The Pinwheel Gator In Progress…

The Pinwheel Gator by Alex Beard – Liberty – 512 pieces

It’s sorted, but hasn’t been started yet; and there are SO MANY whimsy pieces that laying them all out to take a picture is gonna take a very long time! Therefore you just get a little preview today of some of the whimsy pieces in this gorgeous puzzle.

Many of the whimsies seem as though they’re Mardi Gras themed, and since Mardi Gras starts this Friday I thought this was the perfect time to get this puzzle going. I’ve had it here for months and months, and have really been looking forward to it. 😍

Hope you all have fabulous puzzles in the works right now, I know I’ll really be enjoying myself putting this beauty together!

1980s Novels

1980s Novels – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

This puzzle went together so quickly once I actually started on the assembly. It was sorted the day before, but didn’t start assembly at all until the next morning. It began in the morning and was finished before I went to bed that night. It was so much fun – it was definitely the right puzzle to help lift my mood!

The quality was actually on the better side of an average Re-marks puzzle, I had no issues with the fit or the reproduction at all. It was a very good quality puzzle, which made me even happier. 😎

To be perfectly honest, the fact that this cover was in the collage is basically the reason I bought this puzzle. I picked it up in the store and my eye went to this book and I didn’t even look at the rest of the book covers; it had already been decided! Ready for a little reminiscing?

When I was in the 10th grade my English teacher gave us a list of about 150 or so books that she considered very good literature, and those were the books we were to pick from to do book reports or whatever it was she called them. I LOVED reading and I think I went through more of those books than any other of her students. I didn’t turn in papers on all of them, but I loved having that list and found books I thought I would like and just read them for myself. That’s how I found this book. I enjoyed it so much that I gave my library copy to mom to read – and she loved it too. It’s the first book in a series of six, and it’s set in prehistoric times when it’s possible that Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon humans were sharing the world. I know, it doesn’t sound that interesting, but mom and I loved it! She loved it so much that she got all the books on tape that were available from the library and we would listen to them in the car on our weekend trips with dad to softball tournaments.

I’ve re-read the entire series several times. I love the books, and now they also remind me of mom because we both loved them so much. 💕

I’m not sure how I found this book, but I recall being completely absorbed by it when I first read it. Plus, look at that cover – it’s gorgeous! This is one of the ones I picked out on the initial sorting, and it was so fun to put together.

Mom and I loved Fannie Flagg books; she found some of her novels from the early 2000’s and encouraged me to read them. Honestly I’ve never read Fried Green Tomatoes, but some of her other books I’ve read over and over and mom and I absolutely adored them. The workings of a small town and the hilarity that comes from just regular people being themselves made for such fun novels, and some of them were just heartbreakingly beautiful. Fannie Flagg books make me think of mom, and how we were very alike in the books that we enjoyed.


This puzzle was a joy to put together, and many of the books made me think of my beautiful momma, which was sad but also brought back sweet memories.

If you’re looking for a puzzle with good quality and a great image, I highly recommend this one. I adored it! 👍👍

Cat House

Cat House – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

We all know cat puzzles aren’t really my thing, but in a small puzzle like this it wasn’t bad at all. Besides, they’re painted and silly looking, those are definitely my things. It was a quick assembly for the most part; some was assembled in the bathroom, and the rest was put together in the puzzle room for a quicker completion.

*Forgive the shiny picture, it didn’t want to sit pretty when I tried to put the board against the wall so I had to take the pic standing over it and I couldn’t completely get rid of the glare.*

Sometimes I forget that it isn’t easy to see how small these puzzles actually are without something to compare them to…

They’re quite small, and it should be annoying for me and my aging eyes to work with – but they’re the opposite of annoying. I LOVE working with the little pieces and being able to lay the whole puzzle out on a cookie sheet that I can take to any room in the house. And I’m not sure why, but when I get one finished the sense of accomplishment is so much bigger than the little puzzle itself.

I’ve already got another one going in the bathroom. I’ve got quite a few here to do, and this month’s new puzzles are already on their way!

Garden Shed* In Progress…

Garden Shed* – Hua Cao Shu Mu – 300 pieces

Can you believe it? The third of the three puzzles in one box from a company that makes crappy puzzles – yep, I went there.

Like I explained a few days ago, these things are stinking up my puzzle room with the stench of low quality puzzles that feature stolen artwork and I want them gone as soon as possible.

I can say with some certainty that this will be finished today. Then perhaps we’ll hold a small funeral ceremony in the backyard with a cremation immediately following the service so as not to inflict these puzzles on anyone else.

*They’ll most likely end up in the recycle bin, but it has put a HUGE smile on my face thinking about lighting these pieces of trash on fire while I dance around the flames making rude gestures. 😈

Zojoji Temple in Shiba, 1925

Zojoji Temple in Shiba, 1925 by Hasui Kawase – Wentworth – 40 pieces

I enjoyed this puzzle very much, even though it went together quite quickly. My lack of puzzling in December and January mean that I don’t have any puzzles left in the queue and I was looking for some small, wintery-looking puzzles to get my completed puzzle count back up to where it should be.

As usual, it was great Wentworth quality. And for me there’s something so intriguing and lovely about Asian artwork, it’s just beautiful to look at as well as to assemble.

Aren’t these fantastic whimsies? I love the Geisha!