u/rosehipsgarden

I love the idea of 2000+ piece puzzles but boy am I learning I hate sorting them. This is my third 2000 piece puzzle and I really struggled with the sorting.

I like sorting based on image/section when doing most of my puzzles, but with 2000 pieces I'm finding that what I end up doing is taking forever scrutinizing a piece and just end up running my hand through the box of pieces hoping I find something obvious that sticks out. My first 2000 piece puzzle felt easy to sort because it was really just three sections, sky, trees and a castle. The ones after haven't been as simple of a composition.

I finally decided a couple days ago that I was going to give up sorting by section and just sort by piece shape. Basically started over from scratch. It took many hours, longer than it probably should have because I can get distracted easily and spend half an hour on my phone or puttering around the house when I'd meant to get a cup of tea, but I got it done! It took ten of my 12 large trays to get every piece to be laid out flat.

Now I can actually do the part I enjoy most, actually putting it together! Although I do have to say it's so satisfying neatly lining up all the pieces.

Starting on my next puzzle, and while I suspected it would be challenging given the painting style, I genuinely wasn't expecting it to be as purple as it is. Obviously I anticipated it in the sky, but everything seems to have a purple hue that my eyes don't pick up on in the picture.

On top of all of that, I discovered while doing the border that piece cuts are repeated. It's going to be false fit galore with pieces that don't have enough to differentiate themselves to make it clear when the image doesn't line up.

Not going to let any of that get me down, though. I've wanted to do a purple heavy puzzle, so here's my chance! 😅

I love castles, and the castle from Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite fictional castles. I discovered this puzzle a few years ago, and it quickly became a dream puzzle. Second hand listings were always around $80 when I checked. So I resigned myself to the version of this puzzle with Aurora on it and the castle cut away for an inside look, as seen in the third picture (Aurora - Ravensburger - 1000 pieces).

Then last month after I did the Aurora puzzle to kick off my summer of Disney puzzles, I checked ebay again and found a listing for $25. Even though the picture was accurate, I was so worried I was getting scammed when I bought it. I cried a little when the box came and it was the correct, full castle, puzzle inside.

This was such a joy to put together, a very nice blend of what I find to be challenging and easy elements. I started off with the little bit of landscape on the sides, and then all the roofs. By the time I got all of that done, I had a better understanding of the different stonework patterns all over the castle and the castle became such a breeze to do. The sky has a nice little gradient to it, and it was some nice meditative puzzling.

This is easily one of my favorite puzzles in my collection. It's decently screen accurate to the movie, and is a nicely designed puzzle. For at least what I enjoy out of a relaxing puzzle.

A little treat for myself after finishing my last puzzle. Hoped this one would be a breeze, and it was.

This was my first from MI Puzzles, and I can see the appeal. The picture quality and framing is really great. Much better photo quality than some other photo puzzles I've done. Fit was a bit loose, but it wasn't so bad because I've encountered worse.

Finished this one last night over the course of a few hours. A really nice refresher. On to the next l!

This puzzle was such a rollercoaster. I've done a couple eeboo puzzles before, and have absolutely loved them. Never had a problem with false fits. This puzzle, however, has been highly informative about what kind of images I want from eeboo.

I had to abandon the black portions of the border because of the amount of false fits. I got the left edge of the flag completely misplaced because of it. I took off every black border piece that didn't have a speck of color, resorted them and moved onto the actual image.

The woman, the flag, the fish, I had zero issues with. It was such a joy and a breeze to do it. Absolutely loved. I'm looking forward to doing those parts next June.

But that black. That black. Firstly, a *huge* shout-out to u/LaDolceVita141 for sharing your experience and most importantly, your picture of this puzzle. Because of the amount of false fits I started second guessing every piece that fit. I used your image as a reference when I felt like I was going crazy. The majority of the time I did have the right piece in the right place, but it was so nice to have a reference image to check and confirm.

