Tag Archives: puzzle

Earth Day, Yesterday, and All Year Long!

April 23, 2019 PuzzlePaws 1 Comment

Yesterday was Earth Day, a holiday started in 1970 that focuses on environmental reform and the human impact on this world we inhabit. Yesterday was also the day after Easter, and my mom and little sister headed home. I was wiped. Chronic illness means that I “hit the wall” and can’t push myself any further. Last week was a whirlwind, and by Monday, I was very much done. I spent Earth Day in bed.

Today, I’m still tired, but I wanted to bring up a thought. Earth Day was yesterday. Yesterday is over. Does that mean I can just put Earth Day and all it means on the shelf until next year?

Earth Day isn’t like most other holidays… It’s a way of life.

This year, I managed to convince White Mountain Puzzles to allow me to do a few reviews. I immediately fell in love with Amazing Sea Turtles. It reminded me of the Earth Day commercials and shows I watched as a kid in the 80s and 90s.

I’ve never done a White Mountain puzzle, so I was surprised by the box stand that was included. Made of recycled cardstock, it holds the box lid so that you can have the puzzle image at hand. As this puzzle didn’t come with a separate poster, the box stand came in handy.

My work space, border set up and ready to go!

I found this to be a delightful puzzle. It’s advertised as an E-Z Hold 300, which means it is made with slightly larger than normal sized pieces, on recycled blue chipboard. The grid-style cut was not challenging, but I don’t want a challenging 300 piece. I do 300 pieces to relax and let me think.

Back to my original point. Earth Day as a way of life. It’s daunting, isn’t it? especially as a person with disabilities. I love my straws, as they keep my hands from spilling drinks down my front, I like modern conveniences. But even I can do small things all year-round to help the planet. I can and do choose to buy puzzles made with recycled materials. I recycle and reuse items. SC and I have furnished our home in furniture that had been discarded but was still serviceable. I use public transit often, and I donate to earth-friendly charities when I can afford to. I have in the past, planted trees. Small things, sure, but small things, like puzzle pieces add up.

This puzzle features a handful of sea turtles swimming through a busy coral reef. It’s a great image to show what we could lose, and what we need to protect. More importantly, it makes me happy. I love sea life and aquatic scenes.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: White Mountain Puzzles
Title: Amazing Sea Turtles
Artist: Gerald Newton
Year released: 2017
Pieces: 300
Cut-Style: Grid
Finished size: 18 x 24 inches
Bonus poster: No
Made from recycled materials
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy, Light-weight, 10 x 12 x2 inches, Glossy Finish
Board: Thin and sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Glossy
Puzzle Dust: A bit more than I prefer, but not too much
Piece shapes: Grid style, 4 shapes
Piece Fit: Excellent, nice tight fit that if careful, I could pick up

Disability Notes: The E-Z Hold pieces are really nice. They fit my hands well and I had no difficulties in assembly. I can recommend this size puzzle for kids and adults, and I think that people with hand or eye difficulties will enjoy it as the colors are amazingly bright!

Where to buy: Amazing Sea Turtles is available on the white Mountain website for $13.99 USD.

White Mountain 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

1500 Pieces!My Largest Piece Count Yet!

April 12, 2019 PuzzlePaws 3 Comments

The fun part of being a puzzle blogger is finding new brands to try to stretching myself as a puzzler. Before I’d started PuzzlePaws, the largest puzzle I’d done was a 1000 piece, and honestly, I preferred 750’s. While I don’t hold with New Year’s Resolutions, I do want to challenge myself and to be active in the puzzling community. Next year, I want to be able to join World Puzzle Days, and Jigsaw Jubilee. To do so, I know I need to increase my piece count to include 1500 and 2000 piece puzzles! It’s a bit scary for me.

Thankfully, while I was at Toy Fair this year, I discovered Playview Brands, which is the spin-off company of Karmin International and their puzzle line. When I explained that my goals, I was offered a chance to try a different sort of large count puzzle.

This is a triptych puzzle, or a three-in-one puzzle. There are three separate 500 piece puzzles that make a single 1500 piece image. It was perfect to help me work on this year’s goals!

The puzzles came individually bagged and included a lovely poster to help with assembly.

I got a bit lucky, while the bags aren’t labeled as to which image they hold, I guessed by using the pieces I could see and managed to assemble them in order! Assembly was an adventure!

I found the pieces to be on the small side of an average 500 piece puzzle, thin, but incredibly sturdy! They connect well and hold tightly.

56749176_410701726390606_987145190139494400_n — Puzzle 1

Puzzle 1, day 1, I had friends who had swung by to pick up some firewood SC had split and they stayed and spent a good hour or so helping me build the image. Elyse refused to go home until she found the piece of deer that was eluding her!

57028912_322606175124039_164383525292736512_n — Puzzle 2

Puzzle 2, day 2, I got a late start, and assembled it all by myself. Because of the late hour at which I finished and took the photo, my overhead glare is awful. Lesson learned, take photos in the mornings!

57154953_560126491146801_1282849393501798400_n — Puzzle 3

Puzzle 3, day 3, I started this puzzle the night before, but had only managed the frame and sky before running out of spoons for the day. One of my besties came over in the morning to help me puzzle. She hadn’t done a puzzle since she was a little girl, so it was fun to show her tips and techniques.

56786094_577281452675381_973459053512491008_n — The Big Picture!!

This is a huge puzzle! When fully assembled, it is 24 inches high by 54 inches long! It completely took over my 6 person dining room table and I had to stand on a chair to take a picture.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Karmin International Puzzles/ Playview Brands
Title: Mountain Cabin Scene
Artist: Geno Peoples
Year released: 2018
Pieces: 3×500, or 1500
Cut-Style: Grid
Finished size: 24″x 54″
Bonus poster: Yes
Made in China

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy, Medium-weight, 12″L x 8″H x 4″W
Board: Thin and sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Semi-gloss
Puzzle Dust: Almost none
Piece shapes: Grid style, 5 shapes
Piece Fit: Very Good, nice tight fit that if careful, I could lift it

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for a teen, an adult, or for a person whose hands have good and bad days. My friends and I both had fun, and the full assembly only took us roughly 3 days. My hands didn’t ache after assembly, and the difficulty level was certainly up to adult standard.

Where to buy: Mountain Cabin Scene is available on the Karmin International website for $14.99 USD wholesale, I do not know if they do direct retail sales.

Karmin International Company : Website

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

Cherry Blossoms and Chickadees! A Springtime Review

March 22, 2019 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

Spring is finally officially here!! Huzzah!

It’s silly, but Wednesday was both the first day of Spring and the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC. I’ve never gone, but I have friends who hit it every year. This weekend I’m in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for Zenkaikon, an anime convention. Before I left, I started Cobble Hill’s Chickadeedeedees. It’s a 500 piece puzzle featuring chickadees and cherry blossoms by the amazing Karen Latham.

Pardon the warm tones, I was trying to reduce my night-time glare.

This is one of the new 2019 designs, and one of the rare puzzles SC insisted on. I’d never known that my spouse liked chickadees, but there he was, reading me the Wiki and listening to bird calls on YouTube. If you want an awesome video about chickadees, I recommend LesleytheBirdNerd’s video.

Honestly, I find it cute when he gets excited/inspired by something out of the ordinary. He listens to me explaining the difference between ribbon and random cut puzzles. By the way, this is very much a random cut puzzle! SC likes the random cuts, finding them to be a great mental challenge. “That piece doesn’t go there at that angle…Shit, yes it does!”

I mentioned that I started this puzzle, however, I didn’t manage to finish my assembly before having to leave. SC, bless him, took some of his spare time to finish it and gave me his analysis. He also did my amazing cover photo!

Two thirds finished and yes, that’s a dice catalog in the corner.

I’d managed to do about 2/3rds of the puzzle, finding it to be of moderate difficulty. It’s a 500 piece puzzle, so the pieces are comfortably large and with a random cut, the placements are not always obvious. SC did the final third, noting that I had mistakenly placed a piece where it didn’t belong, so he spent a bit of time looking to place a piece that belonged in the space I’d filled.

His sorting style was thus: flowers first, then obvious leaves, then twigs, then oddball shapes, and finally the standard shaped pieces. He did say it was of moderate difficulty, and that a couple of pieces nearly achieved flight (he was frustrated and want to throw them across the room)! SC notes that the large piece size confused his eyes, but made his hands happy, and that the pieces fit and click in securely. Both of us liked the new small poster included with the puzzle that was printed with the same linen texture as the puzzle and that both puzzle and poster images matched!

All done! I couldn’t have done it without my Spouse-Critter!

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Cobble Hill
Title: Chickadeedeedees
Artist: Karen Latham
Year released: 2019
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 19.25 x 26.625
Bonus poster: Yes
Made from recycled materials
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy, Medium-weight, 10″x14’x2.5″ Matte-Linen Finish
Board: Thick and sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Satin, linen texture
Puzzle Dust: Almost none
Piece shapes: Random
Piece Fit: Very Good, nice tight fit that if careful, SC could lift it up completely

Disability Notes: I can definitely recommend this for a teen, an adult, or for a person whose hands have good and bad days. SC and I both had fun, and the full assembly only took us roughly about 6 hours over 3 days. 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: Chickadeedeedees is available on the Cobble Hill website for $15.99 USD. It is currently out of stock, but it’s on order, which means there will be more made soon!

Cobble Hill Puzzle Company : 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, Uncategorized

Sweetly Addictive, Adding to my Puzzling Habit

March 13, 2019 PuzzlePaws 1 Comment

There are a dozen popular artists whose artwork is used for puzzles. I’m fond of Nene Thomas and Chris Ortega, not so much Thomas Kinkaid. Of the more recent artists, I’ve been avoiding Aimee Stewart. It isn’t that I don’t like her style, rather, I found myself intimidated. Aimee’s art is very reminiscent of Lisa Frank, all bright colors and happiness.

While at Toy Fair, I spoke at length with one of Buffalo’s representative about their new puzzle lines and some of the art styles. When I mentioned how popular Aimee Stewart’s puzzles seemed amongst my puzzling groups, but that I was not sure I could handle the visual busyness; it was suggested I try the 300 Large Pieces version. I chose the Sweet Shop, as it reminds me of the old-fashioned candy store I went to as a girl in Cape Cod.

Yes,this piece is a little bent. It came that way, and I’ve emailed Buffalo about it.

The 300 Large Pieces are designed to be 67% larger than Buffalo’s normal puzzle pieces. I found them to be wonderful for gripping on a bad hand day, and they still had the Perfect Snap™!

This shows both the Large size, and the fact I can pick up whole sections to move them!

My fear of being overwhelmed by the bright colors and busy design proved to be moot. Instead, the cheerful, bright colors made assembly a joy! This puzzle was moderately challenging, but not so much as to need a break. With the tight fit between pieces, it is easy to move whole sections of pieces.

I might be hooked on these, not that I NEED more puzzles. One of the joys of being a reviewer is also the bane of my productivity. There are always new products to try, and very little time to go back and enjoy something I’ve already done. Then again, I might have to make sure an Aimee Stewart is set aside for the 2020 World Puzzle Days.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Buffalo Games
Title: Sweet Shop
Artist: Aimee Stewart
Year released: 2016
Pieces: 300 Large
Cut-Style: Steel-cut Die
Finished size: 21.25 x 15 inches
Bonus poster: Yes
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Thin cardboard, sturdy, 8 x 8 x 1.5 inches
Board: Medium weight chipboard, sturdy pieces
Cut: Ribbon Cut
Image Quality: Excellent
Finish: Semi-Gloss
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: Standard 2-knob and some star-shaped pieces
Piece Fit: Excellent

Disability Notes: As I noted, the large pieces of this puzzle are easy to handle, which is great for those of us with arthritis or other hand mobility issues. I know that several of my readers have puzzlers in the younger generations of their families, and think this would make a great family project.

Where to buy: Sweet Shop is available on the Buffalo Games website for $10.95 USD. Buffalo Games also has displays at local Walmarts and Targets, but their selections will vary.

Buffalo Games : Website/ FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for a 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

Patience, Persistance, and Chevy Gold

February 8, 2019 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

Back in August, just as I was starting to blog, I was contacted by Christie Dotolo. She is the CEO of Gearhead Puzzles, a woman/veteran owned puzzle company. Gearheads focuses on classic cars and she wanted to know if I was interested in doing Chevy Gold; their inaugural puzzle.

I was super green, and super eager, so I said yes. Thus began my six month road trip with Chevy Gold.

Please keep in mind, everyone puzzles differently. My challenge may be your cakewalk.

It’s a gorgeous puzzle, and I did an unboxing video when it first came in! Click here.

This puzzle is based on a fantastic photograph by Laurie Hatcher of the interior of a 1952 Chevrolet. My dream car has always been a 1957 Chevy Bel Air (I dig tailfins), so I was excited by the subject matter.

In my eagerness to do ALL THE THINGS, I seriously overestimated both my ability to do projects, and forgot that Murphy loves hubris. September had hurricanes, October was booked solid, so I planned to debut the puzzle in November.

My initial assembly went quickly, as I focused on the frame, speedometer and the center of the steering wheel. The pieces are random cut, on a sturdy midweight chipboard. The image is a bit blurred due to being blown up and made into a puzzle, and has a semi-gloss finish. If this is the quality of their first puzzle, I’m seriously impressed!!

There are a lot of shades of brown, black and gray in this puzzle. After a few days, I started to struggle. My eyes didn’t want to focus on the slight variations, and my frustration mounted. I put a cover on it and focused on my Christmas puzzles. This saved my sanity, but made me feel incredibly guilty. I’ve never given up on a puzzle, but I really wanted too.

Day 38 Zane is sitting on my pieces and Hurricane is napping.

After the mess of Christmas and January, I started again. I cleared off all the debris that had covered the puzzle board, resorted my pieces by color and tried again. I wasn’t perfect, I still had a mild hate for the difficulty and coloration of the puzzle. I mentioned this to Christie, who patiently checked in with me and agreed that Chevy Gold was a tricky puzzle. I swear, her patience and understanding is what goaded me to finish. I WANTED to do Christie’s puzzle.

Superbowl Sunday, I worked on Chevy Gold. I looked at the tv for commercials, but I was determined to finish. I filled in most of the dark areas by halftime, but was missing four light brown pieces from the steering wheel. My cats have loved sitting on this puzzle, so I did the smart thing and swept under the couch. I found dust bunnies, cat toys and three of my missing pieces!

I kept going, because as the number of pieces dwindled, the ease of matches increased. I could see I was going to finish!!

Day 42 part 2. The Patriots and Chevy Gold have won.

Remember what I said about Murphy? Yeah, he’s laughing.

One piece!! Months of assembly, and I’m denied victory at the final hour! SC is convinced that the cats or fairies have hidden it. I’m convinced that I know how Captain Ahab felt. I’ve torn the living room apart, but that missing piece is mocking me.

You win Chevy Gold. I still feel accomplished.

This is officially the most difficult puzzle I have done yet. Also, my longest assembly time. If you love classic cars and a serious challenge, try Chevy Gold. Gearhead Puzzles has since added three other puzzles to their catalog, all 500 pieces. They look amazing. For me, I’ll wait until they make a puzzle of a Tucker 48.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Gearhead Puzzles
Title: Chevy Gold
Artist: Laura Hatcher
Year released: 2017
Pieces: 1000
Cut-Style: Steel-cut Die
Finished size: 19¼ x 26¾ inches
Bonus poster: No
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Thin cardboard, sturdy, 10 x 8 x 2¼ inches
Board: Medium weight chipboard, sturdy pieces
Cut: Random
Image Quality: Excellent
Finish: Semi-Gloss
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece Fit: Excellent, once fully assembled. Because of the random cut, some pieces will be loose until connected to the whole.

Disability Notes: Due to the difficulty level of this puzzle, I would not recommend Chevy Gold for anyone with a visual impairment that makes differentiating similar shades impossible. Some puzzle pieces are small, so folks with arthritis or hand mobility issues may want to wait for a good day or look at Gearhead’s 500 piece puzzles.

Where to buy: Chevy Gold is available on the Gearheads website for $18.95 USD. They also have three other puzzles at this point in time.

