Ice Cream Truck is the third food truck puzzle I have done from Ceaco. These 500-pieces puzzles are fun, colorful puzzles that I have really enjoyed doing. The artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones.
I do have to admit that this one was my least favorite of the three in terms of quality. There were a lot of pieces that were stuck together and had to be torn apart. They also didn’t lay flat as nicely as the other Ceaco puzzles I have done. And there was a lot of puzzle dust!
The image, however, was great. I loved all the signage and the bright, colorful details in the puzzle. Even with more sky than the other ones had, it was still pretty easy to put together.
As much as I have enjoyed these, I am not planning to get any more of them unless I run across them in the puzzle box or at a thrift store. I’m ready to tackle some other subject matter!
I recently found a Facebook group for a puzzle box in my area. It is located on the side of the person’s home, and people can drop off puzzles they don’t want anymore and take puzzles that other people have dropped off. I visited it for the first time last weekend and brought home three puzzles to do.
The next day I chose the one I was the most excited about and put it together. It was a 500-piece puzzle from Ravensburger called Needlework Station. It was a large format puzzle, so the pieces were bigger than on a normal puzzle, which I kind of liked. The artist is Lars Stewart.
This puzzle was a real joy to do. The sorting was easy and the pieces were great quality. They fit together well and it was easy to move sections around. The colors and textures in the image were colorful and interesting.
Now I have to decide whether to take it back and exchange it for another puzzle or keep it around for a while to do again later!
Go Camping! is an adorable 500-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. I needed a summery scene for the bingo challenge I am doing, and it fit the bill nicely.
This puzzle was a lot of fun to put together. I like the piece shapes of the Ceaco puzzles I have done, and they fit together well. The image also has a lot of bright colors and distinct textures, which made it a pretty easy one to solve.
The Alchemist’s Home is a 1000-piece puzzle from the brand eeBoo, and the artist is Vasilisa Romanenko. This is a new-to-me brand. I had gotten it a while ago and thought I might save it for Halloween, but then I included it in a group of puzzles where I was choosing a random puzzle to do for a puzzle challenge and it got picked!
I was a bit intimidated at first due to the amount of detail going on, but it was actually a lot of fun to do. Each room has a different wallpaper and floor/rug, so that made it easy to sort out the pieces.
I enjoyed all of the different things going on in this puzzle, and I really liked all of the ghosts that appear in the various rooms and even outside the house.
The quality was great as well. The pieces were a nice size and fit together well. I had just a couple of false fits on the border, but it didn’t take long to sort those out.
I am looking forward to doing more from this brand, including more from the Alchemist’s series!
I did another Ceaco Food Truck puzzle. This one is simply called Festive Food Truck, and it is 500 pieces, just like the Taco Truck I did earlier. The artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones.
This was a super cute puzzle. I loved all of the signs with words, of course. The image was a bit harder than the other one, but it was still a really easy puzzle. Also, there wasn’t as much puzzle dust with this one.
This puzzle is one of the gifts I bought myself to put under the Christmas tree from Santa. My other Santa gift was a recipe binder which isn’t very full yet, but hopefully will gradually fill up as I collect more recipes. I want to print out the ones I always go to on Pinterest because scrolling through food blog posts to get to the actual recipe is a pain!
Taco Truck is part of the Food Trucks line from Ceaco, and it is 500 pieces. The artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. I did this on New Year’s Day because I wanted a smaller, fun puzzle after tacking the cactus puzzle the night before. And it was the perfect choice. 
I loved the fun colors and all the distinct textures on the puzzle. My favorite parts were the areas with words, but really I enjoyed the whole thing. I liked it so much I ordered three more Ceaco puzzles – two more food trucks and one camping scene. 
I haven’t written about what I’m reading since December of 2020, but of course I have been reading all along. According to my records on Goodreads, I read 79 books in 2021, 73 books in 2022, and 58 books in 2023. I have decided to start posting about my reading again.
