Fantasy

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles1 Comment

Fantasy – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

This isn’t my best picture taking lately, but please be kind – it’s been a rough week. Still, thank goodness that somewhere in all the disaster of the week I had there was time to sit and relax and think about nothing other than which piece goes where. Isn’t puzzling just the best hobby ever?

I know a lot of people think puzzles are just for when you get old, but they’re so good for your mental health, your physical health, mental acuity, etc. Now why in the world would you want to wait until you get older to enjoy all those benefits? Plus, it’s a bargain; where else can you spend just a few dollars and get hours and hours of meditation, relaxation, and enjoyment? If you’re not already sold, I don’t know if I can help you. Puzzles are awesome, for the very young, the very old, and every age in between.

Back to this particular puzzle. I usually let you know how many of these books I’ve read, and it’s a sad number folks – apparently fantasy isn’t my usual genre because out of fifty books I’ve read only three! Oh my. So for this post I’ll be showing closeups of books I haven’t read, but I LOVED assembling the covers. It also shows the amazingly gorgeous image reproduction. When you see them up close you realize how beautiful this puzzle would be in person.

This one is a stunner, and was easy to find almost every piece the first time I went thru all the pieces. A little bit of a challenge to assemble, but that’s part of the fun.

I haven’t read the book or seen the movie, but I do know the song from Stranger Things. 😂 This gorgeous lion with the purple background was fun to find and assemble. Can’t ask for much more.

Gorgeous green color made this one easy to pick out but not quite so simple to put together. I’ve never even heard of this book, but I love the cover.

As usual I enjoyed myself immensely as I worked on this puzzle. Every piece put in was an accomplishment, and it was great fun from the border to that very last click into place. If you haven’t figured it out by now I love puzzles, and this one made me very happy indeed. 💚

Golden Age of Disney (Section B) In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling1 Comment

Golden Age of Disney (Section B) – Trefl – 1500/13,500 pieces

I should have planned better – I just finished my Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland birthday puzzle, and then went right into the Alice in Wonderland section of the big puzzle. Honestly, it wasn’t planned and I swear I’m not obsessed with the book or movie; it just worked out that way.

So far…..the Cheshire Cat is kicking my ass! Phew! It’s nice to be able to complain about it sometimes, even though I chose this puzzle to do at this time. My whining doesn’t mean I don’t like it or I’m not having a good time, it just means this section is difficult and sometimes I want to b*tch about it to my puzzle people who will understand.

The majority of the pieces for this brand (for this puzzle) are what I call ballerinas; two male/two female ends. That makes sections like the Cheshire Cat difficult and tedious at times. At the moment I’m working on the body and tail, but when it starts getting frustrating or tiresome I then switch to working on the border of the section. As you can see, the border is almost done – I’ve gotten bored and tired of the tedium A LOT. 😂

I started with the wording, as per my usual; surprisingly all of it was finished in one sitting. After putting the border together I couldn’t sleep much that night and ended up sitting in front of the board in the wee hours, not ready to go to sleep until I’d completed my task. The words were both easier and more difficult than I bargained for.

Now it’s the Cheshire Cat’s section, which I chose because it looked to be the smallest of the three. I stupidly thought that even though it looked like a challenge it would be the quickest to finish. What a moron I am sometimes! 🥴

And yet, even though I’m still moaning about this tough section – I’m also still having a great time.

Happy puzzling today my friends!

Hello Fall

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles1 Comment

Hello Fall – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

Adorable little collage of fall images that was harder than I thought it would be, but I got there in the end. I miss fall. Having lived in Michigan for the better part of my life I am used to actual seasons, not just shades of summer all year long like we have here in Florida. I miss the changing leaves, the nip in the air, the smell of fireplaces and woodstoves burning….sigh….I just miss it.

Now that the reminiscing is done, this was a challenging image but really fun too – and great quality to boot. As usual. Ho hum, how boring, I always say the same thing. But it’s important to know, I think, if a company is consistent with their quality or one of those hit or miss brands. If I know that when I buy this brand I don’t have to worry about the quality, then all I need to worry about is whether or not the image is pleasing.

I did this puzzle immediately after one of the MicroPuzzles Puzzle Packs because I wanted to show the difference in size and finished image. You already saw in my previous post Peacocks the actual difference in piece size, but I wanted you to see both puzzle sizes completed as well.

Even though the Puzzle Packs have almost half of the number of pieces, the finished puzzle is still quite a bit larger. They’re both still small, but it does make a difference when you see the puzzles next to each other.

Both quality puzzles, good enough even for *The Stacey Stance* (it still makes me laugh out loud when I type that). I still love both sizes, but it’s really nice to have a choice now when I want to work on a mini puzzle – they’re both excellent!

Monster Meet-Up

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Monster Meet-Up – MicroPuzzles (Puzzle Packs) – 80 pieces

I decided monsters would be another good fit for an October puzzle, and this image is just too cute for words! I’m really loving these puzzles packs from MicroPuzzles; the larger pieces, the larger finished puzzle, the great images to choose from, and the convenient packaging make these puzzles that I wouldn’t hesitate to buy again.

After this one I decided that a “regular” MicroPuzzles would be next, because I wanted to really give you a sense of the difference between the two products. They are both enjoyable to me, and both have very good quality. But as I’m getting on in years and everything seems to be slowly degrading with fine motor skills and eyesight it’s nice to have the option of getting great quality mini puzzles with both adult images and bigger pieces that are easier to work with.

See what I mean about great quality? How many mini puzzles do you think you could do that with?

Alice’s Adventures…In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling3 Comments

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Anna Stead – Gibsons – 1000 pieces

This was shipped to my home as an early birthday present, and knowing it was puzzles OF COURSE I didn’t wait until my birthday to open them. Duh. Thanks for the thoughtful gift Penny, I’m having a great time with this one!

The scrolls with the words were much more of a challenge than I thought; even though putting the quotes together was no problem at all, the rest of the scroll with no words and plenty of color changes were more difficult than I gave them credit for. At one point I’d assembled the words and pulled out what I thought to be most of the pieces with scroll on them – and it was just too difficult for me to place many pieces at all. I kinda gave up on that after a while and focused on filling in other sections first. After a bit I began to find a few pieces here and there and eventually sorted the scroll pieces by shape and only tried to place them when I could be sure of the shape or coloring I was looking for.

Sometimes I get it into my head how something should go together and I stick to it even though it takes way more time than it should and is obviously, eventually, the wrong way to go. That’s how I started out this puzzle, and even though I knew I was doing it and it was taking a ridiculous amount of time – I still continued to do it! Sometimes I’m a stubborn ol’ cow, and I just have to blunder through everything my enormously stupid way until I come to my senses.

I’m down to two trays of pieces left, which means I’m now sorting my next puzzle before I can finish this one. My next one will be section B of the big Disney puzzle, Alice in Wonderland. If things keep going the way they are it’s gonna take a while to sort; I’ve been sorting since yesterday but keep getting exhausted and start yawning and end up needing a nap.💤🛌💤

Then again, I’m so anxious to hurry up and get back to this gorgeous puzzle that maybe the sorting won’t take as long as I thought. Here’s hoping!

Whatever puzzle you’re working on today, happy puzzling my friends! 🧩💚