Pretending to be Normal

Pretending to be Normal
Pretending to be Normal by Suzy Toronto – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

I’ve been putting off writing up this post because sadly this is the last puzzle my mother and I assembled together; happily though, I love Suzy Toronto and this puzzle was a joy to put together – I have wonderful memories. I’m planning to reassemble it and hang it on the wall in my puzzle room.

Good quality, lots of words, great fit, fun colors – but it really doesn’t matter, because it was our last puzzle together I will cherish it forever.

In Progress

We started with all the little words, of course – we both enjoyed assembling words in a puzzle – like mother, like daughter. 🙂 Everything was put approximately where it goes and then the harder part began.

These were our two favorite quotes; mine was the hissy fit and mom’s was the sofa. And they both describe each of us perfectly. 😇

Thank you so much Penny for swapping puzzles with me and sending this one. I loved it when mom and I put it together – not knowing it was our last. Now that I do know, I love it even more and it will always have a special place in my heart (and in my puzzle room too). 💖

I miss you mom.

Pop Culture

Pop Culture
Pop Culture by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

Ah…collages. I love them so much. I’ve said many many times why I like them, but reasoning aside they just make me happy when I assemble them. End of story.

White Mountain has the best catalog of collage puzzles around in my opinion. They have so many that it’s difficult for me to whittle down which ones I want. They’re not always the best quality – I’ve had problems with before with twinsy pieces still connected, too tight fit, and fuzzy images. Most of the time though, there aren’t major problems with the puzzles and I enjoy working with them.

Pop Culture 1

Any NCIS fans out there? It’s Ducky! I’m a little young to have watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E. on television, but I know that the actor who plays Ducky on NCIS (David McCallum) was a heart-throb back in the day because of that show. That makes me laugh for some reason. 😉

Pop Culture 2

MAD Magazine and Gumby – love them! I had a subscription back in ye olden times when people actually got magazines in the mail and read them. (It’s sort of like a papery kind of blog – if you’re a young’un and not clear on what magazines were) I’ve always been a fan of satire, improv, and standup comedy, even when I was younger. I think I had more comedy albums than musical ones; which might be a clue why this part of the puzzle made the smile. 😀

Pencil Collage Revisited

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Pencil Collage by Maureen Rupprecht – White Mountain Puzzles – 1000 pieces

I’m not sure why, but this puzzle’s been on my mind the last few days. It was finished almost 3 years ago, and was really a joy to assemble. I haven’t touched a jigsaw puzzle since Sunday morning, and I’ve been thinking about certain puzzles I’ve done and really liked – perhaps just trying to get my groove back.

This puzzle stands out for me, I was almost afraid of it and put it off for quite a while because it was supposed to be very challenging. I found it to be highly entertaining to assemble and not nearly as hard as it was supposed to be. The fit was so tight that I could pick it up and stand it on it’s bottom edge!

I still haven’t started a new puzzle yet, but looking at this one makes me want to find one with lots of words like this pencil collage. Or perhaps I’ll get a few of the educational kids puzzles done, they’ve got a bit of wording and at only 24 pieces it’s not too much of a commitment. 🙂

Something Fishy

Something Fishy
Something Fishy – White Mountain – 550 pieces

This has beautiful colors, but wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped; I’m not a big fan of underwater images. Isn’t it interesting how I love bright colors in a puzzle, but if they’re fish or a scene under the ocean it isn’t as entertaining? My brain is so odd!

That isn’t to say that it wasn’t fun to assemble at all, because it was. It just wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped. Who’s to say why some images make us happy and some don’t, we like what we like. The best pictures don’t always make the best puzzles, and sometimes images look like they’ll be fun, but for some reason we can’t explain they just aren’t.

Unfortunately this had a missing piece so it ended up in the recycle bin instead of being given back to goodwill, but those are the chances we take. It’s a tiny bit disappointing, but I still got to put the puzzle together; I can’t be unhappy with that. 🙂

American Diner

American Diner
American Diner by Steve Crisp – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

It’s been a while since I’ve done a White Mountain puzzle that wasn’t a collage, and I’m not gonna lie, it was a little weird at first! This was very entertaining though, and it got done quickly – not being able to sleep is a good thing if you need help getting enough puzzle time. 😉

Steve Crisp’s artwork makes for fantastic puzzling, if you haven’t assembled one of his puzzles I absolutely recommend you give them a try. They’re beautiful, detailed, colorful, and just altogether great fun.

American Diner 1

I love this dancer, she looks like all she cares about is enjoying herself and dancing – she reminds me of me. 💃💃

American Diner 2

Look who’s on the wall – Marilyn, Elvis, and James Dean! I didn’t notice them on the box image, it was fun to see it up close in the finished puzzle. Jailhouse Rock Elvis was sexy! (I was a weird kid in the 70’s and 80’s and LOVED Elvis just as much as George Michael, Journey, and many others – I make no excuses 😎)

I really enjoyed this one, if you come across a copy it’s definitely recommended!