About my ratings

Perhaps because of my day job, I'm a tough rater. Everything 3/5 and above I consider worth the time and money. If I purchase on Etsy or a similar platform and the puzzle is as expected, I will give a top rating on the platform because of how seller ratings work, but here "as expected" is probably a 3/5 in most cases.

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Rich Urbaniak, Stargazers

 Ecru, 400 pieces. Really impressive cut that somehow doesn't come through as much as I wanted to on the back; I don't usually flip Ecru puzzles but this one was so nice! 4/5






love the linked birds



Dino-Mite!

 Stave, 80 pieces. Fun Teaser, not too difficult. 6/10






Aslan Lion

 Whimsy, 331 pieces. The dark areas on the side were still distinguishable by shading, so this was a relatively steady assembly. 3/5




Monday, April 27, 2026

The Coasters, Kinnally

 Peaceful Puzzles, 250 pieces. The curvy cut here worked well with the image. 3/5





Pierre-August Renoir, Gabrielle with Jewels

 Fireside Puzzles, 88 pieces. New cutter for me; push-fit but small enough that I didn't get frustrated.

(I'll try anything once!) 3/5






Dog Day Afternoon

 Stave, 480 pieces. Very fun cut with lots of little grace notes. 7/10





counting sheep

cat!

birds, including one perched on the knob

sew+wheat tree+ms =sweet dreams

multipiece dog

multipiece cat

barking


Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Yei

 Joyful Nook, 462 pieces. I ultimately soured a bit on Joyful Nook because they had a lot of small and repeated-shape pieces. This one mostly doesn't suffer from the "small" problem, with one very striking exception, but the repeated shapes combined with areas of continuous color to make it not a very pleasant finish--I was basically just guessing/maybe it didn't matter--even with some interesting multipiece whimsy design.


Look at this tiny hexagon: why?





Home on the Range, Miguel Pichardo

 Victory (new), 414 pieces. The image was a fun one because although the bison is clear once it's together, color line cutting around the animal combined with patterned chunks in the image to make it more difficult. 3/5






Market Place

 Bogarts, 485 pieces. A fun image where shape has to do a ton of the work because colors keep repeating. I forgot I hadn't taken a picture until I made the first shake to disassemble it, but you can still see some nice details in my photo! 7/10






Thursday, March 19, 2026

Bearly There

 Fathom, 200 pieces. I was a bit hesitant because it's dark, but it's excellent, like every Fathom puzzle I've done. I wonder if Fathom could do the bit of curving on the edges of certain pieces that creates tiny little dropouts on the similar Stave Tormentors. 4/5





Christmas Stocking

 Twigg, 97 pieces. A cute tidbit; I like the derpy Santa. Whimsies noticeably larger than regular pieces. 3/5




We Can Do It!

 Puzzlapy, 63 pieces. Color line cut, which isn't my favorite, but the small size & solid frame prevented real frustration. And obviously a great image! 3/5