Tag Archives: cats

Hurricane Florence: Evacuations and Safety

September 13, 2018 PuzzlePaws 2 Comments

So things got a bit crazy this week. I’d been tracking Hurricane Florence for a while, but after Monday’s post, the Governor of Virginia issued an Order of Evacuation for people living in Zone A. I live in Zone A and had already had an issue with flooding earlier over the weekend. SC and I were taking no chances. We had to hurry!

Thankfully, one of my best friends has a standing offer for us and the cats. We managed to pack all five cats, a tote-full of puzzles and coloring books, clothes, and the computers in under 10 hours. We did our best to place our electronics and valuables out of the way, but flooding is something that is really hard to predict.

Due to bunking down in my bestie’s sewing room and storm preparations, I don’t have any reviews written up. However, I do have a pair of unboxing videos of puzzles that are currently safe in the Tote of Doom! Please be kind, SC wasn’t able to run them through post-production.

Gearheads website

Artifact Puzzles website

So far, we are safe and warm. SC is making curry in the kitchen while it storms outside. I’ll be posting updates on Twitter as I know what is going on and how bad or not! the damages to our house are.

Book Reviews

Target Rich Environment: Book Review

September 6, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

This post is going to be a little different from the ones I’ve done previously. It’s going to be a lot lighter on the pictures, and a bit heavier on words. The reason? This is about a BOOK.

I spent the last week in Atlanta, Georgia at DragonCon. It was loud, there was a metric ton of people sharing the same air, and every possible fandom you could imagine was represented. I got to meet a bunch of my favorite authors, and met authors I had never heard of, but now desperately want to read. I bought Target Rich Environment at The Missing Volume’s booth, and couldn’t wait to read it after con.

Larry Correia is one of my go-to authors. Monster Hunter International (MHI) is a favorite series, I laughed myself sick listening to Tom Stranger on Audible, and am partly through the Deep Six audiobook. I’m a bit of an oddity amongst Larry’s fanbase. I neither own nor overly much enjoy guns or gun-fu; though SC does. I read Larry Correia’s books for the simple fact that his characters feel real. They make me laugh, or cry, or snarl at their stupidity; and the inevitable gun-fu is both well written and engaging.

Comfy couch, Pandemonium on my lap, and a brand new book!

Target Rich Environment: A Collection by Larry Correia is just that; a collection of the author’s short stories he’s written over the years. There are 14 separate pieces of fiction inside, ranging the gamut from The Wild West to a post-apocalyptic Peter Pan to a full on Lovecraftian horror. Some of the stories were brand new and other were not before released in print, having been Audible exclusives.

I prefer full novels to short stories usually, but this collection I devoured in the course of a few hours. Honestly, I found my favorites were “The Bridge” and “The Great Sea Beast”. Both these stories contain characters who have so much more depth than just a small short story can hold. I really hope that some of these short stories are turned into their own novels.

Zoomie proving why one of her nicknames is book-dragon.

SC was thrilled that the last story of the book is “The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent”. He dislikes audiobooks, but had dearly wanted to know why “Hooon!” is the battle cry of all the Correia fans.

Title: Target Rich Environment
Author: Larry Correia
Publisher: Baen
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
Story Type: Short story

Where to buy: Target Rich Environment A Collection By Larry Correia is available through Baen’s website, Amazon, The Missing Volume or your local bookstore. The ebook retails for $9.99 and the hardcover book retails for $25.

Disclosure: I purchased this book. The opinions are my own and are not a reflection of either Larry Correia or Baen Books.

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!

Puzzle Review, Uncategorized

Basket Case Family Pieces Puzzle: A Review

September 3, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

I know that most people with disabilities have families. Okay, all humans pretty much have families, but what I meant was; most of us have kids. My kids have fur, and do more damage to my projects than help…oh, wait, just like real kids. Nevermind that! Anyway, not having human children, I borrow my friend’s. I play auntie and Godmom to a small horde, who sometimes like to help out with my hobbies.

A few days ago, I “borrowed” Minion 1 and Minion 2 from their mom. Minion 1 is 8, and loves puzzles. Minion 2 has just turned 5 and while he likes puzzles, his attention span is hit & miss (SC Edit: He has the attention span of a ferret on speed!). Anyway, I’d gotten some of Cobble Hill’s new Family Pieces puzzles, and the boys were keen to do one.

Top-Minion 1, Far Left -Minion 2, Bottom Center- Me!

The Family Pieces Puzzles come with 3 distinct size pieces. Large for young children, Medium for older children, and small for adults.

Sorting didn’t take long with three pairs of hands! Minion 1 was a little miffed he had less medium pieces than his brother’s large ones, but once we started, he was helping everywhere!

