Aristocats

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Aristocats – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

There’s just something about a great quality Ravensburger puzzle, I cannot keep my hands off of it! Even before this one was finished I found myself absentmindedly running my hands over the completed sections – over and over again. I know there are many excellent puzzle companies out there, and some may even have better quality than this brand, but it’s still my favorite puzzle brand and I think it always will be.

This movie has wonderful memories associated with it, and I absolutely adore this image. If you look at the box image, it seems a bit darker than the actual puzzle. In reality, this puzzle was bright and beautiful and it was fun from the border all the way to the last piece of the harp. It’s a gorgeous Disney image, and I’m so happy that they didn’t change how the characters look, as they do with some of the other older movies.

Marie was always my favorite character in the movie, she was sassy and smart and tried to be ladylike, like her momma. Of course the sassier side of her was the best in my opinion. To quote this lovely little lady – “Ladies do not start fights, but they can finish them!” 😇

Ah, Duchess and Thomas. I was enamored of Duchess just a little bit, because I loved her accent. Little did I realize as a young child that Eva Gabor’s accent was Hungarian, not French! Still, I thought it was grown-up and beautiful – just like Duchess. Thomas on the other hand, well I guess I should use his full name; Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O’Malley. He was also a favorite because he was also Baloo from The Jungle Book and Little John from Robin Hood. Phil Harris gave voice to all those characters and he was an amazingly talented man. The whole time I was putting this puzzle together I kept singing “Abraham de Lacy Guiseppe Casey, Thomas O’Malley, O’Malley the alley cat”. It wasn’t as well sung as Phil would have done, but it made me smile.

I loved this puzzle much more than I thought I would, it’s so much brighter and more fun than the box shows. It certainly gave me hours and hours of happy fun puzzle time, and that’s all I ask for. 💖

Haunted Mansion In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Haunted Mansion by David Maclean – Vermont Christmas Co. – 550 pieces

I’m working on this one today, I promise – but didn’t put in even one piece yesterday, spent the whole day in bed sleeping. But today will be better, I just know it!

It’s been quite a while since a Vermont Christmas Co. puzzle has been on my board, and I forgot how much I like their ribbon cut and the way the pieces fit together. Plus, they have so many great holiday puzzles to choose from – not just Christmas. It’s been enjoyable so far and I’m sure it will continue to be.

What is shown here is only one corner of the puzzle, but it looks great doesn’t it?

Happy puzzling today my friends!

Page & Screen

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

Page & Screen – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Soooo…………of course I loved this one! The dopamine that book cover puzzles gives me makes me so very happy. Unfortunately I only have three or four of them left here, perhaps a shopping trip is in order???

The quality of this puzzle was excellent all around, my only problem was with the glare from the shiny finish – it was one of those puzzles I needed to turn off the light above the puzzle board and only use the room light. When I find myself tilting either my head or the tray of pieces I know that the light above the board needs to go to sleep for a bit. The previous puzzle I assembled, Admont Abbey Library, had such a beautiful matte finish that it was almost shocking to start working with this puzzle which seemed very very shiny in comparison.

Usually what I do with a book cover puzzle is pick out a few books and talk about them and my history with them. This puzzle is about the page and the screen though, so I decided to do something different this time. First, I’m going to tell you that I’ve only read nine of the fifty books shown here; and I’ve seen 22 of the movies. There’s quite the difference, huh? We’re a streaming society now, and movies are much more readily available than books are, unfortunately.

Second I’m going to ask a couple of questions.

First question, if there was one book shown here that you would recommend as perhaps an underappreciated gem, what would it be?

Even though it’s a bestseller, I don’t think this book is appreciated enough. There’s a lot of blather in the first chapter about money and deals and yadda yadda yadda. The first time I read the book I thought, “what the hell is this crap?” and almost stopped reading. Thank goodness I kept going, because this book triology is one of my all time favorites and I can’t even remember how many times I’ve read all three books. I don’t recommend the movie made in the US though, the Swedish version is much better, and they made all three movies in Sweden. My darling hubby bought me the set (dubbed in English) cause he knows how much I loved the books and he’s a very good guy. 💕

Now for the second question, if there was one movie shown here that you would recommend to someone who hadn’t seen it, which one would it be?

I absolutely adore a good thriller, and even though this isn’t a book I’ve read I very much enjoyed this movie and have seen it several times. There’s something wonderful about a movie that sucks you into the story and you suspend all disbelief and just go with it wherever it takes you. This movie was like that for me, and it gets my recommendation if you’ve never seen it. Or if you’ve seen it already, maybe watch it again – it’s fun!

This puzzle was great fun, and a little bit of a challenge for me as I didn’t use the box image or poster and did this one just using the image on the pieces and let it take me where it went. I’ve done so many of these book cover puzzles that they’re almost too easy using the poster and more of a challenge was needed this time.

If you find this one out in the world it’s highly recommended. Great image!

Admont Abbey Library

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Admont Abbey Library by William Carr – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This is an absolutely beautiful image, and even though photographic puzzles aren’t my usual fare this one was completely enjoyable. I remember that I bought this one new, but when and from where is completely erased from this old lady brain. It’s been floating around the puzzle room for years because it just looked too difficult, or too dull, or not enough of something else; I’m glad I finally decided to give it a go, it was well worth the wait.

Excellent Ravensburger quality, as usual, with an exceptionally good fit – almost good enough to stand on it’s edge, but not quite. The colors seem muted, but in reality are brighter than shown on the box. My one peeve about this puzzle is that the image on the box was covered in two different places, and there was no poster on the inside of the box to make up for that. Honestly, why companies continue to cover up parts of the image with their redundant branding is so confounding and annoying. It is for me anyway.

This is another puzzle where a closeup isn’t really needed, you can see what there is to see. It’s a beautiful picture of a stunning library that looks too beautiful to have people traipsing in and out and touching things. It made for a wonderful build that I am so glad I finally tried. Loved this one!

Pepsi In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Pepsi – Rose Art – 300 pieces

Another fun collage of sorts, this time it’s Pepsi – one of my favorite drinks. Penny sent this one along for me to do, and I don’t think I realized until I was laying all the pieces out just how much of a challenge this one would be. It’s harder than it looks!

Here’s the best part, the difficulty seems to be what is making it so much fun for me.😁

I sat down to just get started and put a bit together to be sure I had something to post today; but I couldn’t seem to tear myself away from it. I stopped only because I had to get it photographed and typed up before 8 am. All my posts are set to go live at that time, even the in progress ones; and every third day it will automatically be published – whether I’ve typed anything up yet or not. (Yes I could set things up differently, but this way keeps me on my toes and gives me incentive to get myself out of bed, even on those off days when I’m not feeling like it)

That’s just to say that it’s almost 8:00 this morning and I had to make myself stop puzzling and start typing. This puzzle will be done now before you know it, there’s just over two trays left to go!