Small Thoughts- Puzzles and Hobbies

Puzzles, crafts and other smaller thought activities!

Autumn Memories by Buffalo Games Puzzle Review

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autumn memories puzzle
Autumn Memories
Number of pieces: 500
Completed size: 21.25×15 inches
Puzzle Artist: George Kovach
George Kovach on Facebook
Note: Reference poster included

 

I was so happy with Autumn Memories, another puzzle from the “Days to Remember” puzzle series from Buffalo Games! This is one of several puzzles from the series I have completed over the past few weeks. This was a great transition puzzle to do from summer into fall. George Kovach did the beautiful images in this puzzle. It features an early evening scene by the water’s edge. There is a cozy inn, with a fire lit inside. People line the edge along the docks, looking at the night sky or hopeful fishermen by the row of red canoes. There is a full moon in the dark blue sky and cars park outside the local inn and bar. People gather here to spend time together one last time before heading home for the season.

autumn memories puzzle

Another amazing autumn puzzle to do!

Have you done Autumn Mmemories or another “Days to Remember” puzzle? What did you think?
I would love to hear your ideas about this puzzle and other fall puzzles- please leave a comment here on my Small Thoughts Puzzle channel on Youtube. Thank you!

Fall and Halloween Puzzle Collection video now posted!

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Fall Puzzles: Video Collection
WATCH NOW!


WATCH on Youtube NOW!

In this two-part puzzle video: Check out the two-part series of my fall and Halloween puzzle collection video!
I do a video walk-through of ALL (for now!) my fall-themed puzzles, including some adorable Halloween puzzles. Some of the jigsaw brands in the video: Bits and Pieces, Pomegranate Puzzles, Buffalo Games, Vermont Puzzle Company, Cobble Hill Puzzles and more!

🧩 Do you have a question about puzzle brands? Do you have suggestions for a new puzzle review? Please leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments section here on my Youtube puzzle channel:

🧩 Instagram: @smaller_thoughts

🧩 Buffalo Games – Country Store – 500 Piece Jigsaw
USA: https://amzn.to/3FNxVFn
Canada: https://amzn.to/3ALkySd

🧩 Buffalo Games-Days to Remember-Country Road, Hiro Tanikawa
USA: https://amzn.to/2YTIHJH
Canada: https://amzn.to/3p6Osyf

🧩 Bits and Pieces – Quilting Room, Parker Fulton
USA: https://amzn.to/3ANPscN
Canada: https://amzn.to/3j4O9A4

🧩 Ravensburger The Fishing Lesson, Mary Ann Vessey
USA: https://amzn.to/3FVgIda
Canada: https://amzn.to/3j5pUBF

🧩 Bountiful Meadows Farm puzzle review
USA: https://amzn.to/3DLsxAG
Canada: https://amzn.to/3p6P5b5

🧩 Halloween Town Puzzle
USA: https://amzn.to/3p9pBtJ
Canada: https://amzn.to/3ALk4eR

🧩 Read my puzzle review for Kawase Hasui: Autumn at Saruiwa

🧩 Bits and Pieces: Hens and Chicks
USA: https://amzn.to/3FVgcMg
Canada: https://amzn.to/3FVgcMg

🧩 Read review for : Cobble Hill: Halloween Buddies
USA: https://amzn.to/3aI8ZRd
Canada: https://amzn.to/3aI8ZRd

🎵
Music: “Somewhere” from Leonard Bernstein’s Westside Story arranged and performed by Mr. Bill
Mr. Bill played bass professionally for over 40 years. He was classically trained. In his retirement years, Bill decided to learn how to play dinner jazz on piano. He has arranged mostly well-known, slow-tempo songs that have interesting chord progressions.
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The sheet music for “Somewhere” arrangement can be found at: https://musescore.com/user/4506351

“Harvest Festival” Puzzle Review | Cobble Hill Puzzles

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Another cozy Fall puzzle to do!


