I was listening to Michelle Obama’s podcast and she mentioned doing puzzles as part of her family’s pass time. Having never done a puzzle before I was inspired to start. Well… wouldn’t you know, rather than starting with a 250- or 500-piece puzzle I went for the big-dawg of puzzles—ONE THOUSAND pieces!!

When the little box arrived I thought: “no prob, I got this”. That confidence lasted for as long as it took me to open the box, tear through the plastic and throw out the pieces! Then it dawned on me: this is gonna take a while. I needed a strategy.

So I purchased 2 sheets of construction paper: those I used to sort out the pieces, color coding as much as possible; and a piece of bristol board to build the puzzle on because I knew after this mammoth task I’d be framing this “labor of art”.

There were days I thought I’d not complete it. But with a huge amount of stick-to-it-iveness (yes I had to create a multi-compound word to adequately describe my tenacity), I completed!!!! And voila! My LABOR of art (first and last).

Next step—to the frame shop!

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