Thoughts of an introverted bookworm and avid jigsaw puzzler
Paris Christmas is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeboo, and the artist is Jennifer Orkin Lewis. I love all of the great colors and details in this festive holiday image. My favorite part is the twinkle lights on the Eiffel Tower.
There were a few sections I was able to do in the beginning, but after that, it was mostly pick and place for the rest of the puzzle. It was still fun, though.
Today, I finally finished decorating for Christmas. I kept it very simple this year, just my small tree and a couple other decorations. I just don’t have the energy to do more than that.
One of the things that has been on my mind a lot lately is my financial situation and the fact that retirement is getting closer than it used to be. I finally took a step towards facing things and met with a financial planner this week. We had a good initial meeting, and I am hopeful that she will be able to help me.
Death has also been on my mind recently. A friend who lives far away lost her husband to a sudden heart attack a couple of weeks ago. More recently another friend lost her 24 year old son to complications from a seizure. I have known her for about 20 years – we met because we both had children with autism and have been connected ever since. Michael and I went to his celebration of life on Saturday. It was a very moving service.
Holiday Drive In is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Diane Dempsey. I love the mid-century modern theme of this image, with the vintage cars and the fun signage. My favorite parts to put together were the movie screen and all of the signs – I love puzzling words!
I have done a couple other puzzles from this artist and really enjoy her style. Cobble Hill is a really good quality brand that does random-cut puzzles. I tend to do more ribbon or grid cut puzzles, but the random cut didn’t bother me with this one because it was such a great image.
Have you ever been to a drive in movie? I have fond memories of going with my family as a child and playing on the little playground beneath the screen before the movie started.
Winterfest is a 550-piece puzzle from Vermont Christmas Company, and the artist is Randy Wollenmann. I actually won this puzzle in a contest over on Reddit, so I was pretty happy to get it!
I have only done one other puzzle from this brand. It was another holiday puzzle called Camping for Christmas, and I did it in December 2022, which was the first year I did Christmas puzzles. (I started puzzling in June 2021.)
I find this image so charming, and I love the idea of drinking cider or cocoa while watching the children skate on the ice. The quality is decent, although there is a fair amount of puzzle dust and the pieces aren’t as crisp as some other brands are.
Here’s a throwback to the puzzle I did from this brand in 2022:
It’s that time of year when I start doing my holiday puzzles! I collect them throughout the year and save them up to do in December, and this is my first one for the season.
Festive Fun Car is a 500-piece puzzle from WerkShoppe, and the artist is Helen Black. I have only done two or three puzzles from WerkShoppe, but they are definitely one of my favorite brands. The packaging is gorgeous, with a slide out box with a ribbon pull tab, a resealable plastic bag for the pieces, and a nice reference poster. The pieces are medium thick with a smooth finish that feels so good, and they fit together beautifully.
I also love, love the image on this one. It truly is festive and fun, and I really enjoyed all of the great details. The shaped balloons and hearts made of candy canes are my favorite parts, if I have to choose.
This was a great start to my holiday! And I do mean start because, even though we did bring the Christmas decorations out of storage, we haven’t put them up yet.
Have you decorated for Christmas yet?
I had such a nice Christmas this year. My company was closed on the 24th and 25th, and I took the 23rd as a floating holiday, so with the weekend I had five days off. It took me a while to get my apartment decorated this year, but I finally did it and was able to enjoy my tree and other decorations for a couple of weeks leading up to the big day.
Michael was with me on Christmas Day this year, and we slept in until around 10am and then opened our stockings and gave each other presents. I decided that I wanted to have Michael be in charge of filling my stocking starting next year and when I told him that, he wanted help shopping for me this year to add to the couple of little things I had bought for myself. I thought that was very sweet.
For presents, Michael gave me two puzzles – one for Christmas and one for my birthday. He picked them from my Amazon wish list, so I definitely liked them!
In addition to his stocking stuffers, I got him a set of Pokemon books, a Lego set, and a new keyboard for his computer. I usually get him a video game, but he only had one on his list this year, and his dad got it for him. I did put gift cards for Nintendo and Steam in his stocking along with a bunch of different treats.
Peanut Butter got a small squirrel stuffed with catnip. I think he liked it!
After we opened presents, I made us French toast for breakfast and then got started on dinner, which was a turkey breast with assorted sides (different for each of us based on what we like). Later that day, I watched the Doctor Who Christmas special, so that was fun. All in all, it was a very good day!
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!
Last Friday, there was a knock at my door and my son answered it to find my friend Jessyca, who I have not seen in several months. I was overjoyed to see her and we had a nice chat to catch up on each other’s lives. She also brought me a Christmas gift, which was a custom puzzle that she had made for me. There was no picture of what the image would be, so it was a surprise as I put it together.
This puzzle is from a company called puzzleYOU and is one of their Smart Sorted puzzles. When you open the box, you see 40 individual little boxes, each with 25 pieces in them. This allows you to choose what level of difficulty you want for your puzzling experience. You can do one box at a time or mix as many as you want together. The box did not show the puzzle, but did have a hint for what the image would be.
I chose to do one box at a time since I didn’t know what the image was. It was so fun to do each little section and then put them together. I had a few times where it seemed like I was missing a piece, but eventually I thought to check the little boxes and found that some of them had a piece at the bottom that hadn’t come out when I emptied the box the first time. So in the end, I was not missing any pieces.
Here are some pictures of my progress at various points:
This was such a fun puzzle to do, and the quality was excellent. The pieces were a nice size and thick enough to pick up easily, and it was fairly easy to move sections around. I especially enjoyed it because it had been made especially for me by a dear friend and was a reminder of the great time we had going to the Brick Fest Live event earlier this year.
I would highly recommend this company if you are interested in making a custom puzzle, and the Smart Sorted option is great for someone who might not have a lot of puzzling experience (but I also loved it even though I have done a lot of puzzles)!
Love for Holiday Baking is a 1000-piece heart-shaped, Christmas-themed puzzle from Callie Danielle. I got it at Target several months ago and have been holding onto it until now when it would fit the season.
My friend Suzanne came over one evening last week and this is the puzzle she chose to help with. She worked on the border, which is her favorite part, and I worked on some of the larger items pictured in the puzzle. Once I was on my own, I spent several evenings working on this puzzle.
Pros:
Cons:
I went on a journey with this one. Starting out, I felt hopeful that it would be pretty easy, but that quickly shifted into feeling overwhelmed. Once I got all of the larger items in the image put together, I sorted by shape and started working piece by piece. After a while, I started to make some progress on the big open spaces and felt better about the experience. As always, once it was finished, I felt a sense of accomplishment and appreciated how adorable this puzzle was.
I will admit that having done a few harder puzzles recently prompted me to go through my wish list and remove some that I thought might be on the harder side.
Vintage Main Street is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Diane Dempsey. This was my second Dempsey puzzle; I find her art style very appealing.
I have done a lot of puzzles with buildings this year, and this one provides a fresh take on the concept with the vintage store fronts. The classic cars and fun holiday theme are also a lot of fun.
I did end up with one missing piece, which I was very bummed about. This could very well be my fault, as I did drop a couple of pieces on the floor. I thought I found them all but might not have. I’m still hoping it will show up sometime.
In So Many Words 