Vintage Cake Shop In Progress

On January 21, 2020January 21, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Cake Shop IP — Vintage Cake Shop by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

I’ve been up since 1:30 this morning, it’s amazing how much puzzling you can get done in the wee hours when you can’t sleep. Hubby is sick, and goodness knows I love him, but men are such babies when they’re sick – at least mine is! The coughing has to be overly loud and drawn out and it ends with pathetic moaning – and it woke me up about 1:30 am. I tried to go back to sleep but the whiny man next to me in bed kept me awake.

If he refuses to go to the doctor I have little sympathy. My man in particular won’t even take over the counter medications unless I put them in his hand and make him take them. If you want to feel better, and you’re so sick that you can’t work or reach across your bedside table to get the tissue without assistance then you need to see a doctor! Sigh. Marriage. Sometimes he’s the sweetest man there is, and sometimes he’s so frustrating that I pass the time mentally spending the life insurance money. 💰🤔💰

Anyway, to the puzzle. I started sorting soon after I got out of bed, and this is the progress I’ve made so far. It’s going pretty well, though I must admit seeing all the very pale, pastel colors on the pieces made me hesitate when I opened the box. After I put a few pieces on the tray though I knew it would be alright; it’s an Aimee Stewart after all, and even though everything looks pale an indistinct right now it will all come together and make a beautiful picture in the end. It’s going to be a busy day, but hopefully I’ll be able to get a little sleep later on in the day, and get some more time at the puzzle table too. I’m enjoying this puzzle very much!

*My Buddy is having surgery this morning, so he’s off to the vet early and I’ll be picking him up this afternoon once he’s awake and the anesthesia has worn off. Think good thoughts for both Buddy and hubby, and if any of you have some extra patience anywhere, I could really use some – the men in my life are definitely wearing mine thin!

Dog’s Life

On January 20, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles9 Comments

Is that not the cutest puzzle? It’s so adorable!!! My darlin daughter gave me this one for Christmas, and I couldn’t wait to get at it. It’s truly a dog’s life in this puzzle, and if you have dogs or have had them in the past you will relate.

It’s not the best quality, and if you ask me Eurographics is backsliding in the quality department. They used to be very good quality randomly cut puzzles, but this one piece shape with terrible cutting leaves a lot to be desired. The finish is super shiny and there is glare no matter if you’re working with dark pieces or light.

Dog's Life 1

This is basically dog ownership in a nutshell. Always looking at you for food as if they’ve never eaten a meal in their lives; that’s how Buddy looks at us anyway.

We only have one dog, just Buddy, but he certainly enjoys a ride in the car, and there is plenty of hanging out the window going on! And more than any other little vignette in this puzzle, the one on the right definitely shows how Buddy gets comfy in bed with my husband and me. He takes the middle – all of the middle!

My youngest son surprised me by coming in at the end of this puzzle when I was finishing the middle, there were about 7 or 8 pieces left, and he just grabbed one and put it in. He NEVER wants to do puzzles with me, so it was a bit of a shock, but a very happy one. He kept on going and I let him place all of the final pieces. He stopped at the last one and looked to me, knowing that putting in the very last piece makes a hard-core puzzler like me very happy, but I told him to go ahead and finish it. It was so lovely and I was truly pleased that he came in and wanted to be with me in my puzzle room working on one of my puzzles – even if it was only for a couple of minutes! He’s so sweet, and I love that he helped me put in the last few pieces. 💖

A Cranky Camper

On January 19, 2020January 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

This is another puzzle from the multipack of 12 puzzles with artwork by Iralu, puzzles by Cardinal. I was surprised at the difference in quality between the 300 piece that I’d already assembled and this one; the 300 piece was much better quality than this 150 piece. Interesting.

I knew when I purchased it that the puzzles would most likely be of lesser quality; I find that the puzzles in most multipacks are made with thinner chipboard and as a result don’t usually fit together well – that was certainly the case with this puzzle. The fit on the edges was especially terrible and I found that the pieces seemed to fit where they didn’t belong. The top and bottom edges were assembled at the beginning, but the sides weren’t completed until the interior of the puzzle was assembled; the top and bottom edges had color on almost every piece and I could be certain that I got the assembly correct.

Each of the 150 piece puzzles in this pack are similar to this image, they are all of trucks or some sort of vehicle; I don’t dislike them, but they aren’t my favorites. The 500 and 300 piece puzzle images are the ones I really like in the box, but the 150 piece puzzles are perfect to put onto a tray and work while I’m resting in bed.

Even with the questionable quality this was an enjoyable puzzle to assemble (except for the edges), and it went together pretty quickly. It’s nice to have some very small puzzles available that I can work on my trays in bed when I’m not feeling well enough to sit at the puzzle table. 🙂

New Puzzle In Progress

On January 18, 2020January 18, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

My husband surprised me this past week and bought me a new wooden puzzle! Then he went one better and got one from a company I’ve never tried before, AND he picked out an image that I really like. He is the sweetest man, and after 31 years he still loves me and loves to surprise me. 💗

The image is The Prague Clock, or The Prague Astronomical Clock – which I must admit that I had never heard of before and knew nothing about. I’ve been reading about it since he presented me with the puzzle and am now completely fascinated by it. Did you know it’s the oldest working astronomical clock in the world? It was built in 1410 and is still working today; and it’s amazing the things this clock face can tell you.

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Astronomical clocks are designed to show you astronomical information (obviously), like the positions of the sun, moon, and certain constellations. The Prague clock, however, shows this information and much more. If you know how to read it you can tell the date, how long until sunrise or sunset, the location of the Sun on the ecliptic (which tells you the date in relation to the sign of the zodiac), what lunar phase the moon is currently in, and, oh yes, it tells time too (both current standard time and Ancient Bohemian Time). There may be more, I haven’t read through everything yet or committed all the information to memory.

I’m fascinated by the clock, and I’m excited to get started assembling the puzzle! I’ve looked through the pieces and picked out all the whimsies, and hopefully all the edge pieces too. The puzzle is on the small side, 19 x 14 inches, and only 500 pieces, so I’ve decided to just lay the pieces out on the board and work it that way with no trays to look through. I think it’s partly because of the discussion we’ve been having in the comments about the merits of sorting or not sorting; so I’ve decided to give not sorting another try. We’ll see how that goes. 😉

Momma’s Me Mood*

On January 17, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

I started this early in the morning before leaving to spend some time with family on New Year’s Day, and finished in the late afternoon when we got home. First day of the year, two puzzles completed; they were only small ones, but they were both entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I did something I NEVER do and bought one of those multipacks of puzzles. Usually I find the quality is really awful when you have many puzzles in one box, but I couldn’t help it – the artwork was so interesting, colorful, and completely different from what you normally see. I had to brave the questionable quality of 12 puzzles in one box from Cardinal, I just couldn’t pass them up; artwork like this is not something you normally find in a multipack.

The asterisk by the title is because although the artwork is by Iralu, the title is by my daughter. I couldn’t find the real title online (I’m not great at web searches to be honest), so I asked for some help in giving this image a name. I think it’s a perfect name for this puzzle, and I hope she’s feeling creative because none of the puzzles in this multipack have titles. 😉

I was surprised at the quality of this 300 piece puzzle, it was better than I thought it would be – at least as far as the chipboard goes. It was thicker than I’d assumed and fit together quite well. It may not be the same for the other piece counts in the box, but at least the four 300 piece puzzles are fair/good quality. In my book that’s a bonus!