Gearhead Puzzles : Website/ FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for a 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

25 Days of XMAS – Day 8

December 14, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

This post is about the next-to-last item from Uncommon goods. SC was over the moon when I chose this puzzle.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater®, a 2-in-1 500 piece puzzle. I hadn’t done a double-sided puzzle since the original My Little Pony 3D one in the 1980s. The one side is a glossy reproduction of one of Christopher Little’s photographs, while the other side is a matte reproduction of Fallingwater®’s blueprints.

With this puzzle being only 500 pieces, it only took me two days to assemble, and that was mostly because I would get distracted. The pieces are of a decent size, and I enjoyed the sensation of the different finishes on the two sides. I’ve only done one other Galison puzzle, but I’ve found them to be of excellent quality.

I did my best to reduce the glare, but sunny days and glossy puzzles don’t mix! I assembled the puzzle using this side, and really loved it. There is a reason Frank Lloyd Wright’s building are remembered, each one has a certain…emotion to it.

SC liked the blueprint side, and I can’t really blame him. There is something visually interesting about it. Honestly, this puzzle was just too pretty to put back in the box. SC is in the process of layering fixative to it in the mudroom as I write. He thinks we can rig a double-sided picture frame so that we can hang this lovely puzzle in the dinning room and simply turn the frame around when we need to change our decor. Man is a genius, I swear.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Galison
Title: Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater®
Artist: Frank Lloyd Wright / Christopher Little – Photographer
Year released: 2017
Pieces: 500
Cut-Style: Ribbon cut
Finished size: 24 x 18 inches
Bonus poster:Yes
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Thin sturdy cardboard, 11.5 x 8.5 x 3 inches
Board: Mediumweight Recycled greyboard
Cut: Steel-cut dye
Image Quality:Excellent
Finish: Semi-gloss / Matte
Puzzle Dust:Minimal
Piece shapes: Traditional 2-Knob
Piece Fit: Excellent

Disability Notes: I found this to be a wonderfully easy puzzle to put together. The pieces are of a medium size and well-made. If you have mild hand issues, you should be just fine. If you have an eyesight issue, you may want a friend to help or a magnifier and light. All those greens and browns get tricky.

Where to buy: You can buy the Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater® puzzle for $16 USD at the Uncommon Goods Website, listed below.

Uncommon Goods: Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received these products for free in exchange for a review. The opinions are my own. All links are direct, I do not make money from them. Fallingwater®is a trademark and a registered service mark of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Photograph © Christopher Little.

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

25 Days of XMAS – Day 7

December 14, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

Today’s puzzle is one that I’ve been dying to assemble since it came in this fall. Part of Buffalo Games’ Adorable Animal Series, Meowy Christmas has to be one of the cutest Christmas animal puzzles I’ve seen!

Meowy Christmas is a 300 large piece puzzle, so I wasn’t worried that it would it take long to assemble. The puzzle is a ribbon cut, with the traditional 2-knob pieces, which is really nice to do after having done quite a few random cut puzzles in the last few months. The large pieces are easy to handle, and harder to lose! The Kitten, AKA Hurricane, kept trying to hide a piece under the table as I worked. I think she liked the “shhhing” noise it made on the hardwood.

I’ll admit to being a horrible cat-mother…I put my Santa hat on two of my cats, just to see if they could be as cute. Honestly, there are reason my cats are house-cats and not furry models. Zoomie at least took the whole thing with grace…Teedle is convinced that I’ve lost my mind.

There are few pleasures for a puzzler better than opening a new puzzle and the wonderful “click” of a perfectly placed piece. Buffalo’s “Perfect Snap” has to be one of the reasons I love the brand.

These kitties are cuter than mine in their winter headgear!

All done! As you can see above, this puzzle is perfect for any cat-lover in your life.

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Buffalo Games
Title: Meowy Christmas
Artist: Unknown
Year released: 2018
Pieces: 300
Cut-Style: Steel-cut Die
Finished size: 21.25 x 15 inches
Bonus poster: Yes
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Thin cardboard, sturdy, 8 x 8 x 1.5 inches
Board: Medium weight chipboard, sturdy pieces
Cut: Ribbon Cut
Image Quality: Excellent
Finish: Semi-Gloss
Puzzle Dust: Minimal
Piece shapes: Traditional 2-knob pieces
Piece Fit: Excellent

Disability Notes: As I noted, the large pieces of this puzzle are easy to handle, which is great for those of us with arthritis or other hand mobility issues. I know that several of my readers have puzzlers in the older generations of their families, and think this would make a nice change from some of the puzzles available for those with Alzheimer’s or Dementia.

