Puzzles & Stuff

When I was younger, I did jigsaw puzzles.  I always had a puzzle going.  In my home growing up, we had a basement and us kids had a big area to play in.  My grandpa gave us a section of pegboard (it was blue, I still remember) and we laid it out and started doing puzzles on the floor in the basement.  Sometimes, we would do them in the living room and it would take up the whole middle of the floor until we were done.  We had dogs and they would step all over it, whatever. 

I once did a puzzle that was 2000 pieces and it was a Victorian Garden.  It had all of this green grasses, 100 different types of flowers, etc.  This puzzle I did as a tween and it took a long time.  Not quite sure how long, but the peg board was huge.  This one I had to do in my bedroom and I had to pick up off the floor and place on my bed each and everyday.  I had to walk the perimeter in order to get out of my room.  I glued this one and wanted it framed, but framing (as anyone who has gone to Michael's or Joann's knows) ain't cheap.  A 12/13-year old girl does not have $200 to frame a puzzle.

So, I stood it up and slid it behind a dresser that was about the width of the puzzle and went about my life.  I never framed it.  My parent's do still have it in the basement, propped up behind a few dressers.  That was my last hoorah for puzzles for quite some time.

Recently, I did a few puzzles.  I wanted to remember how fun they were and how involved you can get in a puzzle.  Hours and hours at the table sifting through the box, looking for edge pieces, making the border, focusing on a section at a time...Better than mindlessly watching hours of TV.

My first puzzle was a dragon puzzle that technically did not have an edge.  It did have an edge, but it was a shaped puzzle with curves and points.

Vince and I did the dragon one at his parent's house, on the dining room table.  That pic was not the actual put-together puzzle.  Unfortunately, I can't find the pic of the actual puzzle we did.  It is somewhere on my computer, I just have not fully transferred all my pics from my old computer.  That puzzle was 1000 pieces.  I bought it at a yard sale for $1.  Great deal; it is about $15 online.  One does run the risk of having missing pieces when you buy it open, but I was willing to give it a whirl.

My next puzzle was a 1000-piece Mystery Puzzle, where there is a mini-story in the puzzle box, you read it as you put together the puzzle.  The puzzle is the murder scene.  With the help of the picture and the story, you can figure out the mystery.

I thought that the puzzle would give an extra clue, like the puzzle would be slightly different than the picture on the box so you only know this clue by putting together the puzzle.  No, that was not the case, but it was neat anyway.  You supposedly can go online to find out the answer to the mystery, but I guess the puzzle was old enough that it was not available anymore.  I got this puzzle at a yard sale, too.  Two-for-two on all pieces being there!

The tough part on that one was the gray stone walkway and the gray marbled walls.  They all were very similar.  My last piece was the left wall where the lion sits. 

My most recent one was a 550-piece Teapot puzzle.  This was a new puzzle that I got for Christmas one year from my mom.  I did this one and the Mystery puzzle on my dining room table.  We don't typically use the table for everyday meals, only when we have people over.  I did get a huge square of cardboard from Costco (free, it was a toilet paper layer separator) to do the puzzles on, so that I may move it, if people come over.

Isn't this quaint?  I started with the roses and then worked on the chair and down that way.  I was left with this one piece and was thinking, "I have an extra piece??!"  I scanned the puzzle and truly could not find where I was missing one.  I called Vince over and showed him, he laughed and saw the hole right away.  It was in the berries that are in the roses.  So, my last piece was were I started.  I had come full circle (or square, whatever!).

I think I have one or two more puzzles in the garage.  I will dig them up and do them, in-between my summer knitting. 

Afternoon Tea

My birthday continues for one more weekend!  I'm so lucky!

Actually, during the week my bowling team, the Odd Balls,  threw me a mini party on our Wednesday bowling night.  They had a carrot cake, caramel hershey kisses, seven layer mexican dip, crackers and mini hot dog weiners.  It was great!  They got me a teacup planter with pink impatiens and a Fire King hobnail milkglass planter that the kisses were in.

Love it!!



Vintage glassware; I could do a whole post on Fire King! 


Then this weekend, there was High Tea served in my honor at the Royal Tea Room in Tampa.  Myself and seven of my girlfriends gathered and sipped tea served with scones, finger sandwiches, savory pastries, mini cupcakes and fruit-filled chocolate cups. 

Yummy in my tummy!

There is an order that you are supposed to eat this delicious food in and it is from the bottom up.  First the tea was poured, which the first type was an apricot tea and then we chose a strawberry-chocolate tea.  Normally they only serve one tea type a day, but we insisted on the strawberry-chocolate tea too.  We pushed politey. :-)

We first ate a blueberry scone with jam and clotted cream.  From the second tier we ate cucumber sandwiches and a black bean quesadilla pastry pocket.  Finally, the top and third tier, were vanilla cupcakes with frosting and chocolate cups filled with a bit of kiwi, strawberry, blueberry and raspberry, anchored in the cup with a bit of whipped cream.  It was delicious!

The Tea Tables

It was a lovely time and after all of that tea and scrumpets, my friend that set-up the tea party had a cake for me to blow out candles that were teacups and a teapot!

Finishing touch!

Yes, they even sang to me!  We were the loudest group in the tea room, as if we wouldn't be.  We acted like we were the only ones in that place.  Where were our manners?!


The look of just being sung to!

After tea we headed to this deli called Datz, that is also a restaurant/bar where they have 20 plus beers on tap and wine galore!  Instead of having a beer or wine after all of that caffeine, I chose to have gelato!

Strawberry Gelato!

I really did not need to eat this and this did put me over the edge, but it was soooo good.  We hung out just for a bit and then we all went our separate ways for the rest of the evening (by this time it was after 5pm).  But, we took one last pic before we left:

The Ladies of the Tea Party (at the bar) hehe

It did seem a bit incongruent to attend a tea party and then go and have a beer!  But, it was a great time; one that I would love to do again.

To end the evening festivities, one of gals and I went thrift store shopping.  Yes, even more incongruency going on, but I enjoy thrift store shopping for cool glassware and odds and ends.  My motto is you just never know what you are going to find!  That is what I enjoy the most, seeing something new each time I go.

I do believe that that was my last birthday party of the year.  I do still have lots more Cheesecake Factory carrotcake cheesecake in the freezer, so I can still celebrate anytime!  Thank you to everyone who helped me ring in my 35th year!  Let's do it again next April!