Selfies – Part 3

Selfies 3-1
Selfies by Howard Robinson – Cra-Z

Day three of these adorable, silly, ocean selfies – and honestly I think these may be three with the cutest expressions on their faces. I mean, they just make me smile. Even this morning when I was in a bad mood for no reason whatsoever, I opened up this post to finish writing and saw the faces and now I have a big, goofy smile on my face. Puzzles are so awesome!

Selfies 3-2

Remember the two clownfish from day one – Bernard and Helen? This is their daughter, Lena. She is a soft-spoken, kind-hearted, sweet gal who is always determined to be happy. Lena works in the business office at Ebb Tide University, and is always thoughtful and supportive of all her students. In her spare time she enjoys working on home renovations with her husband Todd; right now they’re building a small playground in the backyard for their grandchildren. 🐠🐠

Selfies 3-3

This was one of the most difficult puzzles in this set for me, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I always put the box away and put these puzzles together without the help of the image, so this one had me working a bit harder than I thought I would have to. It was worth it though, look at that smile!

This guy reminds me of the surfer dude turtle in the movie Finding Nemo, and so I have named him Keanu. He’s currently “in between jobs” and spends most of his time hanging out with his friends and having deep philosophical discussions – or perhaps I should say they have what they think are philosophical discussions. Keanu is a kind, well-meaning dude, but he doesn’t always make the best decisions. Just ask his former boss.

Selfies 3-4

I went and did some research to find out what species this fish was, because I wanted to see if the artist took some license with those lips. He didn’t! Best I can tell, this is a Longhorn Cowfish, and this is definitely what they look like – kissy lips and all. When I first saw it, I laughed out loud at the “ducklips”. Well, the artist didn’t do that, Mother Nature did!

This is Cheryl, and she’s an Instagram model. She thinks she’s gorgeous, and every new follower she gets just reinforces that belief. She’s not fun to be around, as most of the time she’s mentally arranging her next post so that others will tell her how pretty she is – and she will definitely believe them. Cheryl is petty and self-involved, and every “hobby” she has revolves around making herself look good. Cheryl is an idiot.


One more day to go – stay tuned! 😎

Selfies – Part 2

Selfies 2-1
Selfies by Howard Robinson – Cra-Z-Art – 125/500 pieces

I mean, just look at this picture. You have to be an excellent artist to get the anatomy of a great white shark correct and still make it look friendly! Howard Robinson did an excellent job with each of these underwater animals, and the expressions on some of them are absolute perfection.

Full confession here, both hubby and my youngest son helped me name a few of these selfies. I was making myself laugh while I was getting these posts written up, and they came in to see what was funny. Once I explained that I was giving each little puzzle a name and a backstory they couldn’t help but blurt out name suggestions. I took the good ones. All the rest of the info came from me, but I need to give credit where credit is due. 🙂

Selfies 2-2

This is Winifred, she’s a white shark -and she’s great! She loves travel and meeting new species – she is definitely NOT a homebody. Winifred knows she can be a bit terrifying when you meet her for the first time, so she’s gotten herself some contact lenses that add a bit of white to her normally jet black eyes. It makes a world of difference! She’s also taught herself to smile so that she only shows her bottom row of teeth which is much less frightening. She’s a sweet, gentle soul who wishes she wasn’t so scary to others, because she would love to have more friends.

Selfies 2-3

I have no idea what species of fish this is, so again I’m going with what the face looks like to me. This is Lorenzo, and he’s angry. He can’t really decide what he’s angry about today, but he’ll figure something out. If you gave Lorenzo a million dollars he’d complain about the denomination of the bills. If you gifted him a year’s supply of his favorite food, he’d complain about not having a place to store it. He’s rarely happy, and not much fun to be around at all. He likes (enjoys might be going too far) woodworking, refurbishing old furniture, and lip syncing to Lady Gaga songs in the living room. He’s a complicated guy.

Selfies 2-4

This little beauty is one of my favorites; the colors are lovely, but if I’m being honest – the four human-looking teeth are kinda creepy. And forgive me for saying so, but that smile makes him look like he’s not quite all there. That is why I have christened him Dweezil. Those of you who remember the 80s should get the joke. 😉

Dweezil enjoys pretty much everything. He has a full-time job as a dental floss tester, and in his spare time he builds sand castles. Unfortunately he lives near the North Atlantic Current, and his castles rarely stay up for more than a few seconds. Still, he has fun with it, and isn’t that what really matters? His older sister Moon Unit lives nearby and the whole family gets together for dinner at least once a week.


Intrigued yet? Checking puzzle sites to see if any of these puzzles are currently available? I certainly hope so! 🧩💗

Selfies – Part 1

Selfies 1-1
Selfies by Howard Robinson- Cra-Z-Art – 125/500 pieces

Another fun and fantastic set of smaller shaped puzzles from Cra-Z-Art. If you hadn’t already figured it out I’ll say it plain as day – I love these puzzles! 💖

Cra-Z-Art, sometimes under the name of Lafayette Puzzle Factory, has many sets of these shaped puzzles, and I find them to be fun to assemble – and perfect for me when I am unable to sit at my puzzle table. I can take a group of pieces and assemble them on trays in bed. Perfect! Each smaller puzzle has a colored backing so that if you prefer you can separate them and assemble each puzzle one by one. Or, if you like, you can disregard the colored backing and assemble them as a regular 500 piece puzzle. Either way they’re extremely entertaining. I’ve assembled them both ways and found them to be engaging, beautiful, and lots of fun!

This set should be called “Underwater Selfies” if you ask me, but who am I to tell a puzzle company what to title their puzzles? According to the box, these are just Selfies. They are all the artwork of Howard Robinson, who is probably best known in the puzzle community for his animal selfies images. They’re all so well done, and adorable – very hard to resist in my opinion.

