Sketches

Sketches
Sketches – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

This adorable puzzle went together amazingly quickly, and it was exactly the right amount of challenge. I absolutely adored it! Unfortunately a piece was missing, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all.

The quality was excellent; and the piece shapes aren’t quite as obvious as they were in the last Ravensburger I assembled. I really adore cartoon puzzles, and this image had enough cartoon elements that it ticked all the boxes for me. Ravensburger puzzles are such great quality that I never hesitate buying them secondhand from the thrift stores. Even if they’ve been assembled several times they hold up quite well. This was a thrift store puzzle that mom bought for us, she always found such wonderful puzzles at the best prices. 💖

Each of the sketches correspond with the pictures from the finished film beside it, except for Sully from Monsters, Inc.

Sketches 1

Sully’s sketch was mean and scary looking, but the image from the film is him being frightened (not frightening at all) and offering a teddy bear to Boo – so cute!

All of the Pixar movies shown are ones that I’ve seen and watched with my children; I think that’s another reason I enjoyed the assembly so much, it brought back wonderful memories of spending time with my kids when they were younger.

We would all pile into the car and get ourselves to the store when the VHS or DVDs of the movies were released. With three young children at home we didn’t bother with renting them from Blockbuster or a local video store, we always bought them.* And the rule was that we always watched them for the first time together, I loved watching the kids be enchanted by the story and images; the time we spent together when they were young was time well spent and provides me with wonderful memories to this day.

 

*For all you young’uns, people used to have to go to the store to rent or buy movies if they wanted to watch them at home. There was no Netflix, Hulu, or any other streaming service. You couldn’t watch movies on your smart phone either – there were no such things!

80’s In Progress

80's IP

I finally got myself back to the puzzle table and started on this 1500 piece collage of the 80’s. It truly stuns me that this decade was more than 30 years ago. I must be very old indeed!

It’s going together very quickly, most likely because collages make me happy and I love assembling each little section. I didn’t spend much time on it yesterday, but hope to be able to get back there today. It makes me wish I had more collages in the to do pile, this one has been so enjoyable that it would be nice to have some more to do.

Jumanji

Jumanji
Jumanji – Cardinal – 300 pieces

I love the look of this, it’s quite striking compared to the fuzzy, soft, sweetened Christmas puzzles I’ve been seeing everywhere; I much prefer the look of this to be honest. I loved the movies too, both of them, which is why I bought it. I’m glad I did. 💗

It’s only a 300 piece puzzle, but don’t be fooled, this was way harder than it looks! It isn’t the best quality puzzle I’ve done lately, but it wasn’t too terrible. At the very least the colors are quite nice. The thickness of the pieces was fair, as was the fit. But it’s one of those puzzles where the image is so cool or entertaining that I can overlook it’s shortcomings.

Even if it wasn’t as easy as I’d assumed and wasn’t premium quality I still very much enjoyed this puzzle. The colors are both subdued and bright at the same time, and it was great fun figuring out which of the corner vignettes I was working on or what letter in Jumanji I was assembling.

300 pieces of entertainment and looking at the picture of it still makes me smile. Lovely!

Upstairs, Downstairs

Upstairs
Upstairs, Downstairs by Art Poulin – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

I enjoyed this puzzle so much more than I anticipated – it’s always great when that happens. Looking at the box of pieces, they all seemed to be shades of brown for the most part, and I didn’t think it would be as entertaining to assemble as it actually was. Once I picked out some wallpaper from one room, it lead to another wallpaper, and seeing which rooms went where; and before I knew it out of the chaos came the whole house and all it’s fabulous rooms. It really was wonderfully engrossing. 🙂

Only one room was colorful, the kid’s playroom at the top of the house…

Upstairs 1

It doesn’t look very big, but perhaps to a child it would be perfect. I wonder what’s up with the big chicken on the floor?

If you ask me, the more interesting rooms are downstairs. More people, more camaraderie – more goings on. Yes, I know, they’re “the help”, but to me they’re much more fascinating. The rooms upstairs may be pretty, but they’re boring. People standing around in attractive rooms doing very little…Upstairs 4 Yawn. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty, and one of the wallpapers that was easy to pick out; but nothing’s really happening in there – it’s just a pretty room. I’m much more interested in what’s happening downstairs. (All only my opinions of course 🙂 )

The quality was lovely, the assembly was completely absorbing, and all in all I had a fabulous time with this puzzle. If it’s in your to do pile, I definitely recommend it.

What’s Next?

I haven’t touched a puzzle in more than two days, it seems as if I’m in another funk. When I get like this every puzzle I look at just doesn’t excite me and I can’t seem to make a decision; it isn’t the puzzles really, it’s just the blahs. Stacey has a bit of a ‘tude today I’m sorry to tell you. 

Dog Tales 3

Perhaps just letting my puzzle friends know I’m in a funk and haven’t been puzzling is all I need to get myself back into the swing of things. I have PADS, and the predominant emotion today is unmotivated.