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.😈)

Check Please!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles1 Comment

Check Please! – Re-marks – 500 pieces

This beauty was one I got secondhand from Penny, and I couldn’t love it more! Even the sorting of this puzzle made me happy, the piece shapes were so interesting – even the border pieces were unique and fun. I absolutely adored this assembly, and when I got down to about two trays worth of pieces, maybe 100 or so left, I had to leave for an appointment. When I got back home to my surprise there were only about 17 pieces left because my youngest son had spent a bit of time working on it! (That makes me so happy, you have NO idea!)

Great Re-marks quality, especially the piece shapes, and I loved it from the first piece to the last. Wish there was more to say, but honestly it would just be another few paragraphs of the same thing told in slightly different ways – that’s no fun to read in my opinion.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVED IT!!

Coffee Klatch In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

Coffee Klatch by Graffi*tee Studios – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

After completing a VERY disappointing holiday image what I was longing for was something bright, colorful, and entertaining; thankfully this coffee klatch puzzle was here and just waiting to be assembled. It’s a good thing I stocked up on smaller piece counts the last time I went puzzle hunting at the local discount store.

It’s odd, I was actually looking forward to the Christmas Wasgij? that I had picked out, and shockingly it’s the first time I felt let down by the brand. There was nothing wrong with the quality of the puzzle itself other than a bit of a loose fit – it’s the image that was all wrong. Most Wasgij? images (at least the ones I’ve done so far) have been fun and funny, full of bright, interesting characters and things to see; the one I assembled though was too light, with an image I found tedious and annoying to complete. I haven’t given up on the brand, Jumbo makes great puzzles, I just didn’t care for this holiday image at all and it left me craving an image that was colorful and fun. That brings me to today’s puzzle which is full of neon and colors that are anything but pastel or just too pale.

This one is only 300 pieces so it shouldn’t take too long to finish. The colors are what drew me to this puzzle and I’m hoping it’s as much fun to do as it looks.

Hope you’re having fun with whatever you’re puzzling today!