Farmer’s Market by Tracy Flickinger – Ceaco – 300 pieces
This is an adorable image that I’ve seen before but had never come across. I finally acquired two of the three in the series, and am so looking forward to finding the third – I had as much fun assembling it as I thought I would!
Ceaco puzzles seem to be hit or miss in the quality department. I’ve worked some really nice puzzles of theirs and some absolutely terrible ones. It’s not a brand I will normally buy retail, we usually get them second hand. This particular puzzle was one of those I bought in a lot of 26 from Facebook Marketplace and I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. The quality of this one was good, with an excellent fit and wonderful image.
This was assembled in one sitting, at night when the sandman skipped over my house and I couldn’t sleep at all. I stole off quietly to the puzzle room and before I knew it – bam! – it was done. This was one of those rare puzzles where my expectations of how entertaining the assembly would be was spot on. It was thoroughly enjoyable!
Ceaco puzzles aren’t always up to snuff for me, but this one absolutely was. From the first piece to the last it was a great time. Images that make you happy usually make for wonderful puzzling! 🙂
Our fluffy friend showed a lot of fur yesterday during Mardi Gras; she lost a bit of her memory (see missing edge piece) and ended up with dazed look on her face and a LOT of beads! 😉
Cat puzzles aren’t really my thing, but I had to get this one from the thrift store because it’s just too funny. How can you not smile when you see this image? I love it!
*I bet kitty wasn’t too happy to be dressed up in all of that crap for the picture though.*
Knightingale by Marja-Leena Montonen – Ceaco – 550 pieces
Knightingale was a fun image with beautiful colors and interesting artwork; unfortunately it also had poor quality too. There was a great deal of image lift which robbed me of the joy I get when running my hands over the completed puzzle – there were too many tabs sticking up and I didn’t want my puzzle massage to tear any of them off. Still it was a great find at the thrift store, I got several hours of enjoyable puzzle time for only 69 cents!
The artist may have been inspired by Picasso – or this scene is set somewhere near a leaking nuclear reactor. Fun characters with interesting colors, I’d love to find more puzzles with her artwork – it was even more fun to assemble than I’d hoped. 🙂
Over the River by Susan Winget – Ceaco – 500 pieces
Over the River is the companion puzzle to one I assembled in February of this year. They come in a book box with two compartments – each holds a puzzle with cork backing, both by the same artist. Like many of the “different” Ceaco puzzles it was very good quality.
🎶Over the River and through the woods, to grandmother’s house we go!🎶
The first one I put together from this box was Simple Pleasures, and it seemed much easier to assemble than this puzzle (although my memory isn’t as reliable as it used to be 👵). There were so many places around the whimsies that didn’t connect at all, and it was a bit frustrating to constantly have to fix pieces that had moved. It can get quite tedious – but sometimes that’s how whimsies go.
With these puzzles it’s sometimes hard to find all the whimsy pieces before you begin; so these are some, but definitely not all of them…
The scalloped edges aren’t as easy to assemble as you’d think, so I began with the words. It took way more brain power than I’d assumed!
The inset scenes were lovely!
Even though it gave my gray cells a little bit of a workout, it was great fun. And you definitely can’t beat the price – 99 cents for two 500 piece puzzles with cork backing! I absolutely got more than a dollar’s worth of entertainment. ☺
Today is the start of National Game and Puzzle Week here in the US, which is perfect for taking some of the stress out of spending time with family over Thanksgiving. Is Aunt Matilda always making you wait hours and hours for your holiday meal? Set up a jigsaw puzzle to help pass the time, what a lovely way to spend time with your family and loved ones!
You’ll get no board game recommendations from me – it’s too easy to end up arguing (just my opinion, of course). I love board and card games, but hubby is unbelievably competitive, as are many other family members. A fun game of euchre with my parents ends up with the men getting frustrated with mom and I because we “don’t take it seriously”. Mom and I then purposely try to lose, which mean we almost always end up winning; and we giggle hysterically while it’s happening. It’s safe to say the husbands are unimpressed with our behavior. 😁 I’m a jigsaw puzzle gal all the way; everyone can help, you don’t need to explain the “rules”, and everyone wins. Viva le puzzle!
So onto today’s puzzle, I chose this one for today’s post because it’s a puzzle of playing cards which can be used for many games. This puzzle had me so enraptured that I almost couldn’t walk away. I kept coming back to it even though I wasn’t feeling well; I just had to get a few more pieces put in, and I had to know if all the pieces were there!
Another good quality non-traditional Ceaco. This one is called a Conversation Pieces Trompe L’oeil jigsaw puzzle. (trompe l’oeil is a visual illusion in art, it means to trick or deceive the eye to see the painting as a three-dimensional object) Ceaco has a few of these conversation pieces puzzles, but this is the first one we’ve found in the thrift stores.
I wasn’t planning to document this assembly, but mom was here at the beginning and helped me assemble most of the first part. She went home to get some things done, and I kept sending her updated pictures. So I’ve got pics of the assembly as I went along! We started with the face cards, they were harder to assemble than we bargained for!
Next I assembled the rest of the cards that were face up, and I tried to place them all approximately where they belong in the puzzle. It sure doesn’t look like much, does it?
The next morning I put together the edges; it wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t as difficult as I’d thought either. I was so excited to get that done! All that’s left is to fill in. I can’t explain how engrossed I was in this puzzle and how happy it made me. So happy!
I was hoping to have a picture of it glued and mounted on foam board and hanging in my daughter’s game room. Unfortunately, it’s not on the wall yet. Bummer. Still, we had a great time with this puzzle, and it looks so cool!
Conversation Pieces – Ceaco – 500 pieces
If you’re not up close to see the piece shapes it looks like cards strewn across a table. I think it’s going to look amazing on the wall! Perhaps over the holiday I’ll get it hung up – my daughter and her husband are hosting Thanksgiving this year in their new home. I’m bringing the pies, and something to hang up this puzzle! You might just see a picture of it sometime soon. 😎
