Month: January 2018

Mother and Daughter (2)

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments
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Mother and Daughter (2) by F. Sands Bruner – Falcon de luxe – 500 pieces

It’s finally finished! It was on my board for more than 2 weeks, most of the time it sat untouched while I was hospitalized, but I finally completed it and it’s off my board. Hooray!!

I absolutely love this image and it’s companion that I previously assembled; both images remind me very much of my mother, who is just as beautiful as the woman pictured and also loves knitting and crafts. As soon as I saw these puzzles I had to get them, and I’m glad I did. They were both challenging assemblies, but it doesn’t take away from how much I love the images themselves. Love, love, love them! ❤

I’m not sure how I feel about this brand, Falcon de luxe. They are a good thickness and sturdy and the image reproduction is gorgeous. Most of the pieces are ballerinas, although there are a few other shapes to work with. The pieces can seem to fit where they do not belong, and that I am not a fan of – especially with an image that looks vintage. I find these images a challenge because although the finished puzzle doesn’t look difficult the pieces themselves seem almost blurry and indistinct; it’s the “vintage” look (just my opinion here). When you have “fuzzy” pieces to work with it’s even more difficult if pieces seem to fit in multiple places. I will have to assemble an easier image or two in order to compare; I don’t like passing judgement until I’ve given a brand a few tries.

Until I allow myself more puzzle shopping I’m holding back judgement on this brand. For the most part it’s good, they’re not a cheaply made puzzle. Although I do wish there were more variety in the piece shapes. This puzzle in particular though, made me very happy. I absolutely love it, and the beautiful lady it reminds me of. ❤❤

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The Seabuglers

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment
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The Seabuglers by Charles Wysocki – Hasbro – 300 pieces

This was the first puzzle I did when I got home from “vacation”. There was a partially assembled 500 piece puzzle that had been on my board the whole time, but I wasn’t feeling as though I could sit at the board for any length of time and work on it. So I got out my white board and grabbed the easiest looking 300 piece puzzle I could find, here it is!

For some reason in my head it seems that a puzzle by Hasbro wouldn’t be good quality. They’re the company that made games when I was young (many, many moons ago) and I don’t remember them being overly sturdy or well-made. Luckily, all that nonsense is just in my head because the Hasbro puzzles I’ve done have all been exceptionally well made; they’re sturdy, wonderfully thick, and fit together amazingly well. I’ve only ever done 300 piece Hasbro puzzles so I have no frame of reference for any other piece count, but the their EZ Grip puzzles are wonderful!

As I’ve said before, I very much enjoy the Wysocki puzzles that aren’t the norm, like this one. Most of his puzzles are lovely Americana/folk art images of towns with many buildings; while they are all beautiful images, for me they can seem too similar. I’m a bit of a rebel and enjoy things that are different from the usual, so my favorite Wysockis are the ones that really stand out. Although this image itself isn’t really odd, it’s different from most of his other works which makes it more special to me.

Although it took longer than usual for me to assemble this puzzle, I was pretty darn proud when I got it finished. It was mostly assembled while I was in bed, but I was able to take it in the puzzle room and put the white board on my puzzle table and work on it there for little bits of time. I guess I have to get my butt back into puzzling shape! 😉

 

National Puzzle Day 2018

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling3 Comments
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3 generations of women worked on this puzzle together, finished it together too!

Happy National Puzzle Day my friends! Today’s the day to enjoy puzzles no matter where you’re from or what kind of puzzles you like. It doesn’t have to be a jigsaw puzzle; you can do a word search, sudoku, crosswords or any puzzle that makes you happy. My love of puzzles comes from my family, so National Puzzle Day is a day for me to appreciate my loved ones as well as enjoying my jigsaw puzzles.

Last year my puzzle day post was mostly about my grama, she was the one who started me on the puzzling path; she was smart as a whip, and always working on some kind of puzzle. Jigsaw puzzles were her favorite, but she loved puzzles of many kinds – crosswords, anacrostics, word search, logic problems, etc. This year though, this post is about my momma. Grama got me started, but mom keeps me going. ❤

When I was injured several years ago, mom and I both got back into jigsaw puzzles; I needed something to do to stave off the boredom, she joined me – and it has snowballed from there! We text pictures of our puzzles to each other, send email with links to awesome puzzles we’ve found online, and can talk on the phone about jigsaw puzzles for lengths of time that would astound you! She doesn’t roll her eyes when I’m talking about a puzzle I want or how much fun I’m having with my current puzzle, and she’s quite the enabler with her black belt thrift store shopping skills. Whenever I want to talk puzzles, I want to talk to my mom.

