Crows Nest Harbor and Young Patriots: A Double Dose of Americana

Crows Nest Harbor is a 1000-piece puzzle from MasterPieces, and the artist is Art Poulin, who was an American folk artist. This puzzle was actually the oldest on my to do shelf. I kept passing it over and finally decided it was time to pull it down and do it.

I really enjoy puzzles with buildings, and this one was especially fun with the distinct bright colors for each building. The amount of dock and sky was small enough that they weren’t very tricky, either.

It felt good to be puzzling after an almost two-week break. (No big reason for the break, I’ve just been reading a lot more.)

I was still in the mood for Americana the following day, so I did this 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games called Young Patriots. It is a Charles Wysocki and features more of my beloved buildings along with other charming details. It was a lot of fun.

Rainbow Sunrise

Rainbow Sunrise is a 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Josie Lewis. This was such a relaxing puzzle to put together, and the rainbow gradient is so beautiful.

I have actually started collecting Josie Lewis puzzles because of how much I love them. I have five so far, three of which I still have left to do. I also started following her on TikTok, where she shares her current art as well as spotlights other artists who are doing interesting work.

Buffalo Games puzzles are very good quality. The pieces have a nice smooth finish to them that is very pleasant to the touch. I wish I liked more of their images, but unfortunately a lot of them are not my preferred style.

Here are the three Lewis puzzles I have on my to do shelf right now:

Library Puzzles

I posted the other day that I had borrowed a couple of puzzles from the community collection at the library. I was excited to do them, so I sat down last weekend and ended up doing both of them one after the other. They didn’t take very long since they were both only 300 pieces and they had extra large pieces.

The first one I did was A Pie for the Parson, which is from Buffalo Games and features art by Charles Wysocki. It is the first winter scene I have done this season, so it was a refreshing change from all the fall puzzles I have been doing. I love the idea of a pie wagon coming around to my house!

The second one was called Sailing on the Wind, and it is also from Buffalo Games and the artist is Steve Sundram. I love how bright and colorful it is! It was so much fun to pick out all the different patterns on the hot air balloons.

I am hoping I will find some more great choices when I return these to the library!

The Bookstore

The Bookstore is a 300-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Charles Wysocki. There was one piece missing, which is unfortunate. I got this at a puzzle swap, but it is possible that I lost the piece myself – I need to double check under the couch to see if I can find it.

I enjoyed this image. It went very fast due to the smaller piece count, but it was still a lot of fun.

Bread & Butter Farms

Bread & Butter Farms is a 1000-piece puzzle from Buffalo Farms, and the artist is Charles Wysocki. This is such a classic fall image with the farm stand and all of the pumpkins.

It took me a few sessions to complete, so I would definitely put the difficulty a bit higher, but it was very enjoyable and definitely fits the mood of the season!

The Farm

The Farm is a 1000-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Charles Wysocki. I love this image so much. My favorite part about his artwork are the buildings, so I love that this building is so prominent in the image. All of the signs and decorations on the front add so much interest and make it easier to puzzle than a plain building would be.

Puzzle Chess with Renee

My friend Renee came over recently and hung out for an evening while she was on vacation. We ordered pizza and watched a couple of episodes of Tracker, and then we decided to play Puzzle Chess.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with puzzle chess, here’s how it works. You pick a small puzzle (we used 100 pieces) and you build the border together and lay out all the other pieces. Then you start a chess clock, which you can get on your phone, and take turns putting one piece into the puzzle. Once you have placed your piece, you tap your clock to end your turn and start the other person’s time. Whoever has the most time left when the puzzle is done is the winner!

We played four rounds, and I won three of them. To be fair, I puzzle all the time and Renee only does it when she is with me (except for sometimes on her phone). Our first puzzle was Popsicle Monsters from fishwisdom, and I won by 16 seconds.

The second puzzle was a Peanuts puzzle called Birthday from RoseArt. Renee won this one by 15 seconds.

The third puzzle was Beautiful Wild Animals from a generic Chinese brand. I won this one by 40 seconds.

The fourth puzzle was a Dr. Seuss puzzled called I Will Not Eat Green Eggs and Ham from Buffalo Games. This was the hardest puzzle we did and also the only vertical one. I won by 2 minutes and 5 seconds.

I love playing puzzle chess and am so happy when someone agrees to play it with me.

Storin’ Up

Storin’ Up is a 300 piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Charles Wysocki. I needed a quick one the other day, so I grabbed this one off my shelf.

As always, I enjoyed doing the buildings and the signs. But how cute are all those buggies! I especially loved those.

Mr. Swallowbark

Mr. Swallowbark is a 300-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Charles Wysocki. Between the thrift store one weekend and a puzzle swap the next, I ended up with two copies of this puzzle – oops!

This was so much fun to put together. I love the red barn, and I am especially fond of the row of brooms hanging on display.

Diamond Dahlia

Diamond Dahlia is a 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Josie Lewis. I think this is a perfect example of a rainbow puzzle. It is so satisfying to do a puzzle where I can start with one color and work my way around.

The white lines in the design along with the shading of the colors made it easier to place pieces than I thought it would be, although the red and pinks were very similar and took a bit longer than the other colors.

I really want to get one other puzzle of hers, Rainbow Sunrise. It is out of stock everywhere I’ve looked, though, so I’ve got an alert set up on ebay in case one shows up there. Here’s a picture of that one: