Flower Delivery and a Beachy Retreat

Thomas Kinkade 500 Pieces

It's been a rough week. Last Wednesday, December 5th, my grandmother passed away. It had been a long time coming unfortunately. The night she passed, I and a few other family members had gathered at my grandfather's house, and I had brought along a pack of four 500 piece Thomas Kinkade puzzles to pass the time. I had just finished sorting out the edges of this lovely beachy scene, and was starting to assemble them when she left us.

I'd packed the puzzle back away, but went ahead and decided to finish it. I'd been so looking forward to doing this one ever since I bought the pack months ago, and I know my grandmother wouldn't have wanted me put off of it. I also had packed it up in one of my grandfather's tupperware dishes, and he'll probably want that back as well!

It's been a difficult week since then, filled with grief. I've spent a good deal of my time working on this 1000 piece MB Puzzle/ Cardinal Games 'Flower Delivery' to keep myself occupied. My grandmother would have adored all the flowers in it, she just loved flowers. Not as big a fan of dogs.... Too slobbery for her!

There may also have been wine involved...

The flowers were the easy part, simple to pick out of the box of assorted ambiguous greens and blues! They went together in a pinch!

Even with all the trouble the greens were giving me, I was still having a blast, a little ray of fun to distract me from the sad.

My cats are also a great distraction. Here's Taco, siting in the chair across from me, taking a bath! Little goofball!

And finished! All around, I was really impressed with the quality of this one. The Cardinal Games puzzles I got from the Dollar Tree are about what one would expect for only a dollar, very thin cardboard, if otherwise good. But these, made in conjunction with MB using the 'Premium Quality Blue Board' are spectacular!

The cardboard is a good thickness, and very, very rigid with very little bend, so none of the pieces I encountered were bent or damaged in any way. The cutting was crisp and precise, and the printing and finish on the front was lovely. It also came with an extra resealable bag to keep the pieces in when finished, if that's your thing, and a little fold out 'box easel', which you can fit the box lid into and will hold it up for you to look at while you work. I didn't use it but I'll definitely keep it around for the future in case I ever need something like it. What a clever idea! I'm really happy to have purchased several more puzzles by this company.

All around, it's been a long, difficult week. I'm so glad I have such a nice, calming hobby to help get me through it!

Readers Paradise Complete!

"Readers Paradise" 1000 Piece by White Mountain. I had a lot of fun with this one, and it helped me through a difficult time.

I was pretty pleased with the quality of White Mountian's pieces. Nicely cut, and they snapped together fairly well. As someone else suggested, I took a rolling pin to it when it was finished, and I've never had a puzzle be SO FLAT before- I'll definitely be doing that with ALL my puzzles from now on!

This "Readers Paradise" was absolutely jam packed with little details too. Cats sleeping on the stairs, a mouse hiding among the shelves, titles and cover art on a lot of the books. The printing was crisp and clear too, which makes the art all the better!

I'd definitely recommend this one! I'll happily pick up another White Mountain puzzle the next time one of their images strikes my fancy.

Decided to start this one next: "Flower Delivery" 1000 pieces by Milton Bradley. Really impressed with it's quality as well, and overall production value. The box is really nice, covered inside as well as out, and it was with a resealable bag to put the pieces back into when complete (not that I do that myself) and a cardboard contraption called a 'box easel'. It holds the box upright for you at a good viewing angle to see the image. I don't know if I'll use it or not, but what a neat idea!

This week's been tough for me, and puzzles have really helped get me through, and will continue to help I'm sure. I'm very thankful to have such a pleasant hobby to turn too when I need it.

Hello, and Welcome!

Howdy howdy! I'm Puzzled Pickle, a jigsaw puzzle enthusiast! I've decided to move my jigsaw blog to Blogger today. I've been posting to Tumblr for a few months, but they've recently decided to purge all adult content from their systems. Obviously, that shouldn't affect my very not adult blog in the slightest, but whatever algorithm auto scans all their images decided to flag a bunch of my jigsaw pictures as adult and hide them! That's super not cool, and I don't have time for that sort of nonsense!

I've transferred all my old posts (by hand, oiy) over to here, hence the slew of 'new posts' listed as being from today. They actually span over the last few months. Anyway, I'll be continuing here from now on! Maybe I can even find more jigsaw puzzle peeps here too!

I woke up bright and unusually early Saturday morning; what better time than to enjoy the peace and quiet of a sleeping house, a nice cup of hot coffee, and a jigsaw puzzle accompanied by podcasts? I've really been looking forward to starting this one, "Readers Paradise" a 1000 piece by White Mountain. I've yet to do a White Mountain puzzle, but I've heard good things from the jigsaw groups on Facebook, so I'm excited!

