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!

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!

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!

Been working steadily on “Harvest Colors”!

It certainly isn’t too easy, but not too tough either so far. Progress is slow, but steady.

My stopping point for tonight. The corn was surprisingly a lot harder than I anticipated, but a ton of fun too!

I maaaay have been naughty when I went into town today… I wouldn’t normally do one as hard as the Five Nights at Freddy’s puzzle (so much of a single color), but I’m a huge FNAF fan girl, so I couldn’t pass it up! Very excited for the betta fish puzzle too!

I keep betta fish, and one of my betta fish groups on Facebook has been all a-twitter about that puzzle today. I went to Walmart just to look for it, and it was the only copy, sitting in a mostly cleared out spot, like it was waiting just for me. Destiny!

My current to-do shelf! I promised my husband no more puzzles for a while… I really hope I can keep it… >>… Lol! I will do my best. I better get to completing these so I can justify restocking!