Some of the edge pieces were tricky to find! We had a blast matching colors and seeing who could complete more kitten faces. At the end of the assembly, Minion 2 was starting to get a bit bored, as we were down to the small adult shapes. Still, he rallied to help place the last 4 pieces and complete the puzzle!

There was lemonades in celebration!

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Cobble Hill
Title: Basket Case
Artist: © Braldt Bralds
Year released: 2018
Pieces: 350
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 24″ x 18″
Bonus poster: No
Made from recycled materials
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy, Mediumweight, 10″x14’x2.5″ Matte-Linen Finish
Board: Thick and sturdy pieces, good for all 3 sizes of pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Satin, with great color saturation
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Very Good, but loose. You cannot pick up multiple large or medium pieces and move them, but the small pieces could lock together and be moved in small batches.

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for any multi-age family, or for a person whose hands have good and bad days. The boys had fun and the full assembly only took about 2 hours. My hands didn’t ache after assembly, and the difficulty level was certainly up to adult standard. I can happily recommend a large piece puzzle for people with fine motor skill issues, or arthritis.

Where to buy: Basket Case is available on the Cobble Hill website for $15.99 usd.

Cobble Hill Puzzle Company : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own.

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!

Coloring Book, Uncategorized

Basic Intro to the Cats of PuzzlePaws!

August 30, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

I’m on my way to DragonCon in Atlanta. Since I’m still building content, I’m cheating a little bit . I found this awesome picture in a coloring book my mom had given me a few years back. The majority of the coloring was done with Bic® Brand Markit Markers.

Do you know how hard it is to find a coloring page with 5 cats??

Since this is such a perfect page for my cats, I figured I’d do a brief intro to the furballs that end up photo-bombing my posts. I’ll be doing in-depth interviews with each cat on my Patreon when I get back home in early September.

Pandemonium: Pan is my shadow, my therapy-cat when my disease makes life miserable and an all-around sweetheart. She is 13 years old and starting to show her age. Don’t let her fool you…her fangs are still sharp!

Teedle: This picture doesn’t do Teedle justice. He’s a 25 pound orange marshmallow. Teedle is 9 years old and sweet, but dumb. He has a bad habit of drinking water with his paws, which makes the other cats cranky because it makes their water dirty.

Zoomie: SC calls her PuzzlePaws, due to her tortoiseshell coloring. Zoomie is also 9, about 6 months younger than Teedle. Zoomie is shy, but can be demanding. She loves playing indoor soccer with hard jingleballs, and is learning fetch.

Zane: SC brought Zane into our marriage. As you can see from his dapper tux, he is a consummate ladies man. As Zane was adopted when full-grown, we think he’s between 9-11 years old. He’s not much for treats, but he likes to steal Hurricane’s wet food. Zane is freely affectionate with headbutts and cuddles.

Hurricane: This is our baby. Hurricane Enlil was teeny kitten barely 2 weeks old when she and her sister were given to me to hand-rear last September. She’ll be 1 on Sept 14, (estimated). While her sister found a good home, Hurricane bonded to me. She loves to play fetch and grooms my hair. She is taking therapy-cat lessons from Pandemonium.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Disclosure: I received this coloring book as a gift from my mother. The opinions are my own.

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!

I tried finding the publisher of this coloring book online, but was unsuccessful. If you are affiliated with ©Product Concept Mfg., Inc please, email me.

Puzzle Review

Whiskers At The Window: A Large Piece Puzzle Review

August 27, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

I’ll be the first to admit that I have issues accepting all the changes that my disability has forced upon me. Some are easier to accept than others; it is easier for me to ask my husband to tie my shoes, for example, than to deliberately reach for the large piece puzzles. I really hate the fact that my hands have problems with both sensation and grip on bad days. Thus, when my representative at The Jigsaw Puzzle Factory offered a 300 Large piece puzzle, I balked. I’m not that bad yet, really! My mind protested, but I know that while this blog is about my reviews and opinions; it is mainly about discovering things to make hobbies accessible.

So I waited for a day when my hands were sore and swollen, which after last week’s brick kit, wasn’t hard.

Whiskers At The Window reminds me of the puzzles I used to do as a kid. Not in a juvenile sense, but a fond nostalgia. I love the fact that the back of the box was given to the artist, Jane Maday.

The size of the pieces where certainly large! Better yet, each side has a different texture, glossy and smooth on the front, and matte and pebbled on the back.

On to the puzzling! The sorting went quickly enough, as this is only a 300 piece, and I’ve been doing 500-1000 pieces for a while now.

