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Stress Less – Puzzle More!

February 12th, 2015

One of the things we like to do around here is puzzles. We find them to the perfect stress reducing activity. Last night we finished up Escort to Oshkosh puzzle, which was a great puzzle.
plane puzzle
Maine Puzzle 1 (1)
Now we’re moving on to a Piatnik puzzle, a brand we haven’t tried before. We found this Starry Night puzzle at a local art museum. I’m always happy to find a puzzle featuring classic art, I have the Japanese Bridge by Monet Ravensburger Puzzle and it’s fantastic. One of my favorite, we do it every
van gogh puzzle
Our collection of puzzles is growing quite nicely. Perhaps next we’ll pull out an old favorite. So far I think we’ve tried just about every brand of puzzle, some are better than others. It’s always nice to spend a few minutes in the morning working on the puzzle while I enjoy my coffee. It’s great to start the day with a stress reducing activity.

Do you have any great puzzles to recommend?

8 Comments to “Stress Less – Puzzle More!”
  1. Marina on February 12, 2015 at 5:50 am

    I love Wentworth wooden jigsaws: jigsaws.co.uk.
    They have whimsies in them, and a lovely collection of fine arts puzzles.
    They can also make personalized jigsaws from your own image, and they are laser cut from a wood board material.
    We have a large collection of them, and we do them often.
    Stressless!

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  2. Sheila on February 12, 2015 at 6:10 am

    How do you puzzles with all those cats around? My cats would jump on the table and inevitably walk off with puzzle pieces stuck to their feet.

    Reply to Sheila's comment

  3. Adelina on February 12, 2015 at 7:25 am

    There is a puzzle shop in Northwood, NH. They make some of their own puzzles and have a great selection of other brands. Some have thousands of pieces. Great shop.

    Reply to Adelina's comment

  4. EmilyMade on February 12, 2015 at 7:31 am

    We like puzzles, too. In fact, I purchased one for my husband for Valentine’s Day! I don’t have any recommendations per se… we often use Ravensburger and have limited experience with other brands.

    Reply to EmilyMade's comment

  5. Emm on February 12, 2015 at 8:29 am

    It’s a bit of a splurge, but I love Liberty wood puzzles out of Boulder, Colorado. Laser cut wood, beautiful designs with whimsical shaped pieces thrown in.

    Reply to Emm's comment

  6. Nebraska Dave on February 12, 2015 at 9:42 am

    Susy, my wife and I did puzzles when I was stationed in Germany way back in the 1969 and 1970. We did put together puzzles for a pass time. We lived in an American compound with others that were there and would pass around puzzles. After assembling many smaller puzzles, my wife and I bought a 6000 piece puzzle that would not fit on any table. We put it together on the living room floor …. well …. we tried to put it together on the living room floor. After a month of trying, I was so burned out with trying that we gave it away in the 1/3 finished state and I have not had any desire to work on a puzzle ever since. I was really determined to get that puzzle together but it broke my puzzle spirit which never has come back.

    During holiday gatherings we always had a puzzle going for anyone to work on. By the end of the day the puzzle was together. I even glued a couple to cardboard backs and kept them for awhile. Puzzle pictures are always awesome pictures.

    Have a great puzzling day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  7. Jennifer Krieger on February 12, 2015 at 1:05 pm

    How do you manage to do puzzles without your cats destroying them? Or are your cats always outdoors? Ours delights in swatting individual pieces off the table.

    Reply to Jennifer Krieger's comment

  8. penni brown on February 12, 2015 at 2:21 pm

    My dad was always a puzzle guy, so each year we would scour shoppes trying to find more and more difficult things for him to solve and or piece together.

    A few of his favourites were–

    The edgeless puzzle, a puzzle that came with out any edges
    The completely white puzzle, no picture at all, just solid white!
    The puzzle that came with all the pieces fitting each other, no matter which pieces you put together they’d fit perfectly, although the photo may not
    The puzzle that ended up as a giant orb, or the Taj Mahal
    The one that was of an apartment building was easy to put together, but there was a mystery involving clues within the picture you could solve, send in your theory, and win $10k. (He came in a week behind the winner)
    And another called “Hay in a Needle Stack” – a photo of a piece of wheat placed on top of a zillion shimmering silver needles.

    The last one I’ll offer was one I personally made for him of one inch wood cubes, each with the exact geometric design stained in black. There were dozens of cubes and the fun of it was that there was no particular design other than the one you made up yourself. Patterns, odd looking shapes, people, or animals, it could be stacked or lay flat.

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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