CEACO 10-Puzzle Americana Collection: Puzzle No. 2

"Americana No. 2" of CEACO 10-puzzle box, 300 pieces, 15 x 11 inches

Like most of you, after I've finished a "large puzzle," and we all have our own personal definition of what constitutes a large puzzle, I slide down to a smaller, quicker one. I've found that alternating relatively quick puzzles with the more time-consuming ones, keeps me fresher and raring to get back to the next more difficult puzzle. The little 300-piecer shown above (an image I really like) was one of those change-of-pace puzzles.

A while back, I found a large 10-puzzle collection by CEACO in one of the Goodwill Stores around me, and was pleasantly surprised to find a $1.99 price on the box...twenty cents a puzzle is hard to beat. There is a puzzle poster in the box for reference when building the puzzles, and the one up above is simply marked on that poster as "2," so I don't know the artist or actual name of the puzzle. The collection includes four 500-piece puzzles, four 300-piece ones, and even two 100-piece puzzles, so I have nine more of these change-of-pace puzzles to go yet.

This is a look at the poster representation of the puzzle and the puzzle's frame. I always try to start with the frame just so that I can get a sense of the puzzle's overall size in relation to the size of individual pieces as quickly as possible. That helps me place pieces more quickly (by going more directly to the right section of the puzzle) when I reference them to the image on the box cover or poster for orientation.

With so few pieces, it was easy to work this one from any direction I chose, so I decided to go with a top-to-bottom approach. By this point, I could tell that the finished puzzle would not disappoint me.

I pretty much kept going in that direction until I came to the pond section of the puzzle. At that point, I started placing the cows, horses, and ducks into the picture. Overall, this little puzzle gave me more fun than I expected it would, and the finished image turned out to be one of my favorite American puzzles. Now, I find myself kind of looking forward to working the other nine.