So far White Mountain reminds me a lot of Ravensburger. The cardboard is nice and thick, and has that nice blue backing. My particular copy of this one has a few pieces that weren't cut through all the way, but only a very small number, so I'm not displeased at all. Everything's been snapping together nicely for the most part, and it's been very enjoyable!

I've also had this lovely little boats puzzle by Cardinal kicking around on my desk for the last few days, though I haven't worked on it much yet- just been too busy! I'll get to it though. The tiny little pieces are hilarious and fun to work with, and I can't wait to have it completed to hang up somewhere. The art is just stunning!

Speaking of hanging puzzle sup, I recently redecorated the walls around my office space!

I'm so pleased with how it's come out so far. The bright, perky colors definitely put you in a good mood when you sit down to work!

Thursday evening/Friday project complete! “Pride of Color” by Jongkie, a 500 piece by Buffalo. This was a blast! It’s going to be stunning once it’s hung up! As always, Buffalo's quality is great. I love how this one had a bright, clear, glossy printing- it really makes the artwork pop!

I made some decent progress on my Christmas puzzle before hitting a wall- a big wall made of TONS of brown pieces! For how bright and colorful this image is, there is a deceptive amount of BROWN in there! I’ll get through it, but it’s definitely not as much fun as I’d hoped it would be!

“The Three Graces” however, is a splendid amount of fun! In fact-

I managed to finish it! Everything that was missing from the first pic was done over the course of the five hours I spent looking after my grandmother today. Definitely one of my favs!

Couldn’t resist doing this cute little 300 piece I got from Dollar Tree. “Sunset in Texas” I believe it’s called, by Cardinal. For only a dollar, the quality was pretty darn good. Besides a bit of cardboard separation, it was very nice.

Just finished this up! 1000 piece Big Ben, no name that I can find on the box. I keep betta fish, so I’ll be framing this and hanging it over my boys tanks. Very exciting when two hobbies collide! Overall the Big Ben seemed passable in quality. All the pieces were very crisply cut; if they just used a cardstock twice as thick they’d be top notch.

Also getting this one glued finally, gotta make room so I can glue the betta fish! :D

Now it’s time to start this gorgeous Thomas Kinkade Christmas puzzle from Ceaco!

Been making some slow progress on my Betta Fish puzzle. It’s become a bit more fun now that I’m ‘into it’.

I decided to tackle the black pieces first, since I’d seen others mention they were difficult… It’s been tough but… I dunno, it feels more just time consuming than hard! I feel like some part of the actual fish are going to be way harder!

Went on a little shopping trip to Dollar Tree today, and picked up quite a haul! It’s hard to resist when there’s so many fun images, and they’re all only a dollar. I may have to go back for more… But don’t tell my husband!

I’m particularly excited for this one- I nearly squealed out loud when I saw it. FISH! It looks SO HARD, and SO FUN!

Progress on “The Three Graces” for today. It’s coming along!

The puzzle I picked for doing at home however… Well, it’s not as much fun as I’d hoped so far.

Big Ben branded Milton Bradley 1000 piece, no name that I can find specifically, so I’ll just call it ‘Betta Fish’. It’s a cool convergence of my hobbies, as I actually keep betta fish.

But despite my excitement over it, the colors are actually sort of drab, at least on the individual pieces. I’m sure once it’s together, glued and framed, it’ll be quite stunning and look greag hung above my tanks… But as a project to out together, it’s a bit 'meh’. Pieces are thin too, kind of lackluster. Maybe once I get into putting together the fish themselves it’ll be a bit more interesting!

Did put together these three little 49 piece Ravensburger Dino puzzles I found for 6 dollars at Half Price Books. I normally wouldn’t buy puzzles I could finish in 20 minutes, but I LOVE dinosaurs, and the art on these is great! I’ll be gluing them and pinning them up over my desk!

Worked hard through the night to finish Harvest Colors, and managed to complete it despite ‘help’ from my cats! Taco loves to steal my chair whenever she can.

And Gidget was in a squirrely mood all night. Trying to concentrate with this cat tornado on the tower above me is challenging!

1500 piece Springbok 'Harvest Colors’, completed with a bonus piece. Whoops! It exactly matches another piece in the puzzle, just slightly offset where it’s cut colorwise. I wish there were a way for me to send it to whoever now missing it! D: