Happy New Year from Clue Search Puzzles to all our faithful puzzlers!

We hope that everyone had a safe and happy New Year. We were lucky enough to spend it with a group of our friends; playing games, chatting, laughing and just having a good time. It was a great way to ring in 2012.

This week's Puzzle of the Week is: 2011 Movies! As a bonus we've also posted 2010 Movies! on the site as well.

With the New Year, we'd like to announce a few small changes to the website:

First, you'll see links on each page encouraging you to join our mailing list. To give you a little incentive, and to help those teachers who use our puzzles in their classrooms, we've posted the full solutions for every puzzle in a hidden directory on the website.

The link to the hidden directory will be sent out with our weekly email, so you'll want to join our mailing list if you need puzzle solutions. Click here for more great benefits of joining our mailing list!

Second, there are four brand-new and exclusive puzzles that we will offer you if you will help us spread the word about Clue Search Puzzles! These puzzles aren't available on the website, but they can be yours if you tell your friends about us. Click here to learn more!

Thanks for being a fan of Clue Search Puzzles! From all of us here, we wish you a Happy New Year and Happy Puzzling!

Todd and Shannon

Just a quick note to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

This week's puzzles is: Braces!

Why? Because our daughter just got them on and she was kind enough to make a word list for us. Clue Search Puzzles is a family website, after all.

We've also updated the puzzle archives with English Composition 2! and 3! so be sure to check them out.

Next week starts our end of the year puzzles. We have 2011 Books!, Music!, Movies! and Events! coming your way. Does anyone have a preference for what comes first?

Thanks to everyone who has purchased one of our puzzle books. We don't brave the post office for just anyone at this time of year!

Warm wishes from the Bailey family and Clue Search Puzzles - may your holidays be fun and your New Year bright and happy!

Cheers

Shannon

PS - don't forget to email me if you would like to see a specific puzzle topic. Someone mentioned famous women and I've kind of run with it. It looks like that one idea will cover a series of 5-7 puzzles, or more! They should be ready in time for Women's history month in March.

The Puzzle of the Week is: Pilates!

You might be wondering why Pilates, since we're only a week out from Christmas, but the New Year is coming too and I just wanted to give everyone something to think about. It seems like every year most people make a resolution to lose weight or get fit. These are admirable goals. I've made them myself, but they can be a bit vague and so harder to follow through on. Pilates is a great way to do both and have a tighter tummy and better posture.

I've enjoyed Pilates mat classes at my gym, as well as small group Reformer classes with all the bells and whistles (and springs and pulleys) and I absolutely love it. The movements seems so simple and basic, but they really pack a punch when you do them consistently. Give yourself five or six classes to get into the movements and let your body adjust, but trust me - you WILL feel the difference. You'll be standing straighter and you belly will be tighter before you know it.

Afraid you aren't fit or flexible enough? Don't worry, Pilates is geared for all bodies types and levels. You do what you can with easy modifications. Don't belong to a gym? There are plenty of excellent Pilates DVDs out there. Just doing the first couple exercises of a Pilates routine will make a difference in your life.

Now enough about Pilates. Since we're just a few weeks from the New Year, don't forget about our New Years! and Resolutions! puzzles. They're always good for inspiration and a great way to keep busy while you're waiting for the ball to drop. And of course, we have the perfect stocking stuffers for the puzzle enthusiasts or trivia buffs in your life - The Clue Searcher's Guide to the 50 States!, Bible Trivia! and Pop Music!. Each can be yours for only $20 - and that includes shipping and handling. It's a great deal.

Come January 1st we'll be launching our End of the Year puzzle series with 2011 Books!, Movies!, Music! and Events!. That will be enough to keep you busy, but since we were on hiatus for most of 2010, we're going to add in the 2010 puzzles as a special bonus. Sometimes it's hard enough to remember what happened this year. Can you remember what happened two years ago?

We've also updated the puzzle archive with English Composition 1! English Composition 2 and 3 are coming next week, so be sure to check them out.

As always, we look forward to your feedback and suggestions. Don't be shy. You can email me at shannon@cluesearchpuzzles.com. or just hit reply.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and get to enjoy time with your friends and family!

Shannon

Not that I'm dropping any hints or anything like that, but as hectic as the holidays can be, everyone needs to take a little time to take care of themselves.

If you can't make it to a spa, at least take a few moments throughout the day to relax and center yourself. Don't let the holidays be stressful! They're supposed to be fun, remember?

As promised, we've also begun adding some extra puzzles to the website. We've created a new category, Language Arts, and the first puzzle to be added is Rhetoric! These puzzles will soon be followed by Language & Composition 1!, 2!, and 3!, and we've moved some of the existing puzzles to this new category where it makes sense.

These puzzles aren't for the faint of heart and will challenge what you remember of your language arts classes in high school. Seeing as we got the ideas for these puzzles from our AP Language taking, grammar snob of a daughter, you might wonder if you've ever heard of some of these terms before. Don't worry, they are all real words. Our goal is for each of our puzzles to be fun and educational!

Not into grammar and such? Then please email me and let me know what kind of puzzles you would like to see. I will do my best to get them done. We only want happy puzzlers! Email me at shannon@cluesearchpuzzles.com.

Cheers,
Shannon

We’re back!

First we’d just like to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who responded to our email regarding the future of Clue Search Puzzles. After careful consideration we’ve decided to keep the website free to all and supported by ads.

We will continue posting new puzzles every week and our weekly email, and we’ve decided that we will once again sell physical Clue Search Puzzle books rather than make them downloadable. Be sure to check out the pages for Bible Trivia, 50 States Trivia, and Pop Music Trivia.

Now, for an introduction: My name is Shannon. Most of you probably haven’t heard of me before, unless you read our “About Us” page, but I’m Todd’s wife and cofounder of cluesearchpuzzles.com. Up until now I’ve been pretty low key. I’ve made the Puzzle of the Week and the Pop Music Trivia book, but haven’t had a presence on the website. I’ve recently become unemployed (R.I.P. Borders Books & Music), the job market hasn’t been exactly kind and I really, really don’t want to work in retail anymore, so I’ve taken a more active roll in CSP.

Over the coming weeks and months I will be posting the usual Sunday Puzzle of the Week, but also, as time and inspiration permits, I will be expanding the website with more free puzzles and building new books that will be of interest to puzzle enthusiasts, teachers, and homeschoolers alike.

For example, in the next week or two I will be posting a series of literature and language arts puzzles. It’s amazing what you can come up with when you have a child taking AP Language and Composition. Some of these puzzles will be extremely challenging, so beware!

I am also working on a new book – American Presidents! We’re hoping to have it ready for early 2012, but so far I’m only up to Abraham Lincoln. It’s way too easy to get sidetracked while researching these puzzles.

We’re also talking about creating a second Pop Music Trivia book, an American History Trivia book, and a Countries of the World Trivia book. We’d also like to expand into foreign language puzzles, but that may be a few years down the road!

If you have any puzzle topics that you want to see on our site, please email me at: shannon@cluesearchpuzzles.com and I will do my best to get them made – eventually. After creating over 500 puzzles it sometimes amazes me that we can come up with new puzzle topics, but we’ve always managed it thanks to feedback and suggestions from loyal puzzlers like you.

It's also fitting that our first puzzle posted after our long hiatus is FIRSTS, since it’s the first puzzle that I’ve physically created – not just the clues, but the whole puzzle that you print out.

Happy Puzzling!

Shannon Bailey
Co-founder and puzzle maker of cluesearchpuzzles.com

P.S. – Be sure to check out the Clues Search Puzzle books with the holiday season in mind - they make great gifts and stocking stuffers!