Dobby the House Elf

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

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. 😁

Oh No! It’s the Holiday Season!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Well, it’s here. While the kiddies are still enjoying their Halloween candy and trying to avoid a sugar coma, it has arrived. The actual “holiday” season has now begun. If you’ve been around for a while you may remember that Christmas and winter-themed puzzles aren’t usually my thing. They’re everywhere. Many people love them and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that – it just isn’t for me.

The typical Coca-Cola Santa putting presents under a perfectly decorated tree, the snowy town blanketed in white with lights everywhere, they aren’t images that I enjoy puzzling so I tend to stay away from them if I can. I do enjoy an interesting, different, or funny holiday image, but the traditional just ain’t me.

So many people only puzzle around this time of year, with family or friends; a holiday puzzle for everyone to help with is sometimes tradition. But not here, so you won’t be seeing many (if any) of those here. Plus, I don’t understand how a person enjoys puzzles only one or two months out of the year, how does that work? What kind of whack-a-doo only likes to…… You know what? I’ve said too much.

Never mind. 😉

When we get to December I actually have a special treat this year, two different sets of advent calendars! There will NOT be a repeat of the terrible, awful, no-good, very bad, rotten Ceaco advent calendar of 2019. Both sets of puzzles are made by companies that make excellent, premium quality products and I am actually looking forward to working each little Christmas puzzle. Can you believe it?!

The first set I actually bought myself, it’s by Ravensburger so I couldn’t help but give it a good home; the second set was a gift from Penny, and it’s a Wasgij? advent calendar. Both sets have 24 puzzles, and each one is 54 pieces; they are meant to be opened and assembled every day in December before Christmas. I’ll be doing the puzzles and posting about them the same day, which means most of the puzzles I’ll be doing in November you will not see until January or February!

Because one of the sets is from Wasgij?, that means they are all mystery puzzles and I won’t be showing the completed images. I’ll write up one post about both small puzzles with an image of the Ravensburger, and probably just a couple of paragraphs about the Wasgij?. I don’t ever want to spoil anyone else’s fun by showing a mystery puzzle in it’s entirety, so all you’ll be getting is my comments.

I’ve found that for me the holiday season can be hectic and stressful with many things to do and be done, and oftentimes the only puzzling I was able to do during the day was with my coffee in the morning while I worked on the blog and did a little puzzling. So, during December I may only be assembling and posting the advent puzzles – we’ll have to wait and see if I get bored with only doing very small puzzles for three weeks.

Hopefully I’ll still have time to work on the Golden Age of Disney puzzle and/or others, but at the very least I know I’ll be able to start my days with two excellent quality puzzles – can’t think of a nicer thing to do for myself during the holidays!🎄💚🧩

Trick or Treat!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Trick or Treat! by Dean MacAdam – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

Trick or Treat! Ain’t she an adorable puzzle? This image is just so fun I absolutely had to get it for myself, and even though it’s quite a busy scene with lots of little things to see and people to assemble it was more entertaining than I’d even hoped. If you can’t tell already I absolutely adored this puzzle and can’t recommend it enough. 🧡🖤🎃🖤🧡

The quality was fantastic and I couldn’t stop running my hands over the completed sections. The hand feel is amazing and every other thing I look for in a quality puzzle was even better than anticipated. The fit was exceptional, the reproduction is bright and crisp and stunning, variety in piece shapes, thick chipboard – it was all premium quality. But what else can you expect from this brand? Ravensburger is my favorite for many reasons, and this puzzle was spectacular.

The artwork by Dean MacAdam was a joy to assemble – and I started with this lovely lady here. Those polka dots stood out; all that pink in a sea of orange and black was easy to find and put together and there’s just something about her makes me smile. Perhaps it’s the stunned look on her face.

It’s just too cute, that’s all I can say about this little skeleton puppers named Wally. Too friggin’ adorable!

Mr. Creepy here needed his picture shown, it is Halloween after all so we need just a little bit of spooky. Why is it that clowns seem so damn creepy to me? Do they seem creepy to anyone else?

I had a great time putting this puzzle together, and I hope to get to another Dean MacAdam puzzle very soon. Penny has graciously sent me a copy of Goldilocks Gets Caught!, and it looks like it’ll be a little easier than this one was but still very entertaining. His artwork makes for very fun puzzling and when you add that with a quality brand you get great puzzles like this one.

Happy Halloween everyone! Stay safe, and enjoy! 👻🦇🎃

*Anyone besides me looking forward to Halloween candy being on sale for half price tomorrow? Time to stock up!🍬🍭🍫*

Stained Glass Cat

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Stained Glass Cat – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This one I thought would be more difficult than it turned out to be, which was a blessing because I had NOT had enough coffee when I started it. Luckily though I consumed enough of it while working on this gorgeous Halloween image and we got there even more quickly than I’d hoped.

Another great quality MicroPuzzle, I have never been disappointed in their puzzles. There’s something about working with the tiny pieces for me that makes it so engrossing and entertaining that I can barely walk away from them. There is no variety in piece shape, but it’s only 150 pieces so it doesn’t seem as boring as it might with a larger piece count. Other than that the quality is quite good and they’re always fun to assemble.

Be careful out there on Devil’s Night everyone! (I know that it is mostly just a Michigan thing, but that’s where I grew up, so October 30th will always be Devil’s Night to me.😈)