Thoughts of an introverted bookworm and avid jigsaw puzzler
Pumpkins & Gourds is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco that I got at a puzzle swap a few weeks ago. Thankfully it was still in good condition and had all the pieces.
This was an enjoyable build that didn’t take too long. I did it the same evening that I did the two MicroPuzzles. It would be a great puzzle for fall, but I didn’t want to hold onto it for that long, so I went ahead and did it now. This will be going back into my swap pile.
Alpine Village and Here Comes Santa are 150-piece puzzles from MicroPuzzles. Michael put these in my Christmas stocking, and I was so happy to get them. The pieces are so tiny! I would not recommend if you have arthritis or anything like that.
Alpine Village was a bit tricky because of the level of detail on the tiny pieces. Here Comes Santa is just so adorable with the happy snowman!
These puzzles come in a clear plastic tube with a screw-top lid. The packaging is super cute, but it does make it hard to look at the puzzle image as it is wrapped around the outside of the tube.
January 29th is National Puzzle Day in the US, created to celebrate all forms of puzzles. Of course, my favorite type is the jigsaw, as evidenced by the over 340 jigsaw puzzles I have done in the last 4 1/2 years.
Last night I hosted two friends who also enjoy doing puzzles. We had dinner together and then I had them choose one from my collection to do. They chose Cat Stamps, a 500-piece from Re-marks.
We had a great time putting this image together. This was the first puzzle I had done from this brand, and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality given the price. The pieces fit together well enough that we could pick up whole sections and move them around. The finish was pretty glossy, but I got used to that after a while.
Here is the finished puzzle:
Happy National Puzzle Day!
Bookish Question: How do you decide when to DNF a book?
I ask this because I recently had my first DNF of 2026. It was women’s fiction, which is normally right up my alley, but I picked it up twice and both times just felt stressed out by it.
I am not going to name the book, but I will say that I found the situation the main character was in to be very stressful and I also thought the book was kind of dated. When I checked my progress in the Libby app, I was only at 10%, but I just decided to be done with it. I have plenty of other books on my TBR.
I feel a mild sense of guilt about this, although I will say that is a vast improvement over where I was a decade ago when I wouldn’t have considered not finishing a book. So that makes me curious how other people decide when and why to DNF a book.
Starry Seasons is a 500-piece puzzle from 1canoe2. This gorgeous puzzle was on my wish list for a long time, but I kept passing it up due to the price tag. Then the brand had a $15 sale on their website, and I snatched this one up right away. I just love the vertical grid design and how beautifully each season is represented.
The quality was great and the puzzle was not too hard, so I was able to do it in one sitting. I typically pull out the edges while flipping the rest of the pieces and then sort as needed as I go along, and that worked pretty well for this puzzle. After doing the edges and the bottom sections, I pulled out the pieces that bordered each season and it was like doing four mini puzzles after that.
I am in love with the finished product and will definitely be doing this one again.
The Dandelion & The Thistle by Pip Dolyn
Most of the time these days I read in short bursts, usually while I am having a meal, but I could not put this book down. I was so invested in the friendship and possible romance between Addison and Colin that I just had to keep reading until I got to the end.
Addison and Colin meet at Makers Market, a monthly market for local artists. Addison has been there forever and is the go-to person for anyone who needs anything, and Colin is a new vendor who is trying to make ceramics his full time job. Over time, they become friends and explore the potential for a romantic relationship.
This book has its share of lighthearted fun, but there are also a lot of serious topics raised as the two share their stories with each other and learn how to navigate around each other’s unique characteristics and past trauma. The author has a note at the beginning of the book listing the sensitive topics so you can decide whether you are comfortable reading it. It is also an open-door romance.
I felt like Addison was autistic-coded, but I don’t want to read anything into the story that wasn’t there, so I will just say I could relate to them in a lot of ways.
One neat thing about the ebook is the inclusion of several song playlists Colin makes for Addison. There are links to them for both Apple Music and Spotify so you can listen to them yourself, which is really cool.
Here’s a picture out my window right now. I’m so glad to be inside and not need to go anywhere or do anything today. I’m also super glad I work from home and don’t have to worry about this tomorrow morning!
This was another quiet week for me. I went to the eye doctor’s office to order new glasses and picked out a really pretty purple pair. This was after I had ordered online to save money and waited 6 weeks to get the glasses only to find out they came with non-removable safety shields that weren’t pictured in the try-on window on the website. Those have been returned and now I am waiting for the new ones to come in.