Puzzle Company: Cobble Hill
Number of pieces: 500
Completed size: 19 x 26 inches
Puzzle Artist: Nancy Wernersbach or follow on IG : @nancywernersbach

Buy “Harvest Festival” Puzzle

Buy Harvest Festival in USA
Buy Harvest Festival in Canada

This is one of my favourite puzzles to do! To me this is the Fall version of “Spring Cleaning” also a puzzle made by Cobble. The illustration is done by well-known puzzle artist, Nancy Wernersbach. I believe she also does puzzles for Bits and Pieces puzzles as well.
Once again, so many details in this puzzle to keep it interesting! This fall puzzle is packed with images of cute little creatures, like ducks and ducklings. The usual hay, pumpkins, scarecrow and of course a brimming over bushel basket of apples. I love this puzzle 🙂

This puzzle comes with a high-resolution poster for reference and a sturdy box. The puzzle pieces are low glare, they have a textured linen-like finish to them. The puzzle pieces have interesting random cut shapes. I do prefer random cut pieces to traditional grid cut pieces. I love their puzzle pieces. I wish other puzzler makers would follow suit. I do not enjoy glare while doing puzzles.
Do you have a preference?

READ MORE: Halloween puzzle reviews

I give this puzzle a 9/10. I love the quality and the bright vivid colours.

Have you done Harvest Festival puzzle? Can you recommend other fall puzzles to do over the autumn months?

Totem Pole in The Mist | Cobble Hill Puzzle Review

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Totem Pole in The Mist – Jigsaw Puzzle

Puzzle Company:Cobble Hill
Number of pieces: 1000
Completed size: 26.5x 19″
Puzzle Artist: Terry Isaac
Skill level: Intermediate- challenging
Overall rating:
5 star puzzle rating

Notes:
Cobble Hill makes their puzzle pieces a random cut and has amazing thickness. The random acts make the puzzle doing experience a little more fun.
Very little puzzle dust and beautiful, clean cuts in the wooden pieces.

This is likely one of the most beautiful pieces of art I have seen in a puzzle illustration. The artist is Terry Isaac, from British Columbia, Canada. The colour palette that was used but the artist is stunning. He paints the totem Thunderbird” from well-known carver Willie Seaweed, carved in the 1930’s.
The puzzle quality, the beautiful image and the included poster all made this one of my favourite puzzles.

This is a 1000 piece puzzle and the puzzle was a joy to do from start to finish.
The quality of the puzzle pieces is comparable to Ravensburger Puzzles. The price point is fantastic and Cobble Hill is a great value. The best part about Cobble Hill puzzles is the high-quality, high-resolution poster that comes with their puzzles. Including a poster makes doing their puzzles more enjoyable! The poster is not only a great keepsake but I love to be able to use a poster instead of a heavier puzzle lid for reference.
Recommend highly!

Totem Pole in The Mist is a great puzzle to do in the fall
and autumn months!

Autumn at Saruiwa Puzzle | Adult Puzzle Reviews

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Autumn at saruiwa

I like Japanese art, particularly watercolour. One of my favourite Japanese watercolour artists is Kawase Hasui (1883–1957). I especially love his subtle earth-tone colour palette and gorgeous gradients. Kawase Hasui helped to create the shin-hanga art style of the mid-century.

Is Autumn at Saruiwa the best autumn puzzle?

Pomegranate Puzzles have a beautiful buttery soft feel to their puzzle pieces. Their puzzles pieces have a wonderful feel and that makes for a pleasant puzzle experience. The puzzle pieces are cut in a grid pattern and have a good solid fit. The quality of the inks used is outstanding. The puzzle pieces are highly pigmented and the colours are vibrant and saturated.

This puzzle is a stunning piece of art. The stunning oranges, greens and ochres inks used made this a delightful autumn/ fall puzzle! I rate this fall-themed puzzle at a solid 7.5/10.
It was a medium-difficult level mainly because of the grid shape. If you are good with colours, then the gradients will be easy for you!

What do you think makes the best fall puzzle?

Let me know in the comment section here or on my Small Thoughts Puzzle CHannel

Autumn at Saruiwa Puzzle

Purchase Autumn at Saruiwa Puzzle in USA
Purchase Autumn at Saruiwa Puzzlein Canada

Fantastic Fall Puzzle! Country Road by Buffalo Games | Puzzle Review

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Country Road Jigsaw Puzzle

Buffalo Games-Days to Remember-Country Road-500 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle

I am OBSESSED with the nostalgia-themed “Days to Remember” puzzle series from Buffalo Games. I have enjoyed doing three or four of them in the last few weeks.  I recently did a review of Bountiful Meadows Farm Puzzle. The latest puzzle that I finished from this series is “Country Road“, and indeed it is! There are so many fall and autumn images to look at in the harvest-themed puzzle! Cutes illustrations of vibrant vegetables, plenty of pumpkins, baskets of apples and oodles of jams and jellies. made this puzzle a joy to complete.  loved the bright oranges, greens and other fall colours. They made this puzzle an absolute delight to do!

