Hitting the Road is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Mary Lake-Thompson. This was my first puzzle from the Cobble Hill brand. I love the subject matter as it is a combination of a collage with images of campers and other vehicles. It is a fun design with a lot of interesting elements.
Their puzzles are random cut, but it is not as hard as the previous random cut puzzle I did from Goodway Puzzles. None of these pieces were tiny or super weird in shape, so it made for a good puzzling experience. I will definitely be doing this brand again!
When I was finished, I asked Michael what his favorite scene was. He said Into the Woods because of the bear and the fox. My favorite is either Fall Fun or Holidays.
My Happy Place is a 1000-piece puzzle from Goodway Puzzles. The artist’s name is Peggy Collins. I recently ordered a few puzzles from Puzzle Warehouse, and this was one of them. I was impressed by the way Puzzle Warehouse packaged my order; the puzzles were bound together by a ribbon, and the box was sturdy and had a tear-away opening. Very nice!
I chose this puzzle because of the vibrant jewel tones and whimsical nature of the image. I do really like the finished puzzle, but it was incredibly difficult to put together. The pieces are random cut and there were so many tiny pieces with weird shapes. There was also a fair amount of blue sky, which was especially difficult because of the piece shapes.
I don’t think I would buy another puzzle from this brand, unless the image was compelling.
Owl Oasis: The Vibrant Perch is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cross & Glory. This is the second puzzle I have done from this brand. The quality was just as good as the first one, and it was a very satisfying build.
I was so drawn to this image because of the vibrant colors and incredible detail. It was a difficult puzzle but still enjoyable.
Last Sunday, I puzzled for almost 12 hours! I didn’t intend for that to happen, but that’s what I did.
I was feeling a bit out of sorts that day. I pushed myself to go to church and then I grabbed something for lunch and was watching a show for a while. Then I decided a puzzle would be a good way to relax, so I did Little Park Ranger, a 500-piece puzzle from Mudpuppy. It was an enjoyable, easy puzzle. The artist is Erica Harrison.
After that, I wanted to keep puzzling but I wasn’t sure about a 1000-piece one, so I did Pip’s Pizza Truck from Ceaco. That is a 500-piece puzzle from their Food Trucks line, and the artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. I really like those puzzles, and this one was no exception. It is a nice, easy puzzling experience with a really fun image. Words really are my favorite, and this puzzle has lots of them!
It was still not very late in the evening when I finished the second puzzle, and I really didn’t want to stop, so I decided to start a third puzzle. My stash had gotten a bit low, so I ended up choosing a 1000-piece Eeboo puzzle called Berlin Life. The artist is Uta Krogmann. It is a pretty busy image so I spent quite a bit of time puzzling with the poster in hand, but that is just what I needed at that point. It started to get pretty late, but I felt compelled to keep going, so I stayed up until 2 am to finish the puzzle.
I really enjoyed all three of these puzzles. The pizza truck is my favorite image, but I like them all.
Festival of the Nine Birds is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cross & Glory, which is a new puzzle brand for me. I had seen this puzzle online a while ago and put it on my wishlist, but it was pretty expensive, so I kept holding off on the purchase. At some point, it went on sale enough for me to spring for it.
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. The image was so interesting with a lot of different colors and textures, and the piece quality was quite good as well.
Here’s a picture of the finished puzzle:
Normally I post images of my puzzles to Instagram and Facebook. On Facebook, they go on my feed and on two puzzle groups I am a part of. When I posted this one, I got a comment on one of the posts saying that this person won’t do puzzles from the brand because they use AI generated images and lie about it. Another person then commented that they didn’t care if they were AI because they liked the images so much.
I looked into it and there is some discussion on Reddit about this company using AI generated images. Apparently, they used to have an artist’s page that was AI generated but took it down after some people questioned it.
I’m not totally sure how I feel about doing puzzles with AI generated images. I know some people are totally against it on principle and other people just don’t like when companies aren’t upfront about it. On the one hand, the art is generated based off the AI’s consumption of existing art, so it could be considered unfair to those artists. On the other hand, every artist is influenced by what they have seen and experienced in their lives and that is okay.
