Life Is A Puzzle, I Need An Assistant And My Not- So-Secret Recruiting Tactic.

On By SuzIn As blogged by Suz

On Fathers day hours after we arrived home from Charleston, Lindsay came over to make dinner with my MIL, who had been house/dog sitting while we traveled. Have I mentioned that I’m a lucky girl? My MIL is the bomb.com.

While we were all chatting and catching up I made my way to the dining room table where I had started a puzzle about a week before; it was a tough one and my MIL, Sue, stated that she had found a few pieces while we were gone.

About 10 minutes later, like Moths To A Flame, Linds and Sue joined me at the Puzzle Pavilion.

THIS IS WHERE YOU WILL QUESTION MY WIT

I had noticed when I started this puzzle that the backside of the pieces had letters on them; A B C D E & F.

This was a *new to me* brand and for the life of me I could not figure out why the pieces were lettered….I looked all over the box and insert for a clue, but none found me. I contemplated looking it up on the google machine, but that thought came and left.

One minute into our puzzle party, Linds said: “Oh, the letters are divided by the alphabet to make sorting easier.”

My head whipped towards her: HOW do you know this?

Linds pointing in front of me: It’s written on the box..A Secret Tip, right there.

I astonish myself on the daily…I didn’t see that Clear As Day writing on the wall box and I’m happy that her college education IS paying off.

The funny thing was it wasn’t in ABC order…but if you envisioned the puzzle flipped over, then it was in ABC order. From our view starting at the top left was CBA, then the lower half starting the left was FDE. *smacks palm to face*

But knowing that the letters were facing the correct direction, also made fitting the pieces so much easier which was a big deal since this was a complicated puzzle with all sorts of colors and no real shapes to identify what went where. So what I’m saying is, this puzzle is made for Professionals; you know, like someone who might be the President Of The Puzzle Club.

This ABC business made the sorting SO MUCH EASIER and WHY DIDN’T I DO THIS LAST WEEK?

Linds the Genius and G’ma Sue.

We forced ourselves to stop long enough to finish making dinner, eat, cleanup and then we proceeded to drink wine, sort, puzzle and laugh our biscuits off for a few hours.

My MIL told me at least three times before she departed the next day how much fun she had, so I amazon-ed her an ABC (CBA) puzzle, a puzzle board and sorting trays. Now she and my FIL are also addicted to puzzling.

People, I believe I’ve just showed you how I recruit for my Puzzle cult Club! Please keep that a secret between the sixteen of us.

I feel like I’ve blogged about puzzles so much since the beginning of the pandemic that I should create a Puzzle Tag for the blog.

Do you puzzle? Have you experienced the ABC/CBA puzzle brand?

Your Friend Suz, Reigning President Of The Puzzle Club.

XOXO

46 thoughts on “Life Is A Puzzle, I Need An Assistant And My Not- So-Secret Recruiting Tactic.”

  2. mbmom11

    I try to do puzzles- but right now my cats like sleeping on my work in progress. No snazzy puzzle board- just a piece of foam board that’s just barely big enough. I’ve never had one with the sorting hint on the back. Right now I’m doing one where I’m down to the last 150 pieces or so all in some similar shade of green. This will take a while!

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    1. Cats + things on surfaces do not match. That is one thing I don’t miss about my cats, may they rest in peace (and off my table)
      The hint was pretty clever in my mind…still not an easy puzzle by any means.
      You are at the point where patience is definitely needed in your puzzle.

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  3. I’ve never seen or heard of the ABC/CBA puzzle brand, but then again I’m not a puzzler. I don’t have the patience for it. My Rare One, on the other hand, loves jigsaws and does the whole sorting pieces into trays thing. She can sit and do a damn puzzle for hours.

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  5. I bought a puzzle at the beginning of the pandemic and have yet to open the box! I would say I’m not a puzzle person! My daughter on the other hand has always loved puzzles. She has a puzzle mat that she uses where she rolls the unfinished puzzle up when she’s not working in it.

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  7. M

    I always marvel at people who can work though and enjoy the process of putting together puzzles. I am not a puzzler (puzzle-builder-solver) because I don’t have the patience required. But I wish I had the patience when I see others talking about it because yes, it sounds very satisflying to get one, specially a complicated one, finished. I’m glad you’re finding joy in it!

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    1. I had no idea how much I would love doing them until the pandemic. It’s quite therapeutic for me to sit down and work on one….my mind quiets itself and that is a rare thing.

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  8. The group my son belongs to do puzzles and once he gets into one, he doesn’t like to stop until its finished. I wish I had the time to help him out! I enjoy the challenge…just not enough time. Ugh. Glad y’all enjoyed the time you had together working on…what was it a puzzle of? Do you have a finished picture? Mona

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    1. I love that your son is a determined puzzler once he starts.

      I’m almost finished with it…it appears to be a Van Gogh-type knock-off with wispy lines reminiscent of Starry Night. Lots of swirls and varying colors. Not an easy puzzle in my book.

      I don’t always have enough time to work on puzzles, but it’s my goal in the morning to work on a puzzle while I enjoy my cup of coffee instead of hitting the computer first thing.

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  10. Bijoux

    We do the 1000-2000 piecers here in the winter. Right after New Year’s, the dining room turns into puzzle town for three months. I have never seen the letter thing before, but I buy really cheap puzzles!

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    1. Oh….I can not handle the really cheap puzzles. When the pieces don’t click together properly or the pieces are thin and rip…ugh.
      Apparently, I’m a puzzle snob.

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  11. I enjoy puzzles but usually only do them during the Christmas break. If I had the space, I’d probably have one going on more often than not during the rest of the year. I suppose I need to invest in a roll up mat or something. And no, I have never seen a puzzle with the alphabet on the back.

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  12. So funny. I love your MIL, too. Hilarious that it was printed on the side of the box. Lately I’ve wanted to bang my head against the wall for the times I’ve said BUT IT IS RIGHT THERE ON THE THE TOP SHELF, only to have a teenager say NO IT ISN’T. Then I march over and point it out. Maybe you are more like a teenager than you think.

    I have puzzles for the tots and preschool guys here, but otherwise, no thanks. I attribute my lack of puzzle interest to the fact that life in general around here feels like a puzzle. All I do is try to figure out where this sock belongs, or who left their stuff over there, who is going to drive which car where, and who ate this and didn’t put it away, or spilled something and didn’t clean it up. I like your kind of puzzles better, because they come with directions.

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    1. Yay-I’m a teenager?!

      Maybe one day when the house is quiet…you know, in about 15 years then you’ll have time to do whatever YOU want to do.

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  14. nicoleboyhouse

    Hahahahaha omg I laughed so hard “her college education is paying off!” Suz, you crack me up. I did know there were those puzzles in existence and I even have one, but it isn’t a hard puzzle anyway so I didn’t use the sorting thing. The first rule of puzzle club is you don’t talk about puzzle club! I love puzzles but I don’t like ones that are too hard. I like a satisfying, challenging but not difficult puzzle!
    Your MIL sounds great! You lucky girl!

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    1. M

      Do such puzzles exist, Nicole? If there are satisgying and challenging but not difficult puzzles, I could see myself get into it every so often. The ones I tried before were just too frustrating for me and I didn’t have the patience to sort through them –.but of course, I also think I was not in the right place (of mind) when I tried. You know…. too many things to do/places to go, etc!

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  16. I’m probably in the minority – at least among my own circle – but I despise jigsaw puzzles. Once, Tara and I rented a beach house on the Oregon coast, and decided to work on a puzzle. It was the most excruciating three hours of our lives. We’ve never touched another since.

    Having said that, word puzzles are another story entirely. I’d be lost without my daily Wordle!

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