Mixed Flowers in an Earthenware Pot by Pierre Renoir – Wentworth – 40 pieces
This puzzle is one of my large collection of micro puzzles from Wentworth, and the image is one that spoke to me recently. It reminds me of my mom, it’s beautiful, and it is also one that I absolutely would not like to assemble in a larger size.
There are quite a few images that I have in a small size particularly and especially because I enjoy the artwork but would never want to assemble them in a 1000 or even a 500 piece count. I put this image in that category, along with Starry Night by Van Gogh; there’s no way I’d be assembling either one in a larger count, it would be too frustrating for me.
That’s part of the reason I love these small puzzles from Wentworth; not only are they relatively inexpensive, they have many images that would be too tedious, difficult, or frustrating for me in a large piece count and the micro puzzles are the only way you’d find me assembling such difficult images.
I’m not sure exactly how these whimsies tie in with the artwork, these seem more suited to an outdoor scene. But then again I don’t know for sure what whimsies would be best – other than just flowers.
I love my micro puzzles collection from Wentworth, and it’s nice to be able to revisit them. 💖
Paws Gone Wild by Sergio – Vermont Christmas Company – 100 pieces
Paws Gone Wild is a wonderful puzzle for children, and it has fantastic quality! Such great quality is hard to come by in puzzles geared towards children; I find that most of them aren’t as sturdy as they need to be, but this one was a delightfully sturdy surprise!
Vermont Christmas Company has one of the largest catalogs of puzzles for children that I’ve seen; there are plenty of puzzles for holidays, but regular images too. The pieces are wonderfully thick, have a great variety of shapes, fit together well, and have absolutely gorgeous image reproduction. They are in the top two brands for children’s puzzles that I’ve ever worked with, and I’m very picky about puzzles for kids.
I always give puzzles as gifts to younger children, they are not only entertaining and great for getting kids away from all the screens in their lives (phones, tablets, tv, etc.), they help developing brains learn essential skills that they will use the rest of their lives. Problem solving skills, spatial awareness, fine motor skills, dexterity, concentration, patience, setting goals, and soooo much more. And in my humble puzzle-nerdy opinion, kids need to do more jigsaw puzzles – puzzles are the best!
Ok, we all know I’m not a cat person, but this is adorably cute. Kittens are just so sweet. Those tiny little paws and the innocent look on that face – awwww!
I mean, come on! That face! Part of the reason I took this closeup is to show the detail in the reproduction – you can read this paper! The overall image is bright and colorful with clean lines and no fuzziness unless it’s part of the image. I was delighted with the quality of the puzzle, most especially the image. (The other reason I took this closeup is…..that sweet face!)
Paws Gone Wild is one of the best kids puzzles I’ve put together in quite a long time, and I’m happily looking forward to assembling another very soon. The quality is wonderful, the image is fun, and I highly recommend it. Two thumbs and four paws way up! 👍👍🐾🐾
It’s been a rough few weeks for me, but I finally figured out something to brighten my days a little – puzzle shopping! 🧩🛒
When I came to the end of my posts of the shaped mini shoe puzzles I wondered if there were any new sets, or sets that I’d missed. A few clicks of the mouse later I had my answer – turns out there were six of them. It seems my PADS kicked in at that very moment and I may or may not have purchased every one of them I could find.
Oh wait, I actually did buy them! They’ve already been delivered, and one set has already been assembled. 😁
Bulldog with Butterflies by Coco de Paris – Cardinal – 300 pieces
That sweet, beautiful, face is absolutely gorgeous! But I gotta tell you that it still burns my biscuits that they got the name so completely wrong; THAT IS NOT A BULLDOG! I’d love to change the title of this post, but if someone else wants to find this puzzle for themselves they need to know the actual title, so I grudgingly left it the way it is. But in my heart I know that it’s a Boston with Butterflies. 🐾🦋
If you haven’t read this blog before you might not know that the sweetest member of my puzzle posse is an adorable purebred Boston Terrier named Buddy, and he makes me smile and gives me love every single day. I know what a Boston Terrier looks like! Mine is a bit of a mutant though, he’s extremely big for his breed. Whatever the opposite of a “runt” is, that’s my Buddy. The average Boston weighs between 13-16 pounds. You ready for this? Brace yourselves……my “little” guy weighs 33 pounds! He’s not the least bit fat, he’s just much, much taller, longer, and bigger than the typical Boston. My neighbor across the street has a beautiful female, and Buddy is almost twice as tall as she is! He’s the “Andre the Giant” of his breed. 😉 (On a completely different topic, who doesn’t love Andre the Giant as Fezzik in The Princess Bride? “No more rhyming now, I mean it!” – “Anybody got a peanut?”)
