Thoughts of an introverted bookworm and avid jigsaw puzzler
Dream Universe is a 500-piece puzzle. It is unbranded.
I got this at the puzzle swap I attended recently. Originally, I had thought I might skip it and just put it back in my swap pile, but then I saw that it had letters on the back of the pieces so that I could sort it into smaller sections. So I did it that way and quite enjoyed it.
The quality was pretty good, especially for a no-name brand.
Blackbirds Roost at Mill Creek is a 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Charles Wysocki. I just love his images, especially ones like this with a lot of buildings and other interesting elements. I love the coloring of the sky as well.
This was a nice, easy puzzle that was very enjoyable to put together. Here are a few closeups of some of the details:
Cozy Retreat is a 500-piece puzzle from Ravensburger, and the artist is Nancy Wernersbach. It is one of their large format puzzles with oversized, easy-to-grip pieces, and it has a nice matte finish.
I have done a few other large format puzzles from Ravensburger and enjoyed them very much. This one has been on my wishlist for a while, and I’m glad I got it. It was a nice, relaxing puzzle to put together, very low difficulty and such an interesting image.
Here are some closeups:
I can definitely see myself revisiting this puzzle many times!
Spring Tea Party is a 500-piece puzzle from Galison, and the artist is Victoria Ball. It is such a sweet image, and it was very easy to put together. The colors are a bit muted compared to what I normally prefer, but I still enjoyed it a lot.
Here are some closeups of the bunnies:
Parenthese Enchantee is a 500 piece puzzle from Trevell, and the artist is La Jeanette.
Such a gorgeous image! I have been eyeing this puzzle for a while now and am so glad I got it. I love all the beautiful colors and interesting details, and the matte finish on the pieces is so nice. The packaging is wonderful too. It came with a nice poster and a cotton drawstring bag holding the pieces.
This was a fun weekend! On Saturday, I attended a Brunch & Craft women’s event at my church. Everyone was invited to come for brunch and bring any craft they wanted to work on while socializing with each other. I don’t really have any crafts I am working on right now, so my friend Suzanne and I decided to do puzzles together.
There was a good turnout at the event, and everyone was talking about how we would like to do it again. I brought four puzzles for us to choose from, all ones I had previously done. Our friend Brianne joined us for the first one, Mountain Camper from Ceaco. It was a 300-piece puzzle and went very quickly with the three of us working together.
After that, Brianne decided to do some coloring, and Suzanne and I did Paper Paradise from Galison, a 500-piece puzzle. One of the other women at the event who enjoys doing puzzles stopped over and helped for a little while. We finished just under the wire.
This morning I was a greeter at church. The pastor started a new series for Lent called Practicing the Way. It was inspired by the book of that name by John Mark Comer. The sermon was very good and we also had a surprise visit by our bishop. We gave out t-shirts to 5 newcomers today, which was exciting.
This afternoon we had a small birthday celebration for Michael, who turns 23 tomorrow. The party included Renee, Chris, Evan, and Hans. We had lunch followed by the cake Michael has requested – chocolate with chocolate frosting with chocolate chips in the frosting. He got some fun gifts including a metal 100-sided die and a Nintendo 64 t-shirt. After that, the boys played games on the Switch while us old folks napped and chatted on the couch.
I do wish I had one more day to the weekend to decompress a bit, but I am glad I was able to participate in both events. I will get a bit of down time tomorrow after work since Michael’s therapist is out of town and Michael won’t have an appointment like he usually does.
What did you do this weekend?
Dog Walkers is a 500-piece puzzle from Dowdle. I received this as a gift from a friend and did it now after using the randomizer on my puzzle app to pick my next puzzle.
Honestly, I am not a huge fan of this brand. Something about the artwork just does not appeal to me. I also encountered a lot of false fits with this puzzle, especially in the top section. The top third of the puzzle took quite a while to complete.
Bright Heart is a 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games. The artwork is from EttaVee, which is the brand created by Jessi Raulet, an American artist living in France.
If you are looking for a challenge, this is it! I chose this puzzle because of its striking artwork; it has such beautiful colors and patterns!
I started this one with my friend Suzanne, who did the border and a bit of the interior, and then I finished it up by myself. There was a lot of looking at the poster and I decided to sort by shape when I was only halfway through the puzzle.
I’m not complaining, though. Even though it was hard, the image is amazing and the puzzle quality is really good. I highly recommend!
Another note about the artist: when I visited ettavee.com on my phone, a popup gave me the opportunity to access downloadable wallpapers and I now have a bit of her artwork on my phone screen!
Here are some pictures of the progress along the way, along with the finished puzzle.
Puzzle Complaints is a 500-piece puzzle from Workman Puzzles, and the artist is popular children’s book author Sandra Boynton. I had done this puzzle very close to when I started puzzling in 2021 and decided to redo it to bring in the New Year.
It is such a fun puzzle! I love all the different sayings and the complaining chickens. The text around the border of the puzzle is pretty amusing as well.
Winter Lights is a 500-piece puzzle from Galison, and the artist is Joy LaForme. This was a gift from my friend Kim. She is really good at picking out puzzles I like, and this one is no exception!
It is kind of hard to see from a photo, but the puzzle has gold foil accents on it, which are so festive. I enjoyed putting together all of the buildings and vehicles most of all. The image is a bit dark, but it wasn’t too bad to work with.
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!
In So Many Words 