We are less than a month away from Worlds and my preparation is moving into high gear! The other weekend I flew out to Connecticut for a regional competition and a practice day with my team. Unfortunately Sarah got sick and couldn't be there, so the first time all four of us will be together will be in Spain. But it was still a really helpful weekend to hone our strategy, and discover that I lo...
2023-08-27 16:02:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
Today's video is all about some puzzles I've been wanting to cover for a while - the Contour puzzles by Milton Bradley released in 1968. These are made of foam and the pieces are different heights and textures to correspond with what is on the image. They're very cool and I've never seen anything else like it:
https://youtu....
2023-08-20 16:13:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hello everybody! I am so happy and relieved that the 9000 piece puzzle is over and I have my dining room table back. I loved the start of that puzzle...and then things changed when I got to the sky. You can watch the full video here:
https://youtu.be/58PJs4EtmB0
As you saw at the very end of the video, I'm at...
2023-08-13 16:02:26 +0000 UTC
View Post
Oh my gosh, what do I even say? This video has been such a labor of love (and despair, at times). I really didn't remember what I was signing up for when I took on the Zodiac puzzle again, and that sky was BRUTAL. You can watch the entire (almost hour-long!) video here:
https://youtu.be/58PJs4EtmB0
For real t...
2023-08-13 16:01:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
I had some ambitious plans that after finishing the puzzle on Wednesday that I might be able to get the video turned around by this weekend. I've been editing as I go, so some of it was already cut together by then, so the plan wasn't as crazy as it might sound. But, I was so exhausted after several full days in a row of powering through that sky that I just couldn't do it.
I am working o...
2023-08-06 14:59:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey Patreon! I know I literally just said I wanted to do easier puzzles for a change, but I just had to know what was inside the super rare holographic puzzle that I showed in my recent haul video. You'll have to watch the video to see my reaction and find out whether it's solvable or not.
https://youtu.be/HNieUipWv0k&nb...
2023-07-30 16:01:37 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey Patreon. So let me tell you about today’s video. I bought this cork puzzle from Sarah Schuler and was so excited to solve it. As I say in the video, the cork puzzles from Jane Wooster Scott are some of my favorites. I won't lie, even though it was an easy puzzle to solve, it was kind of a difficult video to edit. But in the end, I think it turned out ok. You can watch it here:
2023-07-23 16:01:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hey Patreon! My new video is another giant haul, including a handful of very exciting holy grail puzzles that I’ve been wanting for ages. You can watch here:
https://youtu.be/EPuwIHl_Yi4
I filmed this a few weeks ago, but it’s because I wanted to get a relatively quick video finished early so that I could...
2023-07-16 16:01:23 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi guys, bet you didn't expect to see me today. I wanted to film a little bonus update video on the 9000 piece Zodiac puzzle to let you all know what's going on. It's still going to be a few weeks until the final video is up, but hopefully this video explains all of my reasons. I have a lot of other fun puzzle stuff coming up, so stay tuned!
2023-07-13 17:14:59 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everybody and happy puzzle Sunday! Today’s video is one that I’m super excited about - I got the two puzzles that were used in the 1986 National Jigsaw Puzzle Championships and I’m speed running them to find out how I would have placed. Make sure to watch until the end for a lot of bonus info about how the old contests worked back then:
2023-07-09 16:04:33 +0000 UTC
View Post
It’s new puzzle Sunday once again! In today’s video I’m solving the 473 piece Lazels puzzle. You guys have been waiting for this since my last Lazels video, and it is truly a work of art. This is a metal puzzle with teeny tiny pieces - you have to use tweezers to put it together! You can watch here:
https://youtu.be/ht...
2023-07-02 16:07:02 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone, so today’s bonus video doesn’t really have anything to do with this week’s main channel video. I just decided to do some speed puzzling practice and bring you all along with me for it. My goal was to finish the puzzle in under an hour - check out the video to see if I did it:
https://youtu.be/PVKwMQ6lUdU
2023-07-02 16:05:16 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everybody. It’s been a minute. Thank you all so much for your well-wishes on my Instagram post. I am feeling much better now and excited to get back to work after taking so much time off.
Speaking of getting back to work, Part 3 of the 9000 Piece Zodiac puzzle video is here! After how easy the beginning of this puzzle was, the sky was no joke. You can watch right here:
2023-06-25 16:05:55 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everybody, and welcome back to Puzzle Video Sunday for the first time in a while! Part 3 of the 9000 Piece Zodiac Puzzle is up now and you can watch it right here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw0WKPwQumw
As I said in the preview post, I didn’t quite finish the puzzle yet, but I will be...
2023-06-25 16:03:36 +0000 UTC
View Post
Thank you so much for all of your well-wishes last weekend. I am feeling much better now and have been able to get back to filming and editing. I'm almost done with Part 3 of the Zodiac puzzle, so I thought I'd put up a preview of the beginning of the video for all of you since it's been a while since you got a video from me!
I promise the music gets less unsettling as the video goes on. ...
2023-06-21 22:44:39 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone, it's been a minute. Is this thing still on?