Back to the puzzle. The quality was good/fair; the pieces are on the thinner side and the fit was a bit loose. On the plus side, there was a very good variety of piece shapes and the image reproduction was good as well. For me it didn’t matter much either way, it was all about the image.
The butterflies were lovely, and they were the first thing to be assembled after the edges. The picture doesn’t do them justice, the colors are really lovely!
Cardinal has a whole line of images by Coco de Paris like this one – animals painted over the pages of a book. Most are silly and fun, and they make me smile; I especially love the group of ostriches wearing bathing suits, and the giraffe wearing glasses blowing a huge bubble with her gum! 😂
I tried to find a link to a whole bunch of them in one spot to share with you, but this being the middle of a pandemic many places are still closed and sold out of certain puzzles. You can look up Coco de Paris jigsaw puzzles and see many of the images from this line. They’re so fun!
Retirement by Jim Tsinganos – Mr. Bob Puzzles – 501 pieces
Love, love, love this image! Not only is it beautiful and funny, it made for a fantastic assembly. Hubby decided to get me some more puzzles from Mr. Bob (I think because he wanted to spend a little extra money on himself, and buying me something too lowers his guilt about it). So he asked me to pick out two images and this was the first one I chose.
Mr. Bob Puzzles has a great catalog of beautiful, interesting, and unique images to choose from, it’s difficult to find just one or two that I want to order because I want almost all of them! 😍
Jim Tsinganos is one of the featured artists at Mr. Bob Puzzles, and I adore his artwork. You know how much I love humor – so this funny, silly, beautiful image jumped right out at me when I first saw it, and I’ve had this one on my mental wish list for quite a while. Thank goodness I finally was able to assemble it. There are several other images of his still on my list, and I hope to get them someday, what a fabulous artist he is!
The cut is more “traditional” with regular looking pieces, but it’s quite deceptive. With so many straight or nearly straight edges throughout the entire puzzle it becomes a much more challenging assembly than you would think. It isn’t possible to begin with the edges, at least it isn’t for me; most of the pieces look as though they might be edges! Even on the inside of the puzzle you have to focus much more on the colors, textures, and shading – it’s a bit of a mental workout and I love it.
Great whimsies with this puzzle: Dorothy, Toto, The Tin Man, The Scarecrow, a flying monkey, The Wicked Witch of the West, etc. There are also the usual whimsies of Australia, clasped hands, and the Mr. Bob logo along with the profile of Mr. Bob too. I love the look of all of them!
My only criticism is – where is the cowardly lion? Was he too scared to show up for his profile sitting? Did he take too long to get there because his scooter slowed him down? I’m being silly, I know – but give an old lady some leeway to be ridiculous now and then. 😉
Emerald Towers Retirement Suites – I really do love the art and humor of Jim Tsinganos!
This closeup speaks for itself, it makes the entire image. I love how Dorothy’s shoes no longer have heels; she’s turned those in for flats which are so much safer and easier to walk in. The Cowardly Lion might have broken a hip or something and needs a scooter to get himself around, and The Tin Man needs a cane. You can’t really see a big change in The Scarecrow, other than he seems a little “heavier” than I remember him and a bit more stooped at the shoulders. He also seems to be leaning a bit on Dorothy.
Great image, great quality puzzle, wonderfully entertaining assembly – what more could you ask for? 💖🧩
My Jigsaw Journal 