Balconies in Bloom

On May 11, 2020May 10, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

I’ve had this set of 12 puzzles in a multipack since way before the world stopped rotating, and I sometimes forget that it’s sitting under the puzzle table. I’m glad I decided to find myself a 300 piece puzzle to assemble, because this one was really fun to do.

I put the box away and assembled it without help from the image, and had a fantastic time. It makes me want to put together the rest of the puzzles in this multipack because I just love the artwork! There are still four 500 piece puzzles, two 150 pieces, and one more 300 piece. They aren’t the best quality, but I knew that before I purchased them; it was all about these images by Iralu. You don’t see artwork like this on puzzles usually, and I absolutely adore it. 😍

I decided to show each of the balconies separately, they’re all pretty cool looking…

Balconies 1

Each one is very detailed and deserving of it’s own picture. There is coffee, wine, and/or cigarettes on every table.

Balconies 2

Everyone smokes in this tableau. Perhaps these are French balconies?

Balconies 3

This is my favorite of the four. You know me, I love the colors – especially the purple chairs! And I’m great with coffee at all hours of the day, keep it coming! ☕

Balconies 4

Wine AND coffee. Hmmm. Not a good combo for me. I’d much rather put some whiskey in my coffee – I am partly Irish after all. I’m not allowed to drink with all the pain meds I’m on, but an Irish coffee sounds really good right about now. 😎

Happy Mother’s Day Giveaway Winner

On May 10, 2020May 9, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling13 Comments

I want to wish all my readers a very Happy Mother’s Day. If you’re a mom, thank you for all the brave, loving, tedious, difficult, and wonderful things you do – it is always appreciated even if it isn’t always spoken aloud. If you’re not a mom, Happy Mother’s Day anyway!

The random number generator has spoken, and the winner of this beautiful shaped wooden puzzle is……..

Entry #4 – Kristen Rank

Congratulations Kristen! I will be sending you an email, and hopefully I’ll be able to get this gorgeous puzzle out to you very soon. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Thank you to everyone who entered this giveaway, and for all the wonderful comments about your moms – I loved hearing about them. Thanks also to all my readers, and for everyone who stops by My Jigsaw Journal, you are all welcome and appreciated. 💖

Happy Mother’s Day mom, I miss you more than I can say, and I will always love you to puzzle pieces.

💗🧩💗

Quilts In Progress

On May 9, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

Quilts IP — Quilts – Cobble Hill – 500 pieces

Yesterday was an awful day, and I didn’t even get started on this one until last night. I made a bit of progress before I ended up going to bed though, it’s looking pretty good!

Quilts are a funny thing, there are many fabrics that I wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole, but you put them into a quilt and they look perfectly normal. Great even! Does anyone else feel that way?

As I was laying out the pieces and looking at some of the patterns and colors, I thought to myself “That is the ugliest fabric!”, and “Ugh, that is a hideous color.”. But you put them together with other fabrics and they seem to make sense, and even become part of a beautiful pattern.

Oh well, I suppose beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. 😍

Review: Fresh Picked Flowers

On May 8, 2020May 8, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews16 Comments

The beautiful, bright colors of this image made this puzzle so much fun; and the quality was so much better than the previous Sunsout puzzle that I assembled. Don’t you love it when a puzzle is so much better than you anticipated? I do!

The last Sunsout puzzle I assembled – Rainy Day Sketch – was purchased at the same time, from the same store. The difference in quality between the two was striking – and that is NOT a good thing. When you don’t know for sure what you’re going to get, it makes it difficult to trust that you’re getting your money’s worth. I’m not a fan of having to guess or gamble when it comes to the quality of the puzzles I buy.

Fresh Picked Flowers had very good quality, in fact I was surprised at how good. Having had a much different experience with the previous Sunsout puzzle, I was dreading this one a little bit thinking it would be equally as disappointing. Thank goodness that wasn’t the case! This puzzle had thick pieces with a very good variety of shapes, and a truly wonderful fit. As you can see the reproduction is bright and crisp, with clean lines – it was a joy to work with.

Fresh Picked Flowers 1

For some reason the dullest colored thing in the puzzle, this brown bird (I have no idea what species this is), was one of the things I really enjoyed putting together. For some reason I can’t really express this bird was lovely to assemble.

Fresh Picked Flowers 2

This bowl of cherries is bright and fun, and was really challenging too. When I look at it the first thing that comes to mind is Erma Bombeck; she was a humorist and columnist that I used to really enjoy reading when I was younger. I’m sure if I had one of her books here now it would still make me laugh. She had a book entitled “If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What am I Doing in the Pits?” and it seems to pop into my brain whenever I see this.

The artwork by Jane Maday made for an excellent puzzling experience, and the quality of the puzzle itself was wonderful to work with. If only all Sunsout puzzles could be this good! If by some miracle you find this puzzle out there, it’s definitely recommended. I loved it. 💖

Details:

Title: Fresh Picked Flowers
Artist: Jane Maday
Brand: Sunsout
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Average
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Mill Cottage

On May 7, 2020May 7, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Such a pretty picture – and it was pretty difficult too! I knew it would be going in of course, I just didn’t know how much. The brush strokes made it quite a challenge; but being the puzzle goddess that I am, I finally triumphed! I’m pretty proud of myself for finishing the pretty picture. 😁

The quality of this Milton Bradley puzzle was good/fair. The pieces were on the thinner side, and some were easily or already bent when I opened the box. The fit was good, if somewhat loose, and the image reproduction was good. Overall I found it a bit disappointing, but of course that is just one person’s opinion; you may find that the quality is perfectly acceptable for you, and in the end that is what matters most. For myself though, I don’t think another new purchase of a 1000 piece Milton Bradley puzzle is in the cards for me unless the image was fabulous and I just couldn’t live without it.

Mill Cottage 1

All the pretty flowers that look so beautiful in front of Mill Cottage were just blobs of paint. I suppose, when you think about it, basically all paintings are just blobs of color the closer you get to them; but these little blobs of color were very difficult to assemble. I should know better than to buy puzzles like this, brush strokes and blobs are no fun for me!

Mill Cottage 2

I loved this little guy, he was one of the first things I assembled. It looks like he’s trying to get the attention of the girl on the shore, and maybe he’s trying to impress her. How sweet. Lovesick little boys are pretty cute, good thing we little girls know how to handle them. 👧