Picker’s Haul by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 2000 pieces
This was my first 2000 piece in over a year and a half – and of course it had to be one of Aimee’s images. It’s darker than her usual images, but still had enough brightness, color, and detail. It’s beautiful, and I’m certainly proud of myself for getting it done. 💪
Buffalo puzzles are great quality, and this one was no different. Excellent reproduction, great fit and variety of piece shapes – just an overall wonderful puzzle. I’m warming up to their brand in the higher piece counts, though sometimes the sameness of the piece shapes annoys me for some reason I can’t quite put into words. Just my “interesting” brain at work I guess.
This is the shelf at the top of the image, it’s amazing that you can read the titles on the spines and covers of the books. Gorgeous reproduction!
Love this box of games, the detail is amazing and the bright blue color is lovely as well. This was one of the first sections that I put together.
There’s something about this little stagecoach, the look of it is beautiful. It was more difficult to find the pieces than many of the other sections, but the end result is worth it.
This puzzle was so enjoyable that I had a hard time walking away from it, and it went together pretty quickly as far as these things go. It was a Goldilocks assembly – not too easy, not too hard – just right! 💜
I haven’t been puzzling for very long this year, but for the couple of months that I’ve been back at the puzzle table it’s been a great time being on the blog with you all again. Thanks for hanging out with me every day, I don’t take it for granted.
It’s New Year’s Eve, if you’re going out please take care of yourselves and be safe. See you in 2022! 🎉🥳🎉
Dog’s – Who’s A Good Boy! – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces
This one was MUCH more challenging that I thought it would be. All that brown/tan fur on the paler teal background made for a difficult assembly. Most of the problem was that I don’t have adequate puzzle lighting in the powder room. 💡
Oh well, if they take a bit longer in there, it’s ok with me. With these small puzzles in the master bathroom it means I always have two puzzles going. Pardon the unintended pun. Pretty soon I’ll have to post two puzzles a day if I don’t slow down!
To be honest, I had to take this one out of the bathroom for a little bit and work on it in the puzzle room in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep. The colors really were difficult to see where the puzzle was being assembled – I needed good light to get a more of a head start on the image. Once a little more of it was together it was easier to work on.
The fit of this puzzle was also a bit looser than the previous four we’ve worked on. It made things a bit more difficult until we had more of the interior assembled. But this doesn’t seem to be a universal problem with this brand, it was most likely just near the end of the run when the die was more dull.
This is the first dog puzzle I’ve assembled since we lost our good, good boy. It was very sweet, and very cute – just like most dogs are, and like our Buddy was.
Party Balloons by Suzan Lind – Cobble Hill – 500 pieces
Isn’t this a great puzzle image? As soon as I saw it I knew I had to get it, it was just too beautiful to pass up! The colors and patterns made for such an entertaining assembly – I wish it were also available in 1000 pieces, that would be even more fun.
The quality of this particular puzzle wasn’t as good as Cobble Hill usually is. I know that with the pandemic and the huge increase in demand for puzzles, things have been crazy in the puzzle world with manufacturers doing their best to get puzzles out and into the hands of puzzlers as soon as they can. I have history with this brand, so I know that their quality is usually quite good; therefore, even though this puzzle had a few problems I know that it isn’t indicative of the brand’s normally excellent quality.
That said, I should tell you that this puzzle had a very loose fit; many pieces were slightly bent, and some pieces that had very thin necks (spaces in between holes) were bent almost to the point of being torn in half. Because of all the bent pieces the finished puzzle didn’t lie completely flat; making the puzzle massage at the end of assembly not nearly as satisfying as usual.
It was still fun to assemble though and the finished puzzle is gorgeous. It has been put in a box to send on to the next puzzler for them to enjoy!
Saturday Morning Cartoons by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
I made sure to take my time with this puzzle – because frankly – I’ve been puzzling so much that I have way too many puzzles in the queue at the moment. By the time you’re reading this post it will most likely be a month or more since it was actually completed! It could have been finished two days earlier than it was, but I made myself stop working on it.
It’s also meant that I’ve been having to type up the post immediately when I finish a puzzle. Otherwise, my old lady brain doesn’t remember much when it comes up in the rotation. A month and 30 puzzles ago is too long ago for me to recall specifics about the assembly. That’s why I’m trying to slow down a bit and stop adding a new puzzle to the queue every day or every other day.
On to this specific puzzle!
My husband picked this out for me the first time I went puzzle shopping after my year-long absence. He seemed very excited about the image and thought I should buy it, he’s so sweet. Many of these cartoons we both watched as kids, and since he was so excited about finding it for me, of course we had to get it.
The quality of this one was only fair. The most important reason was a very loose fit – very odd for a White Mountain puzzle in my opinion. I’ve done many of their puzzles, and the fit is usually either quite tight or just about right. This one though was extremely loose – even picking up two connected pieces could be a problem. The image reproduction was slightly fuzzy in some places. Which is not uncommon for a WM collage in my experience, but I normally expect issues like that from this brand so it wasn’t much of a problem for me.
So many memories! Up at the top on the left is Atom Ant, and I remember the character but don’t have any memories of watching the actual show. At first I thought the name was Adam Ant, but then said to myself that I was getting him confused with the 80s rocker. Hubby and I had to look him up to be sure of the name – getting old ain’t for sissies, memories really do start to go.
Next to Mr. Ant is Quick Draw McGraw, and I actually do remember watching his show. I remember that his voice sounded very much like Yogi Bear to me, and came to learn later that both characters were voiced by the same man – no wonder they sounded alike. I enjoyed Quick Draw because he was always so polite, and for some reason that made an impression on me.
Like Atom Ant, I remember the character on the right – Magilla Gorilla – but don’t have any specific memories of the show. He was fun to assemble though, that’s why he’s here. A big orange rectangle doesn’t seem as though it would be very entertaining, but it actually was. 😉
Scooby Doo was definitely a favorite for me as a child, and I remember many episodes of the shows. My kids liked it too, and used to watch the reruns. Those meddlin’ kids and the grumpy old man that was usually the “ghost” trying to scare people – I remember them very clearly.
And the name Fractured Fairy Tales is something my brain remembers, but unfortunately I have no specifics. I know that most likely I watched the show, but it’s the name I remember – the character isn’t familiar nor is the image shown above. It was easy to pick out the pieces though, and easy to assemble too.
Quality problems aside, this was a fun puzzle to assemble, and even though it took longer than normal I had a great time. It brought back many memories – even if some of them were as fuzzy as the image reproduction.
Lake Moraine by Lillia – Buffalo Games – 300 pieces
Normally I don’t really enjoy landscapes, but the colors in this one were too pretty to pass up. The colors and how they blend remind me of the work of Aimee Stewart – I think it’s absolutely beautiful.
Buffalo 300 piece puzzles are excellent quality, and this one was no different: thick, sturdy chipboard, beautiful image reproduction, great fit, and a very nice variety of piece shapes. An all-around quality puzzle.
The detail in the artwork is amazing, and made for quite the interesting assembly. I haven’t done any puzzles with this artist’s images before, and I enjoyed it very much. Hopefully there are more puzzles out there with their artwork for me to find and assemble. 💙
I’m not sure I’ve ever been able to do this with a Buffalo puzzle before; but when the disassembly started it held together so well that I decided to give it a try – it worked!
My Jigsaw Journal 