Brand: CardinalPieces: 500Size: 35.5cm x 27.9cmProduct Code: -
Well it's back to Saturday morning posting, at least for the foreseeable future.
Last week was quite intense in terms of busyness. Like I mentioned, we went to see a band on Friday night, then the next day was spent at the Melbourne Zoo, although I didn't see any pandas because they no longer have them there :( , and the Vic Market. Despite our best efforts, we didn't end up staying for 'White Night' - we were too exhausted and would have had to wait at least 5 hours for it to get dark enough for the event. Maybe next year?!
This weekend is also going to be quite busy- Geelong's multicultural festival Pako Festa is on today (which is why I have posted the above picture). I thought that the carnival vibes of the Bourbon Street Parade coincided nicely with our local event. We'll also be going to Melbourne this Sunday to visit relatives and see Robbie Williams live in concert- so many shows coming up!
But back to the puzzle...
This Cardinal branded puzzle was quite a joy to do. The colours are vibrant and the pieces are small and fit together perfectly. I love busy and eye-catching designs like this because there's always something different to look at and it makes the piecing together of the puzzle interesting.
Another successful design from this brand :)
Brand: CardinalPieces: 500Size: 35.5cm x 27.9cmProduct Code: -
It's quite rare that I don't post this blog (and Instagram) on a Saturday morning, but sometimes circumstances call for a change. Tonight my husband and I are going to be attending the Evanescence concert in Melbourne (one of my favourite bands from my teenage years), and we'll be staying in the city overnight so I won't have any opportunity to post tomorrow morning. We'll also be staying in Melbourne until late tomorrow night- we wanted to experience 'White Night'- therefore my next opportunity would have been Sunday morning and that just feels too late!
So I'm getting in a day early!
I have decided to post the above puzzle for two reasons- one, we'll be spending time at Melbourne Zoo on Saturday and I love to visit the pandas! And two, even though it's the Year Of The Dog for Chinese New Year, I didn't have any puzzles of dogs to put up so I figured I'd put up one of a distinctly Chinese animal instead!
The above puzzle was quite easy to do, although some parts of the dragon (above the pandas) were a little bit challenging. The pandas themselves weren't too bad because the shading of their fur made it easier to differentiate each part and determine which panda was which.
Funnily enough, when I finished this puzzle, there were two pieces left over, with nowhere left to put them! Usually with these cheaper brands, you find yourself missing pieces, so I suppose that was a pleasant surprise, even if I couldn't do anything with them. Maybe there's another Playful Pandas puzzle out there somewhere that's missing two pieces?! Oh well, at least it wasn't mine!
Brand: SunsOut
Pieces: 500
Size: 18" x 24" (45.7cm x 61cm)
Product Code: 36626
Sometimes I have a reason for posting a particular puzzle, usually in commemoration of a certain day or event.
Sometimes I don't!
Today is one of those days- when I saw this puzzle photo sitting in my folder I thought, 'Why not?'
So here it is!
This SunsOut puzzle is made up of uniquely shaped pieces and was a pleasure to do. Because the colours are so vibrant, it was quite quick to sort and put together, and because of the size, I was able to do it on a smaller board, making it much more manageable. If I do any transport puzzles, it's usually of classic cars rather than locomotives, so doing a train puzzle was a nice change from the norm...
I think it came out a treat!
Brand: RavensburgerPieces: 1000Size: 50cm x 70cmProduct Code: 196869
If you're looking for a more challenging 1000 piece puzzle, then this could be just the one for you!
I don't usually have many difficulties when it comes to Ravensburger puzzles- in fact, I usually find them quite easy to do. But this one gave me issues! The skull part was easy enough to do, but when it came to the purple and black zigzags around the skull, I had a bit of trouble! In fact, this is the only puzzle I have done recently where I needed to sort the pieces by shape and use a process of elimination to work out which piece went where. Because the colours were solid, it took ages! I finished the skull in no time and the following days were spent trying to work out the rest! Needless to say, it got me quite frustrated and there was a proper sense of satisfaction when I was finally able to put the last piece in and complete it.
On another note, did you know that a few days ago (January 29) it was National Puzzle Day? And thanks to the lovely @puzzlebedazzle on Instagram, I learnt about a wonderful Facebook group called Global Jigsaw Jubilee! They hold a puzzle-solving competition for their members, which begins on this day and runs until the end of April. Registrations have closed now and the competition is in full swing but it's a great event for jigsaw enthusiasts and well-worth entering next year...
