Costa Rica Camper & Beach Camper

I recently did two more of the Happy Camper series from Ceaco, illustrated by Stephanie Peterson Jones. Both were 300 pieces.

Costa Rica Camper is my favorite Happy Camper puzzle so far! It is so bright and colorful, and there were lots of large sections with unique patterns that I could pull out and do. I barely even needed to look at the box!

Beach Camper is another fun one. I love the turquoise on the camper and the pink of the flamingo and the flowers. This one was secondhand so the pieces were a bit worn, but it was still okay quality.

Lake Camper

Lake Camper is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. This is part of a series called Happy Camper. I have several of these and am hoping to get the rest someday. I just love her artwork style and find these so fun and super easy!

A while ago, I got a multipack set of Happy Camper puzzles that had variations of 5 of these puzzles, but the quality was terrible and I didn’t keep them when I was done. Here is a list of the regular puzzles from the series with their status:

  • Beach Camper, 300 pieces, owned but not completed
  • Cactus Camp-Out, 300 pieces, want to get
  • Canyon Camper, 300 pieces, owned and completed
  • Christmas Camper, 300 pieces, owned and completed
  • Costa Rica Camper, 300 pieces, owned but not completed
  • Downeast Camper, 300 pieces, want to get
  • Green Mountain Camper, 300 pieces, want to get
  • Lake Camper, 300 pieces, owned and completed
  • Mountain Camper, 300 pieces, owned and completed
  • Wine Country Camper, 750 pieces, owned and completed

Canyon Camper

Canyon Camper is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. This is part of the Happy Camper series that I am collecting. She also did a series of 500-piece food trucks that I love.

I really enjoyed this one. There was one day that I wanted to puzzle but didn’t feel like tackling any of my larger puzzles, so I pulled this one down and it definitely scratched the itch. The quality was not great, but I have found it to be hit or miss with this brand, so I wasn’t totally surprised.

Brunch & Craft

At the end of September, my church held an event called Brunch & Craft. It was open to anyone who wanted to come, and we were encouraged to bring a craft to do and, if possible, a dish to share. This is the second one of these we have had, and it was a lot of fun the first time.

My friend Suzanne and I decided to do puzzles during the crafting time. We did two puzzles, and our friend Brianne joined us for the first one before settling down to color. My friend Renee, who lives about 45 minutes away, came with me as well and she was doing some crochet.

I really enjoyed the event. I brought a sausage hashbrown casserole to share and had some other delicious treats that other people had brought as well. I brought four puzzles and let Suzanne and Brianne choose which ones we would do. For the first one, they immediately chose Cats in Quarantine, which is a 500-piece puzzle from Exploding Kittens. I have done it a couple of times already and love it.

The picture above shows it in progress, and here is the finished puzzle:

For the second puzzle, Suzanne chose Waterfall Camper, a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco. The artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. I have a bunch of her puzzles and really like her artwork.

This was such a fun event. Usually I get drained being around a lot of people, but I was so focused on our little group and the activity of puzzling that I actually still had a lot of energy after it was done. Renee and I went out for a late lunch/early dinner and then ice cream and hung out for a bit at my place before she went home.

I hope we do it again!

Wine Country Camper

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!

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!

Weekend Recap

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?

Christmas Camper

Christmas Camper is a 300-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. This was an adorable, quick puzzle that I have been saving for the Christmas season. I knew it would be pretty easy, so I did it without looking at the image to make the puzzling last a bit longer. I love all of the festive details!

Happy Camper Multipack

Ceaco has a series of puzzles called Happy Camper, and I picked up this 5-in-1 multipack featuring some of those images. I started doing Happy Camper puzzles after I finished all of the Food Trucks that are currently out. Most of them are only 300 pieces, which makes for a short puzzling experience, but they are really cute, so I like them. I thought this pack would be a good way to get a bunch of them for a lower price.

I was not impressed with this pack of puzzles at all. Some of the images are cut off versions of the original puzzles, and the quality was terrible. The image was coming off the cardboard in a lot of places. A lot of the pieces were damaged and a couple had even lost the knobs entirely. The puzzles are cute, but I would recommend getting the individual ones instead of the multipack. Those are usually a bit better quality.

One thing I did enjoy was that for the last two puzzles I did (the vertical 300-pieces ones), I solved them without looking at the image while I was puzzling. It gave me a different experience to what I normally do, and I enjoyed it. It was fun figuring out where sections went as the puzzle came together. I don’t know if I would like to do this all the time; I think it could be quite frustrating on a larger, more detailed puzzle.

Here are the completed puzzles from the set:

Beach Camper, 750 pieces
Downeast Camper, 500 pieces
Canyon Camper, 500 pieces
Lake Camper, 300 pieces
Waterfall Camper, 300 pieces

Mountain Camper

Mountain Camper is part of the Happy Camper series from Ceaco. It is a 300-piece puzzle from the artist Stephanie Peterson Jones. This is the first one I have done in this series, and it is such a fun puzzle!

I actually have already purchased a 5-pack with more Happy Campers in a variety of piece counts, so I will definitely be doing more of these. They are just so enjoyable to put together with all of the colors and textures going on. I just wish they were more than 300 pieces.