New York Puzzle Company "Life in an Oak" By Justine Lee Hirten and Virginia Greene

The popularity of puzzling has skyrocketed during Coronavirus pandemic quarantine, and I'm seeing the benefits.  I had a friend pass along a stack of puzzles that she had completed.  This puzzle is the first I opened.

The New York Puzzle Company's collaboration with The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has birthed a beautiful line of images.  This 1000pc puzzle Measuring 26 5/8" x 19 1/4" contains so much information!  Titled "Life in an Oak," it illustrates the entire biologic cycle of life within a tree.  The box explains it "reveals the intricate relationships between insects, plants, and animals that live in and around oak trees.  Learn about the mushroom that vaporizes into an inky liquid to spread its spores, the weevils that eat acorns and in turn become food themselves, and the foxes and owls that live in the oak and prey on the mice and voles that feed on acorns."  The puzzle is copyright 2019, and comes with a poster that illustrates the puzzle, but also has insets explaining each of the animals listed in the description.

The quality of the pieces were museum-level, with a tight fit that I'd compare to Pomegranate.  I'll definitely be looking for more from this brand and series.

From the poster:

Great American Puzzle Factory Inc “California” by George Gorycki

When I saw this vintage puzzle on Ebay, I had to have it for my collection of California map puzzles hanging over my kitchen bar area.  It's copyright 1977, only three years after I was born, and made by The Great American Puzzle Factory Inc. from artist George Gorycki.  The Ebay listing showed it new in box, with the shrink wrap still on.  I opened it during a zoom conference call and had it complete in about six hours.  

Though the box looked fine, there is some moisture damage, mostly in one corner.  Because the water damage is on adjacent pieces, I think the puzzle was assembled at some point and put back into the box, then later shrink-wrapped and sold as new.  Whether it was the seller who shrink wrapped it or a past owner, who knows.  But I feel misled about the sale.  There's even one edge piece missing!  Since I completed the puzzle in one sitting, I don't feel there's any chance that I lost the piece.  I think it was not in the box.  Because the puzzle is vintage and I was so in love with the design, I decided to overlook it.

At 550 pc, The box says the finished size is approximately 18" x 24".  The key word is approximately.  I had to shave a half inch from one side of the puzzle when I went to frame it, or spend the money on custom framing after I had already purchased a frame.  Since there was one edge piece missing, I shaved from that side and left it at that. With the overlap from the frame, the missing piece is hardly noticeable.  But the design is no longer centered as it was intended to be.  Still, I love this puzzle and the details that are highlighted in the state!  I'll amend this post with a photo once it's hung in my kitchen. 

Karmin International "The Redecorators" by Linda Picken

This Linda Picken puzzle featuring painting puppies had me fooled - its blue color tones were more difficult to put together than I expected.  I framed these cute labs for a friend who has a dog boarding and training business.  "The Redecorators" is 18" x 24" at 550 pieces.  It's an earth friendly puzzle by Karmin International that is copyright 2011.  I found it at a thrift store.  There is a nice bio of the artist on the box that explains she's been painting for over thirty years and oil paintings of animals, especially dogs, are amongst her favorite subjects.

White Mountain “National Parks America” by Randy Green

This is the first 1000pc puzzle I've done in quarantine.  It did keep me busy for quite a while.  I spread out two pieces of foamcore on my bed, one with the puzzle pieces and one as a worksurface.  This is a very cool map puzzle from White Mountain - my first time trying that brand - that I bought new from Zulily.com.  I plan on framing this one without glass and getting map pins to mark all the national parks I've visited.  There are some nice descriptions and insets of the major parks.  I grew up some of my youth in Utah, which has many parks, so I'll have a good start at marking them.  

Copyright 2019, the puzzle measures 24 x 30 inches.  The artist is Randy Green.  The box is marked Made in USA. 

Eeboo "Crazy Bug Bouquet"

This beautiful Eeboo brand puzzle came from a local facebook puzzle exchange group.  It was generous of the woman to offer this up to me, a stranger, given the shortage of puzzles during the Coronavirus pandemic stay-at-home order.  She didn't even want another puzzle in trade.  

The 500 piece puzzle is unique for its round shape and palette of colors.  It measures 23 inches, or 58.5 cm in Diameter.  The fanciful flower arrangement populated by insects is copyright is 2017.

Pixxibook.com ~ Making a Blog Into a Book

I made a book for Jenny from our blog posts for a Mother's Day gift.  I've had a blog for over ten years but this is the first time I've used any blog-to-book service.  Jenny's book only included the "Landon" posts, not mine, but covered a period of over two years, from the beginning of the blog to May 1st, 2020.  It ended up at around sixty pages in the printed book. 

