Tag: puzzles

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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!

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Houses I Read

Houses I Read is a 1000-piece puzzle from Magnolia, and the artist is Nihal Cifter. This was on my wishlist for a while, and I finally added it to my collection.

I absolutely loved doing this one. The colors are gorgeous and the art is so quirky. It was so much fun. The sky was a bit hard but not too bad since there were no false fits.

Here are a few closeups:

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Pride & Prejudice Map

Pride & Prejudice Map is a 500-piece puzzle from Pippi Post, and the artist is Alexa Zurcher. This puzzle was so delightful! I am a big P&P fan and grabbed this one as soon as I could. (I also got the Little House on the Prairie Map.)

The image is totally enchanting, with the cute buildings and other fun details. If you look closely, you will see that the border is made up of quotes from the book.

I was also impressed with the quality. There was no puzzle dust and no false fits. I’m sure I will do this puzzle again and again!

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Into the Jungle

Into the Jungle is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is David Penfound. This is another puzzle I got for free from a friend.

I am very pleased with how it turned out even though there is one piece missing. It provided several sessions of puzzling and is such a nice image. Cobble Hill are a good quality puzzle with a matte/linen finish. Their puzzles are random-cut, which does increase the difficulty of the solve. Towards the end, I was convinced there would be several pieces missing based on the holes I had left to fill, but the odd pieces shapes ended up filling everything except for that one little piece on the left edge.

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Gull’s Nest

I just love Charles Wysocki, and this image made for the perfect puzzling experience. The mix of buildings and horse-drawn carts with the landscape elements was ideal for puzzling without getting stuck on any one area.

This one is called Gull’s Nest, and it is a 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games.

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Seaside Jigsaw Puzzles

As part of the puzzle haul I got from the friend from church who moved away recently, I got a set of Ceaco puzzles labeled “10 Seaside Jigsaw Puzzles.” I ended up doing six of them before I got tired of them and decided to stop. I know I could do the others later, but I don’t think I will.

The puzzles I did included two 100-piece puzzles and four 300-piece puzzles. I did not do the four 500-piece puzzles. Here are pictures of the ones I completed:

The Family, 100 pieces
Dolphin Universe, 100 pieces
Saturn’s Messengers, 300 pieces
Swimming Lessons, 300 pieces
Reach for the Heavens, 300 pieces
Tropical Fish Island, 300 pieces

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The Colours of Spring

The Colours of Spring is a 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Terry Redlin. Redlin is a new-to-me artist, and I thought the image was kind of charming on the box, but I found it to be darker on the puzzle than it was on the box, which made it somewhat difficult.

This was another one I got for free from the friend who moved away. She had told me she couldn’t guarantee the puzzles were complete, but I was still quite surprised to have a total of eight missing pieces! There was also so much dog hair in the box – more than I’ve ever seen before in a used puzzle.

This one unfortunately had to go in the trash. I am not willing to pass it on to anyone with so many pieces missing.

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Mothers Day at the Park

Mothers Day at the Park is a sweet Americana image by Sharon Ascherl. This puzzle was 500 pieces and came from Sure-Lox, and I am pretty sure this is my first puzzle from both the brand and the artist.

I was impressed by the quality of this puzzle, especially given that they aren’t very expensive. I got this one for free from my friend who moved away recently and enjoyed it quite a bit.

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Paris Windows

Paris Windows is a 1000-piece puzzle from Ceaco, and the artist is Amanda Haley.

I had *so* much fun doing this puzzle. Buildings are my favorite things to puzzle, and this one has a ton of them! It is a very busy image, so a lot of it was pick and place one piece at a time. The quality was mid, but about what you would expect from this brand.

Here are a few closeups: