October 13, 2016 – My Jigsaw Journal

Minimal progress today, but still progress

Super frustrating day for me 😦 I have found I am missing a piece and it just took the wind out of my sails. I have separated all remaining pieces by shape, and am definitely missing one. I’m sure it’s my fault and that it is somewhere in the house. But I haven’t found it yet and I’m disheartened. It was difficult for me to concentrate and I only added about 100 pieces to the puzzle today.

I’ve been trying to keep this blog lighthearted and positive, even when I don’t have the best day in general, or find myself frustrated by lack of progress on the puzzle. But menopause is kicking my middle-aged behind, and my mood has been pretty awful all week, in addition to being ill with a cold. The ridiculous thing is I know intellectually that I’m being unreasonable, moody and slightly crazy; but I seem to have no ability to stop it. My poor, poor family has to deal with Mood Swing Momma till the hormonal surge has receded.

Hopefully the bright, shiny, positive puzzle lady will be back soon.

The Talking Jigsaw Puzzle – The Office Building – Buffalo Games – 560 pieces

I’ve finally completed The Office Building! I’ve been ignoring it since my progress on the big kahuna was going so well, but I finally put this one to bed! They’re really quite fun, it’s too bad they’ve been out of print for so long. We were very lucky to find both this one and The Fitness Center at thrift stores. I’ve purposely taken a not so great picture so that if someone does have this puzzle I’m not giving away the solution.

Each window or section is four pieces, you assemble each section and once they are all assembled you have to figure out where they belong in the puzzle by clues – what the people are saying, room numbers in the background, where each person is looking or pointing, etc. Here’s a close up of a few sections to show how the clues help you with positioning.

Be careful, each window actually fits next to every other window!

You can check to be sure you’re placing each window in the correct place by checking the back of the pieces. On the back of the puzzle is the word “congratulations” in many different fonts, you can see immediately if you’ve placed a section in the right place. I enjoyed this puzzle very much, the extra challenge of having no picture to use as a guide and putting together each little section. I hope we are able to eventually find some more of the talking jigsaws at thrift stores, it’s a enjoyable challenge!