Buffalo Games puzzles pieces are random cut, nice size and a good fit.
My overall puzzle experience was 7.5/10 and it was an easy-medium level of difficulty. I loved the image much more than I thought I would. The 500-piece size, with smaller pieces, is perfect. I finished it in about 4 hours.

I am OBSESSED with fall and autumn puzzles. I have a ton to do- way more puzzles than tables and time!
How about you?

What do you think makes the best fall puzzle?

Do you like fall puzzles? Do you have a favourite autumn puzzle you think I would like? Please let me know in the comments section here or on my Small Thoughts Youtube channel!

Bountiful Meadows Farm Puzzle Review | Bits and Pieces

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Bountiful Meadow Farms puzzle

I just finished another fall harvest puzzle! I have been doing a whole bunch of Country Store/General Store/ down on the farm type puzzles this past month, now they are taking on a fall theme.
Bountiful Meadows Farm is an adorable fall puzzle from Bits and Pieces Puzzles. And indeed it is! There are so many cute images of pumpkins, hay, apples and red barns off n the distant field.
The artwork is by Thomas Wood, it appears to be oil on canvas. 

The puzzle pieces are random cut.
My overall puzzle experience was 7/10 and it was a medium level of difficulty. The challenge came from the similar textures in tree leaves and the similar shade of brown and there were some false fits at first. My current puzzle setup means there is more glare than I would like, the puzzle pieces are a bit glossy.

I am OBSESSED with fall and autumn puzzles and I am really looking forward to doing more in the coming autumn weeks.

What is the best fall puzzle

Do you like fall puzzles? Do you have a favourite autumn puzzle you think I would like? Please let me know in the comments section here or on my Small Thoughts Youtube channel!

Buy in Canada: https://amzn.to/39g9u4n
Buy in USA: https://amzn.to/3tPn9so

Cobble Hill Four Seasons 2000 piece puzzle | Puzzle Review

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Four Seasons Puzzle

Welcome new and old puzzle buddies. You can view my full video review of Cobble Hill Four Seasons puzzle on my Small Thoughts channel. Thank you for taking the time to watch!

This jigsaw puzzle, Four Seasons by Cobble Hill is gorgeous! At 2,000 pieces, this puzzle is a lot to tackle and difficulty would be on the challenging side for most puzzlers. This is the kind of puzzle you could leave out on a table for people to do at their leisure or a rainy weekend at the cottage. It features the Fours Seasons and is divided into 4 sections, one for each season. Cobble Hill quality is fantastic. The pigments used for inks images are beautiful and as always, Cobble Hill comes with a high-resolution poster. I highly recommend Cobble Hill Four Seasons! Have you done this puzzle? Have you ever done a larger-sized puzzle like this before?

You can read more about puzzle brands, like Cobble Hill, and what makes a good puzzle, on my recent post, Puzzle Brand Compared: What are the best puzzle brands?

Apple Pie Kitchen by Cobble Hill | 500 piece Puzzle Review

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Apple Pie Kitchen by Cobble Hill

I finished my Apple Pie Kitchen by Cobble Hill puzzle over a rainy week in April and it lifted my dampened spirits! This is a 500 piece puzzle, typically most puzzlers would finish a 500 piece puzzle in about two hours. I take SLIGHTLY longer than most puzzlers and this took closer to 4 hours to do.
I loved the 1930’s style farmhouse kitchen and the bright warm colour palette used by the artist. There were many cute objects to look at while doing and the drawings on this puzzle are charming! I loved all the pattern prints in the puzzle, like the little girl’s calico dress and the plaid kitchen curtains.

Sellers of Apple Pie Kitchen ( USA)
Cobble Hill Puzzles

Makes Great Summer Puzzle!

Have you done this puzzle before? How long does it take you to finish a 500 piece puzzle?

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