Vintage Halloween by Finchley Paper Arts – Bits and Pieces – 500 pieces
My apologies for the cockeyed picture, I have no idea what was wrong with me today when I took it. I normally check to be sure I’ve got a good picture before I disassemble the puzzle, but it seems I was in a hurry and took it apart before making sure. Please forgive the wonky image.
Good quality puzzle, though very shiny. I didn’t care for the triangular piece shapes; my thought was that I’d get used to it as the puzzle went on, but unfortunately that didn’t happen. I was forever being stumped and confused by the way everything connected. I’ve worked puzzles with a wide variety of different and unusual shapes and have enjoyed them all – until this puzzle with it’s oddly shaped triangular pieces. These shapes just aren’t my pile of pieces.
My first Halloween puzzle of the season, and honestly I’m surprised I remembered to get it going to have it ready in the queue. Yay me and my aging, menopausal brain!
These are a few of my favorite sections, although the artwork in each one was beautiful in it’s own way. The time and attention that went into making these images still impresses me. If these are actually vintage (and they look as if they are) there weren’t computers or AI to make these for the artist, they were each painstakingly drawn/painted. *If they’re not actually old and just made to look like it – forget what I just said.
Do I sound like an old person, pining for the ways of yesteryear? Well, it seems I am an old person now, things seemed much simpler even just ten years ago. Sigh.
If you’re thinking that this looks like quite a challenging puzzle to assemble – you would be absolutely correct! It was much more difficult than I gave it credit for; although I did assemble it during the week that an extra medication was added to my regimen that made me feel very dizzy and disoriented, so perhaps it was the meds and not any lack of intelligence on my part that made it seem so hard. 😉
Fantastic image again by Nadieh Bremer, this one almost seems as though it’s a companion puzzle to Nebulium but it really isn’t. The artist seems to enjoy creating images with color gradients and science mixed together – and I’m glad she does! Coronium was the suggested name of a chemical element thought to exist in the late 1800s. It wasn’t a new element, just ionized iron in the atmosphere around the sun. This is her version of the element, should it actually exist. Isn’t it gorgeous?
I’ve got one more of Nadieh’s puzzles here from Artifact and am very much looking forward to putting it together. It’s over 400 pieces though so I’m certain it will definitely put my gray cells to the test.
I didn’t pull any whimsies to photograph separately as most of the pieces seemed to be fantastical and interestingly shaped. I did recognize the symbol for pi, but that was about it. I didn’t go very far in my mathematics classes (Algebra II was as far as I got), so perhaps there are more symbols that I just don’t know. I’m certain someone will let me know if that’s the case.
Absolutely LOVED this one even though at times I felt stupid and thick and that it might be too difficult for me. It wasn’t too much for me, and it was so interesting and different from most of the puzzles that I assemble that I couldn’t help but fall in love with it. The colors, the shape, the pieces and the way they went together all made for a truly amazing assembly. 💙💛💚
The Dr. Seuss Collection – The Op/USAopoly – 1000 pieces
Of course I loved this one! Who can resist some Theodor Geisel? The first time I saw it online I immediately purchased it – even though my previous puzzles by USAopoly weren’t the best quality.
Didn’t care.
Had to have it.
I’m so glad I did!
The quality of this puzzle was much different than previous puzzles I’d assembled by USAopoly. The brand seems to now be The Op/USAopoly, and the improvement is quite significant. The pieces are thicker with a very good variety of shapes, have a linen-type paper on the front (somewhat like Cobble Hill) that gives the pieces a great hand-feel, and the fit was excellent.
The pieces were (for the most part) extremely easy to sort so I thought I’d do them line by line. But the orange of the ground in Fox in Socks was almost the exact same color as the orange background in Green Eggs and Ham. It was easiest to just assemble both orange sections at once rather than try to just put together Green Eggs and Ham. So once the line by line plan was out the window the OCD kicked in and I decided to assemble all the sections around the outside and leave The Cat in the Hat for the end.
