BIG NEWS – we completed the donut puzzle yesterday and I am NOT in physical therapy. I feel fine. I survived with no permanent muscle damage. Ha.
Jen gave us this puzzle and it’s perfect for me – I like puzzles with a variety of colors and objects, because I start a puzzle by organizing all the pieces by color and object, then begin putting it together (yes, starting with the border). I LOVE to sort, and Steven’s dad got me some stackable puzzle sorting trays (black trays in image below) so sorting pieces is even more fabulous now!
I want doing a puzzle to be relaxing and only a little challenging for my brain so I do not like puzzles that:
- have super irregular pieces
- have an irregular border
- have too much of one color
- are all one color
- are just a gradient of a few colors
- are double sided with two different designs
- are double sides with the same design on both sides, but one side is rotated 90 degrees
- have extra pieces on purpose
- have missing pieces on purpose
- don’t have an image to reference
- are minuscule and you have to use tweezers do them
NO THANK YOU. Maybe some day, but not now.
I am fine with a lot of pieces (this one was 1,000). It’s just a matter of how long I can leave it out on the table before the cats destroy it! This time, they’ve been more interested in the box than the puzzle, phew.
Do you prefer easier puzzles like me, or the complicated ones? Take my poll!
[poll id=”27″]
I go back and forth. Sometimes I like to see how fast I can do an easier puzzle, but sometimes I really like the challenge of a super difficult one!
I thought of you when I was writing this because I know you guys have those stupid hard ones! Do the cats leave them alone if you take a long time on them?
Mostly? Every once in a while, Athena enjoys pulling one off the table (she likes to lay on and stretch and claw at the finished part lol)
I like worming on easy ones when Nathan is involved. But Katie and I like medium difficulty around 1K-2K piece counts with none of those trappings you mentioned above. Just give us a picture with a straight-edged border and dimensions that fit our dining room table and we’re happy.
But we haven’t done any puzzles since the pandemic started because the table is also my desk. Next week, we’re going to start building a desk so I no longer have to use the table and maybe we can try puzzles again.
Does Nathan like them too? There are so many fun kids ones!
It sounds like we are on the same page. That’s exciting you are going to have a dedicated work spot soon and you can start puzzling again!
*working
That is such a cute puzzle! I had a difficult one a few months ago – too many same-ish shaded colors, and resolved that I didn’t need that kind of challenge in my life, LOL. So far the other puzzles I ordered when the pandemic first began haven’t been that hard, thankfully. And I usually alternate between a 1,000 piece and a 500 piece, just to have some completion at an earlier stage.
LOL! I don’t want that kind of challenge in my life either!!!!
That is a good plan! I did a 200 piece one last night and it felt so easy after this one!
Okay, but here’s the real question: are those vegan donuts in the puzzle?? Which one do you think you’d like the best?!
I get quickly and easily frustrated with puzzles of any kind (jigsaw, crossword, etc.) so the easier the better in my opinion. Like I love the daily Mini Crossword the New York Times puts out, because it has like 10 total horizontal and vertical things to fill in. I can almost always finish it in less than a minute, which is exactly what I like about it: it gives me a brief challenge and entertainment, and then I can move on with my life. Same thing with jigsaw puzzles. I’d rather do a children’s jigsaw puzzle than an adult one, because I know I could finish the children’s one in, like, an hour or less. Adult ones are so overwhelming!
They definitely are! I think I’d like that raspberry one with the white stripes!
Your crossword and puzzle preferences make sense to me! Does the mini crossward get harder as the week goes on, like the big one? (Or are they the same thing?!)
I’ll take the first donut on the fifth row. THANK YOU!! 🙂
This really makes me want to do a puzzle but there is NO WAY the cats would let me. Wahhhh. And yeah, I’m down for a puzzle that’s not TOO easy (will take a few hours, at least) but is not just, like, one color gradient or super complicated.
That one does look good!
Ha! At one point, we put a piece of cardboard over a puzzle we had sitting out and clamped it down so the cats would leave it alone so… there’s always that option. Ha ha ha. (Or one of those puzzle roll-up things, but eh, what a pita.)
I agree with all your puzzle specs! Another one for me is that I prefer puzzles that are a highly detailed drawing or cartoon to ones that are a photograph of a landscape – I hate doing a bunch of blurry grass or plain blue sky!
Good luck with the cupcake one!
Yes!!!! I am the same way – lots of detail please!
Thanks, I started sorting pieces last night!