Who Knew Puzzles Had Accessories...?

 Over the summer we scored a couple of items at yard sales--both having to do with puzzles--both were made to make the puzzle-putting-together-process easier.

They're both great.

A few weeks ago, we decided to honor Labor Day by putting together a puzzle, Eric Dowdle's North Shore. Great puzzle. Since this was the first puzzle we attempted after finding these puzzle accessories, we thought we'd try them out., Here are my grades of both items.

Roll & Stow

I wasn't sure about this one. It's a large piece of felt with some white stickers shaped like a large puzzle piece stuck in each corner. I thought the felt piece was too small. And, I suppose when working larger puzzles it will be too small, but for our 1000 piece Dowdle, it was perfect. The Roll & Stow comes with the felt and large cardboard tubes. Once you finish the puzzle (or if you're not completely finished...), you can put the tube over the puzzle, then just roll it up and stow it away. We didn't try the Roll & Stow until we finished the puzzle. We rolled it up and could have stowed it away if we wanted to.

Rating: A+

Sort & Go

My wife picked up the box at a yard sale. The yard sale organizer told my wife that the product was amazing and they were only selling the one because they had two. Of the two accessories, I thought this was was more practical. You can sort the puzzle pieces into six trays and if you want to take a break and put the unfinished puzzle away in the stackable tray, just stack up the trays and you're good. The trays prevent having a big pile of puzzle pieces containing even the smallest fleck of blue on the table waiting for the family dog to come along and eat a piece or two. Those who put the puzzle together used the trays and liked them.

Grade A

I was unaware of these accessories. I'm unaware of a lot of things that are available out there. But, if you're a puzzler and you don't know these exist, you ought to try them out. Hopefully, you'll agree with me and like them both.

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.