Finished A "Friends" Puzzle...It Messed With My Mind

 My wife ordered a Friends-themed puzzle. She thought it would be fun.

Turned out, it wasn't as fun as she thought it would be.

Oh, it wasn't the worst puzzle we've ever done--that would be a thrift store find that was missing puzzle pieces. No, even though the photos used to make up the puzzle are fun for fans of the show, this puzzle had a lot of negatives going for it.

First, it wasn't "high-quality." We've put together a lot of puzzles (more than some, not as many as others...) and we've gotten used to a certain quality of the product. Most of those puzzles we've finished were from Dowdle Folk Art Puzzles. We love them. The pieces fit together nicely, but better yet, they include a separate larger-than-the-box picture of the puzzle, a picture you can pick up and look at closely.

The Friends puzzle only had the picture on the box, and a lesser-quality picture on the bottom of the box. It started giving me a headache trying to pick out the tiny details found on the individual puzzle pieces.

My wife did almost all the puzzle. I swooped in at the end and finished it. I don't think I could have done it all--there were just too many issues with this particular puzzle.

If you're a fan of the TV show and a fan of puzzles, I'm not going to necessarily discourage you from choosing this puzzle...

I'm not necessarily encouraging it, either.

One Of My Favorite Puzzles...EVER

 We entered the store and I was sent on an assignment...go see if they have this or that.

So, I went to see if they had this or that.

Turns out, I found something better.

I'm talking about our shopping trip to Costco...the something better being a Dowdle puzzle. But, not just any Dowdle puzzle (for we have many...), a Costco puzzle. This combines two of our favorite things.

A good puzzle, in my opinion, gives you something to look at--to ponder--while you're spending time putting it together. If you share this opinion, I think you'll like this particular item. It's like a "Where's Waldo" situation, but instead of Waldo, there's dozens of people to find. There's kids running around, there's older men relaxing on the sofas, there's a guy trying out the exercise bike. You can look at it over and over again and see something new each time.

Another sign of a good puzzle.

I attached a video of the picture that comes with the puzzle to help with the assembly. You can stop the video and maybe see some of the detail. Unfortunately, the video is in a small window--can't really change that.

The family put it together in a few days. That's pretty good for us. Just looking at it, you'd think it would be a tough one to finish, but in some ways, it was easier.

If you happen to be sent on an assignment for this and that while in Costco, you may come across the puzzle. I recommend picking one up...

If you like that sort of thing.

It's The Little Things That Help...

We've joined millions of others during this unusual time and taken up the leisurely activity of puzzle-putting together. And the puzzle maker of choice for our family belongs to Eric Dowdle and his amazing folk art masterpieces.

Last Sunday we put together yet another great puzzle--The Black Hills puzzle was a little tougher than the one of Niagara Falls we put together on Easter.

Since Dowdle puzzles are the only ones we've bought in the past several years, I don't know if their packaging of the puzzles is unique. It's cool that the puzzles sit on a shelf like a good book. And because of this, we don't get the advantage of looking at the top of a puzzle box to get a better look at the picture. Because of this, the people at Dowdle Folk Art puzzles include a nice printed picture of the finished product in each box.

When we put together the Niagara Falls puzzle, I had a simple--but self-admittedly--brilliant idea. I took the printed picture included in the puzzle and made full color copies, one for each puzzle participant.

I know, it's a small thing, but passing around the single picture again and again, or worse yet, picking up the box to get a better idea of where a particular piece goes was a pain. So, if this little idea helps, I say go for it. It's on the house.

Looks Like We're Not The Only Ones Itching For A Puzzle...

My wife came across a story in our local news media yesterday. The headline says it all:

Utah puzzle company experiences an explosion of sales

It's one of the many consequences of a world-wide event where people are urged (or forced...) to stay home and not go anywhere. In hindsight, we probably should have seen a run on puzzles with everyone stuck inside. Then again, who could have even imagined anything like this happening in the first place. 

There's a lot we didn't see coming.

Last week we did a little grocery shopping and spotted one of Eric Dowdle's artistic works all chopped up to interlocking pieces. We picked it up. This is not the first Dowdle puzzle we've bought. In fact, one year we chose Dowdle puzzles as Christmas gifts for my wife's siblings. There's so many puzzles to chose from, we were able to find puzzles of the cities where my in-laws live.

One of my favorite Dowdle Folk Art puzzles is a scene of the Holy War university football game between the University of Utah and Brigham Young University. Great puzzle.

The local news article goes on to say how everyone is clamoring for more puzzles. You can access the story: HERE. We can definitely understand the draw. It's a great activity when you've run out of things you want to binge watch or read. And, the entire family can help out and enjoy the challenge. You can access the company website: HERE.

We bought the "Best of Utah" puzzle. The only downside for us is it was a 500-piece puzzle--it took us less than two hours to complete. We had hoped for at least a 1000-piece one. Looks like we'll need to do some digging in our storage boxes for the Christmas puzzles we have--that's the only other time we've had the time to do a puzzle, when we didn't want to go anywhere else. Now, even though the reason we're all home is different, the fact we're all home remains the same.