Delicious Donuts

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Delicious Donuts – Think2Master – 500 pieces

Although I absolutely love this image the puzzle itself wasn’t too enjoyable for me. I’d like to tell you that I can be unbiased about puzzles and speak from a purely neutral place – but we all know that’s bullsh*t. I bring with me the sum total of all my puzzling experiences, good and bad, and they all color my impressions, good and bad.

When I opened this box that I received in a puzzle swap and saw that this puzzle had letters on the back I was so disappointed. The collage image of wonderfully decorated donuts looks like such fun, but now I know that it’s a made-in-China-type-quality puzzle, and try as I might it can’t now be unseen or unknown. Sigh.

There are bad feelings from me toward the puzzle companies that popped up during the pandemic and continue to do so. They steal images from artists and use them to make low-quality puzzles that are sad imitations of the premium puzzles that we know and love. They’re everywhere now and truly I doubt we’ll ever get rid of them. There will always be someone willing to buy their puzzles because they’re cheaper, so of course they aren’t going anywhere. Letters on the back of the puzzle (to use for sorting or assembling) signify to me a cheaply made puzzle, so the moment I see them I immediately assume I will not be enjoying the puzzle.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So, sadly, that’s what I’m telling you. I have an attitude about these companies, therefore I didn’t really enjoy this puzzle no matter how adorable the image is.

Anyway, wanna see the donut I like best?

I think this donut is beautiful, though I’m not sure I would want to eat it.

Blackbirds Roost at Mill Creek

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Blackbirds Roost at Mill Creek by Charles Wysocki – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

This beautiful fall-themed Americana image by Charles Wysocki was absolutely perfect for puzzling with just enough challenge to keep me on my toes. I can’t recommend it enough, it was truly entertaining.

It was a typical Buffalo quality puzzle with a very good fit. In each of my quality categories this puzzle was above average, and actually has me wishing I’d chosen another of their puzzles to assemble next. There are many, many, many Buffalo puzzles here to choose from, so most likely they’ll be up in the rotation again soon.

Long time readers know how I feel about quilts in a puzzle, and you won’t be surprised to find that after the border that was the very first thing I assembled. Usually it’s the words, but as I told ya’ll in an “in progress” post my youngest son put almost all the words together while I was resting. It’s a good thing I’m such an understanding momma, otherwise….🤬

Every time I look at the pumpkins in this image the stems remind me of the Whos in Whoville – those curlicues on top of their heads. Is it just me or do any of you see it too?

There’s so much to say about this little section. Whale Oil. Wow. I just love the look of this carriage; the fact that he’s sitting on the barrels instead of the seat, the bright blue sign, the silly name, the dog – all of it together makes for an image that just makes me smile.

When I think of a Wysocki image, for some reason it brings to mind a small town way out in the countryside, surrounded by miles and miles of forest. That doesn’t seem like the best place for a fish market or a lobster restaurant! It’s ridiculously silly of course, a small “country” town can be anywhere, even close enough to the ocean to sell whale oil, fresh fish, and lobsters.

I thought this would be an entertaining assembly, and I was right – but it was even more fun than I thought it would be! Even all those bare trees at the top weren’t that difficult, and I was pretty proud of myself for finishing them as quickly as I did.

There are plenty of Wysocki images here to do, I’m sure I’ve barely made a dent in his catalog of artwork. Thank goodness I won’t be running out any time soon. 😍

Posters with a Superhero In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

Posters with a Superhero – Trefl – 500 pieces

Last night I put together the border for this one, and then my son took over and everything else you see here has been assembled by him. I’ll be able to do some today, but so far, other than the border, this is all him.

I knew he’d be excited by this puzzle, even though he tried to seem as if he wasn’t.

Actually, I’d love it if he ended up doing more of this puzzle than I did – just because his continuing enjoyment of jigsaw puzzles makes me very happy.💕

Dobby the House Elf

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Dobby the House Elf – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 250 pieces

I mean, come on! Is this not an adorable image? If you’re not a Harry Potter fan you probably wouldn’t think so, but as someone who has read every book and seen each of the movies I find this image to be so friggin’ cute! I had such a good time with this assembly that honestly I’d love to take it apart and start all over again right this minute.

