Oceanside Retreat by David M – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces
Oceanside Retreat is a very pretty puzzle that was a nice calming assembly. It was just what I needed at just the right time.
300 to 500 pieces seems to be my sweet spot these days, and I’m enjoying these puzzles very much. There’s something very calming about this image, and I would probably enjoy it in a 500 or even 1000 piece. There’s something about the colors and the blends, it’s just relaxing and soothing to look at.
I couldn’t figure out what was going on in the upper window of the house, I had to ask several family members what they thought. Now that they’ve all weighed in, I can absolutely see it and can’t believe I didn’t see it before! It’s a mother holding a baby and giving it a kiss. So sweet!
I’m running out of 300 and 500 piece puzzles to do, either I need a shopping trip or a visit from my friendly neighborhood thrift store ninja!
Islands of Life by APAK – Artifact Puzzles – 165 pieces
I bought this puzzle for mom for Mother’s Day – I hope she forgives me, cause this one was a bear!
We finally got around to assembling this one on the 4th of July. Mom and I did most of the puzzle, but my daughter helped here and there. It was quite difficult, especially that border, holy smokes! It isn’t as dark as it looks in the picture, it’s actually quite greenish – dark green.
I got quite frustrated with it at times, it was the border that kept giving me fits; I kept trying to find the pieces that those tree root looking pieces fit into. There were only 165 pieces, but it was very challenging. I even apologized to Mom for giving it to her! Even though it was hard, I don’t really feel bad about giving it to her. Although it was frustrating and demanding, we had a good time working on the puzzle and working together again. The Puzzle Posse is back!
There were some interesting looking buildings on one of the floating islands in space, and I loved the scene of the strange little people having a picnic on the main island. Those were some of the easiest parts to assemble besides the big tall thing with a window. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a building or a plant of some kind; whatever it was, it was fun to put together – in a “test your puzzle abilities” kind of way.
You can also see in the smaller images above the wonderfully unique shapes of some of the pieces, they gave our gray cells quite a workout! Luckily, mom and I are pretty smart (at least we’re good at puzzles) and we got it done. 😁
Just like with Alice in Wonderland I forgot to take a picture of the whimsy pieces, although with this one there weren’t very many of them. Even so, I didn’t separate them out for a pre-assembly picture. Unfortunately the puzzle belongs to mom, so it isn’t here for me to go through and get a picture of the cool pieces. Sorry about that guys, I promise to do better.
Maple Sugar Time by Mary Ann Vessey – Milton Bradley – 500 pieces
While this image isn’t one I would choose most other times of the year, I saw this one and decided to get it done for Christmas in July. It was good quality, and pretty fun to assemble.
As usual, these Milton Bradley puzzles are good quality; although the fit of this one was quite loose. This happens sometimes at the end of a run when the dies are getting dull. I don’t consider it a flaw, it’s just one of those things that happens in manufacturing.
All the little scenes were fun to put together; carrying the sap to the big kettle to be sugared off, getting more wood for the fire, etc.
Although I’m not a fan of Christmas/winter puzzles, this one wasn’t too bad. I enjoyed it, but to be honest I’d rather working on a puzzle with bright colors, or maybe one that had a bunch of little shaped puzzles. ☺
The Puzzle that Burnt the Turkey by Chris Ceaser – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 55 pieces
This was the most difficult of the micro puzzles that I’ve assembled so far, I actually couldn’t imagine how demanding it would be to do in the larger piece count. This 55 piece puzzle took me about 30 minutes to figure out. How would you handle 216 pieces of this? Yikes!
There is a pattern to it, and it’s easy to see; what isn’t always easy to see is which piece is the correct one. With all the branches, snow and reflections it’s not an effortless assembly, that’s for sure.
The first thing I do with these repetitive cut puzzles is to separate them by shapes. Sometimes there are several pieces with similar shapes, but small differences. Once they were all separated and ready to go I started with the yellowish-brown section in the middle and worked outward. It was a puzzle that kept me completely absorbed for the entire 30 minutes it took to assemble, I love those kinds of puzzles!
I also enjoy the names that Wentworth has given these repetitive cut puzzles with the tough pictures. The Puzzle that Ruined Christmas, The Puzzle that Burnt the Turkey, The Puzzle that Froze Christmas, The Puzzle that Wrapped Up Christmas, etc. – they’ve got a great sense of humor at Wentworth. 🙂
The Grail of the Summer Stars by Kinuko Y. Craft – Ceaco – 550 pieces
The picture does not do this puzzle justice, it is absolutely stunning! With beautiful colors, and an intricate and detailed image it was a challenging but super fun assembly. The quality was less than stellar, but the gorgeous artwork definitely made up for a lot of that, I absolutely loved this image!
Unfortunately this was one of those Ceaco puzzles with the splitting chipboard, image lift, and that doesn’t lay completely flat. This was a new puzzle right out of the box, so none of those things could be attributed to previous assemblies. That said, the fit was very good, and the reproduction was gorgeous. I fell in love with the image; no matter what the quality was like I was going to finish the puzzle to see it complete.
What astounded me about the image was that the more I assembled, the more tiny details I found. There were hieroglyphs on the pillars, angels on the balcony, and other things you don’t notice when you first see the entire image.
Even with the quality problems I’m still glad to have had the chance to assemble this puzzle. And there’s another one by this artist in my possession that I’m very much looking forward to doing. It’s a bit darker in color, but the hope is that it’s gonna be just as dazzling as this one.
From a quality standpoint I can’t really recommend this image from this brand, there really were serious issues with the chipboard used and how the image adhered to it. But if you find a puzzle with artwork by Kinuko Craft you might want to weigh the pros and cons; the art is amazing!
As an added bonus, this is what happened when I tried to take pictures. My furry baby wanted to say hi …..
What a sweet face this boy has! He looks sad, but that’s his “Mom, are you done yet?” face. He wanted to go outside and play. 💗
My Jigsaw Journal 