Thoughts of an introverted bookworm and avid jigsaw puzzler
Paris Christmas is a 1000-piece puzzle from eeboo, and the artist is Jennifer Orkin Lewis. I love all of the great colors and details in this festive holiday image. My favorite part is the twinkle lights on the Eiffel Tower.
There were a few sections I was able to do in the beginning, but after that, it was mostly pick and place for the rest of the puzzle. It was still fun, though.
Holiday Drive In is a 1000-piece puzzle from Cobble Hill, and the artist is Diane Dempsey. I love the mid-century modern theme of this image, with the vintage cars and the fun signage. My favorite parts to put together were the movie screen and all of the signs – I love puzzling words!
I have done a couple other puzzles from this artist and really enjoy her style. Cobble Hill is a really good quality brand that does random-cut puzzles. I tend to do more ribbon or grid cut puzzles, but the random cut didn’t bother me with this one because it was such a great image.
Have you ever been to a drive in movie? I have fond memories of going with my family as a child and playing on the little playground beneath the screen before the movie started.
Winterfest is a 550-piece puzzle from Vermont Christmas Company, and the artist is Randy Wollenmann. I actually won this puzzle in a contest over on Reddit, so I was pretty happy to get it!
I have only done one other puzzle from this brand. It was another holiday puzzle called Camping for Christmas, and I did it in December 2022, which was the first year I did Christmas puzzles. (I started puzzling in June 2021.)
I find this image so charming, and I love the idea of drinking cider or cocoa while watching the children skate on the ice. The quality is decent, although there is a fair amount of puzzle dust and the pieces aren’t as crisp as some other brands are.
Here’s a throwback to the puzzle I did from this brand in 2022:
It’s that time of year when I start doing my holiday puzzles! I collect them throughout the year and save them up to do in December, and this is my first one for the season.
Festive Fun Car is a 500-piece puzzle from WerkShoppe, and the artist is Helen Black. I have only done two or three puzzles from WerkShoppe, but they are definitely one of my favorite brands. The packaging is gorgeous, with a slide out box with a ribbon pull tab, a resealable plastic bag for the pieces, and a nice reference poster. The pieces are medium thick with a smooth finish that feels so good, and they fit together beautifully.
I also love, love the image on this one. It truly is festive and fun, and I really enjoyed all of the great details. The shaped balloons and hearts made of candy canes are my favorite parts, if I have to choose.
This was a great start to my holiday! And I do mean start because, even though we did bring the Christmas decorations out of storage, we haven’t put them up yet.
Have you decorated for Christmas yet?
I had so much fun at the speed puzzling competition last Saturday. It was really enjoyable to watch the competitors and see how quickly they finished the puzzles. Everyone was very nice, and the puzzle swap was a big success.
For the competition, the solo winner completed a 300-piece puzzle in 30 minutes. The pairs winners finished a 300-piece puzzle in 16 minutes, and the team winners did their 500-piece puzzle in 30 minutes. Those times are all so impressive; I could never puzzle that fast!
The puzzle swap table was filled with a variety of piece counts and images. I brought 14 puzzles to swap and ended up coming home with 10 new puzzles. I am very happy with the ones I got. I could have taken more but didn’t want to bring anything home that I wasn’t in love with.
These are the puzzles I got in the swap:
The Bon Appetit puzzle that I got in the swap was the one used in the pairs competition, so I decided to time myself doing it to see how I would compare. I did it in 53:46. I am really happy with that time, but I don’t plan to continue timing my puzzles. I didn’t like the pressure and wasn’t able to enjoy the image because I was just looking for patterns and details.
This was a fun event to attend, and I’m really glad I went.
Crows Nest Harbor is a 1000-piece puzzle from MasterPieces, and the artist is Art Poulin, who was an American folk artist. This puzzle was actually the oldest on my to do shelf. I kept passing it over and finally decided it was time to pull it down and do it.
I really enjoy puzzles with buildings, and this one was especially fun with the distinct bright colors for each building. The amount of dock and sky was small enough that they weren’t very tricky, either.
It felt good to be puzzling after an almost two-week break. (No big reason for the break, I’ve just been reading a lot more.)
I was still in the mood for Americana the following day, so I did this 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games called Young Patriots. It is a Charles Wysocki and features more of my beloved buildings along with other charming details. It was a lot of fun.
I have had some fun puzzle mail recently and wanted to share it here.
This Saturday I am attending a puzzle swap that is part of a puzzle competition at a local game store. I purchased a spectator/puzzle swap ticket and will be taking 15 puzzles to swap. I am really hopeful that there will be some good options for me to choose from.
Rainbow Sunrise is a 500-piece puzzle from Buffalo Games, and the artist is Josie Lewis. This was such a relaxing puzzle to put together, and the rainbow gradient is so beautiful.
I have actually started collecting Josie Lewis puzzles because of how much I love them. I have five so far, three of which I still have left to do. I also started following her on TikTok, where she shares her current art as well as spotlights other artists who are doing interesting work.
Buffalo Games puzzles are very good quality. The pieces have a nice smooth finish to them that is very pleasant to the touch. I wish I liked more of their images, but unfortunately a lot of them are not my preferred style.
Here are the three Lewis puzzles I have on my to do shelf right now:
Boho Camper is a 1000-piece puzzle from Magnolia, and the artist is Olivia Gibbs. I like this artist a lot and most of the puzzles I have with her artwork are smaller piece counts, so it was nice to find this one.
I started it with my friend Suzanne the other evening. She loves doing borders, so she worked on that while I started on the interior. We got a couple hundred pieces done by the time she had to leave, so it was a good start. After she left, I was working on it a little bit more when I did something I have never done before–I spilled soda on the puzzle! I mopped it up as best as I could and then just left it to dry overnight.
Once the puzzle was dry, I found that a few pieces had separated from the cardboard backing, unfortunately. I was able to finish the puzzle, and you can’t tell there is anything wrong from the photo, but I think I might try to glue the pieces back together.
Despite my mishap, it was a fun puzzle. I really like the Boho elements against the background of camping in nature. I have done a few Magnolias and been happy with the quality. It’s one of the few I have found where you can move whole sections around easily, which is nice when you have two people working together.
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.
In So Many Words 