Tag Archives: Fall

Fall Harvest, Thankfulness, and Thanksgiving 2018

November 22, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

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.

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.

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!

Puzzle Review

Halloween Cookies and My Sisters

October 22, 2018 PuzzlePaws 1 Comment

My parents and two of my younger sisters visited for my birthday last week. It was a whirlwind few days, but I managed to wrangle both Hime (not her real name but she’s 9 and I’m keeping her online presence on the DL) and Little-Big (she’s younger than me, but MUCH taller!) into doing a puzzle for the blog. This wasn’t overly hard, LB and I grew up doing puzzles, and Hime has been doing them electronically for the last year.

As the theme of my week with them was Halloween decorating, Cobble Hill’s Halloween Cookies was perfect! The Family Pieces puzzles have pieces in large, medium and small so everyone in the family can participate!

LB’s hands are on the left and Hime’s are on the right.

I wasn’t able to get my usual picture of the frame(edges) as we had a bit of a problem finding them all! While the Family Pieces puzzles are meant for a range of ages to partake in the assembly, this one was incredibly tricky! We ended up filling in the frame as we found the pieces and filled in the puzzle.

Yes, I totally stealth-moded a candid pic of the girls hunting for pieces.

We assembled this puzzle differently from my usual method. Because LB and Hime hadn’t worked with random cut pieces before, we focused on the pattern recognition of the cookie designs. Teaching Hime to focus on searching for black and white webbing or pretzel pieces helped her not be discouraged as her older sisters seemed to take random pieces and made them fit. She made or finished several of our cookies once she got the technique down!

This photo doesn’t do this awesome puzzle justice!

Overall, it took us 2 hours and 20 minutes from start to finish. I figured it was a great way to spend time with the sisters I rarely get to see. When I asked the girls their opinions on the puzzle, I got these responses:

LB: I liked the bonding, but I’m not sure if I like the random-cut pieces. They’re new to me I would have liked to have a poster or picture separate from the box lid.

Hime: It looked good enough to eat! I had fun and like the family bonding. I have no dislikes.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Cobble Hill
Title: Halloween Cookies
Artist: Cobble Hill Creations
Year released: 2018
Pieces: 350
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 26″ x 19″
Bonus poster: No
Made from recycled materials
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy, Medium-weight, 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,
Puzzle Dust: Small amount, more than the other Cobble Hill puzzles I’ve done before
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces in 3 sizes
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. My sisters and I had fun and the full assembly only took us 2 hours and 20 minutes. 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: Halloween Cookies 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!

Building Bricks, Video

LEGO® Elves The Capture of Sophie Jones

October 8, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

Today’s post is a little different. I’m not doing a review or a tutorial. I’m assembling a LEGO® kit because my kid sister asked me to. I’ll warn you, this is a long video, clocking in at a little over an hour-long and I ramble throughout.

TL:DR Hi! Columbus Day, my 9-year-old sister chose the topic and I hate stickers when assembling brick kits.

I like the LEGO® Elves series for their designs, and knew there was a mini-movie on Netflix. It wasn’t until I was researching this kit that I found out that LEGO® has a whole series of webisodes hosted on YouTube. The webisode that explains this kit is here.

Overall, I had fun with this kit and will continue to collect LEGO® Elves and being silly while doing so!

Disability Note: This was done on a really good day and I fully subscribe to the philosophy that growing up is OPTIONAL! A reasonable amount of silliness can stave off depression and pain.

Where to buy: At the time of this post, LEGO® Elves 41182 The Capture of Sophie Jones is listed as Retired on the LEGO® website. However, I have seen it listed for sale on both Amazon and Ebay.

Special Shout-Outs: Hani DeFalco and Thomas Blackington. You two rock!

LEGO^®is a trademark of the LEGO Group of companies which does not sponsor, authorize or endorse this site

Disclosure: I purchased this product for review. The opinions are my own, and do not in any way reflect the thoughts and views of the Lego Group of companies.

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

Eric Dowdle’s Harvest Festival: The Pumpkining!

September 20, 2018 PuzzlePaws 1 Comment

I love Fall. I was born in October, and the season has always been a favorite. There are days that it feels like summer is still in its height, and some where it cools just enough to need a hoodie. Ok, not so much for me….I live in Virginia now. But I grew up in Upstate NY right on the shores of Lake Ontario. Summers were short, “Winter Was Coming” and Fall meant apples, pumpkins, hayrides and giant leafpiles. I went shopping the other day with SC, and the stores are full of Halloween. I had wanted to wait until the First, but this puzzle really captures the memories and mood of Fall for me. What the heck, the Vernal Equinox is later this week, that’s close enough!

I really like Dowdle’s boxing. There is a heavy paper sleeve encasing a pretty little box.

The box is really well constructed, folding around itself and sealing with a Velcro button so that the box is reusable.

Better yet! All Dowdle puzzle come with a mini-poster of the image and a resealable plastic bag.

Now to assemble!

For a 500 piece puzzle, this was really tricky in places. the amazing amount of detail that artist Eric Dowdle puts into his art and the random piece shapes kept me busy all evening! SC even put a few pieces together, commenting that it was harder than it looked.

So many memories! My parents took a bunch of photos like this when I was growing up with my siblings!

SC had to take my finished picture, as I was having a horrible time getting my pictures to come out right. After finishing this puzzle, I have two thoughts. First, now I feel properly ready to Fall, and secondly…I need a pumpkin spice latte, stat!

IMG_4235 (Edited) — SC is a photography genius.

Pandemonium approves! Puzzles are cat-baths, don’tcha know?

About the Company: Dowdle Puzzles is a part of Dowdle Folk Arts. The artist and owner is Eric Dowdle, who has over 200 folk art paintings, mostly focusing on American cities and national parks. As well as selling paints, prints, and puzzles, Dowdle is now branching out into coloring books! (I’ll be wishlisting those!)

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Dowdle Puzzles
Title: Harvest Festival
Artist: Eric Dowdle
Year released: Unknown
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 16″ by 20″
Bonus poster: Yes
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy and compact, 7.5″ by 7.5″ by 3″, with paper sleeve
Board: Medium weight chipboard, sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Semi-gloss, with great color saturation
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Very Good. Some of the irregular pieces make it so that pieces can only be moved in small groups.

Disability Notes: The slightly larger size pieces of the 500 piece puzzle are kinder to the hands while still being complex enough to challenge lovers of larger piece count puzzles. Honestly, I want to try this brands 300 and 100 piece counts for this winter when my hands threaten to swell into claws. I can recommend this for people with mild to moderate arthritis or hand/eye coordination.

Where to buy: Harvest Festival is available on the Dowdle Puzzles website for $19.99 usd. At the time of this post, it is sold out.

Dowdle 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