Living In Bird World

Living In Bird World by Lisa Houck – Liberty Puzzles – 498 Pieces

This artwork is beautiful and so different, it made for excellent puzzling; I had a great time with this one and found myself completely absorbed in the assembly, which is exactly what I needed at the time. Beautiful artwork on an excellent quality puzzle and I even got to spend a little bit of time with my wonderful daughter who puzzled with me for half an hour or so, it was lovely. 💕

Liberty Puzzles are my favorite modern wooden puzzle company, their puzzles have beautiful artwork, and their pieces are complex and designed by some of the best in the business. Liberty puzzles have more whimsies than most other companies, and they are designed to go along with the artwork. I’ve never been disappointed by one of their puzzles, or their customer service. When I came back to the puzzle board after my two year hiatus I went a little crazy and ordered four of their large puzzles, and this beauty is one of them.

Look at these whimsies, so many birds! And because this is Bird World, there are no people at all, just birds, insects, and foliage. It made for such an entertaining assembly.

I hope you guys like these pictures of the back of wooden puzzles, because this one was a bear.🐻 When I was flipping it over I accidentally hit the light above the puzzle board and bleeped it all up! It probably took about five minutes or more to put everything back where it belonged. It made me think though, wouldn’t it be a fun exercise to assemble one of these puzzles upside down? It probably wouldn’t be as difficult as it may seem, but the only way to know is to try, right?

The symmetrical section in the middle is where I started with the assembly, the pieces were obviously easy to find. Want to know why those shapes are in this bird puzzle? Well, they all fit together to make an interesting little bird house!

I saw the image on the Liberty website, on the page for this puzzle, so of course I had to try it for myself. It took a bit of doing, and figuring out how to get the pieces connected without breaking them took me several tries and several minutes, but eventually I got there. It’s adorable! The top looks a little wonky, but I did my best. 🕊🏠

Living In Bird World In Progress…

Living In Bird World by Lisa Houck – Liberty Puzzles – 498 pieces

I’m having a bad day today, and this beautiful Liberty Puzzle has been helping me keep my mind off of things. That’s number 138 on the list of reasons why puzzling is good for your mental health. When you work on a puzzle it isn’t possible to multi-task, every part of your brain must be engaged with finding out what shape, cut, and color you’re looking for. The best puzzles can do that with ease, they keep you engrossed in what you’re doing, there’s no time to dwell on problems you may have or situations you can’t change, etc. It’s a mindful, peaceful meditation, and that’s just what I needed today.

I love to puzzle and being a dissectologist has been such a blessing in my life.🧩❤

The symmetrical section with many repeating pieces is where I started, that’s the top section shown; when that began to become more difficult and I needed something a bit easier I went with the darker section of dots in the bottom corner. It took a bit to reorient my brain to how all these pieces worked together, but from then on it’s been pretty smooth sailing. When that was finished I started on the smaller dots in the section above it and that’s where I am now. I’ve pulled out all the pieces (I hope) with the dots on the light background and am attempting to put everything into it’s place and hopefully connect these two sections together.

When I work a premium wooden puzzle like this one I normally put the box away where I cannot easily catch a glimpse of the image on the box. It makes the assembly last a little longer for me and I enjoy figuring out where each piece and whimsy fits into the overall picture. And when I’m finished it gives me a greater sense of accomplishment.

God Bless this puzzle for being here for me today, to keep my mind otherwise occupied when things that I can’t do anything about are happening and I don’t want to wallow (which I would definitely be doing right now). Puzzles have always been a cozy, warm hug for me when I’ve needed it, and I need many hugs today. 🤗🤗

Love Connection

Love Connection by Sage Wirth – Liberty Puzzles – 440 pieces

Don’t be shocked everyone, but I actually remember assembling this one! Since this puzzle was part of the reason I finally got back to the puzzle board it holds a special place in my heart. Once I saw it online I REALLY wanted it, so it was ordered. But once it arrived that meant I had to get my lazy butt out of bed and get myself back to my puzzling. Honestly, I’m so glad I did.

As usual, the quality of this Liberty Puzzle was amazing. Their piece shapes, the fit, the design of the pieces, it’s all excellent in my opinion. The puzzles aren’t cheap, but for an well-made wooden puzzle I find them to be completely reasonable and very much worth it.

