A Pile of Pieces

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The majority of the time I seek out projects and junk to reinvent. But, every once in a while a project seems to seek me out. The hunter becomes the hunted. In some unusual way something gets put before me that I wasn’t expecting and BOOM! I have a new task at hand. That was the case with the little project I am sharing today.

My daughter, Mae, is an avid lover of puzzles. She always has been. In an effort to keep her vast collection organized we store them in ziplocs with the picture cut off the box for reference and to identify the contents of the baggie. Works like a charm. That is, until your baby brother comes along while no one is looking and proceeds to dump them all out into a nice big pile on the floor. We aren’t talking a few puzzles here. We are talking 10 plus puzzles, all girly, pink, princesses, every piece looks the same…you get the picture. Scattered puzzle pieces all over the bedroom floor welcomed me as I entered the room. I anticipated my daughter’s sadness and anger. What to do…there was no way I was going to sort this mess out. Seriously – puzzle nightmare. Luckily, my daughter took the debacle in stride and agreed there was no reorganization possible. Albeit, not without great disdain for her brother. I promised we would reinvent the puzzles somehow.

I admit it took some time to come to an idea, but as it usually happens, a few ideas I had smushed together in my brain to form a project that would make my daughter happy. Using the boxspring of a mattress to decorate with was something I was wrestling with for a while, but where?? In a sweet girl’s room? They are so BIG, industrial, interesting and rustic. Turns out, her room was the perfect place. Timing was on my side, we were taking apart the last crib (from the baby brother – puzzle dumper) we would have in our family. The crib mattress was the perfect size. I ripped that sucker apart and phase one was complete. Now on to the girly puzzle part. Along with puzzles, my daughter loves to paint. Combining these two loves just made sense. I adore a theme and an artsy garden is where I was going. Cheap creative ways to make flowers using things I had on hand proved to be a fun mental olympics. Paint stir sticks, paint can lids, newspaper and lots of puzzle pieces. Three different flowers jumped out at me as I went along. Let me know if you have any questions on how to make them. They were invented as I went. The finishing touch was taking the flowers out back and splattering them with paint to tie it all together…what a great release! I highly recommend throwing paint at something. Wire secured the new flowers onto the springs. Next, I added some painted clothespins and project complete! Now she has a fun place to hang whatever strikes her fancy. I think it turned out pretty cute…

It can be easy to “cry over spilled milk” (or puzzle pieces) but there is a way to make order out of chaos in our life. God promises he will do just that when we give him all the pieces we have left in a big pile of mess.

Ezekiel 34:12b I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. God keeps His promises. This promise simply states God will bring you back to His fold, back from the wandering and lost place you may be. He wants to make you whole again. He will help you find and see the good in seemingly impossible situations. Is God pursuing you right now? Has He placed a pile of pieces in your path – hoping you will call on Him to make sense of it all? If so, give it to Him and expectantly wait to see how The Great Puzzle Master rearranges the unthinkable, makes it new. I couldn’t put the pieces back together again alone, and neither can you. My daughter has since outgrown this little projects, you can see the progress of her new room here!

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3