I still had so much fun with this puzzle, and I fully intend to do it again. Just not the background. Never again. I'll still continue to get eeboo puzzles, this has hardly put me off, but now I know to avoid ones with large sections of a solid color.

My July haul has all come in during the course of this week and just about every other day I've gotten a puzzle in the mail.

The first two pictures are three mini matchbox wooden puzzles I found on etsy. Each one is ten pieces and hand cut. I've recently started looking for small, easy to transport puzzles for travel and fidgeting, and with the matchbox sized boxes, these really fit the bill. The puzzle maker had several Peter Rabbit ones and honestly I want them all.

The last picture is two puzzles I have been wanting for at least a year. I love castles, and Sleeping Beauty is one of my favorite animated movies. Both puzzles are technically of Sleeping Beauty castle. The one on the left is more accurate to how it appears in the animated movie. The one on the right is the non screen accurate version from Hong Kong Disneyland, before their castle was updated, which was a carbon copy of the Disneyland Sleeping Beauty castle. I grew up going to Disneyland, so the castle facade is something very near and dear to me.

Both were from ebay, and both can get pretty pricey. The Ravensburger one I've regularly seen listed for $75-$85+, and I got incredibly lucky and found a listing for $25. Not including shipping of course. The other one I've seen sealed versions listed for up to $100. Both were new and sealed and I'm so excited to get them started.

He sent me this text today and I feel like I might pass out from cuteness overload. It is such a sweet idea that he'd like art in his cubicle, but in puzzle form put together by me. I'm incredibly thankful and appreciative of how supportive he is of me and my hobbies. He'll happily listen to me talk about the brands I'm interested in trying, or me showing off the beautiful and amazing puzzles everyone shows off here. He'll get so excited for me when I find a great puzzle at a thrift store, the same for when a puzzle I've really wanted arrives in the mail. We're going on a big vacation later this year, and he's been looking for small puzzles I can take with me.

Does anyone have any recommendations for some office appropriate puzzles/brands? He's nerdy, into anime, plays video games, and really enjoys nature and national parks.

My summer of Disney puzzles continues with a little bit of Christmas in June. I've had my eye out for this one at thrift stores and anywhere else it might be for sale at not full price. I like it, I've been wanting to do it, but I don't like the image anywhere near enough to pay in the realm of $30 for this. Luckily I found it, sealed, for around $14. Much better price point for me.

​

Controversially, at least it feels that way given the number of puzzles I've seen, I don't really love Christmas puzzles. I can't really articulate why, I don't hate Christmas, but the style of a lot of Christmas themed puzzles just aren't for me. This one almost borders on that. The setup just makes no sense to me, and despite my whining about Christmas themes I don't like that only two snow globes have a Christmas theme.

​

But, whining aside, it was a lot of fun to do. I loved the inclusion of Lady and the Tramp, a movie that is very special to me. I opted to immediately sort by piece shape because otherwise I would be trying to sort into like sixteen different piles and I knew I would hate it. It was so much easier to immediately shape sort and then go through my trays looking for pieces of a snow globe. I started at the bottom with Lilo and Stitch and just went down the row one snow globe at a time. Was very relaxing and worked well for me.

​

Glad to have gotten this one, and it'll definitely see some more love from me during winter.

A huge, huge thank you to u/dreamer_at_heart for sharing this puzzle a little while back, and to this subreddit as a whole for introducing me to so many puzzles and brands.

​

When I saw this puzzle I immediately started searching for a copy. Why? Because the fluffy white and red dog in the bottom left corner is a Papillon. That breed has been in my life for about thirty two years. And amusingly enough, that's the age of this puzzle! Papillons came into my life when I was ten in 94, which is the date on the box.

​

I was lucky to find a sealed copy on ebay, although I do have to say it felt so wrong to take the plastic wrap off. But I reminded myself that this is what puzzles were made for, to be used and enjoyed. And that I was finally fulfilling this puzzle's purpose. That it's been waiting since I was ten for me to find it.

