Monster Mansion

Monster Mansion is a 500-piece puzzle from Mudpuppy, and the artist is Stephanie Birdsong. This is the same artist that did the Welcome to Spookytown puzzle I did last October. I love her quirky style and her fun take on a Halloween-style house crosssection.

It was fun to do an easy Halloween puzzle after the last two that were both 1000 pieces and on the difficult end of the range. I think this will be my last one for this year.

Love in the Wild

Love in the Wild is a 500-piece puzzle from Mudpuppy, and the artist is Katy Tanis. I did this with my friend Suzanne recently. We both really loved how cute it was and were happy to be able to finish it in one sitting! I tried to pick a favorite square, but they are all so adorable that I really can’t.

I really appreciate having a friend who enjoys doing puzzles. We are hoping to get together again soon with one other friend so that we can all puzzle together. I would love to find local puzzle events or even more puzzle swaps. I have thought about starting something but I’m not sure I would know how to go about it.

Completing the Puzzle – November 2024

This was my third month getting a subscription of four puzzles from Completing the Puzzle. I received 4 500-piece puzzles this time. I was hoping to get some 1000-piece puzzles since I have a lot of those on my wishlist. My wishlist only has a couple of 500-piece puzzles on it now, so I should definitely get some 1000-piece ones next month.

I enjoyed all of the puzzles I got with this shipment. A couple of them were pretty well-worn, which makes them feel a bit soft and they don’t click into place. I don’t prefer that, but it’s okay. My friend Renee was over when I did Artsy Cats and helped with it.

Here are the puzzles I got this month:

Origami Animals from Cobble Hill
Stained Windows from Mintyfizz
Artsy Cats from Mudpuppy
Home Sweet Home from Cobble Hill

I’m looking forward to what I get next month. I also have a bunch of winter/Christmas puzzles lined up to start on December 1st.

Welcome to Spooky Town

Welcome to Spooky Town is a 500-piece puzzle from Mudpuppy, and the artist is Stephanie Birdsong. I picked it up because it was such a fun Halloween image, and it did end up being a lot of fun to put together.

I have always liked Halloween, even though I don’t really decorate for it. I always enjoyed taking my son trick or treating, and I also enjoyed the times I got to hand out candy. Now that my son is grown, he really enjoys handing out candy to trick or treaters as well. The last couple of years, he has done that at his dad’s house because they get a lot of kids in that area.

A Puzzle Marathon

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.

Songbirds

Songbirds is a super cute puzzle from Mudpuppy. It is 500 pieces, and the artist is Neiko Ng. I had originally received it from a Secret Santa exchange during Christmas 2022, but I donated the puzzle before doing it to a drive they were having at our church specifically asking for new games and puzzles. I did really like it, though, so I ended up purchasing it for myself recently.

It was a very easy puzzle to do. The birds all came together quite quickly. There were a large number of light blue pieces with musical notation on them that were harder to put in. Once I sorted by shape, however, they went in pretty quickly as well.

I was very happy with the quality of this puzzle. There was virtually no puzzle dust, and the pieces fit together very well. I was able to move sections around fairly easily, and there were no false fits.

I am so glad I got this puzzle again. There is one other Mudpuppy puzzle that I donated which I have put back on my wish list, called Hungry Plants.