Frank Lloyd Wright: Imperial Hotel Peacock Carpet

Frank Lloyd Wright: Imperial Hotel Peacock Carpet

Love these Pomegranate puzzles - just wish they made them with more pieces than 1000.  This was interesting because of the strict symmetry.

Witches' Wardrobe

This was a very fun puzzle that we knocked off in a 2-3 days.  We wanted to get it done in time to glue together, cut up, and send to a friend as postcards - all before Halloween.

It's not by a standard puzzle making company, but was very good quality - we'd love to do more by them.

So then we glued the puzzle together, front and back, and then scored it for 10 postcards, and wrote out the story about Henry the mule, like this:

The individual postcards looked like this:

And all together were ready to mail out every few days like this:

Here's the entire story:

There once was a farmer who owned an old mule named Henry. One day the mule accidentally fell into the farmer’s empty well. The farmer heard Henry braying and desperately calling for help. After carefully assessing the situation and considering the cost of getting a crane to rescue the poor mule, the farmer decided that Henry was not worth the trouble of saving. Instead, he called his neighbors together, told them what had happened, and asked them to help him haul dirt to the well in order to bury the old mule and put him out of his misery.

When the mule heard what was going to happen, he became hysterical and began to bray even louder! The farmer and his neighbors started shoveling dirt into the deep well. When the dirt hit Henry's back, a thought came to him. It suddenly dawned on him that every time a shovel load of dirt landed on his back, HE WOULD SHAKE IT OFF AND STEP UP!

This he did each and every time the dirt was shoveled over him. “Shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up…shake it off and step up!” He repeated this to encourage himself and not lose hope. No matter how painful the loads of dirt felt on his back, or how distressing the situation seemed, Henry, old mule fought panic and just kept right on SHAKING IT OFF AND STEPPING UP!

It wasn’t long before the old mule, battered and exhausted, stepped triumphantly over the wall of that well! What seemed like it would bury him actually helped him . . . all because of the manner in which he handled his adversity.

THAT’S LIFE! If we refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity, or let others put us down, then we create for ourselves a way to rise up to freedom.

Cinque Terra

This was a lovely puzzle of Cinque Terra Italy that we very much enjoyed. bear too, as he got to row in the boat in the harbor after it was done.

When we were done with the puzzle we glued it together, front and back, and then scored it to cut into 25 individual postcards:

Here's an example of one of the postcards, viewed closeup. Each one held an inspirational quote:

And another:

And another:

Pirate Bears

this puzzle was smaller than we usually do, but how could we resist?  our pal bear loved it so much, he had to get all dressed up in his own eye-patch too.  Here he is putting in the last piece, which is of course his favorite thing to do:

Then we glued the puzzle together, front and back, and scored it into 16 individual postcards to send to nephew Owen.  Note the really fun stamps too:

Here's an example of what one of them will look like up close:

In Paris - The Eiffel Tower

This was a wonderful puzzle, and with only black and grey tones - very challenging!  The Eiffel Tower.  Since bear put the last piece in, he of course had to get dressed up appropriately for the occasion in his top hat and bow tie.

After the puzzle was done, it became the new Art Installation in the guest bathroom.  We have a never-used bathtub that is the location of many a fantastic scene.  For this, we included croissants, escargot, French brie, champagne and glasses, a beret and every French book we had in the house...

and here's our art installation....

Proverbidioms

 We recently  finished a very fun puzzle with 300 proverbs hidden in them.  We have left it up for several months and we invite visitors to see how many they can guess.

Here is the complete list, which we found online:

PROVERBIDIOMS:

Ace in the hole
All ears
All work and no play makes Jack a dull
boy
An apple a day keeps the doctor away An axe to grind
An empty bag cannot stand upright Ants in the pants
At the end of one's rope
Babies must play Back seat driver
Bad news travels fast Ball game is over Banana nose
Beetle (bug)
Beggars can't be choosers
Behind the 8 ball
Best patch is of the same cloth
Beware of the door with too many keys Big as a barrel
Big fish eat little fish
Bird in the hand is worth two in the
bush
Birds of a feather flock together Bitch
Black as the ace of spades Blockhead
Blow one's own horn
Bone to pick with someone Bookworm
Breadwinner
Break the ice
Bridge over troubled water Broken heart
Burn the candle at both ends Butter someone up Butterfingers
Butterflies in one's stomach
Cauliflower ears
Call no man happy till he's dead
Can't see the forest for the trees
Cast iron stomach
Castles in the air
Cat got your tongue?
Cat's out of the bag
Children should be seen and not heard Chip off the old block
Chip on one's shoulder
Chiseler
Christmas comes but once a year Climb the ladder
Climb the walls
Cloud 9
Colorful language
Coming down in buckets

