Flower Deer

Flower Deer by Coco de Paris – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

This image is just beautiful, and adorable at the same time. Loved it! This is the third of these puzzles with images by Coco de Paris that I’ve done, and they’ve all been great fun, but not too easy at the same time. So entertaining!

The quality was pretty good for this thrift store puzzle. A good variety of piece shapes, good fit, nice image reproduction, and a not too shiny finish. Overall, I would say good/very good in the quality department for this one.

If you look at the back of the box there are so many different brand names it was difficult at first to decide which one to credit. Listed on the box were Milton Bradley, Cardinal, Hasbro, and Spin Master. I decided that the name shown on the front as well would be the name I went with, so Milton Bradley is credited here.

Fun little puzzle that didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it might, it was difficult to walk away from once I got into the assembly of the center. The border was assembled first, and then the puzzle sat unloved and alone on the board for more than 24 hours before I actually started working on the inside of the puzzle; but once I started I didn’t want to leave.

Lots of fun!

Flower Deer In Progress…

Flower Deer by Coco de Paris – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

This one has BARELY begun. No – literally. I hadn’t even opened the box until just over an hour ago. I did an extremely quick sort and put together the border because it’s “in progress” day and there was nothing on my board at all!

Maybe it’s the upcoming holidays, I’m not exactly sure, but I have NO energy for anything at all these days. I’m exhausted all the time and just don’t want to do anything at all. Of course today I have to make two pies for tomorrow and the only thing I want to do is crawl in bed, pull up the covers and take a nap. Sigh.

Anyway, I did another of these Coco de Paris puzzles during the pandemic, Bulldog with Butterflies, and they’re not bad puzzles. Somewhat thinner pieces, somewhat loose fit – I guess I “somewhat” like them. 😉

Giraffe With Bubblegum

Giraffe With Bubblegum by Coco de Paris – Cardinal – 300 pieces

These images by Coco de Paris are just too adorable for me to pass up. The first one I did was mistakenly titled “Bulldog with Butterflies” but those of us in the know realize that is most definitely NOT a bulldog, it is a Boston Terrier. My Buddy was a Boston, their faces are just so recognizable. Fortunately they got the title of this one correct, I am certain that is most definitely a giraffe. 🦒

I’ve seen a dozen different puzzles by this artist with animals painted atop the pages of a book. Some are hilarious, some are silly, and some are just beautiful; but they all look like they’d be entertaining to assemble.

Unfortunately, this was just fair quality for Cardinal. There were quite a few bent pieces, and some warping; but the fit was good and the image is nice. I cannot speak to the quality of the other puzzle images, just the two that I’ve put together so far. The “bulldog” puzzle was good/fair, and this one was just fair.

But as I’ve said before, what constitutes good quality for me isn’t necessarily what is most important for you; the only way to know for sure is to try it yourself. So if these look like puzzles you’d enjoy assembling, please don’t let my “review” keep you from giving it a try. Reviews are always subjective; they are one person’s opinion – not gospel.

Somehow the eyes look happy to me. Maybe because some poor, overworked optometrist made them a GIANT pair of glasses so they can see just how big their bubble gets?

Bulldog with Butterflies

Bulldog with Butterflies
Bulldog with Butterflies by Coco de Paris – Cardinal – 300 pieces

That sweet, beautiful, face is absolutely gorgeous! But I gotta tell you that it still burns my biscuits that they got the name so completely wrong; THAT IS NOT A BULLDOG! I’d love to change the title of this post, but if someone else wants to find this puzzle for themselves they need to know the actual title, so I grudgingly left it the way it is. But in my heart I know that it’s a Boston with Butterflies. 🐾🦋

If you haven’t read this blog before you might not know that the sweetest member of my puzzle posse is an adorable purebred Boston Terrier named Buddy, and he makes me smile and gives me love every single day. I know what a Boston Terrier looks like! Mine is a bit of a mutant though, he’s extremely big for his breed. Whatever the opposite of a “runt” is, that’s my Buddy. The average Boston weighs between 13-16 pounds. You ready for this? Brace yourselves……my “little” guy weighs 33 pounds! He’s not the least bit fat, he’s just much, much taller, longer, and bigger than the typical Boston. My neighbor across the street has a beautiful female, and Buddy is almost twice as tall as she is! He’s the “Andre the Giant” of his breed. 😉 (On a completely different topic, who doesn’t love Andre the Giant as Fezzik in The Princess Bride? “No more rhyming now, I mean it!” – “Anybody got a peanut?”)

Back to the puzzle. The quality was good/fair; the pieces are on the thinner side and the fit was a bit loose. On the plus side, there was a very good variety of piece shapes and the image reproduction was good as well. For me it didn’t matter much either way, it was all about the image.

Bulldog with Butterflies 1

The butterflies were lovely, and they were the first thing to be assembled after the edges. The picture doesn’t do them justice, the colors are really lovely!

Cardinal has a whole line of images by Coco de Paris like this one – animals painted over the pages of a book. Most are silly and fun, and they make me smile; I especially love the group of ostriches wearing bathing suits, and the giraffe wearing glasses blowing a huge bubble with her gum! 😂

I tried to find a link to a whole bunch of them in one spot to share with you, but this being the middle of a pandemic many places are still closed and sold out of certain puzzles. You can look up Coco de Paris jigsaw puzzles and see many of the images from this line. They’re so fun!

p.s. Thank you Penny❣

Bulldog In Progress…

Bulldog IP
Bulldog with Butterflies by Coco de Paris – Cardinal – 300 pieces

Well, as much as I love this image by Coco de Paris, I have to take issue with the title. If you’re reading this on June 9, 2020 you can see on the right side of the page (under what’s on my board) what the finished image will be – that is NOT a bulldog! It’s a Boston Terrier, and I know this because my beloved puzzle pal who faithfully sits beside me while I assemble jigsaw puzzles is a pure bred Boston Terrier. I know what they look like; I look into this sweet, smiling, adorable face all day. Every day.

If you want to split hairs you could tell me that the breed came from a cross between an English Bulldog and a White Terrier; but I’m cranky today and would suggest that no one try to split hairs with me right now. 😉

Ok, rant over.

My meds have been changed again, and now there’s a patch on my shoulder delivering pain medication every hour. It isn’t going well, so even though I REALLY wanted to get going on this puzzle I just wasn’t able to this past weekend. But I finally got myself out of bed last night so that hubby could go to sleep (he brings home the bacon, he’s gotta be able to rest), and rather than watch the news I put myself in front of my puzzle table and got to work.

The butterflies were where I started once the edge was completed, and once they were done I picked out the all white pieces and put those in. Sometimes I prefer to get the more difficult areas of an image done first, then I won’t be dreading them. So when I get back to the puzzle this morning all that’s left is that sweet face and lots of words – both of which I love. 💗