I love puzzles.
I didn’t really discover this until about five months ago.
A little background first…
Before I got divorced when I was still living in the old house, one of the things I really wanted was a puzzle table.
It was right when the pandemic hit and in the middle of my divorce that I finally carved out a space.
It wasn’t the ideal spot for puzzles because you kind of had to hunch over so you wouldn’t hit your head on the wall/ceiling.
But it was better than nothing.
I only finished one and a half puzzles before I moved. There was a lot of shit going on at the time and also it just wasn’t a convenient spot.
Less than a year later I moved into my new place.
The first time I saw my new house and I walked into this room,
I knew it was going to be my office.
It was perfect.
I didn’t have a whole lot of office furniture, but I did have my grandma’s old dining room table.
I decided to use that for my desk.
Gma’s dining room table looked great in that spot, but it was too big, it was really annoying to get around, and I really was missing not having any drawers to put stuff in.
But it all worked.
I had the dining room table, and I got a loveseat and leather chair (hiding in the left hand corner) from friends for free.
All the artwork was stuff I already had.
The watercolors above the fireplace were painted for me by a woman who discovered the blog years ago, and then we became online friends.
She sent them to me from where she lives — in India!
Unbeknownst to me at the time I had moved, the members of E-School had conspired, and they were sending me a desk that one of them – my good (and sneaky) friend Kelly – had completely refinished.
Kelly is the owner of Hi-Valley Home.
She’s super talented, and her work is AMAZING.
Check her out on Facebook and on Instagram.
Anyway, she wanted me to have a proper desk for my office.
So she and the ladies from E-School pooled their money and had it shipped to my house from Canada.
My new desk arrived in May of 2021.
This picture doesn’t do it justice, but it fits much better in the space than my grandma’s dining room table did.
Now there was just the matter of finding a spot for gma’s table.
We found the perfect place.
I put it right in the corner on the other side of the room where there are built in benches surrounded by windows.
And that was the day I officially had a puzzle table.
This spot may be one of my favorite places in the whole house.
It’s so bright andd cheerful, and the kids love to hang out there.
So does the cat.
That was the first puzzle I finished.
It traveled from my old house to this one.
And one piece never made it.
That was a lesson in letting shit go, I’ll tell you that much.
What I started realizing was that the puzzles were really helpful to me.
They really helped me to focus.
When shit was fucked up in Divorceland, they gave me something to concentrate on that wasn’t my phone and wasn’t TV.
This was was forking hard, but I actually learned stuff it.😂
I still find that my brain is so tired at the end of the day that reading anything just requires too much energy.
I’m getting closer to being able to read to settle down at night.
But I’m not there yet.
Right now the puzzles are more fun.
They don’t require as much brain power.
AND when you are done you have something to show for it.
It’s extremely satisfying.
For me, anyway.
And yeah, sometimes I drift into a puzzle for longer than I should.
Most of the time I set a timer and get some work done.
My reward is a puzzle break when I finish the task.
I love my puzzle breaks.
I forgot to take pics of some of the puzzles.
This is the one I just finished.
I finished it on Saturday night. That was my reward. Saturday Night Puzzle Time.
Oh my 25 year old self would be so disappointed.
But my present self is very content.
Until the puzzle is completed.
I have the same feeling after finishing a puzzle that I do after reading a book.
I miss it.
I get connected to these puzzles.
They become a part of my day.
A welcomed part of my day.
Is this weird?
Am I the only person who misses her puzzles when they are done?
Maybe.
Eh.
Fuck it.
I don’t care.
Maybe I’ve become the Quirky Puzzle Lady.
That’s cool.
I like that title.
Either way, quirky or not, it’s hard to let the puzzles go.
So I have a plan for them.
But you’ll have a wait a little while to see that.
Now, it’s time to start a new puzzle.
Registration for my FREE challenge is OPEN! Join us!
The challenge is just showing up with an open mind.
CLICK HERE.
I’m with you! I love puzzles and am sad when they are done! But yet am relieved because I don’t get much else done when I have a puzzle going! 😬🙈
Check out the Magical Puzzle Company – coolest puzzles ever!
Don’t worry. You aren’t the quirky puzzle lady. I think my sister holds that title and she’s much older than you.
When my kids were younger, I found puzzles to be therapy type sessions. We’d all be staring at something, trying to accomplish it, and talk about things. Hard things. Things you can’t look someone in the eye and say. But you can look at the puzzle and say them to the other person! Walk and talks accomplish the same thing, but sometimes you don’t wanna walk. 🙂
I am so glad you are recovering. I think it took me about two years after divorce (and I left him) to really feel good again, and around another three years to let go of the anger. I hope your path is swifter than mine.
I have my equivalence of puzzle making which is tie blanket making. I like picking out solids backs to match the print. I like thinking if I should give it to someone and whom. The act of making helps my anxiety. It gives my hands something to do. I can still carry on a conversation with my husband and not loose focus like with reading a book. I also feel immense joy giving them away to people I love and people who just need a blanket. I’ve run out of people I know personally to give blankets to so I have partnered with my kids’ old elementary school. They just tell me that they have a child undergoing a trauma and a n age and some favorite colors or likes and I make the child s blanket. It brings me such joy to do it