Puzzle: Beach Garden by Marc Adamus

A lovely puzzle, not very trivial for a beginner. The flowers at the bottom present the most challenge due to the similarities of the purple-on-green pattern through most of them. Thus it’s simpler to start with the top part of the puzzle. The distinct regions of the sky, the clouds, the sun, the hills, the water, and the sand, followed by the sand border with the green grass can be filled in easily. The flowers can be assembled by starting on the darker regions at the bottom first, and narrowing the remaining area by assembling the top grassy patch with orange and small white flowers. Then the rest of the flowers can be put together.

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How to do a jigsaw puzzle

In this post, I will share some strategies I use when puzzling to make the experience more pleasurable. To be clear, I do not puzzle for speed, I puzzle for zen: to relax, breathe, and get lost in the sensory experience, combined with a good story via an audiobook. Thus these tips are not necessarily going to speed up puzzle assembly, but will keep things organized for smooth progress through the puzzle.

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Puzzle: River Swale, Yorkshire, England

Simple small puzzle to do, and a rather pleasant landscape. The obvious starting points would be the river with the rocks, the sky and its border with the hills, the red leaf bush in the bottom right corner and another one by the waterfall. The grassy area can be done next, along with the white patch of the hill and the yellow fields. The trees alongside the river have variety in colouring, and since the puzzle is so small present little challenge after the rest has been assembled.

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Book: The functions of the orgasms, by Michel Odent

functionsOfTheOrgasmsSmTitle: The functions of the orgasms: The highways to transcendence
Author: Michel Odent
Source: Veddma library
ISBN: 978-1-905177-18-9
Available online

In this book, the French obstetrician Michel Odent discusses the importance of the “cocktails of love hormones” present during sex, birth, and breastfeeding and the effects of “scientification of love”: interference with those hormones created by birth interventions, anesthesiology, and pharmacology. …

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Puzzle: Maple leaves

Not a simple puzzle to do due to similar colour patterns across the leaves, but very pleasant visually for its bright colours. The difficulty is mitigated by the smaller size of the puzzle. A possible way to approach it would be to assemble the regions with stems first, as they are the most distinct, as well as the brighter areas of the leaves and the distinct leaf boundaries where possible: the centre leaf and the upper right corner are the easiest. From there the veins in the leaves help in assembling each one, with a few remaining pieces to fill in the gaps

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Book: Beyond the Sling, by Mayim Bialik

beyondTheSlingTitle: Beyond the Sling – A real-life guide to raising confident, loving children the attachment parenting way
Author: Mayim Bialik
Source: Veddma library
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1800-6
Available online

This book outlines main tenets of attachment parenting and presents the reader with practical examples from the author’s personal experiences, as well as that of her friends. The author has a …

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Puzzle: Peacock feather

A beautiful simple puzzle with the colourful bands of the peacock feather. I have started with the purple, red, and black eye of the feather, and continued with the green outline, filling in the yellows and oranges after. The direction of the feather strands makes for a good guide in placing the pieces. From that point on, the surrounding pieces easily fall into place. A pleasure to do, this puzzle would be an easy one for beginners.

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Puzzle: Detail of Roof on a Chinese Temple

To be honest, I did not expect this puzzle to be that interesting: from the box it looked like the too-bold lines of a too-bright building with too few detailed areas to make it interesting. It has, however, pleasantly surprised me. I’ve enjoyed following the diagonal and horizontal guide lines of the structure and the small details that revealed themselves during assembly.

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How I make my photography greeting cards

What better way to get in touch with someone than by a handmade greeting card? Many a friend of mine has appreciated these cards with their vibrant colours and beautiful flowers or nature scenes. The bright white paper, the original photographs, the hand-drawn vignettes on the back in colours complementary to the photos, and the intricate border framing the picture – all make these cards a pleasure to receive. They are perfect for sending notes, invitations, get well wishes, congratulations, or just to brighten someone’s day. If you would like to make some on your own, read on.

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Easter memories and experiments

The coming of spring has brought to me the memories of Easter at my grandmother’s place in Russia: sunlight streaming through the lace curtains, smell of baking wafting from the kitchen, a plate with a large paska covered in snow-white icing towering over a ring of brightly-coloured eggs surrounding it, and a promise of a long lazy weekend full of family and delicious food. And this year for the first time I have decided to bring some of those memories to life.

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Inspiration hits after confinement

After being confined for a week in a children’s hospital isolation room, I came home with a raging desire to create something – anything! It seems, I cannot sit on my hands even for a week without designing something new. The baby needed quite a bit of sleep to recover in the couple of days that followed which gave me a chance to work on the new Blessingway bead collection.

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Start multiple projects

To facilitate switching among different types of activities, prepare all the materials, equipment, and information required for several projects. That way, when you have a few minutes, you can start working on one of your projects, instead of procrastinating or attempting to gather up everything you would need, just to find yourself having run out of time.

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Puzzle: Vineyard Terrace by Sung Kim

There is a wonderful book by Gerald Durrell called “My Family and Other Animals”, in which he describes life in Corfu – a Greek island to which his mother and three siblings have moved when he was 10. As a child, he explores the island gathering various animals (he has been an enthusiastic budding zoologist at that age), against the backdrop of the slow-paced life of the adults on the island. The olive trees, the sea, the tranquility of sunny afternoons, and the overall calm of the Mediterranean is what I remember vividly from the book. And this puzzle by Sung Kim carries that same quiet feeling of a light breeze on a vine-shaded terrace, on a lazy sunny afternoon somewhere in the Mediterranean.

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