I've started a puzzle I found at the flea market last year. It's a 1000 piece puzzle of a winter scene. I got to thinking about how and when I discovered puzzles and it brought back a memory from childhood. It was a picture to me when I first saw it laying on the dining room table at my grandparents house. The colors were dark and rich which made the scene look almost real. I sat and stared at a picnic scene or a family reunion at a park not really sure but it was beautiful. I then noticed the lines and began to exam it closely by feeling it. I don't recall ever asking why it was like that. It was only until I began tagging along with my Mom to yard sells and such that I found out what a puzzle was. The one thing that has always stuck in my mind was that little girl standing by a big tall tree by herself looking out around her. I was probably 4 or 5 years old but to this day any time I see or hear the word puzzle this particular memory pops in my mind. I wanted to piece that special puzzle together myself and frame it then hang it up. I still look for that puzzle today with hopes that it will appear.
i do puzzles online from time to time. Not any large amount of pieces, since they are online. I do crorssword puzzles and word games.
I love jigsaw puzzles, but haven't done one in a long time. I learned about them from my grandmother when I was a little kid also. She did the 1000 piece ones sometimes. I like them small enough so that all the pieces fit on whatever table you are using. We had a card table and we'd put the pieces in box lids and trays on the floor. Some we'd leave up for days, maybe weeks, and just do a piece or 2 every now and then passing by. I have too much clutter in my house already to do that now.
Years ago, when I was renting an apartment with a friend of mine, we both worked different shifts and rarely saw one another except for a few hours a day or on weekends, so we had a running game board (usually Parcheesi, Backgammon, or Chess) that we'd make a move on when we got up or after we got home from work, but we also worked jigsaw-type puzzles, each of us putting a few pieces in from time to time. We both lived in Southern California then, and just reconnected about a year ago. He's in Texas now, and I moved from Texas to Maine in 2001.
For my grandson who is 16 now when he had an interest in something I would come across small to medium size puzzle and made it into a picture and framed it for his room. Batman, Superman, animals, etc. He outgrew them so I donated them to Goodwill. My granddaughters like to do puzzles too. It's fun to watch them.
They make jigsaw puzzles for you out of personal photos now. You could take a picture of your granddaughters and have a puzzle made for them. Just a thought. LINK to AMAZON But, if it were me I'd rather have a picture of my grandmother.
One of my GD and I did a USA map of one, glued and hung in picture frame. i bought the puzzle when I realized they never taught in school the capitals of each state, she wanted to know,
I use to do jigsaw puzzles and had several hundred of them before I started my downsizing. The last one I did was 2500 pieces. I did a few online but haven't done that for a while. I do word puzzles before bed to fight dementia. Old age is a puzzle to me and I am in no hurry to fit all the pieces together.
@Michelle Anderson (my wife) has used Luminosity, I think, saying that it helps her with her memory and other things. I haven't tried it, but I believe that it has a variety of different games and puzzles that can be done on a tablet computer, or smartphone. I could be wrong, or they may have changed it, but I think there was a free level, as well as a paid one that would keep track of your progress or something along those lines.
I do crossword puzzles but have never been interested in jigsaw. My husband used to occasionally have a jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table but hasn't in a long while now.
Like others here, I used to do a lot of puzzles, but it's been years. The only negative memory of them is having the cat carry a piece off, and if you were lucky enough to find it (hopefully not in the litter box) it was mangled beyond recognition, making for that one Picasso-eqsue spot in the scene.
@Faye Fox did you have a theme for your choice of puzzles or just random ones that caught your fancy?
I'm not into jigsaw puzzles, but I do play some form of game online every single day to keep my brain working. I enjoy word games, crosswords, euchre and Pictionary, but trivia is my passion. My "go-to" site is sporcle.com. Thousands of games in every category imaginable. Love it!
Whatever caught my eye and was on clearance. Also whatever the older lady down the street had finished and insisted I take.