembly.  There is not sorting by colour or design, only shape.  Each piece is studied as to where it fits in the pattern.  Each piece gets special attention.  

The assembly took me five days.  The story for me, lasts as long as the picture is my mind.