I wanted to just send out a quick update that I'm alive and...not totally well, but well enough.
So here's what happened. Two weeks ago, my family took a vacation to go on a cruise through Alaska. We've been working on this trip and planning it for about a year now, and it was so exciting to be able to see a new part of the wo...
2023-06-18 15:54:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
As promised, Part 2 of the 9000 Piece Zodiac puzzle is up! You can watch the video right here:
https://youtu.be/GDYiqIaVCQk
And just like last time, I decided to edit together some deleted scenes as well as a bonus segment showing a closer look at all of the different textures in the outer ring, since a lot o...
2023-06-02 16:03:29 +0000 UTC
View Post
You all have been so patient and it's finally here - Part 2 of the 9000 Piece Zodiac puzzle! You don't believe how fast I'm getting through it. You can watch the video right here:
https://youtu.be/GDYiqIaVCQk
Make sure to leave your guess for my final time in the comments, and whoever gets closest will get a shouto...
2023-06-02 16:03:06 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everyone, so as you can see, I couldn't get my next video finished by today. I have been hard at work at the 9000 piece puzzle, and I actually think I could have hustled and gotten the video finished in a week...except that I spent Wednesday and Thursday with an awful headache that meant I couldn't work on the puzzle those days. But I was able to film all day Friday and I got SO MUCH DONE. S...
2023-05-28 17:18:19 +0000 UTC
View Post
After many many months without doing a giant puzzle, I am back at it and tackling the 9000 piece Astrology puzzle from Ravensburger! This is the same puzzle I did when I was 18, and I kept a time log back then, so I'll be able to do a full comparison between the two solves. So far in this video, I documented the first four days, which was the sorting and the inner circle of the puzzle:
2023-05-21 16:03:34 +0000 UTC
View Post
Today marks the start of my next 9000 piece video series - I'm doing the Astrology puzzle that I last did when I was 18! You can watch it here:
https://youtu.be/SPn9D1QcCMg
Since this was such a big project, I ended up with some extra footage that I cut from the video. That is in the first half of this bonus video....
2023-05-21 16:03:01 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everybody, I just finished my next video, which is part 1 of the 9000 piece Zodiac puzzle series. And since I know my bonus content has been a little lacking lately, I thought I'd upload the first 2 minutes as an exclusive preview. It cuts off right before I share the footage from 14 years ago - even though I know it'll be out for everyone to see soon enough, let me have a few more embarrass...
2023-05-17 22:13:05 +0000 UTC
View Post
My new video is up and it's all about an online puzzle competition that I did with Yvonne the other weekend. To be honest, originally I was only planning to use this footage for Patreon and social media, but I ended up having enough to say that I decided to make a main channel video out of it:
https://youtu.be/RuTm9q3aNok
2023-05-14 16:00:50 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everybody and happy puzzle day Sunday! My new video is up all about the puzzle competition I did with Yvonne last weekend. The results weren’t quite what I hoped, but so much went wrong that I’m still happy with where we ended up:
https...
2023-05-14 16:00:38 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everybody and welcome to the first edition of the Karen Puzzles Newsletter! I’m so happy that Patreon launched a free membership option so I can reach all of my top puzzlers in one place.
The big news this week is that the second Karen Puzzles Puzzle is here! It is called Gradient Cascade, and it features giant falling puzzle pieces with cutouts around each one to make 6 mini puzzles...
2023-05-07 16:11:00 +0000 UTC
View Post
I was so excited when Patreon let us know they were introducing a free tier. That's something I've been wanting for ages, and I can't wait to have a space to reach all of my most dedicated puzzlers, even if you're not able to support my channel monetarily. Patreon is still rolling out this feature, but at the end of the week, I'll be launching my free weekly newsletter, where I'll be sharing al...
2023-05-02 01:27:27 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everybody, and happy Sunday! I missed last week's video, so now I'm back with a 50 minute deep dive into every puzzle in history that has combined crossword puzzles with jigsaw puzzles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCjEQjQlF20
I want to give a special shoutout to PuzzleYOU. They've been s...
2023-04-30 16:08:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
Hi everybody, so unfortunately I wasn't able to get a new video finished for today, but I am halfway through filming next Sunday's video. That one is going to be all about jigsaw puzzles of crossword puzzles, so I'm doing three different vintage examples and talking about all of the creative ways different companies have taken this concept.
Unfortunately...I swear the video is cursed. I h...
2023-04-23 15:34:40 +0000 UTC
View Post
I have been wanting to make this video for a long time now, and now that it's tax time, it's the perfect week for it. I'm solving the 1040 Income Tax Form puzzle, released in 1973 by Gameophiles. And then, I'm doing a deep dive into all of the wacky products they released over the years. You can check it out right here:
2023-04-16 16:03:32 +0000 UTC
View Post
Well, this has been a big week. I started off the week thinking I was just going to begin dropping little nuggets of teasers about my second Karen Puzzles Puzzle with Ravensburger, and then a few stores in Canada got it in stock and now it's out...ish. I made two short videos to confirm that it was a real thing and to try to explain what is going on:
2023-04-09 16:07:13 +0000 UTC
View Post
