Tag: jigsaw puzzles

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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.

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The Beautiful Pirate

The Beautiful Pirate is a 1000-piece puzzle from Magnolia, and the artist is Romi Lerda. This is my second puzzle with Romi’s artwork, and I just think it is so pretty.

This puzzle was definitely challenging though. Magnolia has a difficulty star rating on their boxes, and they marked this one as 3 out of 5. I would have rated it higher than that, so I don’t think I want to try any puzzles they think are even more difficult!

I just heard there are some new puzzles coming out with her artwork, so I will definitely be checking them out. I wouldn’t mind getting a few more of her older ones as well.

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Pumpkin Spice Cafe

Pumpkin Spice Cafe is a 1000 piece puzzle from WerkShoppe, and the artist is Maria Taylor. I know it’s not quite fall yet but I just couldn’t wait to do this one. I just love the scene it presents, with the wind blowing the leaves all around and the cozy scenes in the windows of the buildings.

Solving this puzzle was so enjoyable. It didn’t have too much of any one color, and the piece shapes were really interesting.

The packaging was also beautiful. The pieces were in a plastic bag inside a resealable bag and the box slid open from the side via a small fabric pull tag. The only downside was that a lot of the pieces were still together, and when I tried to pull them apart, I found that they hadn’t been cut all the way through so the paper would tear. I had to apply a lot of pressure to compress the pieces as I pulled to prevent that.

I think I would do more from this brand despite the issue with the pieces being stuck together if I really loved the image.

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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.

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Little House on the Prairie Map

Little House on the Prairie Map is a 500 piece puzzle from Pippi Post, and the artist is Alexa Zurcher.

I am a huge Little House fan, so I couldn’t resist this charming map puzzle with illustrations of notable places from the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I especially love the quotes around the border!

I love the quality of this brand. The pieces almost look like plastic, but they are actually a chipboard with a white backing. The only flaw was on the enclosed poster; it had two black boxes covering some of the image. I was able to use the image on the front of the box, however, so it wasn’t a big deal.

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Mama’s Colorful Quilts

Mama’s Colorful Quilts is a 500 piece puzzle from Cardinal. I was unable to track down an artist.

This is such a fun, colorful image! I got this one from the thrift store. Quality was decent, and it did have nice large pieces which would be good for people who have trouble with small puzzle pieces.

I especially like the orange sky and the rounded appearance of the hills in the background. And of course, the quilts and the buildings were great fun!

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Stay Cozy

Stay Cozy is a 1000-piece puzzle from New York Puzzle Company, and the artist is Lore Pemberton. One of my favorite things to do is to get cozy in bed with a good book, so this charming image really drew me in. This was my first experience with New York Puzzle Company. I have bought a couple, so I figured it would be a good idea to try one out to see how I liked it.

The puzzle is very high quality, with a nice matte finish to the pieces. It is a random cut puzzle, which definitely makes it harder than other puzzles. Random cut is not my preference because of how difficult it can be, but it does increase the satisfaction level when I finish, so it’s not always a bad thing!

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Midnight in Rome

Midnight in Rome is a 1000-piece puzzle from KI Puzzles. It is part of the Cities at Midnight line, and the artist is Madalina Tantareanu. My son actually got this for me for Mother’s Day earlier this year. He has access to my Amazon wish list, so he usually picks something from there when he wants to get me something. It’s nice because I get to enjoy being surprised without worrying that I won’t like the present. 😊

The quality of KI Puzzles is pretty good, in my opinion. They are a good thickness and finish, and they fit together well. The image is challenging without being frustrating. I did have to sort by shape but only at the end, mainly for the sky.

I really enjoyed doing this puzzle. I generally like to start with the border, and I was nervous about this one because the edges are white, but there was enough color on the edge pieces that I was able to put it together. This artwork is so interesting because the buildings in the foreground have a different look than the ones in the background.

I have done two from this series and have one more on my shelf to do. There are three more that I have on my Amazon wishlist, so hopefully one day I will have them all.

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Whimsical Village

Whimsical Village is a 500-piece puzzle from Concord, and the artist is Bukhavets Mikhail. I saw this online and really liked the image, so I tracked it down on ebay and purchased a copy.

Now that I have completed it, I do have to say that Concord isn’t the best brand. The quality was just okay, but I still enjoyed it because I like the illustration.

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Toy Stamps

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.