My brain is weird, I know that. Having that little bit of a different section already assembled doesn’t seem like a big deal, but that’s not what my brain thought. It was a big deal and I had to change my plans in a way that made sense to my weird mind. I no longer question the eccentricity – I just embrace the peculiar and try to go with it. 😜🧠
I’ve always loved the story that Theodor Geisel was given a list of 250 words that were important for first graders to recognize and was challenged to write a book that children couldn’t put down. He came back with The Cat in the Hat. Even though he had already published many children’s books that were relatively popular, The Cat in the Hat became an international success because of it’s simplified vocabulary and the fact that it could be easily read by beginning readers.
My kids all love to read, and I credit Dr. Seuss books for much of that. They not only loved to read them on their own, but they also wanted them to be read aloud to them – of course that duty usually fell to mom. One Fish Two Fish and Fox in Socks were both favorites, and at one point I could recite both books in their entirety from memory having read them so often to my babies. 💕📚
This puzzle was passed along to my honorary grandson who ADORES puzzles, and he was so excited to assemble it that I got a picture from his mom just over three hours after I dropped it off – he completed this 1000 piece puzzle in just a few hours! His mom said he never moved from the table after I left, and didn’t even want to stop to eat lunch. My exact words to her were “Holy sh*t! It’s only been a few hours!” 😮
He was there in 2017 when we finally assembled the 40,320 piece Disney puzzle, here he is…
He loved puzzles even then, and we walked around the giant puzzle together and he took a few pieces out of the border and then put them back in so that he “helped” with it. It was so sweet! 💜 When he got home that day, he took the DVD cases from all the movies that they had at home and laid them out on the floor in the order that they were shown in the puzzle. His mom sent me a picture of that too, I wish I still had it!
When he completed the Dr. Seuss puzzle, he went and got all the books he had and laid them on top, in the same way as he put those cases together all those years ago. His mom sent me a picture of that too, and said “Just like your puzzle and the movies.” It was so sweet it was almost heartbreaking!
It makes my heart so happy that he loves puzzles as much as I do, and I thought it might make you smile today to hear this story. It certainly makes me smile! 😊💖
This collage of books about animals was great fun to put together, but it made me feel like I am not well read at all. I’m sorry to say that I have only read two of these books. Shocking, I know. But I’ve seen the movies for many of them, does that count?
It was typical Re-marks quality; great variety of piece shapes, good fit, slightly shiny finish, excellent image reproduction. Their catalog of collage images always keeps me coming back for more. How am I supposed to resist collages of book covers? I just can’t!
I’m a big Agatha Christie fan (💙Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple), and honestly I’ve never even heard of this book before. I thought I knew most of her work, but apparently not.
I have read all of the James Herriot books, and have fond memories of reading them when I was a teenager. That seems like a lifetime ago. There’s something so charming about the way he writes, and reading the stories of the animals he treated was fascinating, sad, sweet, funny, tear-jerking, and so much more. I adored these books then, and this makes me want to read them again now.
Never heard of the Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny, but after assembling this cover and reading the tagline it sounds like a great read. “She can defeat the angriest of waves, outsmart the toughest pirate, and fight like a butterfly. And she never gives up.” It actually made me laugh out loud, it’s the most ridiculous little blurb; perhaps I need to get myself a copy!
Washing Time by Jenny Newland – MasterPieces – 300 pieces
This one was a great puzzle with lots of puppies and kittens. It was relatively easy to sort and assemble, and didn’t take much time at all.
I’ve noticed that the smaller piece count MasterPiece puzzles, especially the ones with the EZ grip pieces are thicker and fit better than the larger piece counts they make. This one was no exception; excellent fit, great image reproduction and nice, thick pieces. All in all a fantastic puzzle that was a joy to put together.
This little kitten staring at the chicken, for some reason it makes me smile.
You know I just can’t resist a sad puppy face, it makes me want to sit down and give a very long belly rub and maybe some extra scratching behind the ears. 💖
The fit was so good that I was able to get a picture of it standing up with very little effort. Sometimes I have to work at it to get it to stand up just so; the thickness of the pieces and the great fit meant that no extra effort was required.
Tired of my stand up pictures yet? Hope not, cause I won’t stop taking them! 😎
My Jigsaw Journal 