Michael had a phone interview for a job on Thursday, so we spent Wednesday evening getting prepped for that. When the interviewer hadn’t called by 15 minutes after the scheduled time, I had him call her. Turns out she had put the interview on her calendar for next Tuesday despite confirming the Thursday appointment by email! She did go ahead with the interview on that call, so now we wait to see if he gets it.
I had an interesting week at work. We needed some help in our accounting department, so I learned a bunch of new things so I could help out for a little while. I am also documenting the tasks I am learning so I can help train when new people are hired. I have found it really enjoyable, much more so than when I am asked to help with customer service related tasks, I think because I like concrete, objective tasks with little interaction with people.
On the puzzle front, I am making progress on my to do pile but have also broken down and ordered a few new puzzles. My to do pile is down from 71 to 55, which is great progress! I have ordered 4 new puzzles, however, all higher end brands that are hard to get if you don’t grab them when you can.
I haven’t finished any books in the last few days, but I am enjoying a reread of Sheepfarmer’s Daughter by Elizabeth Moon. I read it many years ago as a teenager and am happy to say it has held up really well.
I have been thinking lately about some of the cute or quirky things Michael has said over the years and wanted to share a few of them here. I may share more later if I think of any. I have included photos from the approximate time frame as well, and I had so much fun looking through old pictures for these!
When Michael was 3 years old, he was in a special needs preschool and learning how to talk. One time we were in the car and he wanted his sippy cup. When I handed it back to him, he said, “Good reaching, Mommy.” (I would kill for the eyelashes in those pictures, lol!)
My son is a very literal thinker. When he was about 5 years old, I was reading a book to him and, as had been suggested by his teacher, I got to the end of a page, pointed to the picture, and asked what he thought would happen next. He very seriously looked at me and said, “You’re going to turn the page.”
My son is not a reader like I am. When he was in middle school, he had to read a book during summer break. He found one that he was interested in and read it. When he was done, he said that it was really good and that he wanted to read the next book in the series… wait for it… for his summer book the following year!
Disney & Pixar Color Palette is a 500-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and I had so much fun with it! I had seen people online talking about how hard it was to get and really wanted to have the chance to do it. Luckily, it showed up on the swap table at the speed puzzling event I attended (as a spectator) in November. There was one piece missing, which was noted on the box, but I still grabbed it as soon as I saw it!
I love that this has both a rainbow and a grid aspect. This was a very quick build for me. After doing the border, I started with the pink column and worked my way over to the green. Then I jumped to the red and worked my way back to the yellow. The fit was kind of loose, so I’m guessing this puzzle has been done quite a few times already, but the pieces were still in pretty good shape.
I was surprised by how many of the characters I knew, especially since I haven’t watched a lot of animated films in the last few years. I don’t usually keep puzzles with missing pieces, but I might hang onto this one for a while so I can do it again sometime.
Elizabeth Berg is one of my favorite writers, and I really enjoy her short stories. She has a way of telling (mostly) women’s stories that brings out the deeper truths behind our mundane lives. The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation is a collection of thirteen stories, with one bonus story in the edition I read. Several of them, as you might guess from the title of the book, are about our relationship with food.
My favorite story was “How to Make An Apple Pie,” which is a letter from an older woman named Flo to Ruthie, a neighbor’s daughter who has moved away. Ruthie’s mother has asked Flo to send her recipe for apple pie, and Flo does so in the form of a meandering letter filled with memories of their times together and a lot of exposition on the making of the recipe. I would love to have Flo as my neighbor lady. The bonus story was another letter from Flo to Ruthie entitled “P.S.” where she talks about how to have a dinner party without being a nervous wreck. So good!
One of the quotes that really spoke to me was from “Sin City,” about a woman named Rita who takes a spontaneous trip to Las Vegas:
“But time does not hold still, and Rita thinks now that it’s a blessing, she thinks that what it means is that your life is free to make or unmake every day.”
To go along with that quote, Berg shares this in the Reader’s Guide: “I like to celebrate the things in life that make it worth plowing through each day.”
I love books like this that allow me to reflect on my life in comparison to what is going on in each of the characters’ lives and that affirm the choice to keep pushing forward and make new decisions when we need to. Highly recommend!