​

The box is damaged, dented and sun damaged, but that doesn't bother me. The answer guide was in the box and it's been so fun to go through. I will argue they cheated slightly, as some items count as more than one P. For example, the horse in the painting directly to the left of the large fish painting gets listed twice as a piebald and a pinto. Both are true, so it is fair. I think it works in the end because there's creativity involved, gets your brain working to find what P words might be associated with an object and keeps the puzzle from being too cluttered.

​

I absolutely loved this one, and am so happy to have it in my collection. The piece cut was really fun, and the pieces fit together so nicely. I'm a little tempted to hunt down a couple others in the Puzzle Within a Puzzle series as they look like a lot of fun.

​

Again, thank you so, so much to u/dreamer_at_heart for unknowingly bringing this joy into my life.

​

Also included in the pictures are some of my papillons I've had over the years.

My third Disney themed puzzle of the month. As someone who's more or less been priced out of the theme parks, I decided to set a personal theme for the summer of Disney puzzles. I have a small collection of ones I've done and "new" ones. I've been starting with the new ones that I've not done, and will get to the ones I've done before once those are done.

​

This was a find from Half Price Books. I don't do a lot of 500 piece puzzles, but for the right price and image I'll scoop it up. This definitely checked both boxes. Nice cheap price, and an amusing gimmick with the "3D" element to it. To my surprise, as the box looked a little worn, the box was sealed and there was an unopened bag inside.

​

This one was both fun and terrible. The characters were quick and easy to put together. Some pieces to the side of characters were easy to find because if you looked at the piece the right way then you could see a tiny shimmer of color from the character.

​

The pieces however were very plasticy and don't lay flat well and just don't connect in a nice smooth way. So even though I pressed as hard as I could and the pieces are connected, many look like they're floating. Also, my fingers got so shiny handling the pieces. Not sure what causes it, but I ended up keeping a towel on my lap to wipe my fingers on and periodically washed my hands.

I've had this one in my stash for close to a year now.

I've seen this one all over stores near me, and while I like it I don't like it enough to pay full price. Got lucky and found it at a thrift store for $2.

​

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Thomas Kinkade Studios puzzles. As a Disney fan, it often feels like it's the only art studio that produces licensed images for puzzles. Obviously it's not, but since there's so many it feels that way. When it comes to the composition of the images, it feels like the characters are so small and often not the focus.

​

And then the pieces tend to be so dark. It photographed better than how it was working on it. Maui felt like a black blob until I had him complete. I had no clue I'd found the eye of Te Fiti that's in shadow until I had a couple other pieces around it.

​

But I'll keep getting these puzzles because they are very lovely and they're fun. I really enjoyed the challenge of the sky and ocean. I basically sorted into border, sky, ocean, greenery and people/boat. And immediately shape sorted with as best a color arrangement as I could manage. It worked out pretty well and I had a lot of fun.

This was an amazing find, for an absolute steal, at my local Half Price Books. Also my first "real" wooden puzzle. And it was an absolute delight!

The piece shapes were all so interesting, with many unique and interesting shapes. What made it even more fun was that several pieces come together to make a larger shape, like a temple or Buddha. However there are some repeating shapes leading to a couple false fits but they're easy to identify because of the color patterns.

It was a very fun challenge because despite the limited and repetitive colors there are patterns within sections that really help differentiate where a lot of pieces go.

The pieces fit together as nicely as they can, because there's no true interlocking. So it's a bit loosey goosey but because of the thickness of the pieces it was still easy to move sections. Unfortunately the image is slowly starting to lift off pieces with very sharp corners/edges. I'm not entirely certain I'd want to pay full price for this brand, but I also don't know how common of an issue that is for wooden puzzles.

All said and done, I already want to do this one again before eventually taking it to my local puzzle swap to pass on the fun.

This has been in my stash for a while, over a year, and I keep putting it off because of how much I want to do it. Since it's one I'm really excited for, it feels like I can't do it until I've done more of my stash. And at the time I got it my number of Ravensburger puzzles was very small, and Ravensburger is one of my favorite brands so it felt like I couldn't go through my Ravensburger stash quickly.

