A post about puzzles

Having just found my box of puzzles and put a couple together in the past few days, I thought I would share some things about me and puzzles. A lot of people enjoy putting puzzles together, but we are not all the same (obviously) and our reason for doing puzzles is very different, I am sure.

As for me, I don’t really want a challenge when I put together a puzzle. My life is full of challenges, so I am looking for something engaging, but that I can be successful at without much trouble. It needs to be relaxing, or I simply don’t do it. I put all the pieces out, then put them all back in the box a couple months later, without having ever put together more than, possibly, the border. The things that make it too hard for me are the number of pieces – anything much over 300 doesn’t fit on the table in a way that I have room to put the puzzle together while I can still see all the pieces – and the size of the pieces – small pieces don’t have enough “information” on them for me to be able to figure out where they go. So small pieces if the puzzle is very detailed are okay. But hundreds of small pieces all the same basic color does not make for an enjoyable experience for me. There have been occasions where I worked for a couple hours and only found places for three or four pieces. I just don’t have that much patience!

So my favorite puzzles are 300 piece puzzles with “large, easy-to-handle pieces.” It may seem like no challenge to  you, but for me, it is something I can put together in a couple sittings and have fun doing, then store it away until I put it together again next year or the year after.

I’m saying all this because I really do appreciate that you give me puzzles as gifts, but I suffer a lot of guilt because of not following through and putting them together when they are just way beyond my personal level of “puzzle enjoyment.” I hope you don’t take this wrong! And truth be told, I really enjoy putting together the 300 piece “easy” puzzles!