I checked out a few services but chose Pixxibook because I liked their collage cover and the layout of photos.  None of the services I tested printed the blog post's labels, which was a negative in my eyes.  I consider the labels to be not only a sorting method but also a continuation of the text.  

I ended up having to go through all of the blog posts and reformatting the blog itself before I could order the book.  I tend to like there to be a space after photos in the layout of the blog, but this didn't translate to the layout of the book, so I had to remove them within the blog posts so that the autoformatting of the book would look correct.  On the good side, I now know how to format posts going forward so that when we're ready to print the next volume it will be ready for layout without additional work.

The book came out so nicely that I want one of my own! 

Springbok “California” by Charles Frace (1969)

I bought this vintage Springbok Circular puzzle off ebay many months ago, but had always assumed it would be missing pieces simply due to its age.  My fantasy to have state maps from various decades framed above a bar began when I completed a Hennessy California map and framed it above my coffee bar in my kitchen.  This was to be the second added to the collection.  

Copyright 1969, it's a large puzzle at a finished size of 26 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches.  It's quite detailed, with many landmarks of the state pictured throughout.  The little tableaus made the puzzle a lot of fun to complete. 

In addition to the beautiful image painted by Charles Frace, The back of the box had a great essay on the history of California, written by Reed Jarvis, Historian of the National Park Service. The side of the box advertised "more than 500 pieces."

I took a photo in progress to post to facebook as a demonstration of my Coronavirus pandemic activities.  I actually completed this in mid-March 2020, but only just recently photographed, so the post is a bit delayed.  The film business had shut down only the week before.  I can see in my progress photo the piece on the far right corner that is missing in my finished photo.  I vaguely remember a piece falling off and going under my refrigerator.  I figured it will turn up eventually, and because it's on the edge, I can add it when I come across it.  So I flipped the puzzle over and proceeded to glue it with mod podge, as the first step in framing.  Unfortunately, a bit of glue went underneath the puzzle without my noticing.  It's visible just about two inches from the missing piece, and it did tear the puzzle image.  So I'll have to come up with a creative way to frame this, or replace the puzzle when I see it show up again on ebay.  This is proving to be an expensive project!

Dowdle "Maui" by Eric Dowdle

This land and ocean landscape from Dowdle represents Maui in 500 pieces.  Once again Landon and Jenny travel via puzzles and imagination.  Finished, it measures 16"x20"

Puzzle Stash Unload

Everyone's cleaning out closets during the Coronavirus pandemic.  I had several boxes of Landon's completed puzzles I was looking to pass along.  After mailing some to an uncle and a few to a best friend whose kids were home from school, I decided to test the waters of selling on Facebook.  I photographed eight or ten puzzles and listed them in one single marketplace listing, with a price of $5 each and suggested no-contact porch pickup.  Within minutes a friend I knew in person had messaged me, saying she was interested in the lot.  I knew her daughter was Landon's age, but my friend was more interested in the puzzles to keep her mother busy, who lives in my friend's home, and is suffering from some level of dementia.  Puzzles can certainly help to focus someone with mild dementia issues, and I was glad I could help to keep her busy.  What turned out to be clearing space for me was truly beneficial to a friend. 

When Your Cousin is So Thoughtful

I've been isolated at home during the Coronavirus pandemic, just me and the dogs for company.  I've been trying to bring some positivity by posting three things I'm thankful for to facebook each night before bed.  Tonight the first of these will be my cousin Beth, as she did something so very thoughtful for me.  I don't think anyone's done anything so kind for me in quite a long time.  Beth mailed me a brand new puzzle, that she ordered direct from White Mountain, brand new, just for me.  Just to make me smile.  And it worked!  It's so touching to have someone thing of me, especially now.  And it was so much fun to receive unexpected mail!  I've never had a delivery direct from any puzzle manufacturer.  I can't wait to post a completed photo when I have this one done.

Channel Craft North American Wildlife Puzzles "Bear Cub" by Ken Jenkins

This bear measures 18" x 24" when complete.  I'd think so much black space in a puzzle would be daunting, but Jenny and Landon knocked out this 550 piece puzzle in short order!  It's copyright 2006 and made in the USA.  It's part of a series that includes a fox pup, racoon, and fawn in addition to the bear, so we'll have to keep our eyes open for the others in thrift stores as they're all considered vintage today.

Impact Photographics “Grand Canyon National Park: Rim to Rim” by Dick Dietrich & Tom Till

Since the Coronavirus pandemic is forcing everyone to stay home, Jenny & Landon have been digging out some travel puzzles.  This panoramic puzzle from Impact Photographics transports them to the Grand Canyon in just 500 pieces.  The back of the box gives history and details on the park.  At 11.5in x 35.5in they spent some time getting to know this vista, and almost had to upgrade to a bigger work surface.