Aren’t the whimsies adorable? Part of the fun for me of wooden puzzles and their intricate whimsies is sorting through the pieces and seeing all the beautiful and intricate shapes and how they relate to the puzzle image.

I always LOVE to look at wooden puzzles from the back, it always amazes me how the puzzle designer comes up with the themes and piece shapes and makes them look so beautiful. It’s always a risk for me to flip the completed puzzle over, sometimes it doesn’t go very well – but this time I did it with no problems at all. Yay me!

Love Connection was an entertaining puzzle that finally got me back to one of my great loves – jigsaw puzzles. It made the connection in my brain that I needed; remembering how much joy jigsaw puzzles bring me and that I needed to get back to them. I’m so glad the love connection was finally made for me, again. 💖

It’s Been a While, I Know…

Love Connection by Sage Wirth – Liberty Puzzles – 440 pieces

I know, you’re probably shocked that I’m still alive and kicking. Yup, still here! How’s everyone been? Sorry I’ve been MIA, just wasn’t feeling it. Life happens, stuff, depression, more life, you all know what I mean – hopefully.

So, after two years I’ve finally taken my puzzle off the board, the one I completed around March of 2024. And yes, it was ACTUALLY sitting on the puzzle board all that time. Yikes. That sounds horrible doesn’t it? Anyway, pictures have been taken, it’s put away in it’s box and I’ve started a new puzzle!💚🧩💚

An email from Liberty Puzzles had me looking around at some of their new releases and I was smitten by this one; decided to get off my lazy butt, buy myself a new wooden puzzle and get back to the table. It’s been a little difficult and my brain seems fuzzy since it’s been so long, but it’s good too! Liberty Puzzles can be difficult sometimes, and perhaps starting with one of their puzzles isn’t the best idea, but even though the brain is fuzzy and struggling it’s still very enjoyable for me.

Honestly, it’s been the wooden puzzles that I’ve really been missing. Don’t worry, the love for cardboard puzzles is still here, but right now the one that’s been calling to me is this gorgeous puzzle called Love Connection. It’s patchwork-y, so it reminds me of quilts, which you know I love; and it’s designed so you can work on each heart containing a letter if that’s how you want to go about it (almost like a collage, which is another of my favorite puzzle images).

Just a short note to tell you I’m back, at least for now. How I’ve missed you all! Tell me all about the puzzles you’ve been working on, what’s new in the puzzle world? How is everyone?

(Please try to be patient with me, I’ve pretty much forgotten how the site works and I’ve been fumbling around trying to figure everything out. If I told you how long it took me to remember how to download a picture from my phone and save it to my computer you would be shocked! 🤔)

p.s. Happy Belated Birthday Mom, still miss you terribly.

The Pinwheel Gator

The Pinwheel Gator by Alex Beard – Liberty – 512 pieces

How cool is this puzzle? I stared at it over and over when I was window shopping on the Liberty site and ended up telling myself that if it fascinated me that much that I needed to get it for myself – so I did!

There’s something so fun about the image, and it absolutely didn’t disappoint in the assembly either. It’ll be no surprise at all when I tell you that I loved it. REALLY loved it! 💜❤💛💚💙

Liberty Puzzles is one of my favorite current wooden puzzle makers. The design of the puzzle pieces, how they fit together, the number of whimsies in each puzzle, the artists they work with – it all fits together to make extraordinary puzzles that have never disappointed me. Ever. I once had an issue with a puzzle and their customer service was beyond exceptional. I love Liberty Puzzles. 🧩

The whimsies in this one reminded me of Mardi Gras, which is why I wanted to post this puzzle today, on Fat Tuesday. I’m not a Catholic, so I don’t really do Ash Wednesday or give things up for Lent, but pretty much everyone knows about Mardi Gras and the celebrations they have in New Orleans.

Specifically these whimsies made me think of Mardi Gras and the parades in New Orleans. Aren’t they fabulous?!

If you look closely you’ll see that the whimsies of people are marching all the way around the image along the edges; they’re on all four sides. It was such a fun assembly, and I always love to see great wooden puzzles from the back – the design of the pieces and how it all works together make this proud puzzle geek extremely happy. This was such a great puzzle!

I really did have such a fun time putting this one together, it was an absolute joy. 😊