Percy Pig - M&S (500 pieces)

 I love Percy Pig sweets - love, love, love and so for my birthday was delighted to receive a whole jar of them...and then less delighted...for a joke - this puzzle. Except it was no joke. I knew what would await me having done my fair share of baked beans and sprouts before. I organised my pieces in a way I knew would be needed and the slog began - a simply process of elimination for some segments. I normally take just over an hour to complete a 500 piece puzzle, so by the end of this marathon, was more irritated than pleased - but I can never say no. Let's just say I'm happy it's now in the charity bag and won't be speaking to my mother (who gifted it) for a full 5 minutes! 

Time taken: 15 hours. 

One hundred dogs and one cat - Tesselz (141 pieces)

An interesting little puzzle with pieces that were tessellating - each looking rather odd if you ask me. Not too tricky though as all the dogs were facing the right way. It was quite a tall puzzle, which required some manoeuvring on the table to get it in a working position and didn't take long, but was good fun. 

As a bonus the person who had given it to me also gave me the world map - 100 pieces - cute. 

Time taken: Less than an hour, 

Family clear out - 500s only...

 A colleague at work knows I'm a puzzle fiend and has been keeping me going during this new lockdown with a series of puzzles from a family clear out. The joy of this is that they have all been 500 pieces (and one 300)! This means they fit on my coffee table and therefore I can do them snuggled on the sofa with the TV on in the background (BBC Winter watch being my choice of puzzling programme). None took long, but all were lovely little evening moments. 

Christmas Delivery - Otter House (1000 pieces)

 I received this puzzle as a gift from my teaching assistants - one of whom is very eco-minded! Therefore it was no surprise that she had found a brand with environmental values. Not only was the box smaller than that of a conventional 1000 piece puzzle, but inside the pieces were housed in a paper bag. The snug size also meant I feel there will be less chance of pieces going missing. The cut and quality was good and the picture lovely, making for a calming afternoon after a busy Christmas period. 

Time taken: 4 hours 

December 2020 - the month of tiers, social distancing and lots of puzzles...

Well, what do you do when you can't go out? Puzzle of course! December is always the month when my regular Xmas puzzles make an appearance. This year I had a new Gibson's advent calendar to add to the ones I'd already collected so this meant 2 mini puzzles everyday as a minimum. Christmas Eve also became a dedicated puzzle day with Christmas films on in the background and of course Boxing Day is always a puzzle day with my dad...add in a few others along the way and it proved a very busy time.

 

A tale of 3 puzzles...with a little disaster along the way

 I was enjoying our recent BCD virtual meeting with the theme of animals. I had decided to complete a 3-panel puzzle comprised of 2x 500 piece puzzles and 1x 1000 piece puzzle. Put together they would create one long image. The first puzzle was quick and I decided to store it on a board so I had space to tackle the next. Not a problem and away I went again. The second puzzle finished, I decided to slide it onto the same board as the first. Things started well, but then from behind me I heard a sound I was trying to avoid....a puzzle sliding. Well, I won't say much more - the photo shows what happened. 

So, rather than completing 3 puzzles I completed 5 in reality by doing 2 of them twice. The finished puzzle picture was lovely and although there was one piece missing it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment. Lessons learned for next time!!

Time taken: morning and most of the afternoon

Peter Pan - Tinkerbell: Ravensburger (1000 pieces)

Not the title I would have chosen, but you get the idea. I loved this puzzle - right up my street - lots of bright colours and smaller details, plus I'm a huge Disney fan. I made a mistake during the 'sort' phase by collecting all the rings and edges - this meant I had far too many pieces to work with so it took much longer. Once they were in place however, the rest of the puzzle was easy really. 

Time taken: 3.5 hours.