Animal Tales

Animal Tales – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

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!

Disney & Pixar Toy Store

Disney & Pixar Toy Store – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

My first puzzle back from vacation, and it was a great one! Before we left I sorted it so that when we returned it would be all ready to go. It was so nice to just be able to grab some pieces and start assembling.

The stairs and the shelves behind them weren’t easy, especially because there were so many characters from so many different movies. Some of them, like Dumbo there, were in more than one place so you really had to pay attention.

All the Disney princesses lined up on the shelves – it’s a who’s who of strong amazing female characters. It was really fun to put this part together.

Monster’s Inc. was such a fun movie, and all my kids really loved it – which means I also “got” to watch it. Over and over, and over again. The characters were so great, the voice actors were amazing and even though I’ve seen it more than perhaps I wanted to, it’s still a wonderful movie and brings back memories of the whole family sitting together to watch movies (mostly Disney).

Such a fun collage-like image, excellent quality puzzle, and some alone time at my puzzle table. Heavenly.

Stephen King Books In Progress…

Stephen King Books (?) – Unknown Brand – 1000 pieces

While I like the image of this one, it’s the absolute worst quality cardboard puzzle I’ve worked with in quite some time. It’s almost as frustrating to assemble as the bad quality wooden Crafthub puzzles I completed earlier in the summer.

This must be a Chinese knockoff, quickly produced without any care taken towards quality. So far it’s missing one piece and there is an extra corner. In addition it’s incredibly thin, so thin that it’s hard for me to even pick up the pieces from my board or the trays that I keep them in. The fit is horrid and not even two pieces can be picked up together to move; it’s important to assemble the pieces close to where they will be placed or there will be a struggle to move them without everything coming apart.

I’m pretty sure this one will be completed today, I’m motivated to finish it quickly and get it off my board so I can start working on a puzzle with better quality – I’d even be willing to work on a Ceaco if that’s all I had here! 😂

Antique Market In Progress…

Antique Market by Eduard – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

This image is quite difficult to walk away from; there are so many small things to discover and one piece leads to finding something else…it’s hard for me to stop because I know what the next piece looks like. All I have to do is find it!

The colors are so bright and while the image could seem crowded it doesn’t feel that way as I’m assembling it. My one issue is the finish seems unusually shiny, more so than your average Buffalo puzzle. Perhaps it’s just me and this is how they always are, it’s hard to tell.

As usual I started with all the words, except for the ones on the teal colored roof; those were done separately. Otherwise I just worked with whatever small section seemed like it would be fun to put together. It’s going rather quickly, and I’m enjoying myself immensely.

Working on something fun today? I hope so. Happy puzzling my friends!

Maleficent Still In Progress…

Maleficent (Disney Villainous) – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

Normally I don’t post more than once about an in progress puzzle – not for regular ones anyway. Both the 40,320 piece Disney Memorable Moments puzzle and the Mystery Box puzzle had many, many updates but those were special. This is just your run-of-the-mill 1000 piece puzzle, and although it started out going really quickly the progress has slowed a bit.

It’s mostly my fault, I’m still not feeling my best and have spent more than a bit of time sleeping the last couple of days. But it’s also getting more time consuming to find and place pieces as it’s down to just dark colors most with a bit of frame in them.

The frames aren’t as distinctive as I’d hoped, or my powers of concentration and eye for detail are failing me – or perhaps it’s a bit of both. It’s taking longer now, and the overhead lighting isn’t doing me any favors either.

Anyway, it should be done today. I’ll be proud of myself when I get it finished, but I’m not sure I’ll be working on a Disney Villainous puzzle again any time soon. They’re not easy!