Cow Appreciation Day
The second Tuesday of July is Cow Appreciation Day, and the best way I know to appreciate these animals, other than eating ice cream, is by doing some puzzles! There’s actually a surprising amount of cow and farm animal puzzles out there, but I knew just where to start. I’ve been eyeing up Cosmoo in 500 pieces from Eurographics for quite a while because it always makes me laugh.
I really enjoy this artwork by Lucia Heffernan! I just love the cow’s face and the text of the magazine, which I started with. Even the wallpaper in the background had enough color/shadow variation to keep me moving at the end. All in all, I found this puzzle delightful and will likely keep it to do again later! There are several other puzzles with reading animals from Lucia Heffernan including 50 Scents of Grey (which I also thoroughly enjoyed!), Kitty Throne, and Dog Gone Funny. I actually did another puzzle by this artist from Eurographics that includes a cow: Funny Animals in 1000 pieces.
As a collage puzzle, this went pretty quickly, and each of the animals is, as the name suggests, quite funny! Although we’re featuring cows today, I think the lamb with the ice cream cone may be my favorite. There are several more animal collage puzzles in this line with equally wonderful animals, including Funny Birds, Funny Pigs, Funny Mice, Funny Bunnies, Funny Dogs, and Funny Cats. I could really do an entire blog post dedicated to Lucia Heffernan’s fabulous animals. I’ve quite accidentally done six puzzles by her already this year, and will likely do more! I just love how she balances realistic characteristics with quirky scenarios and hilarious facial expressions, and every one has been a wonderful puzzling experience.
Speaking of collages, I also put together Animal Collage by Charles Wysocki in 1000 pieces from Buffalo Games.
Animal Collage by Buffalo Games
Charles Wysocki (who has his own category on Puzzle Warehouse!) frequently includes animals in his Americana scenes, so much so that horses and carriages are often their own pile when I sort, but they are usually small details. It’s fun to see his take on animals at a much larger scale. I ended up putting together the section with the goat almost completely before starting in on the others, then moved on to the rest of the sky and trees. Each section was small enough that this one also went together very quickly, and I enjoyed it.
Of course a post about cows wouldn’t be complete without I AM Cow from Madd Capp.
This is my first puzzle from this brand, and I would do more. This shaped puzzle was particularly tricky, even in 300 pieces, because the classic cow is fairly monochrome. But by following the shadows and scrutinizing the piece shapes, I was able to finish it up. Perhaps some of their other animal puzzles would be a little more colorful and not quite as difficult? Of course, if you like the challenge, Madd Capp has some 1000-piece puzzles, including the trees I am Cherry Blossom and I am Sugar Maple. So many leaves and flowers!
Another cow-centric puzzle on my wishlist is Highland Cattle in 300 pieces from Ravensburger’s Puzzle Moments line. I love this new line from Ravensburger, in part because I like having smaller piece count puzzles without having bigger pieces. The mix tapes in 200 pieces and succulents in 300 pieces from this line also caught my eye.
Highland Cattle by Ravensburger
Also in this piece count range is Barnyard Babies with art by Greg and Company from Cobble Hill.
Barnyard Babies by Cobble Hill
This 350-piece puzzle is a “family puzzle,” which means there are a variety of piece sizes so that family members of all ages can puzzle together. In this puzzle, the largest pieces are on the left side of the puzzle, middle sized pieces (about the size from their 500 piece puzzles) are in the middle, and the smallest (about the size from their 1000 piece puzzles) are on the right. I puzzled this one solo and ended up working from left to right, in part to move those big pieces out of the way and make room for the rest! The artwork on this is just adorable, and I love all of the baby animals.
I wanted to leave you with one more cow puzzle on my wishlist because, again, it just makes me laugh! This is Cow Yoga in 1000 pieces by Willow Creek Press.
Cow Yoga by Willow Creek Press
I mean, how can you not enjoy those poses?? Puzzle Warehouse actually has quite a range of puzzles with animals and humans doing yoga, including sloths and unicorns! There really is a puzzle for everyone!
- Gail, @jiggies_and_gems
Fun blog!
