Lions & Tigers & Bears OH MY

Lions & Tigers & Bears OH MY by Dean MacAdam – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

FANTASTIC puzzle from beginning to end! The image, the colors, the contrast between bright colors and dark shades – I loved it all. Dean MacAdam, please give us many more images like these, I can’t get enough of them. 💛

Great quality as usual, there were a couple of bent pieces but that happens with every brand once in a while. Great matte finish, excellent fit, and beautiful reproduction. Well done Ravensburger, puzzles like this one are why you have such a stellar reputation for quality puzzles.

I love the silly faces of the munchkins, whatever those things with blue hair are, and that in the trees there are evil bees. So fun!

Scariest flying monkey I’ve seen – much more evil looking than the movie monkeys in my opinion.

It seems that because I’ve never actually read the books I have no idea who these two characters are. The wizard is in the hot air balloon – so who is this guy? And what about the royal rat? Anyone? (I could look these things up online but I’d much rather talk to you guys about it. 😊)

What’s In Progress…

I’m working on a wooden puzzle called Fairytale Cottage, and these are some of the whimsies – aren’t they adorable? My puzzle mojo is taking a beating so far this month, so I’m trying to get myself motivated with this beautiful wooden puzzle.

I find myself laying in bed with no inclination to get up and do anything at all. Depression sucks big time. I’ll weave my way through it, I always do, but while you’re in it it doesn’t seem as if it will ever be better; you know in your head that it will not always be this way, but you don’t feel like it will.

Hopefully this funk won’t last long, and I’ll be back at it with vigor very soon.

The Writer’s Dogs

The Writer’s Dogs – Buffalo – 750 pieces

Such a great image – it was wonderful to assemble! Of course you know I couldn’t resist the dogs, but the rest of the image was perfect for a great puzzle as well. The typewriter wasn’t as easy as you might think, and the flowers were their very own special challenge. All in all it was a charming puzzle that was challenging but entertaining.

Great Buffalo quality, of course. There were a few bent pieces but otherwise no problems at all. Excellent fit, great reproduction, good cutting, and the usual Buffalo piece shapes.

I love the detail on this painting in the background – clear as a bell!

I mean, how can you resist that face? I’m certain there are plenty of people out there who don’t care for animals, or dogs in particular – but I couldn’t resist that face. The dogs were the most difficult part of the image to assemble, fur can be quite a challenge. But saving them until the end meant I was more motivated to finish and so I kept at it.

Loved this puzzle!

Owl Collage

Owl Collage by Kathrin Stockebrand – Schmidt – 500 pieces

SO MUCH FUN! That truly sums up how I feel about this image and the puzzle itself, it was honestly so entertaining to assemble that I cannot find the words to express it properly. SO. MUCH. FUN.

Such amazing quality, I wish I had more Schmidt puzzles here to assemble, unfortunately their catalog doesn’t have as many puzzles that float my boat as I’d hope. The fit is sublime, the finish feels amazing, the pieces are thick and there are a great variety of shapes, the reproduction is excellent – they’re such premium, wonderful puzzles and my wish would be that more of their images were more to my taste.

The sameness of the background made it so that the puzzle wasn’t too easy; the many eyes did the same, but also helped because they were all so different. The assorted colors and patterns made it interesting, challenging, and easy all at the same time – absolutely fabulous puzzle. If this were available in 1000 pieces I’m certain I would adore assembling it again. It might even be more fun than the first time!

It was just a lovely puzzle image, and I truly adored assembling it. There are very few puzzles (for me) with both superb quality AND imagery.

This was one of those few.

What’s In Progress?

Unfortunately I don’t have anything in progress at the moment; our AC is on the fritz and we’ve spent the last two days trying to deal with it.

I still haven’t finished sorting my next puzzle, which has been sitting on the board, partially sorted, for two and a half days now. So what is everyone else working on? What’s in progress at your house?