Where to buy: Meowy Christmas is available on the Buffalo Games website for $10.95 USD. Buffalo Games also has started having displays at local Walmarts, but their selections will vary.

Buffalo Games : Website/ FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from the manufacturer in exchange for a 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

25 Days of XMAS – Day 6

December 11, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

Today’s a little special, there will be a bunch of posts as I catch up from my cold earlier this week. The first one is featuring Zen Art & Design’s Peapod Puzzles series. Peapod puzzles are their children’s line, and I have to say …. They are really cool! I was sent three puzzles to share with my godsons, Minions 1 & 2.

The boys were stooked to see me come over with new puzzles for them to try!

The third puzzle I’d assembled at home to get used to before helping the boys with theirs. I love the designing of the packaging! The embossed pea-pod is so minimalist it’s cute, and the boxes are easy to open and reuse.

My puzzle is the World Turtle, something that fans of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series are sure to recognize! It’s the flat disk of the world sitting on the back of four elephants which are in turn, standing upon the back of a gigantic turtle! Peapod puzzles come in either 25or 53 pieces, which makes it easy to adjust any design for the age range of the child it is meant for!

World Turtle is a 25 piece puzzle, which comes with one whimsy, or as Zen calls them, figural.

The boys worked on Sea Turtle 1 and T. Rex. My Minions had 53 piece puzzles, which come with four figurals apiece! They loved these! Once I showed them the technique to putting together a wooden puzzle, they had a blast assembling them. I had worried a little about the fact that there would be a squabble about who owned which, but the boys exclaimed over each others’ puzzles, assembled their own, then switched! For an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old, it was a miracle!

One nice touch I found with the Zen puzzles is that each of them comes with a small card letting you know who made your puzzle. It’s a great way to help the company track any errors and to also adds a personal feel to each puzzle!

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Zen Art & Design
Title: Sea Turtle 1 / T.Rex / World Turtle
Artist: Unknown
Year released: 2018
Pieces: 53 /53 /25
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 7½ by 7½ inches
Bonus poster: No
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Sturdy white cardboard, 4 × 4 × 3¼ inches
Board: Birch wood
Cut: Laser
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Semi-gloss
Puzzle Dust: None!
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Excellent. Some of the irregular pieces make it so that pieces can only be moved in small groups.

Disability Notes: These are great puzzles for people who are bed bound using a lap desk or for those with failing mental capacity. While the Peapod series of puzzles are marketed to children ages 4-8, the artistry of these wooden puzzles is such that they will appeal to all ages!

Minion Notes: Minion 1 thought that the puzzles were great, and loved the figurals, but thought that paper-based puzzles were easier to disassemble. He really liked the fact that his herbivore dino figurals were hidden in the foliage of the T.Rex puzzle, while the carnivores were part of the Rex itself. He also noted that Minion 2 would not have been able to handle a 53 piece puzzle without an adult to help him. Minion 2 had fun learning the names of his figurals and pulled out the BIG DINO BOOK to figure out that the herbivores were a hadrosaurus and a parasaurolophus!

Where to buy: PeaPod Puzzles, which is the series of puzzles that Sea Turtle 1, T. Rex and World Turtles are from; is available on the Zen Art & Design website, which is running a sale, for $19.99 USD.

Zen Art & Design : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received complimentary puzzles from in exchange for a 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

25 Days of XMAS – Day 5

December 7, 2018 PuzzlePaws Leave a comment

So this is a new sort of post for me, and yet it’s not. You see, normally I either get a puzzle directly from the manufacturer, or I buy them. Today’s post is sponsored by SeriousPuzzles.com, an online puzzle distributor. They carry thousands of puzzles by just about every possible brand! They sent me my first ever shaped puzzle to assemble!

I’ll admit I was super stoked when this puzzle arrived only a few days after I ordered it. The email updates and tracking of my puzzle were top-notch! Serious Puzzles knows their customers! Most puzzlers I know are horribly impatient when it comes to waiting for a new puzzle to arrive!