To be honest, I was worried when I bought all these Harry Potter puzzles (remember that sale – 70% off?) that perhaps the whimsies would be the same for every puzzle. Happily that doesn’t seem to be the case at all, so far I’ve done three of the nine puzzles purchased and they have been puzzle specific whimsies for each one. The whimsies for this puzzle made me so happy, just look at all those Dobbys!

There were so many socks, almost in every picture in the image. If you read the books or have seen the movies you know, when Dobby got a sock from his master he was freed. “Master has given Dobby a sock. Master has presented Dobby with clothes. Dobby is free!”

This is where I tell you that I only did about half of this puzzle, my youngest son did the other half. I had to take a break and go rest, but my husband made me get out of bed and come look, because he was in the puzzle room all alone working on it for quite some time. It makes my heart happy that he’s really started to enjoy puzzling. He’s been doing more and more of it lately; never on his own, he only wants to help with the puzzles I’m doing – but it’s a start. Hopefully some day soon he’ll want to do one all by himself.

Such a great puzzle, I love the look of all the little Dobbys peeking out from the back of this image. So cute!

This puzzle made me so happy; the image, the fact that my son helped so much, the quality, the whimsies – everything was just right. This is one I’ll definitely be assembling again, probably very soon.

I even went back to the Wentworth website and checked on their Harry Potter puzzles, most of them were still on sale at the time and I was looking seriously at all the ones I didn’t purchase the first time thinking maybe it might be worth it to get the rest of them…I didn’t, but now I wish that I had. 😥

It’s National Jigsaw Day in the United Kingdom. I try to always post a puzzle from the UK (usually a Wentworth, since they founded this “holiday” back in 2015) and as luck would have it this was already the next puzzle in the queue. There are very few days out there that celebrate us Divine Discerning Dissectologists, so I try to always remember this one.

To all my puzzle posse and fellow P.A.D.S. sufferers out there I hope you can spend a little time with a jigsaw puzzle today; I’m going to try to spend the day enjoying a beautiful puzzle, and I hope you can too.

Spread the puzzle love my friends, this is OUR day – Happy Jigsaw Day! 🧩💚

Creators (Rebel Girls)

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Creators by Sarah, Paola, Kylie, Sonia, and Marta* – MasterPieces – 100 pieces

This was a great puzzle that would be fabulous in a larger piece count – 250, 300, 500, 1000 – any of them would be great with this image. Apparently this is part of the Rebel Girl series by MasterPieces and Gibsons inspired by the Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls books. I’d love to do any of the others, they all look like such fun! Although I haven’t read any of the books, I’m guessing they’d be right up my alley – me being a rebel girl myself. 😎

Good quality MasterPieces, although this one had the “sharp” white backing that I’m not a fan of; luckily with only 100 pieces I didn’t have to put up with it for too long. Overall this was a good quality puzzle that made me very happy.

As for the artists, each woman shown in the image was illustrated by a different artist. I only put their first names above in the name of saving space, but each one deserves their credit, the artist’s name is first with the subject of the illustration in parentheses…

  • Sarah Wilkins (Millo Castro Zaldarriaga)
  • Paola Rollo (Violeta Parra)
  • Kylie Akia Erwin (Poly Styrene)
  • Sonia Lazo (Carmen Miranda)
  • Marta Signori (Maria Callas)

It is amazing to me how it works together to make such a great image that was so perfect for puzzling. The build was really enjoyable, but unfortunately the fun was over too soon. Hopefully the other puzzles in this series find their way onto my board soon so I can enjoy so more of these great collage images.

As usual I started with the words, and I was surprised that the puzzle seemed so close to being finished at that point. Putting together words is my happy place though I couldn’t tell you exactly why that is.

I stand with all Rebel Girls, so of course we had to get a “Stacey Stance” picture!😂 Some puzzles need to be REALLY curved at the bottom in order to stand up properly, but not this one. It almost could have stood straight up on it’s own.

This puzzle was so pleasant to put together; it was the right puzzle at the right time with the right image and the right quality. Exactly what I needed – just love it when that happens!

*This was puzzle number 100 for me this year. I didn’t plan it that way, but very cool that it was a 100 piece puzzle. 😁