What I’m Reading Now:
Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price – This would have been a great book to have when I was first diagnosed with autism, although much of it relates to more recent discoveries about autism and how it is expressed in various marginalized groups.
Launching Your Autistic Youth to Successful Adulthood by Katharina Manassis – This has some really helpful information for parents of kids on the spectrum. It’s another one I wish I had sooner because a lot of it applies to kids who are still in high school. It is still helpful even with Michael being out of school for a couple of years.
The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan – This is the first book in The Wheel of Time series. For some reason, I never picked it up back when it was first published in 1990, but I have watched both seasons that are out of The Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime, so I thought it would be good to read at least the first book in the series. It’s a good book but harder to read because I already know the basic plot from the show. I have borrowed it from the library twice but not finished it yet, and now the Libby app is showing all copies expired. I’m not sure if I want to finish it badly enough to buy it on Kindle.
What I Recently Finished:
I haven’t finished any books yet this year, so I’m not going to list any books here this month. I plan to start listing books I’ve read with the next update.
What I’ve Added to my TBR list:
Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hope, Hell, and the New Jerusalem by Bradley Jersak – I had started this book a long time ago and didn’t finish it, but I have decided to give it another try. I believe this one is mainly about universal reconciliation. I am interested in reading books on the other beliefs about hell as well.
Leave It To Us by A.C. Arthur – I got this book for free as part of Amazon’s First Reads. It looks like an interesting story about three sisters who inherit their grandmother’s beach house.
Postscript by Cecelia Ahern – This is a sequel to P.S. I Love You, which was a great book. I bought it with some of my Christmas money from my mom.
Freckles by Cecelia Ahern – Another book by Ahern, who I enjoy. Also bought with Mom’s Christmas money.
If you’re on Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend. I’m always looking for new recommendations!
Colorful Donuts from fishwisdom is a cute little puzzle snack, no pun intended. I had bought it along with a couple of other 100 piece puzzles to use for puzzle chess. When I showed my friend Renee the three options I had, she said she didn’t want to do this one because it would just make her hungry for sweets! So when I needed a lower piece count puzzle for a puzzle challenge I was doing, I decided to use this one.
It was very fun to put together. I think this would have been the perfect puzzle for me at 6 or 7 years old with the colorful designs of the donuts and the bright backgrounds for each section. Very cute puzzle!
We didn’t get to play puzzle chess the night she was here because we ran out of time, but I still have two puzzles to use for it when we get the chance. I’m looking forward to it!
Whisper of Cactus is a 1000 piece puzzle from a brand that is new to me, Antelope. The artist is Lynn Weilin. I actually won this puzzle a little over a year ago from a YouTube giveaway at The Casual Puzzler. I had been putting it off because it was a little intimidating with all of the green, but I pulled it out on New Year’s Eve Day to give it a try.
It did turn out to be a hard puzzle, but I ended up finishing it in one sitting. I thought about taking a break after I finished each of the harder groups of pieces, but then I just kept going. I think it helped that I started rewatching Gray’s Anatomy while I was puzzling; that sort of kept me engaged.
I started out with the colorful flowers, then did the maroon ground. After that, I did the blue cacti, and then started tackling the various shades and textures of the green cacti. I’m not sure how many hours I spent on it exactly, but I finished up around 2 am on New Year’s Day! Way to ring in the New Year!!
My friend Kim gave me this puzzle for Christmas. I was so excited when I got it because it was a perfect image for me. I put it together the same day she gave it to me, and it was just as good as I thought it would be.
Christmas Countdown is a 500 piece puzzle from the brand Galison, and the artist is Deva Evans. I have done several of their puzzles before and have always been happy with the quality. It’s so nice to do a puzzle without any false fits or other issues.
I started with the border, then did the areas with the white background. Next I did the areas with the dark green background and then the light green background. I finished with the center medallion. It was an enjoyable finish to my Christmas puzzles!
In So Many Words 