Amsterdam Weekend

Amsterdam Weekend is a 1000-piece puzzle from Antelope Puzzle, and the artist is Lynn Weilin. I have done a couple other puzzles from this brand, and one of them was actually from this same artist. I continue to be impressed by the quality of this brand, and the image is perfect for me.

I love all the different colors of the buildings and how they each have their own style of windows and doors. The street/park scene in the front is a nice addition so it’s not *all* buildings.

I am totally open to doing more from Antelope, but they just don’t have a lot of images that appeal to me.

Recent Puzzle Hauls

I have acquired several puzzles over the last few weeks that I am excited about doing. Most are new but a couple are used.

  • Balloons from Ravensburger, 300 pieces – part of their Moments line and it’s just so pretty
  • Diamond Dahlia from Buffalo Games, 500 pieces – looks like a lovely rainbow puzz!le
  • Wine Country Camper from Ceaco, 750 pieces – hard to find puzzle from the Happy Camper series, had to get off Poshmark
  • Amsterdam Weekend from Antelope, 1000 pieces – have wanted this one for a while and decided to take the plunge
  • Whimsical Village, Concord, 500 pieces – saw this and loved it, found on ebay
  • The Tree of Hope, Pintoo, 300 pieces – this brand is new to me and is famous for their plastic pieces
  • Coastal Harbour, Ravensburger, 1000 pieces – recently did one by this artist, Georgia Breeze, and really enjoyed it. This came from the UK but was sold on Amazon, so I didn’t have to mess with high shipping or customs fees
  • Simple Joys, 1canoe2, 1000 pieces – I have done one other by this brand and liked it a lot, this one just looks so relaxing

I am going to try buying fewer puzzles for the next month or so and try to focus on the ones I already have. That is a really difficult challenge for me, though, so we’ll have to see how I do!

Hue Wormhole

Hue Wormhole is a beautiful puzzle by Wenjia Wang.  This is a 1000-piece, circular puzzle from Antelope Puzzles, and it was a lot of fun to put together. I have never done a circular puzzle this big and it actually ended up being too big for the puzzle board I was doing it on.  I had to carefully transfer it to foam board to get photos of it.

The colors in this puzzle are gorgeous, and the quality is impressive! The pieces were a nice thickness and fit together well. I started with the border and then worked my way from the outer green and blue up to the purple edge. The greens and orange went pretty well, but then I got a big bogged down in the reds. I kept working it and eventually got to the purples, which were a lot easier.

All in all, this was a joy to assemble and I highly recommend it!

Whisper of Cactus

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!!