What’s In Progress?

Happy Sunday dear readers! What’s happening on your boards this weekend? I finished up the Dogs with Jobs, completed a 150 piece mini (it was so cool!), and have started sorting my next puzzle – a 1000 piece Hot Cocoa collage. I’m hoping it’s as much fun as it looks!

I’m certain you’ve noticed that recently I’ve been posting every third day about what’s in progress instead of posting only new puzzles every day; that’s because my queue of puzzles has dwindled down quite a bit and I’m trying to stretch them out. Hubby has needed me to be his helper and chauffeur since the beginning of the month when he had his surgery, and it’s worn me out – the puzzling has slowed down significantly.

He has just this week had his sutures removed and is now able to walk with a boot, though not all the time. Since the crutches and scooter are not needed nearly as much now I’ve been back at the puzzle board – thank goodness. My services, including making meals and carrying things are no longer as in demand as they were before and I now have a bit more time for myself. Yay!

So what are you all up to? Working on something fun? Something awful? Have you been shopping in stores or online and found anything exciting?

Do tell!

Frenchie In Progress

Frenchie – de.bored puzzles – 500 pieces

My beautiful daughter found me this puzzle when she was out shopping and knew that I would love it. She texted me a picture and after I determined it wasn’t made by a brand on my “do not purchase” list I told her to pick it up for me. It’s going to be beautiful when it’s finished!

I tried to find this puzzle online, and while the company has many puzzles for sale they are not currently showing this one anywhere on their site. In fact the only images I could find were one from instagram with a partially completed puzzle, and another that was on sale on eBay; nowhere could I find an image of just the puzzle itself.

It’s a new company to me, and I’m moderately impressed by the quality so far. There are a very good variety of piece shapes, the image reproduction is very good with bright colors and sharp lines, and the fit is fair/good as well. They use the “sharp” white backing that I am not a fan of, but it can be overlooked if the rest of the quality is reasonable. It reminds me of the quality of a Mudpuppy puzzle, with the difference that it has a variety of piece shapes instead of only ballerinas.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to do much work on it yesterday, I had to take my strongest pain meds and spend the day in bed. Today is driving around hubby to both physical therapy and an appointment with his surgeon. I doubt there will be much accomplished until tomorrow – but I’m looking forward to it!

Queen of Hearts In Progress

Queen of Hearts (Villainous) – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

This beauty of a puzzle was sorted yesterday, and I did start on the border; unfortunately I wasn’t feeling well and spent the rest of the day in bed. Luckily (or unluckily) I don’t sleep much, so I was up and at it early this morning and got the border finished.

The border wasn’t quick or easy and I admit to hating it just a little bit. There were a few spots where the colors changed some and the lines get brighter or duller, but mostly it was more tedious than your average border.

My slight OCD dictates that unless the border is next to impossible I always start there. There have been a few puzzles where starting there would have caused more frustration than I was willing to endure, but for the most part it’s where I need to begin. Thank goodness these are Ravensburger puzzles, if they were made by a company with lesser quality the border might have been even worse. Oh well, it’s done.

Here’s hoping the rest of the assembly is more entertaining than the beginning was!

Nothing in Progress

I’ve chosen which puzzle is next, but I haven’t started sorting it yet. Mom bought this at the thrift store five years ago (so says the sticker) and I’m just now in the mood to assemble it. It’s funny how many puzzles are still here that she bought for us.

Yesterday was the first time in three days that I’ve even sat at my puzzle board. I finally took pictures of the Gorey book covers puzzle and disassembled it. I put together a super quick 300 piece puzzle and now I’ve decided to give Streets of France by Ravensburger a go.

Hope all is well with you and yours and that whatever puzzle you’re working on is entertaining and fun.

Book Covers In Progress

Edward Gorey’s Book Covers – Pomegranate – 1000 pieces

According to My Jigsaw Journal this is the first 1000 piece Pomegranate puzzle that I’ve worked on in almost four years! I’ve done a few of their 300 pieces, but that’s all. Mainly, I think, because the 1000 piece Pomegranate puzzles I have in my stash are all beautiful but very challenging images; they get passed over quite a bit when the “next” puzzle is being chosen.

Which leads me to a question for my readers, has anyone noticed a change in the quality of Pomegranate? As soon as the bag of pieces was opened I could tell that the thickness of the chipboard was different than I recalled – thinner, unfortunately. I even opened one of my older ones to check, and the pieces are definitely thinner than they used to be; and the fit isn’t the same either.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a VERY good quality puzzle, it just isn’t the same as it was. I have high expectations for this brand because that’s what I’m used to. Perhaps with the run on puzzles that we’ve seen in the past two years the chipboard they normally used wasn’t available, or it could be any other myriad of reasons. I noticed though, and was wondering if anyone else did too.