I am going to have to think about this some more before I come to a conclusion. In the meantime, I already have another puzzle from this brand, and I will be putting it together since I already own it.
I love, love the Alchemist’s series from Eeboo! It is such a fun one. I had previously done The Alchemist’s Home and Alchemist’s Cabinet and loved them both as well. I have heard that a fifth one is in the works. The artist is Vasilisa Romanenko.
Both of these are 1000-piece puzzles and they can be somewhat challenging but are so engrossing and fun to do that it feels like the right amount of difficulty. I have found that puzzling is a great hobby for me because I am normally a very anxious person, but when I am doing a puzzle, my brain is so engaged that I don’t feel anxious at all and don’t even think about the other stuff that is going on in my life.
As far as my puzzling method goes, I used to always sort my puzzles, but I am finding that with these one that are more busy, it is difficult to do that. I have started just turning all of the pieces over and placing them in my sorting trays. I only pull out the edges so I can do them first. Then I just pick through the trays for whatever color or texture I am working on next. This seems to work pretty well and definitely saves some time upfront!
Alchemist’s Library
Alchemist’s Kitchen
Although I love them both, the kitchen one is my favorite. I love the vibrant colors and all the interesting details. I am definitely looking forward to the next installment in the series!
The Lion is Awake is a 1000-piece puzzle from Genuine Fred, and the artist’s name is Souther Salazar. I picked it up at my local puzzle box because there weren’t many puzzles I really liked and this one just seemed so interesting and unique.
This was also the first puzzle I had done from the brand Genuine Fred. It turned out to be a really good puzzling experience. The quality was very good, and the image was perfectly suited for a puzzle, with lots of distinct colors and textures to work on .
I actually did this puzzle on Mother’s Day. Michael was with his dad, so I went to church and had lunch and then started working on this puzzle. He came home later in the afternoon and brought me a card, flowers, and chocolate. So sweet!
The day before I did this puzzle, I went to a puzzle competition that was being held nearby in Hershey, PA. I did not participate as it was my first time going to something like this and I wanted to scope it out first to see what it was like. The competition involved teams of 4 doing a 500-piece puzzle. This was a fundraiser for metastatic breast cancer research and was held at the antique automobile museum, and the puzzle had antique cars and trucks on it.
There were about two dozen teams participating in the event, which was great. The first three teams got done in 33 minutes, 45 minutes, and 54 minutes. I stayed for a little while after that, but left before the entire event was over. I was by myself because the friend that was planning to go with me had a family thing come up and couldn’t go.
Here are a couple of pics from the day:
If I get another opportunity to go to a puzzle competition like this, I think I would like to find a team and join in.
Mother Earth is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeBoo, and the artist is Maya Hanish. This is my third puzzle in a row from them, and they have all been great. I fell in love with this image the first time I saw it.
This puzzle was a bit more difficult than the last two I had done. There were a few decent size areas that I could put together, but a lot of it was done one piece at a time.
Music in Montreal is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeBoo, and the artist is Caroline Bonne Muller. It is a great image that was a lot of fun to put together. There were a lot of distinct colors and textures, and the quality was just as good as eeBoo normally is.
Alchemist’s Cabinet is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeBoo, and the artist is Vasilisa Romanenko. It features the curio cabinet from one of the rooms in The Alchemist’s House puzzle, which I have done previously. The image is a fascinating collections of books and various objects the person must have collected over the years.
I really enjoyed this puzzle. I like the quality of eeBoo puzzles. The pieces are very smooth and a nice size. It is hard to move sections because the fit isn’t very tight, but I found I could use the poster to slide under a section and move it where I wanted it to be.
There are two more puzzles in this series – Alchemist’s Library and Alchemist’s Kitchen. I have already purchased both of them and plan to do them later this year. Love this series!
In So Many Words 