The Music of Life: March 2021

As I mentioned in previous posts, I've really been into puzzles lately! I thought it would be fun to go over and give mini reviews one the ones I've done recently.

Cardinal Puzzles (300 pieces)

Overall, these pieces are thicker than other dollar store puzzle pieces. However, many of the pieces are really similar in shape so you have to rely almost entirely on the picture to put the puzzle together. When I do these puzzles, if I have a large solid section, my rule is that I can't place a piece unless at least two sides fit. However, for $1.00 a puzzle, I still get quite a bit of enjoyment from them! Another thing to note is that the pieces are cut in such a way that you can tell whether a pieces is horizontal or vertical based solely on shape.

I love produce and color gradient puzzles, so this one was definitely fun! (This one I bought on Ebay, so it probably cost more in the $5.00-$10.00 range.)

Balloons! Color! What more could you want?

Guitars. Fun to do once, but probably won't be doing again.

Antelope Canyon is a beautiful place and this picture is gorgeous, however, it doesn't provide enough contrast to make a good puzzle ESPECIALLY when the pieces are so similar in shape. Would not recommend this one.

So much color! Loved it!

The distinct colors made this one a fun and quick one to do.

Cardinal Puzzles (100 pieces)

These are honestly pretty good quality. The pieces are fairly thick (for a dollar store puzzle) and they are more unique than their 300 pieces.

Both of these were fun to do once, but 100 piece puzzles are a little too quick for me. So I'll be donating them so some kiddo can have fun with them instead.

Cardinal (500 piece)

Same great quality of pieces, and surprisingly, more uniqueness in fit than the 300 piece puzzles. Still the standard piece shape, but if the pieces fit together, they actually probably go together. If I remember correctly, you also couldn't tell vertical/horizontal simply from piece shape. Which makes the puzzle more challenging. This one was also $1.00.

Fun to do once, but probably wouldn't do again.

Cra-Z-Art

This particular one is made by a dollar store brand, but by the packaging you can tell it's higher quality. I also got this one on ebay, but long enough ago that I'm not sure how much it cost. Pieces were great quality and unique. No complaints here! This puzzle is 500 pieces.

I had to put this one together in two parts because I didn't yet have a card table to do puzzles on. (I have since purchased a card table and definitely don't regret it!) I'm a sucker for hot air balloon puzzles. I know they're cliche, but since I've been to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, they just bring back good memories. Plus, hot air balloons are super colorful and make great jigsaw puzzle subjects.

Galison

This puzzle is so high quality! I splurged around $20.00 for it on Amazon, but I absolutely love it! This puzzle is 1000 pieces. The pieces are thick and interlock really well. Like you can pick up the entire puzzle once it's put together - and it will stay together! Their puzzles are also super beautiful. For now, I've decided this puzzle company is my favorite. So if anyone wants to get me a puzzle for my birthday (five months from now)...

This puzzle is beautiful! I had so much fun putting it together. The colors and patters are distinct enough that you can pretty much pick up a piece and tell which book it belongs to. This doesn't make it "easy" but fun because you always have a next step. It's also gilded, so all of the gold you see is actually shiny. Next time I do this puzzle I will probably actually frame it. But we'll see. It was so much fun that I want to do it over and over again!

Puzzlebug

These are all 500 piece dollar store puzzles. The pieces are pretty thin, which means the pieces often come already bent, or once even, broken. It's also not uncommon for these puzzles to be missing a piece. I legitimately have better luck getting complete puzzles from thrift stores than I do from these new dollar store puzzles. While these aren't the best quality, they are still super fun to do! And to get a couple hours of entertainment for $1.00, they're a great value! (I also wanted to note that these pieces are cut in such a way that you can tell whether they are horizontal or vertical solely based on shape.)

I love rainbow/gradient puzzles, so this one is a win!

Super fun, colorful, and detailed.

I <3 hot air balloons

Adorable and colorful <3

Still a sucker for produce.

More hot air balloons

Grid-like ones like these are fun to break it up every once in a while.

Not sure how I feel about this one? Pretty picture, but maybe not one I would re-do again. I'm not sure.

Beautiful desserts. A little more challenging since most colors are in multiple places throughout the puzzle, but still fun!

Beautiful <3

I actually enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would! The patterns within each quilt made me have to look very carefully at each piece, instead of just relying on general color/patter, which I do a lot.

Delicious! This was fun to do once, but I probably won't end up doing it again.

I love this one more than I thought I would too!

Ceaco?

I'm not sure if this puzzle is a Ceaco puzzle or a knockoff - I got it at the thrift store and the box has no branding on it whatsoever. I did find an Amazon listing with this size/image (and reviews that sound like they match the quality) that lists Ceaco as the brand.

This puzzle is 1000 pieces. The pieces are very thin - about as thick as a cereal box. They are quite sturdy though, none of them were bent (and they don't seem like they'd bend easily). This puzzle was unique in that it has letters printed on the back. This was helpful because you could look at the back of the piece and 1) know the orientation of the piece [where the letter is right-side-up] and 2) know which section (of six) the piece belonged in. The puzzle also came with a poster that had the letters on the back a well. Poster was great because there wasn't much of an image on the box (only a thumbnail really).

This puzzle cost me $.99 at my local thrift store. Although it looks beautiful in the image above, it really sucks as a puzzle image. It's quite dark and there is a lot of brown. Without the letters on the back, I'm not sure if I would have been able to complete the puzzle. Even with all of the cheats, it still wasn't very fun to put together.

Master Pieces

These pieces were thick/good quality and were quite unique. Not just the typical puzzle shape, but more varied (but still grid-like) shapes. So ones with three outs and one in; four outs; four ins; two outs next to each other, etc. They also varied in size quite a bit which made it pretty fun.

I love the image of this puzzle and the quality of it. It was very fun to do. However, I HATE the texture. It is meant to have a glow in the dark component, and the glow in the dark paint has a grainy, almost sandpaper-like texture that makes me cringe just thinking about it. (The glow in the dark doesn't even work, but since I got it for $.50 at a thrift store, I didn't expect it to.) If it were a normal, smooth puzzle, I'd probably keep this one to do over and over again.

Thank you for joining me on this nerdy journey through puzzles. As you can tell, I really enjoy them. <3

My recent Saturday routine has been to go out and go shopping for puzzles! Sometimes this includes an estate sale. Usually this includes the Dollar Tree, Goodwill, and ARC Thrift Stores. I've also tried a grocery store for puzzles, and maybe I'll try craft stores going forward. But I'm having enough luck with the Dollar Tree and the thrift stores, that I probably won't need to. <3

I also usually get a fun breakfast or lunch. (Such as Dunkin' Donuts or Taco Bell, since I don't go there often.) And then I get a Route 44 Cherry Coke from Sonic and go home and do a couple of puzzles. It's fun and relaxing and gets me off of my computer and out of the house.

Here are the puzzles I got from ARC Thrift Store (no luck at Goodwill this week). The two on the right are made by Master Pieces, which are great quality. The butterfly one is beautiful and only cost me $.50. The Memory Lane one was $1.99. And I'm actually really excited about the Colorado Rockies one. How unique and fun is that?! It was also only $.99. I've already done the butterfly one, and will probably do the other two this week or weekend.

I also really like going to the Dollar Tree and seeing if they have any new puzzles out that week, and they never fail to disappoint. The quality isn't the best, but for $1.00 they provide me with a lot of entertainment! And their pictures are so pretty. This week I got six new 300 piece Cardinal puzzles, and one 500 piece Cardinal Cinderella puzzle. I've already done three of these. <3 I just love how colorful they are and how pretty the boxes looked when stacked. They're also small enough that you can fit all the pieces in a sandwich bag, which is convenient.

Here's a picture of my "to-do" shelf as of 2/27. I've done eight puzzles in the past week, so it looks different now. But I love how the similar boxes stack together. I don't know, you gotta find joy in the little things!

What have you been into lately? Any fun thrift shopping finds?