I forgot an important fact! This puzzle is ROUND! My normal boards are rectangular! I ended up having to have the Spouse-Critter set up the full-size card table and help me move my setup.

So big! The diameter of the puzzle is 24 inches!

Amazingly, none of my cats were interested in this puzzle. My only interruptions were SC wanting my opinion on his current project.

All in all, I think I managed to assemble this in about three hours, which is a new record.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: The Jigsaw Puzzle Factory
Title: Whiskers At The Window
Artist: Jane Maday
Year released: 2017
Pieces: 300
Cut-Style: Grid-cut puzzle
Finished size: 24″ round
Bonus poster: Yes
Made from recycled materials
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy medium weight, 8 x 8 inches
Board: Medium thickness, recycled chipboard
Cut: Cut with a steel-cut die, all pieces fully separated
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Slightly glossy
Puzzle Dust: None!
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Good, but loose. You cannot pick up multiple pieces and move them

Disability Notes: I have to give my rep credit, this a wonderful puzzle. My hands didn’t ache after assembly, and the difficulty level was certainly up to adult standard. I can happily recommend a large piece puzzle for people with fine motor skill issues, or arthritis.

Where to buy: Whiskers At The Window is available on the The Jigsaw Puzzle Factory website for $14.99 USD.

The Jigsaw Puzzle Factory: Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own.

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!

Puzzle Review

Hidden Images Glow in the Dark Jungle Pride : A Puzzle Review

August 9, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

I normally wouldn’t have chosen this puzzle for myself. It’s a 500 piece, which is within my current ability, and the subject matter is cat-based…But Spouse-Critter (SC) fell in love with both the tigers and the idea of hidden images. I tend to shy away from both hidden images (the Magic Eye™ images give me vertigo) and glow in the dark ones. That being said, how could I tell SC no? He rarely steers me wrong.

I love how well protected the puzzle pieces are!

There were only a few hanging chads, and it’s obvious that the die stamp had gotten dull rather than a design flaw. The chipboard is made of recycled materials, and the pieces are of medium thickness.

I had a bit of trouble keeping the cats off my tigers! We did find that one of the images on the side of the box is meant to be seen when upside down, so you can use the box to store puzzle pieces and still see the image!

Once I had my frame in place, the assembly only took me a few hours, spaced out over some rainy days. The mix of standard and irregular pieces made for a great mental exercise. Matching stripes took what felt like forever!

It took some experimenting to get the glow to pop, those rainy overcast days hadn’t given off enough light. I got limited results with a led lantern, so SC went out and bought a black light bulb. Look at the glowy awesome!! The box says there are 16 tigers in the puzzle. I could only find 14, but as I mentioned before, I suck at finding hidden images. The ones I did find look amazing.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: MasterPieces® Inc.
Title: Hidden Images Glow in the Dark Jungle Pride
Artist: Steve Read
Year released: 2017
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Grid-cut puzzle
Finished size: 15 x 21 in
Bonus poster: No
Made from recycled materials
Made in China

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy but lightweight, 8 x 8 inches
Board: Medium thickness, recycled chipboard
Cut: Cut with a steelcut die, very few pieces were not fully separated
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Slightly glossy with sandy texture where the glow in the dark ink is
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Very good, small clusters of pieces could be moved without falling apart

Where to buy: “Hidden Images Glow in the Dark Jungle Pride” has been re-issued as a 550 piece puzzle and is available on the MasterPieces website for $12.99 USD.

MasterPieces Puzzles: Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own.

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!

Puzzle Review

Puzzle Preservation: MasterPieces Peel & Stick

August 7, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

I finished assembling a puzzle today and the Spouse-Critter(SC) liked it enough to request it be glued. As I had received both the puzzle and a package of puzzle glue sheets from MasterPieces; I figured why not? This turned into an adventure!

I’ve never used glue sheets before, so I was rather excited. Would it be easier than the liquid glue I normally use? It had to be faster, right? So I flipped my puzzle upside down and got to work.

Hmm….this can’t be right. The puzzle is a 500 piece measuring 15″ by 21″. The packaging states that it will cover two (2) 500 piece puzzles and that with eleven sheets out of the twelve in the package to cover my puzzle certainly isn’t happening here.

I stopped and did a little research. The packaging says the glue sheets are 7″ by 7.5″. My measurements,with Hurricane for scale, say they are 6.5″ by 6.5″. Now, the company’s website states the sheets are 6.75″ by 6.75″. OK, maybe I got new product in older packaging. It sucks, but I do have enough to cover my puzzle. (SC Edit: Turns out, the packaging is 7″ by 7.5″. The issue seems to be a communication error between designer and manufacturer.)

The hardest part is getting the backing to peel. I did this on a good hand day, where I had sensation in my fingers and it was difficult. I honestly couldn’t imagine how hard it would be for my friends with major hand mobility issues. Maybe an easy-peel corner? Other than some wrinkles, my first piece went on really well. Color me impressed, these glue sheets are super sticky! All the other main sheets(6) went down easily. I laid full sheets across the top and bottom of my puzzle, thinking that those would be the areas needing the most support. This left a strip down one side and one down the center that still needed glue sheets. The uncovered areas were all under 2″ wide, so I cut 2″strips from two additional glue sheets. Ha! I was able to cover my puzzle completely using only eight sheets instead of the estimated eleven. I still have four sheets to use if I want to save one of my micro puzzles.

Rating: 4/5

Pros:

Much less messy than glue
Fast application
Zero drying time
No chemical scent for people with Chemical Sensitivities

Cons:

Hard to open
No way to reposition-once it’s down, it’s down!
Measurement discrepancy-measure your puzzle first!
Cost. See Cost Analysis

Cost Analysis:

I know I’m not the only disabled person on a limited budget. At $5.99 a package, MasterPieces Peel & Stick Puzzle Glue Sheets are great if you only need to save one or two puzzles. If you are like me, and save a good number of puzzles; then the same cost covers a small bottle of liquid puzzle glue that will do four or more puzzles.

Overall:

I’ll email Masterpieces regarding the size discrepancy, and recommend an easy peel corner or perforation to make opening the glue sheets easier. They have an awesome guarantee system and I’ll post an update about what I hear. I solidly rate this product a 4 out of 5 and do recommend it for puzzlers who either hate glue or have a Chemical Sensitivity.

MasterPieces Peel & Stick Puzzle Glue Sheets can be bought here.

MasterPieces: Website/FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle and glue sheets from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own.

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!

Puzzle Review

Sharks! A Puzzle Review

July 28, 2018 PuzzlePaws 1 Comment

Early last February, I got to go to the New York Toy Fair. This was an awesome weekend where I got to see the new toys, games, and hobby kits that companies would be selling over the upcoming year. While there, I was gifted a veritable plethora of swag. Swag is great, it’s the free stuff that companies give out in the hopes you’ll spread the news and buy more stuff. At the time, I had no real plans for the swag, which included puzzles, micro-brick kits, and bath bomb kits. Then winter hit me, and hit me hard. I spent the better part of two months staring at the ceiling, too ill to leave to bed. I watched a lot of Netflix. Honestly, I watched so much that I became bored with boredom. It’s summer now, but nothing, especially good health doesn’t last long. My spouse-critter (SC) recommended I start a blog, talk about the things I love. My body may have bad days/weeks, but my brain still craves stimulation, and I certainly can’t be the only one!

Back on topic, one of those Toy Fair Puzzles was this:

1000 piece Shark Chart Puzzle by EuroGraphics Puzzles

My family and friends will agree…I’m obsessed with sharks. Discovery Channel’s Shark Week is sacred holiday in my house. What better way to build this puzzle than to marathon watching Shark Week’s 30th Anniversary season?

So I set up my work station, AKA the couch and bought a season pass on Amazon. The cats decided this was to be a family project. Zane tests the box for sits as Teedle warms my spot.

This is a new brand to me, and I was really impressed. While there were a few pieces that weren’t fully separated during the cutting process, the overall quality of this puzzle is excellent. The irregularly cut pieces, mixed with traditional ones, made for a fiendishly clever puzzle. Featuring nearly 30 sharks from over 25 different species; this puzzle is almost more educational than Shark Week! Better yet, my FAVORITE shark is on it. Spotted Wobbegong FTW!All finished, and beautiful!Hurricane gave it the Cat Seal™ of approval as Zoomie supervises.

Okay, enough cat photos. Here’s the details!

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Eurographics Puzzles
Title: Sharks
Artist: Unknown
Year released: Unknown
Pieces: 1000
Cut-Style: Grid-cut puzzle
Finished size: 26.5 x 19.25 in
Bonus poster: No
Made from recycled board and printed with vegetable based ink.
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: sturdy, sized 14 x 10 in
Board: Very sturdy and rigid
Cut: Cut with a steelcut die, very few pieces were not fully separated
Image Quality: Excellent
Finish: Slightly glossy
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Very good, small clusters of pieces could be moved without falling apart

Where to buy: At the time of this post, “Sharks” is listed for sale on the Eurographics website for $17.99 usd.

Eurographics Puzzles: website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for review. The opinions are my own.

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!

Little pieces make a bigger picture