I dove right in and started The Haunted Castle. As I mentioned in the previous post, this is the first series of puzzles by Flipsi Puzzles.
First I love that the puzzle comes in a reusable bag. I hope that all puzzle companies switch to reusable bags.
The pieces have a nice, solid feel. While both sides are matte, it’s easy to distinguish between the known side, the Castle, and the surprise side (what’s lurking inside).
For this puzzle, I sorted the pieces by shape. From there, I completed the edges and then started on the castle. This 500-piece puzzle is a good challenge. I rank it a medium difficulty.
This was a super fun puzzle and I look forward to completing the other two, the Haunted House and the Haunted Farmhouse.
I took a video of my progress and the finished puzzle:
Now that I am mostly settled in my new place, I can get back to what I love—books and puzzles. And it just so happens that I received a new puzzle order today.
This is a blame it on Instagram purchase. Or rather, blame it on the fact that most of the sponsored posts I see on Instagram are puzzles because I follow and like mostly puzzle accounts. And Instagram’s algorithms clearly work.
Well played Instagram. Well played.
In this case, I’m super happy with my purchase. The company is called Flipsi Puzzles, a small and new puzzle company from Australia. (And this is why I do love social media—being able to find and support small businesses anywhere in the world!) Their first series is called Haunted Places and What Lurks Within. As I am insatiably curious, I had to get these puzzles and find out what’s on the flip side.
After struggling to pick one of the puzzles, I gave up and just purchased all 3 puzzles plus the Flipsi Puzzles board. Check out my unboxing video:
And stay tuned. I’ll post part 2 where I complete the Haunted Castle so I can finally see what’s on the flip side.
As I completed my latest puzzle today, the mushroom images made me think of a book about fungi on my TBR bookcase. When I went to put the puzzle in one of puzzle cases (basically a bookcase that I’ve converted for puzzles), I looked at some of my other puzzles and started thinking about which puzzles could go with which books. I’ve seen Instagrammers pair puzzles and beverages and bookstagramers have paired books with all sorts of things from dresses to food to other books. So I thought hey, why not pair puzzles with books. (Seriously, this was pretty much my exact thought process.) And voilá! I came up with a whole list of puzzle and book pairings.
It makes me so happy when two hobbies collide in such a delightful way. Booknerds & Puzzlers unite!
While I have been documenting my puzzles through photos on Instagram, I had not kept any kind of master list. Since my puzzle collection has expanded a bit a lot, I finally decided to catalog my puzzles, past and present. So over my winter break, I made a master database of all my puzzles going back to 2016.
Yes, that’s right. I dug through my photos both and through my Puzzle Warehouse account. Of course, I have a few puzzles that I cannot remember which year I completed them in and I’m sure a few are missing from the list, particularly from the earlier years as I didn’t regularly take photos or post my puzzles back in 2016. And any prior to 2016 are lost in the vague recesses of my memory.
Needless to say, I have done a lot of puzzles since 2016.
But let’s talk about the puzzles I completed in 2021!
January first. Another new year. In some ways, 2021 seemed to last forever. Maybe it just seems that way because the days of 2020 and 2021 blurred together in seemingly endless restrictions and social distancing.
Then again, it seems like we just celebrated the 2021 new year, hoping for better days. In some ways, that did happen. In some ways, 2021 was more of the same. Regardless, while the days may have dragged, the months seemed to fly by as the weeks were marked off. And now here we are on the cusp of a new year.
For me, the first day of the new year means making plans for the new year as well as taking time to reflect back on the prior year.
This has been the most horrible week. But I don’t want to write about that today. What I do want to talk about is one bright spot in this horrible week. And that was when I opened my mailbox yesterday and found that I had received the inaugural MicroPuzzles Subscription Box!
To celebrate, I made a little box opening video.
At the end of July, I had received an email from MicroPuzzles announcing the launch of their new subscription box.
If you know me at all, then you know how much I love jigsaw puzzles. I have a dedicated puzzle table (soon to be 2 dedicated tables as I just ordered a new, larger table so I can do 2000-3000 pieces puzzles). And I also have a monthly puzzle subscription from Puzzle Warehouse.
I *may* have a slight puzzle addiction. But that’s okay! Because I’m not alone. My instagram feed is filled with fellow puzzle addicts.
So when I got the email from MicroPuzzles, I immediately went to their website. They are offering a 3 month puzzle subscription box. And of course, I subscribed.
The first box launched on August 10. Since I live overseas, it took a wee bit longer to get to me. But huzzah! Yesterday I opened my mailbox to find this little box of happiness!
I love MicroPuzzles. With only 150 pieces, I can put one together in less than an hour. Each puzzle is 4″ x 6″ with pieces about the size of a dime, so they are great to do if you don’t have a lot of space or time. And they come in these cute little tubes, which make for easy storage.
Micropuzzles also offer custom puzzles, where you upload your own photo. This is a great way to make personalized gifts for a party or celebration. are Created in the USA, they also give portion of each online sale to charity, which changes each month.
I give two enthusiastic thumbs up to MicroPuzzles and their new puzzle subscription box.
I received no payment or other compensation for this review.
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