Tag Archives: cat

Cats and Dinosaurs, Summer is Here!

It’s June! June = Summer!

Alright, so I started this blog last July with a Eurographics puzzle, and I’ve been itching to do this awesome puzzle for weeks!

Screenshot_2019-06-04 Dinosaurs, Jigsaw Puzzle at Eurographics

This was one of my favorite finds last winter, when I was out thrifting before the cold weather really hit. Imagine my delight to find a brand new Eurographics still in its plastic!  I love dinosaur documentaries and movies, and my godsons are huge fans, so I have to be able to keep up.

The fun thing about this puzzle isn’t the design or the random cut, but that Hurricane Enlil, my kitten is strangely possessive of it.

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No Mom, these are MY pieces!

Every time I turned around, Hurricane was there. I swear she has a dinosaur as a spirit animal, the way she loved to sit on or near the puzzle.

Kitten craziness aside, this is a fantastically informative puzzle. Under the title is a color coded listing of the different eras and their relation in time to each other. At the bottom of the puzzle is a combination timeline and biological tree showing all the dinosaur family types.

Assembling these timelines was the easiest part of the puzzle. The majority of the puzzle is done in muted earth tones, presumably because it was drawn before the emergence of both the relationship between birds and dinosaurs, and the brightly colored theory. All those earth tones on a beige background, mixed with the random-cut pieces made for a challenge. Add in the fact that my tortoiseshell cat, Zoomie got jealous and deliberately launched herself off the puzzle board, destroying hours of hard work…

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This is after rebuilding the puzzle twice after Zoomie’s tantrums.

Thank goodness for SC. He helped me reset the puzzle to the picture above before bed last night. Mind you, as mad as I was at Zoomie, who almost never sits my puzzles; I was grateful for a chance to watch SC. He relies heavily on pattern recognition to place each piece into its place. Martial Harmony can be as simple as working a puzzle together and appreciating your differences.

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All done! Well…sort of.

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I’m missing my triceratops’ face. I’ve swept the living room, searched under the couch and puzzle board, and it is nowhere to be seen. I’ll wait a few days as I’m certain that it will eventually show up. If it doesn’t, I’ll contact Eurographics’s Puzzle Warranty page.

PUZZLE SPECS

  • Company: Eurographics Puzzles
  • Title: Dinosaurs
  • Artist: Unknown
  • Year released: Unknown
  • Pieces: 1000
  • Cut-Style: Random cut
  • Finished size: 19¼ x 26⅝ inches
  • Bonus poster: No
  • Made from recycled board and printed with vegetable based ink.
  • Made in USA


QUALITY: 

  • Box: sturdy,  10 x 14 x 2.5 inches
  • Board: Very sturdy and rigid
  • Cut: Cut with a steel-cut die
  • Image Quality: Excellent
  • Finish: Slight gloss
  • Puzzle Dust: Moderate
  • Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
  • Piece Fit: Good, a bit loose until the entire puzzle is assembled, pieces cannot be moved in groups

Where to buy: At the time of this post, Dinosaurs  is listed for sale on the Eurographics website for $17.99 USD.

Eurographics Puzzles: Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I bought this puzzle for the purpose of review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!

Fall Harvest, Thankfulness, and Thanksgiving 2018

There has been much said in the last few weeks as we’ve gotten closer to today; much said about thankfulness and gratefulness and the upcoming holiday season.   I’ve had a lot to think on this year, and I’ve found that I have much to be thankful for. I have a spouse who loves and supports me, friends that do their best to accommodate my illness-inspired needs, and a wide range of people I call family. 

And I have this blog and you, my readers. I am incredibly thankful that you take the time to read about my adventures and experiences in finding crafts that I and other people with disabilities can do.

Thanksgiving isn’t just about thankfulness, though. It was set as a celebration of the fall harvest, the last harvest before winter set in. That’s why today’s puzzle is perfect. I understand that as a new blogger, I don’t have the sort of following that large puzzle brands would prefer. I had to beg Ceaco to take a chance, to let me try. I’m grateful that they have. Ceaco sent me a 300 large piece puzzle, Marjolein Bastin’s Fall Harvest.

This is a new art style for me!
Such big pieces! A little dusty, though.

The puzzle came with this lovely full size poster, which was invaluable to assembly

I’ve done 300 piece puzzle before, they’re great on days like today when the cold seeps into my joints and my hands act as though they belong to someone twice my age! Marjolein Bastin is a new artist to me, and her art not one I normally gravitate to.

Frame done! SC helped a bit, he grew up doing puzzles with his family, and occasionally helps me out.

The assembly went easily for a bit, until I got to the woven basket and the terracotta pots! Then I took a break, had a bowl of sausage stuffing and came back to find I’d gained a helper!

Little Hurricane sitting on my half-completed puzzle!

After shooing Hurricane off the puzzle, finishing it barely took any time at all! I’m really please with how it came out and will definitely be adding more of her puzzles to my collection.

All done and beautiful! Thanks Ceaco!

PUZZLE SPECS

  • Company: Ceaco
  • Title: Fall Harvest
  • Artist: Marjolein Bastin
  • Year released: 2017
  • Pieces: 300
  • Cut-Style:  Standard
  • Finished size: 24″ by 18″ inches
  • Bonus poster: Yes

QUALITY: 

  • Box: Medium size, 8″ by 8″ by 2″ inches, glossy cardboard
  • Board: Thin but sturdy pieces, really good click
  • Cut: Steel-cut Die
  • Image Quality: Good, really nice graduation of shades
  • Finish: Semi-gloss
  • Puzzle Dust: Moderate, not enough to put me off, but definitely enough that I had to blow off my board before assembly
  • Piece shapes: A good mix of traditional shapes
  • Piece Fit: Very Good. You can move sections easily, and the puzzle tightens as it is built

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for a person whose hands have good and bad days. I did this on a bad hand day, and the piece size is acceptable for a bad hand day.  It took me a few hours, but I’ll admit that I kept getting distracted!

Where to buy:  Fall Harvest  can be found for $10.99 USD on Ceaco Puzzles’ website. It is listed as out of stock at this time, but many of their other puzzles are still in stock and there is a great Black Friday/ Cyber Monday Sale going on!

Ceaco Puzzles : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them.

Thanks for reading, and please click the Follow Button under my profile on the right side of the page. To support posts like this in the future, consider joining my Patreon!