Reef Fish

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Reef Fish – Lafayette Puzzle Factory – 500 pieces

My son and I completed these 16 beautiful reef fish puzzles on the same day that we put together the teacups. He enjoyed them almost as much as I do! As a matter of fact, yesterday we put together a puzzle with 15 birds and we had a great time. 🙂

The sizes and shapes of these were all different, which added some to the challenge, but in the best way. The colors are bright and beautiful, and there were some very interesting looking fish. My son took one look at the clownfish and said “I found him!” It seems he’d been looking for Nemo for quite some time. 🐠

They were lots of fun, smallest fish had only 10 pieces, and the largest one (the clownfish and coral shown above) had 63! They were extremely entertaining to assemble, and I’m looking forward to doing the second fish puzzle waiting in the wings.

If you haven’t tried a shaped puzzle before and you’re not quite sure about them I would definitely recommend giving these a try. The quality is very good, and I can’t seem to put into words how much fun I find them – they’re jigsawrific! 😁

 

Review: Teacups

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Teacups – Lafayette Puzzle Factory – 500 pieces

Aren’t these the cutest puzzles? 12 separate teacup puzzles, perfect for the blog tea party being held by Blooms & Beautifuls today – I don’t drink tea, but I’d love to have some hot coffee in one of these beautiful teacups if I could!

These small, separate, shaped puzzles by Lafayette Puzzle Factory are so much fun to assemble that I just can’t seem to walk away once I start putting them together. Each one is quite small compared to a regular puzzle, and it doesn’t take very much time to put them together. Some can be tricky and require a little bit more brain power, but that’s part of the fun! The back of each puzzle is color-coded so you can separate them if you like before you begin; or if you’re feeling like tackling more of a challenge you can ignore the backing and work the puzzles with no extra help – it’s up to you.

The quality is very good; although with the colored backing there seems to be some difficulty with the die cutting all the way through the puzzles. At least a few pieces from each puzzle need to be separated before you begin. I don’t mind so much because I find them so entertaining to assemble that I can overlook the small quality issues.

My oldest son hasn’t been feeling well so he’s been hanging out with me during the day, watching M*A*S*H and assembling puzzles. He helped me with the teacups and he enjoyed them so much that we immediately started on another set. Stay tuned in the upcoming days for the Reef Fish that we assembled together – I’ve added another member to my puzzle posse! 😎

 

The teacups above are our 3 favorites out of the 12, but they are really all quite lovely in their own way. They were so much fun that they were all assembled in about an hour – we just couldn’t stop! That’s my kind of puzzle, it’s definitely recommended – two teacups way up (with pinkies out!) ☕☕

Details:

  • Title:                  Teacups
  • Artist:                Not credited
  • Brand:               Lafayette Puzzle Factory
  • Piece count:     500 pieces
  • Size:                  Varies
  • Purchased:      New

Quality:

  • Board:               Very good
  • Cutting:             Good
  • Image:               Excellent
  • Box:                   Average
  • Fit:                     Very good
  • Puzzle Dust:     Small amount
  • Piece cut:          Random cut
  • Piece shapes:   Very good variety
  • Finish:               Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating:      Very good, recommended

Butterflies II

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Butterflies II – Lafayette Puzzle Factory – 500 pieces

These beautiful shaped puzzles are such fun for me to put together, and even though I have 9 of the series there are still a few that I don’t have and would love to get my hands on.

The colors on these butterflies are absolutely gorgeous and they were interesting to assemble. Unlike the cupcakes and shoes that I’ve already assembled, these were of varying sizes and shapes. The smallest of the butterflies had only 8 pieces, and the largest had 52 pieces! It was quite an entertaining assembly, and I can’t stress enough how stunning the colors are, they are so beautiful. 🦋

Each butterfly was delightful to see and put together, the varying sizes made sure that each was not a cookie cutter of the same shapes. The colors were bright, and the fit was very good. All in all I had a great time with this puzzle.

These are two of my favorites, although I had a hard time choosing only a few. All of them were interesting, challenging, beautiful, and fun!

Shoes

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Shoes – Lafayette Puzzle Factory – 500 pieces

I am absolutely in love with these small, separate, shaped puzzles from Lafayette Puzzle Factory. Assembling them is so much fun! I bought 8 of the series, and there are still more that I’d like to get my hands on.

The quality is about medium-level in my opinion. The chipboard has different colored backing for each mini puzzle, and sometimes the die doesn’t cut all the way through this backing. I enjoy these puzzles so much that it doesn’t really bother me that some pieces need to be separated. They are another example of how I’m willing to overlook certain quality issues if the image or assembly is particularly entertaining.

The pieces are a good thickness, there are an excellent variety of shapes, and the fit is very good. The image reproduction is excellent with bright, beautiful colors. They are truly stunning!

The shoes are beautiful as artwork, but there is NO WAY that I would be able to wear them. Perhaps I could sit down first and then put them on, I would look pretty but wouldn’t have to actually walk anywhere. These are my two favorites; I have nowhere to wear them, and nothing to wear them with, but I just love the look of them….

 

The whole time I was putting these together I kept thinking they would be a great idea for decorating a teenage girl’s room. Most young girls can’t wait to be older and high heels are definitely part of that – at least they were for me. I would have loved to have had these puzzles on my walls when I was younger.

If you’re interested in these gorgeous shaped shoe puzzles I highly recommend them. I had the best time assembling them – two heels kicked way up! 👠👠

Which to do?

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Which one should be next?

I finished a puzzle yesterday morning, and then spent a great deal of time trying to decide which one was next. A decision didn’t seem to present itself, and then a lovely man in brown shorts dropped off a package at the front door!

After working the Cupcakes puzzle I was VERY interested in getting more of this series. Naturally, as one does, I ordered as many as I could find in one place. The nice man with the brown truck brought me 8 of them yesterday! Wooohooo!

In another chapter of today’s story, mom was coming over to bring me a prescription and timed it perfectly; 20 minutes after my delivery mom arrived carrying a Goodwill bag with recent thrift store purchases for me to check out. 😎

The dalmatians puzzle from the thrift store is intriguing to me, I’ve never done a Springbok family puzzle before and I’m interested to see how it goes. And it’s so adorable! The 12 shaped high heels are amazing looking, and I know they’ll be great fun. I want to do them both right now, but there is only one board to work a puzzle on in bed. Which to choose?