Selfies 1-2

Meet Bernard and Helen. They’ve been together for a while, and you can tell. Helen is the one on the left nearer the top, and Bernard is the grouchy looking one on the right, closer to the bottom. Bernard is the manager at a food mart selling algae, plankton, and small crustaceans; and Helen is a renowned artist. At the moment, Bernard is cranky because Helen spent the day watching her shows and celebrating the moments of her life with several cups of International Foods French Vanilla coffee. They’re having a tiff at the moment, we should politely back away and leave them be.

Selfies 1-3

I have no idea what species of fish this is, so his name comes from my impression of his countenance; to me there seems to be a youthful look about him. His name is Timmy. Timmy is still in school, but he’s planning on graduating next year if all goes well. He has a part time job after school delivering meals to local shut-ins and he also likes to help his mom making dinner every night. He plans on attending the Cordon Bluefin Culinary School after graduation and becoming a chef. Timmy has plans – big plans!

Selfies 1-4

This is Dakota, she’s the oldest of three girls. She’s a professional cheerleader for the local water polo team, and in her spare time she likes to watch makeup tutorials on YouTube and try out the lessons on her friends and younger sisters – Daniella and Dorinda. Her aim is to be a professional makeup artist (although between you and me, she unfortunately isn’t very good at it). Here’s hoping she finds a career path that’s a little better suited to her. Perhaps a trainer at the local pilates studio? Who knows!

These underwater selfies were lots of fun to put together, and I highly recommend giving any of these sets a try if you haven’t already. They’re good quality, with beautiful artwork, and most especially they’re enjoyable to assemble. 🐬

Do I Look Merry?

Do I Look Merry
Do I Look Merry? – Brother Sister – 100 pieces

Well? Does he? As the pet parent of a Boston Terrier I can tell you that this look says “Why are you doing this to me? Can we please get this stupid picture over with?” So the title I’ve given this silly, sweet puzzle has been shortened from what it is in my mind. When I look at it, what I hear in my head is “Do I Look Freakin’ Merry to You?”.

This is the second – and last – Christmas puzzle I assembled for Christmas in July. I normally try to do a few Christmas puzzles every July, but I just wasn’t feeling it this year. But the fact that this adorable image is a Boston Terrier and that it was only 100 pieces made the decision pretty easy. This is my kind of Christmas image!

Brother Sister Design Studio is a brand/trademark of Hobby Lobby. As I don’t shop there for personal reasons, this is the first puzzle from this brand that I’ve assembled. For a store brand it was better quality that I thought it would be – I would characterize the quality as good.  Although as I’ve only assembled this one puzzle I cannot make a final determination on the brand’s overall quality.

I enjoyed the assembly very much, mostly because of the adorable image; and I was surprised by the detail you could make out in the reflection from the dog’s eye…

Do I Look Merry 1

You can see the room where the picture was taken in this reflection! It jumped out at me while I was assembling the eyes, so I had to take a closeup to show you. The image reproduction was the best part of the quality in my opinion, although the finish was quite shiny and made assembling the darker parts a little more difficult under the artificial lighting at my puzzle table.

So, as this pup would probably say, “Happy freakin’ Christmas in July.” 🎅

Childhood Favorites

Childhood Favorites
Childhood Favorites – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Brace yourselves everyone, you’re in for a shock – I LOVED THIS PUZZLE! I know, it’s unbelievable, isn’t it? Who’d have thought that this collage (my favorite type of image) of book covers (I love books and reading) in puzzle form (my absolute favorite hobby) would be such great fun? I know, it bowled me over too! 😉

I was quite a prolific reader as a kid, in addition to being quite a tomboy. Playing outside and getting dirty was so much fun for me, and I was always climbing the big tree in the backyard with a book in my pocket. I’d get to the good branch and sit there, out of sight of my sisters and my mom, and spend as much time as I could reading. I love to re-read books too, and I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d re-read my favorites books – sometimes as soon as I finished a great book I’d flip right back to the beginning and start over again!

So put my love of books together with my love of puzzles, and add that it’s a collage – that’s puzzle bliss for me!

The fit of this Re-marks puzzle was a bit loose, and the piece shapes are quite prominent. The loose fit can be a bit of a pain to work with, but it wasn’t so loose as to be much of a problem. Otherwise the puzzle was good quality; the offset grid cut made for a more interesting assembly and the chipboard is a good thickness. Overall, other than the fit, the puzzle quality was very good.

Childhood Favorites 1

Charlotte’s Web was one of my favorite books as a child, not only because of the story, but also because I loved the illustrations. They were done by the same man who did the illustrations of the Little House series of books. Speaking of Little House on the Prairie, why aren’t any of those books shown here? I ADORED them as a child, and still do – I just re-read them all a couple of months ago!

Childhood Favorites 2

Most girls in the US have a memory of this book. I know I sure do. Ain’t it great being a lady and dealing with menstruation?

Childhood Favorites 3

My sister told me about this book when I was younger, and it sticks with me to this day. What a fabulous story, told by a talented author! Just looking at this book cover makes me want to get myself a copy of this book and re-read it; it’s been a few decades since I last read this one.

I wonder to myself sometimes if you guys get tired of me doing so many collages, I’m not ashamed to tell you that I worry about stupid stuff like that. I’m an accomplished worrier. I try to keep telling myself to just post the puzzles I do and not fret about doing puzzles to make others happy or to give them more variety – but I’m not always successful in convincing myself.

Happy puzzling everyone! I hope you’re still finding and assembling some fantastic puzzles!