Stuart* – Re-marks – 100 pieces
So friggin’ cute! Look at that face, he looks completely disgusted that he has to wear that outfit, it makes me laugh when I look at the eyes. I’ve named him Stuart. He’s learned that he doesn’t enjoy playing dress-up.
Stuart wants to go home.
This puzzle had great quality pieces and a great fit. It was a fun few minutes putting it together. 🐶
1960s – Re-marks – 1500 pieces
My apologies for the cockeyed picture, I did my best but sometimes it is quite difficult to level out the image on the camera. At least it is for me. This puzzle was lots of fun to assemble, even with the super loose fit.
I loved putting together each of the sections. There was something soothing for me – laying out the pieces on trays, finding the correct pieces for a section and then filling in the holes on the trays. Moving the pieces around, sorting through them, etc. was extremely calming for me. My OCD was forcing me keep things in order, and it proved altogether relaxing for me – in addition to the actual assembly of the puzzle.
It’s always been my belief that we Dissectologists all have a bit of the OCD, and putting things right by completing puzzles is calming, relaxing, soothing, meditative…..whatever term you use. It was evident while I was assembling this puzzle that I needed to put and keep things in order – even the pieces laid out on trays – and it was what I needed for my mental health at the time. I’ve been quite down lately and the time spent putting things in order helped me. Puzzles are my therapy these days, and thank goodness I have them. 🧩💖
Not the best quality puzzle I’ve done in a while; the pieces were on the thinner side with a terribly loose fit. Even so, the collage image itself saved the day and I enjoyed it anyway.
I was a very odd child who never followed the crowd, and in my teens I read and thoroughly enjoyed this book. To be honest, I read the book because of Sharon Tate being one of the stars of the movie. True crime was a passion when I was younger and I was intrigued by the story of how she was murdered and how people could let themselves be taken in by such an obvious psychopath. Again, I was a weird child. No excuses.
My sisters and I loved our spirograph! We kept losing those little pins though, the ones that held a piece in place on the paper; we were constantly stealing mom’s sewing pins to replace them so we could make pretty pictures. She loved the pictures we made but was never thrilled with our petty thefts. 😇
I was also a comedy nerd as a child, and my parents were fans as well. We had many of The Smothers Brothers albums, and I loved listening to them. So hilariously dry and funny – it’s difficult to convincingly act like an idiot – and Tommy did such a great job. If you haven’t heard of them or seen any of their appearances on television I would suggest a search on YouTube; they are always good for a laugh.
When I finished this puzzle and took the picture above, it prompted me to find some of their songs/comedy on YouTube. I spent at least an hour watching them and laughing out loud. Such great memories for me, watching them with the family. 💖
Box of Buttons by Lori Jensen – Colorcraft Puzzles – 1000 pieces
This puzzle was so much fun, I love blocks of color! Each section is about 84 pieces; it isn’t as easy as it looks – but it is absolutely as much fun as it looks.
Colorcraft is new brand to me and I was quite impressed with the quality; excellent fit, variety of shapes, beautiful reproduction, a very nice hand feel, and minimal puzzle dust. Their catalog is full of bright, colorful, interesting images to choose from (and the occasional landscape or kitty as well). The box was just big enough to contain the 1000 pieces, which is nice when your available space to store puzzles is small. They only make 500 and 1000 piece puzzles as far as I can tell, but if you’re interested you should definitely check them out.
Overall I really liked this brand and am planning on trying more of their puzzles as soon as I let myself do some shopping. Of course with their catalog of bright, fun images it could be dangerous to let me loose on their website with a debit card. 💲🛒💲
Bee Farm by Tom Wood – SunsOut – 300 pieces
There’s something about this image. I don’t know why, but it’s just compelling. I’m not much of a SunsOut fan, but when I saw this puzzle at the thrift store I had to get it.
The puzzle itself was good quality, I loved the random cut pieces – it’s a nice change from grid cut. It takes a few minutes for my brain to catch up and remember how to look at the pieces and see how they could fit together; but it’s nice to switch things up and keep my gray matter on it’s toes, so to speak. The fit was on the loose side, but it’s a pre-loved puzzle and that’s to be expected sometimes.
The assembly didn’t take very long, and the most difficult part was the two beehives. I enjoyed it very much and it was completely worth the $1.99 I spent on it. Excellent image by Tom Wood, and it made for a great afternoon of puzzling.
Dogs – Cavallini & Co. – 1000 pieces
Isn’t this a great image for a dog and puzzle lover like myself? I absolutely adored it and had a great time putting it together. My apologies for the glare on the picture, the shiny/slick backing made it so that I couldn’t stand my board up for a good pic of the completed puzzle – it kept trying to slide off!
This was a new company for me. All of their puzzles that I’ve seen are in tubular containers and a little more on the pricey side. The quality is good/very good; good thickness, excellent fit, good reproduction and variety of shapes. They have a nice hand feel on the front of the puzzle, but use that slick/sharp coating on the back – I am not a fan of this type of backing.
Again, my apologies for the pictures. They’re at an angle so you could see the image without glare, it isn’t optimal but it was the best I could do.
Of course if there’s a Boston Terrier I’m gonna take a close up. Actually there are two sections with Bostons in this image, this was my favorite of the two.
I mean, how cute is this? A choir of adorable dogs giving a performance – love it. 💚
Cavallini & Co. – from what I’ve seen – make good quality puzzles. I’ve only done this one so I can only speak for this puzzle specifically until I’ve done at least one more. They’re a bit on the pricey side from what I’ve seen, so unless one of their images grabs me and I HAVE to get it, I’m not sure I’ll be getting another one any time soon. Not because there’s anything wrong with them, I’m just watching my puzzle spending at the moment.
My Jigsaw Journal 