Sleeping Beauty is my favorite Disney movie, and it's nice to combine my interests like this. When I find a Sleeping Beauty puzzle, it's a must have for me.

This is my second of the Castle Collection that I've done, the other being Rapunzel, and this one was much easier. The sky for Rapunzel is very challenging because of the paper lanterns, and the sky for this one was easier to get through with the levels of gradient to the pieces. I really love the design of the interiors of the castles. There's a nice mix of some rooms you see in the movies and rooms created for the puzzle image.

It was very fun and relaxing for me, and now I get to pick the next one from this collection to purchase as I want to do them all.

Was out running errands today and one of the places I was at is near a Half Priced Books. I've gotten a few puzzles there before, but it's not my normal go to place. Decided that since it's been a while I wanted to check. They had some really great stuff this time.

Got a Disney Ravensburger I've wanted but not wanted to pay full price for, a Eurographics I've wanted to torture myself with, my first Elena Essex, first Pomegranate amd a lovely eeboo in time for Pride!

And two wooden puzzles. When I saw them, I hoped that they were exactly what I thought they were. Didn't want to pull out my phone and check because I do not have a poker face of any kind.

Got home, opened the Nautilus box first, saw the lovely bag inside, reached in to pull out a couple pieces as my heart pounded. And gasped so loudly my husband thought something was wrong. Did the same with the Puzzle Lab box. Same reaction.

Then went to google and started hyperventilating. $8 for the Nautilus Wooden Puzzles and $5 for the Puzzle Lab is such a steal it should be criminal.

I have to have used up any luck I might have! These two were such amazing finds. I have no expectations on finding something like this ever again. Even if there are pieces missing I am so grateful because they're so gorgeous.

My husband is not into puzzles so we don't work on them together. However, he found a really unique way to participate in my hobby every now and then.

When I first started getting back into puzzling, he kept suggesting challenges. Like no looking at the box kind of challenges. I wasn't against it, but at the time didn't have any puzzles I'd want to do that with. Then on my birthday I found a small treasure chest (seen in the last picture) on our dining table. He had purchased a puzzle for me, and put all of the pieces into the chest. No hints or clues as to what it was of.

It ended up being a 2000 piece picture of Neuschwanstein castle, and while it was a beast the challenge of not knowing the puzzle in any way was so much fun. And my husband offered to give me a mystery puzzle any time I asked.

I've gotten a couple more since then, and he's really gotten into getting custom puzzles done for the special mystery puzzle. This was a photo he specifically took to be fun, silly, and a little challenging to make into a custom puzzle. We were out to dinner, and while I was briefly away from the table he took a sneaky picture of the beautiful sunset, intentionally getting the parking lot as a joke.

We're both glad he made it a 500 piece, although I'm very disappointed by Ravensburger this time because apparently the 500 piece custom puzzles don't come with the blue backing. And the piece cut is very different.

The sunset was so much fun to do, and the parking lot was much easier than it might seem because of the lines from the parking spots.

I'm incredibly lucky to have a spouse that supports my hobbies this much.

I started this puzzle in early April and finally finished it last night just before 1am. I've completed the other two puzzles in this multi pack, and I'm so glad to have it done.

I love Neuschwanstein Castle, and so I'm immediately drawn to puzzles of it. This is my second time completing a puzzle of Neuschwanstein, and I have a third in my stash. And there will probably be more.

This puzzle however, was awful. It's hard to see in the photos because my phone tries to clean it up, but the image is not super clear and crisp. The water has an almost pixelated effect, and the white of the castle is really blown out. The Trevi Fountain puzzle in the pack had the same issue with the white being so bright it was almost impossible to discern things other than shadows.

Add on the fact the pieces were all the same shape, and it was such a challenge. The water and the castle itself weren't too bad, it was of course all that green.