I enjoy my alone puzzle time, I listen to music or stand up comedy and can relax and enjoy the process. But it’s so much more fun to work on puzzles with mom. We talk and laugh, tease each other, and we can cuss up a storm when things aren’t going well or we can’t find that one elusive piece we’ve been searching for! (There is something so adorable and funny about little old ladies cussing, she makes me giggle when she swears 👵)

Puzzles are much more fun with mom around to share them with me, and I try not to take for granted the time we spend puzzling together. She was recently out of the country for 10 days, and her first day back we assembled 2 and a half puzzles and spent the whole day together. I missed her so much! Puzzling is so much nicer for me with my loved ones, and I’m so glad mom and I make up such a great puzzle posse. 🙂

I hope you spend today with a great puzzle and hopefully with someone you love. Puzzles are great for keeping your mind sharp, and for me they also keep my heart connected to the wonderful women in my family who made me the puzzle fanatic I am today, and gave me their time and love in the process. I miss you gram, and I love you mom❣

Happy National Puzzle Day everyone, and for those of you participating in the Jigsaw Jubilee – happy puzzling and good luck!

 

The Thames at Westminster

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments
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The Thames at Westminster by Jim Mitchell – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 40 pieces

I like this image very much and as usual this micro puzzle was a fun assembly. Looking at this picture now, when the puzzle has already been put away, makes me want to take it out again and check the castle whimsy pieces; I wonder if you can line them up and make a bigger castle. Hmmm. 🏰

I’ve been having such a hard time getting back to my puzzling routine that was interrupted by a weeks “vacation” away from home. Side effects from medications and other issues have made it extremely difficult for me to sit at my puzzle table and puzzle for any length of time. I think because of my limitations at the moment I’m extremely picky about what puzzles I want to do; I want easy puzzles, like collages, where I can pick a small group of pieces and assemble them and feel like I’ve accomplished something. I have well over 100 puzzles here at the house, and hundreds more over at moms to choose from but none of them interest me right now. It doesn’t make much sense to me that with so many puzzles available I still can’t find one I want to do.

I’m planning to buy a new chair for puzzling very soon in the hopes that it will be a little more comfortable to sit for more than a minute; which means perhaps soon I’ll be back to my regular puzzles. Yesterday I went on a quick puzzle run with mom and my daughter; I got a couple of cool collages (and a few others) and I’m hoping they will help me get my puzzle juju back soon! 🛍

This is the last of the hospital puzzles – hooray! There are still about 10-15 micro puzzles left I haven’t assembled, but I can pepper them in here and there; there’s no need to do them all at once.

It was such a blessing to me to have puzzles to do to break up the boredom and take my mind off of everything stressful going on. The micro puzzles are small enough to do all at once, which is nice because for some reason laying in bed all day is exhausting; the larger puzzles I assembled took a day or two, but it didn’t matter – I loved them all. Wentworth Wooden Puzzles helped save my sanity. Thanks Wentworth! 💕

Kitchen Cats

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments
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Kitchen Cats by Adrian Chesterman – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 40 pieces

This was my least favorite of the micro puzzle images so far. Unlike many little old lady puzzlers, I don’t have cats and am not a huge fan of cat puzzles either. Still, when I want to puzzle I’ll try just about any image; it’s a real stress reducer for me, and it really works!

Every whimsy in this puzzle was a silhouette of a cat, again not really my cup of tea but absolutely perfect for this puzzle. Otherwise the assembly was the same as most of the other micro puzzles I’ve done, more challenging than you think it will be and ultimately very fun. When I first saw the cut of the Wentworth puzzles I thought they looked too easy, and not challenging at all but they are sometimes quite devious with their cuts and every puzzle has the right amount of difficulty in my opinion.

Cute image, fun to assemble, small enough to take and put together just about anywhere. What’s not to love?