Thoughts of an introverted bookworm and avid jigsaw puzzler
Toy Stamps is a 1000 piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Barbara Behr. I picked this up at 2nd & Charles when I visited their new location to check it out. This one stood out to me as being fun and whimsical.
It was a lot of fun to put together. I enjoy collages, especially stamps, and the subject matter of this one was especially appealing. I stayed up way too late so I could finish it in one sitting. I had to sort by shape when I was about 75% done, so it was a good challenge.
I redid two more puzzles for a challenge I am doing in a Facebook group I belong to. These were the last two clues for the event, so this one is done now.
Clue #9 was an umbrella, so I redid Town Park, which is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco. It was illustrated by Olivia Gibbs and features patio umbrellas above the tables outside one of the shops.
Clue #10 was bathtub. For that one, I redid The Alchemist’s Home, which is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeBoo. The artist is Vasilisa Romanenko. Ironically, I had done a different puzzle with a house cross section that included a bathtub just before the ten-week challenge and had thought about holding onto it just in case, but then I decided to take it apart.
I really enjoyed this puzzle challenge and am looking forward to the next one!
Joyful Aviary is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. This image is a bit different than what I have seen before from her, but I liked all the colorful birds and had been wanting some lower piece counts to mix in with my other puzzles.
I actually ended up doing this for the puzzle challenge I am currently participating in. The challenge has a new clue every week for 10 weeks. For the first four weeks, there was just one clue, but on week 5, the mystery split into two paths with different clues for each path. Once you picked a path, you had to follow that path and its clues through the rest of the challenge.
For week 5, I had a choice of snow/mountains or desert/marketplace. I chose snow and that’s why I did the Charles Wysocki puzzle Hickory Haven Canal. For week 6, the clue for my team was tropical bird, and the other team had bridge. This puzzle fit the tropical bird theme and then some!
Wine Country Camper is a 750-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. This charming puzzle is part of the Happy Camper series, and I was really happy to get a hold of it. The series is mostly 300-piece puzzles, with just a few larger ones, and I was glad to finally track down a copy of this one at Poshmark (not a place I expected to find puzzles!)
This was such a fun puzzle to do! I love all the colorful elements and different textures. I will definitely be doing this one again and again!
The clues for weeks 2 and 3 of the puzzle challenge I am doing on Facebook were barnyard animals and musical instruments. I was able to redo puzzles from my shelves for both of them.
Farm Life is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. This one fit the clue for barnyard animals with its cows and chickens.
Koala House Party is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeBoo, and the artist is Uta Krogmann. This one is a house cross section with a music room containing several different instruments.
I enjoyed redoing both of these and am looking forward to the next prompt tomorrow!
I have done a bunch of puzzles over the last week, and several of them feature flowers, so I thought I would post them all together.
Wildflowers of North America is a 1000-piece puzzle from BBOLDIN, which is basically a generic Chinese brand you can find on Amazon. I knew this image might be a bit challenging for me, but I also knew that these brands print letters on the back of their puzzles so that you can sort the pieces into several sections to make it easier.
I enjoyed doing this one. It is so satisfying to do each section, and I especially like all the words at the top and bottom. This is very similar to a mushroom puzzle that I did a while ago.
Fantasy Gardens is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Liselle Larsen. This was a quick, easy puzzle. I usually reserve the term puzzle snack for 200 pieces or less, but this went so fast that it felt like one. The image is well-designed for doing a puzzle.
City Garden Rainbow Retreat is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cross & Glory, who use AI to generate their art. I fell in love with this image the first time I saw it and was so happy to be able to get it.
I love the abstract nature of this image. Because it has somewhat of a rainbow pattern, I did sort by color up front. Usually, I just pull out the edges and flip the rest of the pieces over and put them in sorting trays, but it definitely helped to do more sorting for this one. This puzzle was on the more difficult side, but it was never overwhelming, and I felt like I made slow but continual progress.
I love that I have had so much time to puzzle the last couple of weeks. My stash of puzzles to do was getting pretty big, and it feels good to make a dent in it and do some of the puzzles I have been looking forward to.
I have acquired several puzzles over the last few weeks that I am excited about doing. Most are new but a couple are used.
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!
As part of the puzzle haul I got from the friend from church who moved away recently, I got a set of Ceaco puzzles labeled “10 Seaside Jigsaw Puzzles.” I ended up doing six of them before I got tired of them and decided to stop. I know I could do the others later, but I don’t think I will.
The puzzles I did included two 100-piece puzzles and four 300-piece puzzles. I did not do the four 500-piece puzzles. Here are pictures of the ones I completed:
Paris Windows is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Amanda Haley.
I had *so* much fun doing this puzzle. Buildings are my favorite things to puzzle, and this one has a ton of them! It is a very busy image, so a lot of it was pick and place one piece at a time. The quality was mid, but about what you would expect from this brand.
Here are a few closeups:
The Mother’s Day Picnic is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Jane Wooster Scott. I find her images charming and enjoyed putting together this puzzle.
In So Many Words 