Should I have called it quits and packed it up? Absolutely. But I'm a masochist and genuinely enjoyed how bad this puzzle was. I find trying one piece in nearly every spot, some pieces it was easy to discern which direction they went, very meditative. So I spent many hours zoning out listening to comfort shows. Then any time I went four or more pieces without finding one that fit, and then finally found one I gleefully gloated and taunted the puzzle, letting it know I wasn't going to let it beat me.

I'd also been going through a rough patch with my mental health in April and May, and it eventually got to the point where I simply couldn't focus on any puzzle but this one. If anything, sticking to it, not letting my depression dictate what I'm doing, or not doing, getting the dopamine rushes from finding pieces that fit, and honestly taking some anger and frustration out on this puzzle helped me through things quite a bit.

So glad to have it done, and thankful that there were no missing pieces at all across all three puzzles despite being over twenty years old as far as I can tell. Even still, it's not my least favorite puzzle. On to the next!

I've been working on this 1000 piece Neuschwanstein from Sure-Lox since early April and it's driving me nuts. It's not my most hated puzzle but it's definitely up there.

The picture quality is horrendous. Things are blurry and out of focus. The water pieces look almost pixelated. And the picture on the box is so tiny it's almost worthless.

I've tried my method of alternating between different puzzles so I don't get burned out, and unfortunately it's not working for me this time. I'm in the middle of a depressive episode, and every puzzle I've tried to start I haven't felt the level of engagement and excitement I know I should. This is the only puzzle I can actually focus on. Even though it's driving me nuts.

Could I pack it up and call it quits? Absolutely. Will I? No, because apparently finishing puzzles I don't like is my toxic trait. I'm too stubborn to quit and there's an odd level of enjoyment I get from raging at a puzzle and gloating at it when I find a piece.

This is a repost from yesterday because I failed to attach the pictures. Thank you to the kind person who pointed it out because I was completely oblivious.

For someone that prefers doing 1000+ piece puzzles, I've been doing a lot of puzzles with piece counts under that for about a month now. I chalk that up to wanting to get through some of my thrift hauls pretty quick, and some ongoing health issues that leave me with minimal energy so I'm not feeling as gung ho tackling something larger.

This is another thrift haul find. I love cardinals and blue jays, so that alone made this a must have for me. I have a mated pair of cardinals that raises their babies in my bush every year, and at this point it might be their offspring raising the next generation. Also have some blue jays stop by my yard every so often.

I started this puzzle Sunday night and finished it late Monday afternoon. I don't often time myself, mostly because I get distracted while puzzling and take lots of mini breaks, but this was really quick to put together. Would probably take me less time if I hadn't sorted just by bird pieces and non bird pieces because I didn't have the energy for a more thorough sort.

This one's a keeper for me, and I already want to do it again. But on to the next one!

I found this gorgeous image of Bear Lodge, one of several names given to the impressive national monument in Wyoming by the Lakota people, at a thrift store. Didn't even care that it was 500 pieces, my general preference is 1000+, went immediately into the cart.

I absolutely loved the random cut of the pieces. I've not done a lot of random cut puzzles yet, but the few I've done I've enjoyed. Finding the righ piece is almost easier because every shape is so unique, but at the same time what looks like a spot for one piece may actually be two to three.

The hold on the pieces though? Absolutely terrible. I breathe and a section comes apart. The image quality is great, but locking together is almost non existent. I moved it onto a mat and that helped quite a bit but wasn't perfect.

Finding out who made the image has been tricky. I think the puzzle brand is Image Photographics, which appears to be a souvenir wholeseller. I'm pretty convinced this was sold in the Bear Lodge gift shop, especially as there was a brochure/map of Bear Lodge in the box! The box also says "Photographer - Dan Grigg Images" which may also be a souvenir wholeseller? The googling I've done has yielded me little information on who the actual artist is unfortunately.

This is one I'll be keeping, just because I love the image so much and it was a lot of fun despite the very glaring flaw.