Feeling puzzled?

The jigsaw puzzle has been on the table for five days.
Most of the pieces are in place. What's left will be the most difficult ... lots of similar looking patterns and colors.

The first day was relatively easy. After finding and fitting all the pieces that made the outside border, I pushed away from table feeling good.

The next day, I spent about an hour fitting the pieces together and then my success rate started to dip; I couldn't fit anymore pieces together.

Time to stop.

When I went back to it the next day, I sat down, looked at one piece and knew just where to put it.

The day before I couldn't find a match and then, the following day, with fresh eyes, new matches appeared. Effortlessly.

I also found answers to questions I was struggling with on my book project.

The Quiet Shuffle of Cards started with the idea of a small accordion book to hold a poem I wrote. I created an early sample, a simple book, and was pleased with it. But then, I did some research and saw other books. Beautiful books housed in beautiful boxes with trinkets and inserts, and my project went from a simple accordion style book with printed pages to a book with hand-lettered pages, illustrations, and a box ... to include a deck of cards and instructions for playing Solitaire ... way more complicated.

And, I got stuck.
 

I've never made a handmade book, let alone a box. The hand lettering was looking good, but still, it needed work.

The book holding the poem is larger than a deck of cards. How do I balance that? I couldn't figure it out.

So I stepped away and focused on the jigsaw puzzle.

When I sat down again to focus on the book, solutions surfaced and the project moved forward.

It was a good reminder.

By stepping away and concentrating on other things, we can find answers to pesky problems. Take a break, and the pieces may just fall into place.

January is Hobby Month.

What are you working on and how's it going? Is it time to take a break?