If My People…

On May 21, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

This image is fabulous, but unfortunately the quality of the puzzle didn’t match. This puzzle had the thinnest pieces I’ve ever seen from Sunsout – it almost felt like a Cardinal puzzle from the dollar store. The fit wasn’t great either. In addition, a missing piece and two pieces that had been chewed by a pet or a child. Why would someone donate a puzzle like that? I don’t get it.

The image of hands repairing a battle-worn American flag is absolutely beautiful, and I truly wish it had been licensed to a company with better quality. That seems harsh, and it is; but this is my blog – about the puzzles I do and my opinions about them. That is my opinion.

Even for Sunsout this was terrible quality. Thin, bendable pieces and a bad fit made it less than pleasurable to work with. I finished it because my mom bought it, we both adored the image, and I wanted to see it through for her. If those things weren’t attached to it I’m not sure I would have kept going with such a terrible quality puzzle.

The artwork was painted after the 9-11 attacks and inspired by a Bible verse from 2 Chronicles. It contains hidden images; of the twin towers with rising smoke, of evil, of someone praying, and more. They were hard to find in the reproduced image, and even harder to photograph so that I could show you here. You can see, even without a closeup, the nail imprint on the left hand showing that it is Jesus mending the flag. If you’d like to see all of the hidden images you can check out the artist’s website which shows each hidden image and its meaning. (As a side note, the box this puzzle came in had absolutely no information about this artwork, the hidden images, or the artist).

This was a thrift store purchase, so as happens sometimes my puzzle had a couple of issues – the obvious missing piece in the flag, and the fact that someone or something used a couple of the pieces as a chew toy. Missing pieces happen, it isn’t a big deal to me. The chewed up pieces annoy me though. If you’re donating puzzles and you know a couple of pieces are chewed up – just don’t donate. Again, this is just my opinion.

If My People 1

These two pieces look relatively alright here, but they were mangled and I had to work to get them back in the right shape and fitted together. You can see the creases in the pieces to show how bent they were. Annoying.

Great image, terrible quality – it seems like I say that about Sunsout puzzles quite a bit, doesn’t it? They’ve been added to my boycott list along with Ceaco, it just isn’t worth the frustration for me. I need to be strong and resist the temptation when I see a fabulous image from a company that doesn’t have good quality. Sounds simple, but it’s not always easy for me to resist a beautiful image, I must admit. I’m a bit of a puzzle junkie.

Shocked? I know, right?! 😇

Cereal Boxes

On May 20, 2020May 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

I had a really good time with this one – as is usual for almost all collages – and insomnia helped to make sure that it was assembled in less than 24 hours. It certainly helps me get more puzzling done, but I’m not sure it’s great for my health. 😐

The piece quality was very good on this puzzle; thickness, shapes, and fit were all quite nice. The image reproduction though, wasn’t the best. There was quite a bit of fuzziness on many of the cereal boxes. It seems to be a recurring problem with White Mountain collage puzzles, but I still buy them because they make me happy to assemble them, fuzzy spots or no.

Cereal Boxes 1

What in the world is this cereal doing in a collage of fun cereals? This is your parent’s and grandparent’s cereal! If I had to eat this there would be so much fruit and sugar on it that it would be obscene. Yikes.

Cereal Boxes 2

Kix was the only cereal shown with 3 separate boxes. This was my favorite of the three, but it definitely isn’t my favorite of the cereals. I remember being younger and mom buying this cereal and we were not happy about it. To me it was so boring and tasteless, it was like chewing on little round puffs of styrofoam. Blech! When my kids were younger and we were on assistance, I remember that this was one of the few cereals you were allowed to buy for them. They had to be relatively healthy with as little sugar as possible, and I always opted to buy the Chex cereals for the kids instead, they were much better tasting if you ask me.

Cereal Boxes 3

This is one of my favorites, probably tied with Lucky Charms in the number two spot. Graham Cracker cereal – yum! (My favorite isn’t a General Mills cereal, so it’s nowhere to be found in this puzzle).

All in all I adored this puzzle, not only was it fun to assemble it brought back great childhood memories for me. 🥣💗

No Puzzling In Progress

On May 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling29 Comments

I’d show you a picture of an empty board today, but to be honest the puzzle that was in progress three days ago is still sitting there. It is complete, but it’s still on the board and I haven’t started anything else. 😐

To be completely honest, I’m in the middle of a major depressive funk that has me doing almost nothing all day long. Usually I don’t discuss things like this, but I think part of the problem with mental health issues is that we don’t discuss them – and I’ve seriously had enough of pretending to be happy and positive all the time.

Many of us around the world have depression, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with having it or admitting we have it. By talking about it, we find out that although it may seem as though we’re alone – we are not. And also that having depression or anxiety isn’t a failing, it doesn’t make you weak, it doesn’t mean you’re a “mental case”; it just means that you’re human and you may have a chemical imbalance. Just because you put the word “mental” in front of “illness” doesn’t mean you’re crazy.

I’m not crazy. I may love jigsaw puzzles to an almost unhealthy degree, but I am not crazy. I’m depressed. I have serious anxiety problems – still not crazy.

A couple of years ago I developed an “electrical problem” in my heart. It caused a serious rapid heartbeat called tachycardia that had me hospitalized twice and in jeopardy of having a heart attack or a stroke. Since then I’ve had to take medication to keep the electrical system in my heart working properly; the only problem is that it cannot be taken with antidepressants. I’d been on antidepressants for many years, but in the choice between being less depressed and having a heartbeat – you can imagine which one I chose.

So, with the changes in pain medications that cause me serious problems and more pain, the world in the midst of a pandemic costing many lives, and a host of other small things – I’m having an extremely tough time right now. And if we don’t talk about things like being anxious or depressed – or both – things aren’t ever going to change or get better.

So instead of telling you what’s in progress today and pretending that all is well; I’m telling you that all is not well, nothing is in progress, and I am just doing the best I can.

The Avengers

On May 18, 2020May 18, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

I bought this to assemble and glue to hang in the bedroom of my youngest son. He is a self-professed Comic Book Nerd, and loves to talk about it for hours on end. Mostly he talks to himself, but the entire time I was putting this one together he stayed in the room to watch and I heard about The Avengers, and when it was released, and who played who in the movies, and who the original artist was, etc., etc. etc.

For. The. Entire. Time.

Thank goodness this went together quickly! 😉

The quality was good/fair, and I have to say I adored the artwork – especially the look of the hands holding the comic book. Even the frayed edges of the comic book look amazingly realistic, it seems almost like a Norman Rockwell with its amazing accuracy. I searched every inch of the box to find the name of the artist, but I found nothing at all; it would have been nice to give credit for the exceptional artwork.

The Avengers 1

This just made me smile. It makes me think of the old movie trailers that told us all about the thrills and chills we’d be experiencing if we saw a particular movie. I’m smiling now just typing this up. 🙂

Banana Split

On May 17, 2020May 17, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Ah, a puzzle from a good brand with an image by Aimee Stewart. My happy place. Beautiful, fun, not too easy – the perfect combination for puzzlers both new and seasoned. 💜

Because there are so many different items, colors, textures, and elements you don’t have to focus on the image as a whole when you begin assembling. When you’re turning pieces over, or sorting, or whatever you do when you start a puzzle you will see things that stand out to you. A tablespoon of sprinkles, the striped containers, waffle cones, words, etc.; and you can start small with whatever small image or section you choose. You don’t have to worry about dealing with it all at once like you do when you’re assembling a landscape where 1/3 of the image is the sky or water, etc.

Banana Split 1

This was the first thing I assembled, even before the words. I usually go for all the words first, but these pieces were so easy to pick out, and I was just inspired to start with them. It wasn’t as easy to assemble as it was to sort, but the strawberries certainly were fun! (And I missed a few of the green pieces which made it a little more of a challenge.)

Banana Split 2

The banana split in the middle of the image was the absolute hardest part for me, and pretty much the very last thing I assembled. With those bright colors you’d think it would have been much easier, but it definitely wasn’t – at least for me. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it though, I enjoyed it very much!

Banana Split 3

These cute little guys were so difficult to find and put together, almost all the pieces looked as if they belonged somewhere else – either that or I’m slipping a bit. No matter, I absolutely love the vintage look of them, they are so adorable!

I think I’m down to only one more Aimee Stewart puzzle here at home 😱 but it seems as though many of the puzzle manufacturers and retailers have been getting back to work and restocking, so perhaps I’ll be able to get myself a few more soon. I certainly hope so, only one more of her puzzles here to assemble just won’t do!