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Sadly, no sooner than I started to assemble this lovely puzzle than I ran into 2 problems. The first was annoying, but workable – As this is a shaped puzzle, I had no framework to build with and had to adjust my style slightly. SC helped quite a bit. The second issue was worse, I caught a horrible cold that took me out for 3 days. Sneezing, coughing, general misery. I got very little puzzling done while I was ill.

The Twelve Days of Christmas x 2 is a really nifty collage style puzzle that references the Christmas carol that involves an overly eager True Love who likes to gift his beloved with fowl and people. This puzzle has twice the usual amounts, with the lyrics being the subjects of both ornaments and the gifts under the tree.

Overall, I really liked this puzzle. It may be awhile before I attempt another shaped one, but I do know that Serious Puzzles has several of the hard to find puzzles on my Christmas list and that I’ll definitely order from them again!

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Sunsout
Title: The Twelve Days of Christmas x Two
Artist: Lori Schory
Year released:
Pieces: 1000
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 27 x 3′ inches
Bonus poster: No
Made in USA

QUALITY:

Box: Thin cardboard, 12½ x 12½ x 2 inches
Board: Medium weight chipboard, sturdy pieces
Cut: Steel-cut Die
Image Quality: Excellent, great color saturation
Finish: Semi-gloss
Puzzle Dust: Moderate
Piece shapes: A good mix of traditionally cut and irregular pieces
Piece Fit: Excellent. Some of the irregular pieces make it so that pieces can only be moved in small groups.

Disability Notes: The smaller size pieces of the 1000 piece puzzle are harder on the hands and eyes. I can recommend this for people with mild arthritis or good to excellent hand/eye coordination.

Where to buy: The Twelve Days of Christmas x Two is available on the Serious Puzzles website for $15.95 USD.

Serious Puzzles : Website / FaceBook

Disclosure: I received a complimentary puzzle from Seriouspuzzles.com in exchange for a 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, Uncategorized

25 Days of XMAS – Day 2

December 2, 2018 PuzzlePaws

Yes, today’s post is at a different time than usual. There’s a reason. You see, a few years ago, before my disease got really bad, I worked at Colonial Williamsburg. I loved CW, and when I found out that Eric Dowdle had painted a quilt representation that had been made into a puzzle, I jumped on it!

As for the lateness of the hour? Well, today is Grand Illumination at Colonial Williamsburg. It’s the start of the Christmas season, with bands, parades, and at 9pm EST, there will be fireworks. Everyone has decorated the doors with homemade wreaths and the air is full of the scent of fresh-baked gingerbread and spiced cider. Grand Illumination is second only to the 4th of July! And since most of my readers aren’t local, I figured I’d share this little slice of my Christmas tradition. Go grab a mug of hot cocoa or hot apple cider and follow me!

All Dowdle puzzles come in a resealable box with a paper sleeve, and include a mini-poster of the design and a resealable plastic bag. I love this company’s dedication to minimal waste and reusable design.

So many little pieces!!! So many colors!!

This puzzle has, much like it’s namesake city, weathered much. I started this puzzle in September, right before Hurricane Florence caused mass evacuations. I had to leave the puzzle behind and when I got home, it was weeks before I had the house settled back down to focus on it again. By the time I did, and finished assembling it, I found I was missing a piece! Horrors! The thing was…I could clearly remember finding the loose piece right before the evac…and putting it somewhere safe. But for the life of me, I couldn’t remember where!!

Poor SC had to deal with the fact that I had an ALMOST completed puzzle taking up room in the computer lab and was tearing the house apart looking for that missing piece for WEEKS!

It took forever, but I finally found my missing piece. It was right where I’d tucked it, on a shelf near SC’s video games.

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!

PUZZLE SPECS

Company: Dowdle Puzzles
Title: Williamsburg Quilt
Artist: Eric Dowdle
Year released: Unknown
Pieces: 1000
Cut-Style: Random
Finished size: 19¼ by 26½ inches
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 smaller size pieces of the 1000 piece puzzle are harder on the hands and eyes. 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 arthritis or good to excellent hand/eye coordination.

Where to buy: Williamsburg Quilt is available on the Dowdle Puzzles website for $19.99 usd.

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