Cool cat
Counting sheep
Cracked bell can never sound Croaked
Crutch
Cry one's eyes out
Dead men tell no tales
Dear John letter
Dime a dozen
Doesn't have a leg to stand on
Dog (he or she is a)
Don't bite off more than you can chew Don't count your chickens before they
hatch
Don't judge a book by its cover
Don't let the grass grow under your feet Don't look a gift horse in the mouth Don't put all your eggs in one basket Don't put the cart before the horse Don't put your foot in your mouth Don't throw a monkey wrench into the
machinery
Don't throw out the baby with the
bathwater
Down in the dumps Drinks are on the house Drop in the bucket
Eagle flies alone
Ear to the ground
Early bird catches the worm
Easy street
Eat your heart out
Egg in the face
Eighty-six it
Empty barrels make the most noise Even the devil will swear on a stack of
bibles
Every family has at least one black
sheep
Eyes in the back of his head
Face of the mountain
Feeling blue
Finger licking good
Flat as a board
Forbidden fruit is the sweetest Forked tongue
Four eyes
Frog in the throat
Fruit of one's labor
Full of baloney
Full of hot air
Funnier than a barrel of monkeys
Get under one's skin
Getting on someone's back Gingerbread molding
Give him enough rope and he'll hang
himself

Give him the needle Go fly a kite
Go through the roof Going downhill Greenhorn
Green thumb
Hands are tied
Hand that rocks the cradle rules the
world
Handwriting's on the wall
Hang dog
Head in the clouds
Heard it through the grapevine Hedges have eyes
High chair
Higher they rise the farther they fall Hit the sack
Hitch your wagon to a star
Hole in the wall
Home is where you hang your hat Home sweet home
Honesty is the best policy
Horseless carriage
Hot pants
Hotter than a $2 pistol
Hung out to dry
Hungry enough to eat a horse
I was framed
If the hat fits, wear it
If the shoe fits, wear it
I'll eat my hat
Imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery In a stew
In it up to one's neck
In hot water
In one ear and out the other
In the dark
Iron curtain
It's a dog eat dog world
It's no use crying over spilt milk It's written all over your face
Just because there's snow on the roof doesn't mean there isn't fire in the furnace
Keep your head above water Kick the bucket
Killing two birds with one stone Knock on wood
Knockers
Lean over backwards
Lemon
Leave one's mark
Let the chips fall where they may Let's call a spade a spade 

Life has its ups and downs
Life is a two-way street
Light my fire
Lightning never strikes the same place
twice
Lighting the candle at both ends Like father, like son
Like day and night
Long and winding road
Look before you leap
Lose one's head
Make hay while the sun shines
Man who is his own doctor has a fool
for a patient
Man's home is his castle
Many hands make light work
Melt into someone's arms
Men seldom make passes to girls who
wear glasses
Mushroom (man or men)
Music hath charms to soothe the savage
beast
My heart has wings
Needle in a haystack
Never cross a bridge until you come to
it.
Never hit a man below the belt New brooms sweep clean
Nightcap
No strings attached
No one knows what goes on behind
closed doors Nut
Off one's rocker
On the tip of one's tongue
One man's meat is another man's poison Out on a limb
Out to pasture
Over a barrel
Over the hill
Pain in the neck
Painting the town red
Pearls before swine
Picture tells a thousand words Piece of cake
Pig
People who live in glass houses
shouldn't throw stones Playing second fiddle Poison one's mind
Pot belly
Practice what you preach
Pretty as a picture
Printing press is the mother of errors Pull up a chair
Pulling one's leg

Puppet
Pushing up daisies
Put a feather in your cap
Put our heads together
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Put your money where your mouth is
Queer as a $3 bill
Raining cats and dogs
Rat race
Rock's in one's head
Roof over one's head
Rooted to the spot
Roots (to have them somewhere)
Sawing logs
Self-made man
She stole his heart
Shoot one's mouth off
Shot in the arm
Sit on it
Sitting on a fence
Sky is falling
Sky's the limit
Slow but steady wins the race Something up one's sleeve Something's rotten in Denmark Sour grapes
Small world
Smoke so thick you can cut it with a
knife
Snake in the grass Snugasabugintherug Stabbed in the back
Stag party
Stay in one's shell
Stewed
Stitch in time save time
Stone face
Stoned
Stones throw away
Straight from the horse's mouth Strawman
Stretch one's legs
Strong stomach
Stubborn as a mule
Stuffed shirt
Sweep it under the rug Sweetest grapes hang highest
Tails on a coat
Take the bull by the horns
Tall tale (tail)
Tee-shirt
Ten-foot pole
That rings a bell
That's a horse of a different color That's how the cookie crumbles That's icing on the cake

There are more ways to kill a dog than by hanging
There is no fool like an old fool
There's more than one way to skin a cat Thorn in one's side
Throw in the cards
Throw in the hat
Throw in the towel
Tied up
Tighten one's belt
Time flies
Toadstool
Tongue hanging out
Too many cooks spoil the broth
Two heads are better than one
Under the weather Up against the wall Up in the air
Variety is the spice of life
Wallflower
Walls have ears
Watched pot never boils Watchtower
Water (passed) under the bridge Way to a man's heart is through his
stomach
We can make beautiful music together Wear many hats
Weight of the world on one's shoulders When clouds are seen wise men put on
their coats
When one door shuts another opens When the chips are down
Where there's smoke there's fire When poverty knocks at the door, love
flies out the window. White elephant Window on the world Woman driver
World on a string
Would look alright with a bag over his
(or her) head
You are what you eat
You can't be in two places at once You can't have your cake and eat it too You can't keep a good man down
You can't put an old head on young
shoulders
You can't take it with you
You have a screw loose
You have to take the good with the bad You hit the nail right on the head
You would forget your head if it wasn't
screwed on.

Charley Harper: The Rocky Mountains

Charley Harper: The Rocky Mountains
Pomegranate
1000 pieces


Amusing enough I suppose