Beauty and the Beast

All posts tagged Beauty and the Beast

It’s entirely possible I’ve completely lost my mind.

Published January 23, 2019 by Malia

When I was growing up, every summer my family would come home to Nebraska for two weeks to see family.  One of the days we were back, would be spent getting a watermelon, and going to Guide Rock, to see my Great Grandma B.  She passed away when I was ten, so I don’t have tons of memories of her, but the ones I do have are precious.

Great Grandma B was a short and sweet lady.  She always had cookies in the cookie jar, a giant garden, and there was always a jigsaw puzzle in progress.  Even though I never worked on a puzzle with her, I was always in awe of them.  When she passed away, I was allowed to have a few of her puzzles, and that’s when my love affair with jigsaws began.

I drove my mom absolutely batty over the years because I constantly wanted to have a jigsaw going, but my incredibly short attention span meant that it would take me months to complete one.  As I got older, I fell off doing puzzles, but that didn’t mean I stopped loving them.  Then, last spring, I stumbled across a group on Facebook where people were sharing their completed jigsaws.  I wanted to share, so I joined and jumped back into puzzling.  In the last year, I’ve completed a pile of puzzles, and when registration for the 2019 Global Jigsaw Jubilee opened, I signed up.  I’d seen people’s completed puzzles from the 2018 Jubilee, and something competitive inside me had awoken.  I wanted to prove that I’m just as awesome a puzzler as all those others who’ve participated.

The event starts on 1/29, so I have five days left to prepare.  Here’s the puzzles I’m planning to work on:

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I intend to start with the Ravensburger, simply because I think it will prove to be the easiest.img_20190123_1208412052016742778206415077.jpg

Putting together the little squares of images should prove *fingers crossed* relatively easy.

Next up will be the DC Comics puzzle:

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Considering how much we love DC in this house, this puzzle is a must do.  (Points to you if you can name everyone in the image without help.  I can name at least half, but I know Tom could name them all if asked).

After that, I head into more challenging waters.  The Disney Kinkade puzzles:

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These are two of my favorite Disney princess movies.  Most of my life Beauty & the Beast was my favorite, but it was dethroned when Tangled came along.  Tangled and Moana are currently tied at the top of my favorites list.

Finally, I’m going to tackle this monster:

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3000 pieces of Star Trek magic.

Here’s the thing, I’ve never completed a puzzle bigger than 1000 pieces.  I’m not too concerned about the 1500 piece ones, but that 3000 piece one is definitely going to test my abilities.  Going in, I know that the Ravensburger and Aquarius puzzles will have the best fitting, best condition pieces.  The Disney puzzles are Ceaco brand, and if previous experience with Ceaco is any indicator, I’ll get a bit frustrated.  Their puzzles are beautiful, but pieces are usually not great.  Here’s hoping that this will be a fun experience!

Random Saturday Musings

Published October 28, 2012 by Malia

-I love when I watch a movie that I haven’t watched in years and see that it’s still just as awesome as I remember it being.

-Sometimes it really kills me how divided I feel.  I love & miss my family and friends at home, but if I weren’t here I’d feel the same about the people here.

-I feel confused about the iPad mini.  How is this any different than an iPod touch?  Much as I love my computer and iPod, it disturbs me that now marketing strategies seem to be, “Look, it’s a size we’ve kinda sorta, but not really offered before!  Aren’t we amazing?  Isn’t it great you’ll be willing to pay a couple of car &/or mortgage payments to own this?”

-I’m starting to think it’s a good thing for me not to watch Husker games.  They win when I don’t watch.  Because, of course, the world revolves around me.

-I miss my furry babies.  I know I’m going to get home for Thanksgiving and Howie will completely and totally ignore me until it’s time for me to leave, and I don’t care.  I miss his fuzzy orange face!  I miss my Gracie, too.  I miss watching her try to flirt with Sam & Dean whenever Supernatural is on.

-Aunty Ellen, if you’re reading this, Happy Birthday!  I’ll call you later today (cause I’m pretty sure 4 a.m. wouldn’t be a good time to call).  I’m so blessed to have you for an aunt, and I admire you so much.  I hope you know how much you mean to me, and how truly amazing I think you are!  I love you so much!

-I’m so thankful that my family doesn’t badger me about “When are you going to get married,” or “When are you going to have kids.”  It’s hard enough when no one shows any romantic interest, and knowing there’s a 98% chance of no babies in my future.  I’m just so unbelievably thankful this isn’t a standard I’m held up to.  Instead, I’m allowed to chase my dreams, no matter how silly and foolish other people might find them.Dear Family, you are so amazing and I’d be such a bigger mess without you.

-I’m going to be 28 in 27 days.  How insane is that?  I don’t feel like I’m going to be 28.  I feel like 15 or 16.  The only times I feel old is when I’m around kids who are amazed by the fact that I remember seeing certain films (Land Before Time, Beauty & The Beast, & The Lion King to name a few) the first time they were in the theater.

-Is it weird to say that just seeing my severely beat up copy of Fellowship of the Ring is comforting to me?  I can’t explain it.  I have no idea how many times I’ve read LOTR , I lost count years ago.  Actually, I never kept count.  I just would read the series, and as soon as I finished Return of the King I’d cycle right back into Fellowship.  

-It really bothers me when I see commercials for kid computers and the kids are learning to read and write on the tablet.  I think what truly worries/frustrates/irritates me, is that usually you don’t see the parent until the end of the commercial and inevitably they’re either peeking around a corner or passing through the room where the child is.  Computers shouldn’t be teaching the children!  Parents need to be whipping out the good, old McGuffey Reader and teaching the child.  Reading is not a computer game.  There’s a huge difference between teaching the kid how to recognize and pronounce a word, and teaching a child to do those things and love the words.  Computers don’t love.  They’re a machine.  Words are so important.  Books are important.  I feel like whole generations of children are being denied the pleasure of being friends with words, and that saddens me so much.  Computers are great, and fun, but there are some things that they shouldn’t solely be relied on to do.