Rhi Axtell – Writer

I didn’t expect to be writing a second blog post this month about puzzles, but here we are so hold onto your metaphorical hats*. If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might remember back in the distant times known as ‘last Saturday’, I wrote a post about mindfully doing puzzles. I was enjoying the sensation of slowing down, putting each piece in its place, and the slow formation of the completed puzzle in front of me.

*Unless you are wearing a hat while you read this. In which case, feel free to hold onto your actual hat.

This was before disaster struck.

Hang on, that didn’t feel dramatic enough. Let me try again.

That was before…

DISASTER STRUCK.

Much better.

By disaster, I mean that we got the the end of all the pieces in the box… only to find that there was. One. Piece. Missing.

(pause for gasps of horror from the audience)

I know. People never think it’s going to happen to them until it does. Apparently the seller on Etsy messed up and we are left with a 299 piece puzzle, not a 300 one*. Ugh, it hurts just to think about.

*The Etsy seller was very quick to apologise and send a replacement puzzle, so no shade on them. These things happen. You might have picked up that I am in an dramatic mood today.

Anyway, in response to this grievous attack against my very soul,* my wife and I decided to do another puzzle. Her sister gave us one as a present after her last visit to Japan, and it was just BEGGING to be put together. We are currently obliging it.

*a very dramatic mood.

This puzzle is a shot from Studio Ghibli’s animated classic My Neighbour Totoro – a film I love (and with a fantastic stage adaptation too – go see it if you get a chance. Absolutely mind blowingly beautiful). I’m loving watching the playful characters and the forest background slowly come together. We usually listen to the mellow, jazzy vibes of Norah Jones as we puzzle too – just an all round massage for the brain cells.

I promise I’ll write more about creativity and writing tomorrow. I am actually doing the Artist’s Way now, so it isn’t like I don’t have content.

Although I did just buy another puzzle so I can’t promise this is the last of my puzzle posts…*

*which is silly because no one really reads them.

See you tomorrow!