Hello Kitty and Friends – Day 1

Hello Kitty and Friends – RoseArt – approx. 125/500 pieces

It’s been a while since I’ve done a pack of mini shaped puzzles from RoseArt; these were much more enjoyable to assemble and much better quality than the last set I put together. Plus, I’ve learned so much about the world of Hello Kitty – I had no idea there were so many characters!

Overall the quality was quite good, I was happy to find this after the not so great quality of the Peanuts puzzles I did earlier this year. The pieces fit together well, there was no damage to them, and none of the pieces were still connected. The pieces are much bigger now than the puzzles I began doing all those years ago, and they make for bigger mini puzzles. The finish is a bit shiny, but the colors were bright and fun, and made for excellent puzzling.

Many times when I’ve done a puzzle like this I create names and backstories for each little puzzle, but that won’t be happening this time. These characters already have names and extremely detailed backstories, so I’ll just be sharing what I’ve learned about them online and letting you know how each puzzle was to assemble.

This is Monkichi (his full name is Osaru no Monkichi, which means “Monkey’s Monkey in Japanese). He enjoys puns, and has a sunny easygoing personality. He loves bananas and apparently can eat 10 of them in just one minute! He lives on a mountain in the Japanese countryside with his Mama who is a very good cook, and his Papa who is the Pun-Master.

This little guy was one of the easier puzzles in this set; he was smaller, and the colors made it less difficult to assemble than some of the others.

Chococat gets his name from his chocolate-colored nose; and his whiskers are like antennae that help him pick up information so he usually the first to know about things. He loves to fool around with his best friends, but he can be a little scatter-brained at times. His parents (Rory and Catrina) are divorced, and he lives with his mom.

Although this was the smallest of all the puzzles at only 24 pieces, it was by no means easy to assemble! Almost every piece was just black and white, and it took me much longer than you’d think to put everything together properly.

Pompompurin is a good-natured golden retriever dog who was born on a sunny day on the 16th of April. He lives in his very own basket in the entrance hall of his sister-owner’s house and his favorite food is his Mama’s cream/caramel pudding. His trademark is his brown beret that is always on his head. He loves collecting his owner’s shoes, sleeping, and hanging out with his friends (a hamster named Muffin, a mouse named Scone, and a bird named Custard). He’s a laid-back dog who easily makes friends, and he loves soft things.

This was one of the few puzzles that I had to assemble the edges first in order to make progress. All those yellow pieces were a LOT.


Hope you enjoyed your introduction to these Hello Kitty characters, I enjoyed learning about them. Stay tuned for more new characters on Day Two!

Postcard From Paris

Postcard From Paris – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

It’s a lovely apartment with a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower, but it did not make for easy puzzling at all. It’s VERY brown. This one was a bit of a letdown for me as I really didn’t care for the image at all. Still, it feels like an accomplishment that I finally completed it.

I’ve got to be more selective about the MicroPuzzles that I assemble in the powder room and which ones need to stay here in the puzzle room. This one never should have left the bright lights that sit above my puzzle board, there was just not enough color. Or perhaps I should say there was not enough bright color and too many browns and muted colors. From now on if it doesn’t look colorful enough it’s staying right here!

The theme of this month’s subscription box was travel/international destinations. There were two travel themed puzzles and an aluminum luggage tag. One of the puzzles is double-sided…and thank goodness it was this one!

On the back is the image of a blank postcard. Normally it wouldn’t help much with the assembly since most of it is blank, but this puzzle came already assembled so that you could write your own message on the back before you took it apart – that way whatever you write would be helpful when putting it back together. Wanna see what I wrote?

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I thought I’d send you all a virtual postcard. Happy puzzling to the entire Puzzle Posse! 🧩💚

Grin & Bones

Grin & Bones – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This is such an adorable Halloween puzzle, it was much harder than it looks! Still, it’s bright and colorful and was highly entertaining to assemble.

I’ve never had an issue with MicroPuzzles quality before, but this puzzle had a printing issue. Things happen, no manufacturing process is ever perfect so I don’t find it to be that distressing at all. I’ve emailed the company and have alerted them to the problem in the hopes that they can resolve whatever issue caused this. They offered their apologies and a replacement puzzle, but I don’t need a replacement, and asked that they not send me one as that wasn’t why I contacted them.

You can see below the dark substance/color across part of the lower portion of the image (across the porch of the house)…

I’ve had similar issues like this with other puzzle brands, and though I’m not sure what causes it – it really didn’t detract at all from my enjoyment of the assembly. I’m not one of those people who immediately wants a refund or a replacement. If that is something that you do, I’m not disparaging that at all – you’re well within your rights to ask for those things if you wish – I’m just saying that it isn’t normally what I do.

If I assembled the puzzle and enjoyed myself, that’s enough for me. I have so many puzzles already here, and almost never assemble cardboard puzzles more than once. If I received another copy of this puzzle I wouldn’t even assemble it, it would be wasted on me.

I let the company know about the problem; they were apologetic and offered a replacement and told me they would look into the issue – which is all I wanted. If I can help in some small way to make sure others get good quality puzzles then I’m a happy puzzler. 😎

MicroPuzzles has always provided me quality mini puzzles that I enjoy assembling, and my opinion of the brand and their puzzles hasn’t changed. I love them!

Happy Socktober

Happy Socktober – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

How fun is this image? So fun! After exhausting my supply of Halloween puzzles I was thrilled to get this month’s subscription box from MicroPuzzles with two more puzzles for my favorite holiday; plus the gift in this month’s box was a perfect compliment to to this puzzle…

Puzzle socks for Socktober! They don’t quite match the colors of the socks on the witch in the middle of the image, but they’re close enough. I don’t normally wear socks here in sweaty, sunny Florida, but how can I part with these? I love everything puzzle related, even these socks that I will wear only rarely.

Even though there was a different micro puzzle in progress in the master bathroom, I had to jump in and immediately get going on this one. As I’m typing up this post the date is October 1, but by the time you’re reading this it will be very close to the end of the month. There are puzzle posts already typed up and scheduled for most of October already, so there’s no waiting on these two holiday puzzles – they need to be assembled quickly in order to be sure they’re ready for posting before Halloween.

Although this is a brightly colored image, it isn’t an easy one to assemble. The two sets of striped socks on either side were much easier to find and assemble than the puzzle socks in the middle, so obviously that’s where I started. The middle bit with the darker background and the socks with four different colored puzzle pieces made for a much more challenging assembly.

Still I absolutely loved it, and was so excited to have some more Halloween puzzles to put together. The quality that MicroPuzzles has makes for fun puzzles that I usually enjoy very much. This one was no different in the quality department, but the image made me so happy that it made for even more entertaining puzzling than usual. I had the best time.💟

Happy Socktober my friends!

Sunflower Face

Sunflower Face – Wentworth (Mini Mindful) – 80 pieces

Now this is what I’m talking about when I want a Mini Mindful puzzle that completely takes over your focus – you absolutely have to pay attention with this one!

The honeycomb shaped pieces and the fact that many of them are cut in half made this puzzle one of the most challenging Mini Mindful puzzles that I’ve assembled so far. Even at the end I had to keep taking pieces out and moving them around because although they looked as though they were placed correctly they weren’t.

I truly enjoyed the challenge of this one. Although it was only 80 pieces it took me just over half an hour to complete it correctly! Normally keeping track of the time it takes to finish a puzzle isn’t something I do, but I knew this would be quite a difficult assembly and noted the time when I started and when it was finally complete.

It would probably be easier to put this together with the image side down, you wouldn’t have to make sure the colors/textures lined up. It might be interesting to do that and see how completely crazy the image would be. 😂