Vibrant Owl at Night

I took Tuesday and Wednesday off work around the house to make strides toward a couple of my 26 in 2026 Goals. I put a puzzle together while starting to binge listen to the podcast The Best People.

This is a small puzzle, only 350 pieces and a finished size of 12" x 20". It's small in size but has an enormous impact!

Wow! Just look at this illustration close up!

It's another cheapie puzzle from Dollar Tree. This just proves that hours and hours of puzzling enjoyment can be had for less than two dollars (tariffs be damned!)

The setting sun.

The galaxy.

Gorgeous!

Forest Village at Night

Wow. This is the first puzzle I've done in three months. That's fairly unusual for me, but understandable considering how distracted Dale and I have been.

It's 500 pieces by Puzzlebug. This is the brand I purchase from Dollar Tree. I check for new puzzles each time I go in - not because I need more puzzles! I have shelves of puzzles ready to put together. No, I like their small size and small price. I often do these small puzzles by myself rather than Dale and I putting them together as a team.

I prefer puzzles with illustrations rather than photographs. I also like bright colors. If they are whimsical, that's an added bonus.

This puzzle has all those qualities.

My goal is to complete 10 puzzles this year. I think that's still attainable.

Puzzle Season - 10

A few months ago Dale and I bought a dozen used Wysocki puzzles from someone in town. I think they were decluttering after the Covid years when jigsaw puzzles were all the rage. So over the weekend we put another one together.

It's unusual for a Wysocki image because it's primarily a single building rather than an entire town. It's called Pickwick Cottage. Dale did the original sort, put the border together, and constructed most of the cottage.

I jumped in then and concentrated on the sky and water. I enjoy doing the gradients.  Then we both put the road and greenery together. This illustration has many of Wysocki's charming details, including an American flag, of course.

This artist usually has neighbors greeting one another, and a dog, and a cat. This puzzle was not an exception.

Wysocki added in a random gal sitting alone in a rocking chair on the front lawn, watching the world go by. (And look! No cell phone in her hand!)

It wouldn't be a Wysocki without at least one prancing horse pulling a carriage.

Dale said he'd like to do one puzzle per week during these wet months, so expect many more Wysocki's - and other puzzles - to come.

Puzzle Season - 09

This last puzzle Dale and I finished to date is another illustration by Charles Wysocki. As distasteful as the last one was for me, the opposite is true for how much we both enjoyed putting this puzzle together.

This Americana scene is called Devilstone Harbor. Like so many of Wysocki's images, it's in three parts: The downtown street scene with the commercial shops, the outskirts of town with countryside in the background, and the horizon scene that has the waterfront.

There are always lots of character in the details:

And as usual, an American flag flies proudly over the town.

In troubling times, it's nice to take a break from "real life," put a puzzle together, and think of the kind of America we long to have.

Puzzle Season - 08

The second puzzle Dale and I put together in January is called All Good Things are Wild & Free. It's a quotation from Henry David Thoreau's essay, Walking. There's a lot to like about this puzzle.

It's manufactured by Flow, an international brand that celebrates mindfulness, creativity, and the simple pleasures in life. The illustration is by Dutch artist Valesca van Waveren.

The little camping and bug vignettes are sweet.

But one thing about puzzles made by smaller companies is that their quality can be lower than the standards of more established puzzle makers. Here, the cardboard is nice and solid, so the pieces feel good in your hand. But the quality falls apart a bit on the cut.

There are a lot of false fits ... meaning that pieces that are not meant to go together do go together "almost." But they don't come apart very easily. So the tabs get stuck and no matter how gentle we tried to be, they twisted, so the plies of cardboard pull apart. Unfortunately, by the time we found where the pieces do fit together correctly, the pieces became lumpy and bumpy. Note the few examples below.

For that reason, I doubt I'll put this puzzle together again. It's a shame because I do so like the image.

Puzzle Season - 07

Dale and I started out the year with another Charles Wysocki puzzle, A Friendly Good Day. We put this together on New Year's Day.

This is the very first Wysocki puzzle I've worked on that I did not like. It made me antsy. The illustration is great, as always. But the coloring and tone made it a nightmare for me. The overall yellow / orange tone made the pieces mush together too much for my brain.

Conversely, this was one of Dale's favorite puzzles. His color blindness was an attribute. Instead of trying to decipher what was red vs what was green, or what was purple vs what was blue, he could sort the pieces easily by tone and texture. I relied on the shapes of each piece.

It's a good reminder that we can each play to our strengths and find joy in our unique abilities.

I did enjoy picking out the pumpkins in the pumpkin patch.

Puzzle Season - 06

The last puzzle of 2025 is all about Sparkle and Glitter

I put this small 350 piece puzzle together by myself. These color-rich puzzles aren't Dale's style. I can't seem to get enough of them.

This is my favorite kind of glitter ... the kind that doesn't shed all over my Studio worktable ...

or get stuck in the creamy middle of an Oreo cookie.

Puzzle Season - 05

Dale and I spent Boxing Day constructing this snowy Christmassy puzzle.

Merry Christmas Shoppe is a nice-quality puzzle by Ravensburger manufactured in 2020. It had a number of tricky bits, but never so difficult as to stop us from progressing.

The details in this artwork from Janet Kruskamp have a dreamy old-timey feel:

I admit that we were happy to be warm inside, watching old episodes of The West Wing, eating BBQ chicken wings, and putting a puzzle together. It's awfully nice that we don't have to deal with snow-covered driveways and slick roads anymore.

Puzzle Season - 04

I've got 3 or 4 puzzles in this Harry Potter series. 

This one is Christmas at Hogwarts.

Harry, Fred and George are popping crackers.

Dumbledore

Hagrid and McGonagall

The story on the back of the puzzle box

This puzzle ended up being harder than I expected it to be. It could be because it's fairly dark. I like the illustration a lot.

Puzzle Season - 03

Dale and I returned to one of our favorite artists

Charles Wysocki

We enjoy these illustrations for the bright colors and detailed vignettes.

Plus, the thickness and weight of the individual puzzles pieces feels good in the hand and all the pieces hold together well so that sections can be easily moved into place.