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  I have admired Young Girl in Green by Tamara de Lempicka since I saw Michael Chippendale's version of it on The Stencil Library blog of April 10, 2013. His reinterpretation is done by painting the image on thousands of dots. When completed the image looks abstract up close but is recognizable from a distance. When I saw the puzzle shown above at the Puzzle Warehouse I snapped it up immediately. After completing the puzzle I knew I didn't want to toss it back into the box and store it on a shelf.  The only other option was to brush a thin layer of glue to the back side.   I found a frame in the garage that was close to the right size but not perfect. So I painted a small border over the existing painting. It needed to be approximately 3/4 inch down each side and about 1/4 inch at the top and bottom. Once that was dry I brushed a layer of glue onto the painting inside the frame and quickly positioned the puzzle inside the border I had painted. By having the glue on ...

My sister-in-law gifted me with this puzzle at the end of December.  She had started working on the border but decided it was too hard and gave up.  Knowing I like puzzles she thought I might be up for the challenge. I too started with the border but found that there were a few missing pieces.  I didn't let that stop me.  This was clue #2 that I ignored. The next step wasn't too bad, but yet somewhat challenging. If this was challenging, then clue #3 was: maybe the rest of pieces would be way tougher to fit together.  Normally sorting is a good place to start, but even that was somewhat daunting. This was definitely not the final sort.  Over time I learned to recognize small discrepancies and resorted again and again . Slowly I was able to build around the monarch butterfly but then I hit the point of asking myself if I really wanted to continue.  It was getting harder and sometimes more than an hour would pass without fi...

I have always loved jigsaw puzzles.  I remember having a card table set up in Jodie's room when she was a baby.  During those middle of the night feedings I would work on the puzzle while I waited for her to burp.  I lost more sleep than necessary.  Even when she had fallen asleep again, I would keep working on the puzzle. That speaks to the strength of my addiction. Since retirement, I have reactivated the craze.  Here are a few of the more recent ones I finished. This was a loaner from a friend.  It's the first time I had ever worked with a wooden puzzle.  The pieces are all wonderful unique shapes and they feel great in your hand. This was the second wooden Liberty puzzle.  They are a job and beautiful but a bit expensive. This was a gift from my grandsons.  I actually put this one together twice because Nathan started it while they were visiting.  When they left I couldn't just crumble what he had started. Thi...