Thoughts of an introverted bookworm and avid jigsaw puzzler
Harvest Festival is a 500-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Nancy Wernersbach. I enjoyed it a lot. It does come in 1000 pieces, but I think I am happy with the one that I did since there is a lot of detail.
This image just has so much to like in it – a covered bridge, colorful quilts, autumn fruits and vegetables, and various other cozy elements. And of course, there are signs with words on them – always a treat!
World Landmarks Map is a 300-piece puzzle from Ravensburger. It was designed for age 9+ with what they call XXL pieces. I got it because there is a new puzzle challenge on one of the Facebook groups I belong to that needed a puzzle with a map or globe. This one definitely fit that bill!
Even though it was designed for a younger audience, I still found it enjoyable and just a bit challenging in spots. The quality was excellent, as usual with this brand.
Welcoming All is a Color Sauce puzzle from MasterPieces, and it is 500 pieces. I ordered this specifically so I could do something Pride related during the month of June.
This was a very fun puzzle to do. I love things that are in rainbow order because it is easy to separate the pieces by color and also very satisfying to see each section come together. I love the image with the wood grain look of the different color panels along with the solid black heart at the center.
I was a bit nervous to post this on Facebook because I have a lot of conservative friends. I did get one like that I was surprised by, and I only got one negative comment and he only said “Nah?”, so not too bad overall.
I also reactivated my Reddit account and started posting in the r/jigsawpuzzles subreddit. This was the first puzzle I posted there. I may go back and post older puzzles interspersed with the current ones, although that does offend my sense of order, so I’m not sure how I will do it.
Winter Fun is a Gnome Sweet Gnome puzzle from Ceaco, and it is 300 pieces. I picked it up at the recent library sale for just $2. I was originally planning to wait until winter to put it together, but my to do pile was getting pretty small and I couldn’t resist.
It was a very fun puzzle to put together. The small piece count combined with the large pieces made it an easy build. I really enjoyed seeing all the different gnomes doing their winter activities. Super cute!
Hitting the Road is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Mary Lake-Thompson. This was my first puzzle from the Cobble Hill brand. I love the subject matter as it is a combination of a collage with images of campers and other vehicles. It is a fun design with a lot of interesting elements.
Their puzzles are random cut, but it is not as hard as the previous random cut puzzle I did from Goodway Puzzles. None of these pieces were tiny or super weird in shape, so it made for a good puzzling experience. I will definitely be doing this brand again!
When I was finished, I asked Michael what his favorite scene was. He said Into the Woods because of the bear and the fox. My favorite is either Fall Fun or Holidays.
My Happy Place is a 1000-piece puzzle from Goodway Puzzles. The artist’s name is Peggy Collins. I recently ordered a few puzzles from Puzzle Warehouse, and this was one of them. I was impressed by the way Puzzle Warehouse packaged my order; the puzzles were bound together by a ribbon, and the box was sturdy and had a tear-away opening. Very nice!
I chose this puzzle because of the vibrant jewel tones and whimsical nature of the image. I do really like the finished puzzle, but it was incredibly difficult to put together. The pieces are random cut and there were so many tiny pieces with weird shapes. There was also a fair amount of blue sky, which was especially difficult because of the piece shapes.
I don’t think I would buy another puzzle from this brand, unless the image was compelling.
Owl Oasis: The Vibrant Perch is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cross & Glory. This is the second puzzle I have done from this brand. The quality was just as good as the first one, and it was a very satisfying build.
I was so drawn to this image because of the vibrant colors and incredible detail. It was a difficult puzzle but still enjoyable.
Floral Reflections is a beautiful 500-piece puzzle from Ravensburger that I have had my eye on for quite a while. My friend Jessyca came over on Memorial Day to hang out and after lunch we decided to do this puzzle together.
We sorted by color but didn’t pull the edges out and then started working at different ends of the puzzle. It worked out well because there are six sections so we could each do three of them. I finished a little bit ahead of her, so I helped with her last section.
This is such a gorgeous image, and it was very enjoyable to put together. The Ravensburger quality is always good, and it was especially nice to be working on it with another person.
After we finished the puzzle, we talked for a while and then decided to watch a movie. We settled on Falling for Figaro, partly because she had seen and liked the main actress in another movie (Patti Cake$). We both enjoyed the movie, and I plan to watch the other movie whenever I start up my Apple TV subscription again (that will be once Foundation and Silo have new seasons available)!
While she was there, I got a delivery of another puzzle I had ordered off Amazon. It came in a brown paper envelope, and the puzzle box was so mangled that it had torn open on one corner. There were even loose pieces in the packaging! I immediately contacted Amazon to initiate a return!
I had such a nice, relaxing day with my friend. I am so glad that I have been able to meet some people at my new church that I really click with!
Last Sunday, I puzzled for almost 12 hours! I didn’t intend for that to happen, but that’s what I did.
I was feeling a bit out of sorts that day. I pushed myself to go to church and then I grabbed something for lunch and was watching a show for a while. Then I decided a puzzle would be a good way to relax, so I did Little Park Ranger, a 500-piece puzzle from Mudpuppy. It was an enjoyable, easy puzzle. The artist is Erica Harrison.
After that, I wanted to keep puzzling but I wasn’t sure about a 1000-piece one, so I did Pip’s Pizza Truck from Ceaco. That is a 500-piece puzzle from their Food Trucks line, and the artist is Stephanie Peterson Jones. I really like those puzzles, and this one was no exception. It is a nice, easy puzzling experience with a really fun image. Words really are my favorite, and this puzzle has lots of them!
It was still not very late in the evening when I finished the second puzzle, and I really didn’t want to stop, so I decided to start a third puzzle. My stash had gotten a bit low, so I ended up choosing a 1000-piece Eeboo puzzle called Berlin Life. The artist is Uta Krogmann. It is a pretty busy image so I spent quite a bit of time puzzling with the poster in hand, but that is just what I needed at that point. It started to get pretty late, but I felt compelled to keep going, so I stayed up until 2 am to finish the puzzle.
I really enjoyed all three of these puzzles. The pizza truck is my favorite image, but I like them all.
Festival of the Nine Birds is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cross & Glory, which is a new puzzle brand for me. I had seen this puzzle online a while ago and put it on my wishlist, but it was pretty expensive, so I kept holding off on the purchase. At some point, it went on sale enough for me to spring for it.
I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. The image was so interesting with a lot of different colors and textures, and the piece quality was quite good as well.
Here’s a picture of the finished puzzle:
Normally I post images of my puzzles to Instagram and Facebook. On Facebook, they go on my feed and on two puzzle groups I am a part of. When I posted this one, I got a comment on one of the posts saying that this person won’t do puzzles from the brand because they use AI generated images and lie about it. Another person then commented that they didn’t care if they were AI because they liked the images so much.
I looked into it and there is some discussion on Reddit about this company using AI generated images. Apparently, they used to have an artist’s page that was AI generated but took it down after some people questioned it.
I’m not totally sure how I feel about doing puzzles with AI generated images. I know some people are totally against it on principle and other people just don’t like when companies aren’t upfront about it. On the one hand, the art is generated based off the AI’s consumption of existing art, so it could be considered unfair to those artists. On the other hand, every artist is influenced by what they have seen and experienced in their lives and that is okay.
I am going to have to think about this some more before I come to a conclusion. In the meantime, I already have another puzzle from this brand, and I will be putting it together since I already own it.
In So Many Words 