Month: October 2021

My Good, Good Boy

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous14 Comments

My sweet Buddy

This past few years have truly sucked, and Monday the 11th of October added to the grief. My good boy had to leave us and my heart is broken. He is no longer suffering or in pain, but that doesn’t help the sorrow much. We all wish he was still here with us.

The picture above is how I will remember him, always happy and wanting to play and right in your face about it. He wasn’t a snuggler, and when you showed him any love, tried to give him tummy rubs, or even just wanted to pet him he would get so excited and go find the nearest toy and bring it to you. He wanted to share his favorite toys and activities with you; cause you cared about him and he cared about you. Unless he was tired he didn’t really like hugs or snuggles; for him, love was action. I have found that to be true as well, my Buddy was a very wise pup.

Waiting on momma to get out of bed…

Isn’t that the sweetest face ever? He always kept me company whether I was doing puzzles or in bed watching tv. Here he is with me in bed while I was resting; patiently waiting, keeping me company, and watching over me when I wasn’t well. We don’t deserve dogs, they’re so full of unconditional love.

Buddy loved to make a little nest in all the pillows on the bed, and sometimes I’d walk by and his little head would pop up to see what was happening and whether or not he’d want to get involved. The cutest, bestest boy ever.

I felt the need to put a puzzle in this post. This is from the Ji-Ga-Zo puzzle that mom found at the thrift store. You put a picture into the software and it gives you a “map” to complete the puzzle – so of course we had to put in that gorgeous face – his picture was the first one we assembled. He looks so serious, and so handsome too. There are references to my puzzling companion all through this blog. I talked about him keeping me company, making me take breaks to play with him, and there are more than a few pictures of his adorable face too. He’s all over the place here, as he should be.

Half the pictures in my phone are of Buddy, I spent so much time looking through them this past week. Remembering that sweet face, his silly antics, how his eyes would bug out when he was excited to play, and how much he meant to our entire family. Losing him was so hard on all of us. There’s an emptiness in the house now. In our hearts too.

I’ll leave you with one last image, one my oldest son had commissioned several months ago (art credit to @Zooophagous on Twitter). It’s our Buddy, looking dapper and happy – how he’ll always be remembered.

He was the happiest dog, full of kisses and excitement, love and patience, and he was a good, good boy. 🐾💔🐾

Laundry Day

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

Laundry Day by Adrian Chesterman – Vermont Christmas Co. – 100 pieces

Forgot about this one; my “grandson” and I put it together when I visited him in July once everyone was vaccinated and safe. I had to do a little research to find the title and artist, cause I left the puzzle with him. Oops!

It’s on the October page, it seems silly to make a “July” page just for this one puzzle.

Also, please excuse the bad photo, I had to take the picture on the kitchen table at someone else’s house. I did my best.

*edit* While re-reading through my blog this past weekend I came across another puzzle with the same title by the same artist but a different puzzle company. It looks as if some of the characters are exactly the same, with some changes. Check it out here. I wonder if the artist gives them license to muck around with the image, or if they change things themselves and sell the image again to a different company. It’s probably the latter.

In all my years of puzzling I’m not sure I’ve run across this before; or perhaps I have, but just didn’t notice. I probably wouldn’t have noticed this time if both puzzles didn’t have the exact same name.

Street Food

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Street Food by Shanghee Shin – Re-marks – 300 pieces

This puzzle sat on my board from the middle of August last year when I took my break, until January, 2021 – that’s when I finally photographed it and put it away. Talk about just walking away from puzzles. Yeesh!

Re-marks puzzles seem to range from very good to fair quality. I’ve had a couple of their puzzles that were full of “hanging chads”, that extra paper hanging on the backs of pieces; a very spongy fit that you have to work at, etc. But I’ve also done several of their puzzles that have been very good quality as well. The deciding factor for me is normally the image. I can put up with a lot of quality “issues” if the image is one that delights or informs, or just makes me happy. Their collage puzzles are a joy to assemble. 👍

Tuna flavored hot dogs? Ew! There are so many words in this image, but these jumped out at me, new tuna flavor? No thank you. 🤢

Perhaps some of you will remember that when the fit of a puzzle is particularly tight, Stacey likes to stand it up on it’s end and photograph it standing on it’s own. Apparently, this also causes Stacey to speak about herself in the third person. Interesting.

This was the last puzzle I assembled before I took my break; so it’s the last puzzle I’m posting about that I don’t remember assembling. From now on you can be sure any puzzle I post about I will have some memory of the assembly. Unless I fall down and hit my head or something.

It’s entirely possible. I fall a LOT. 🤕

Benefits of Blogging

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous6 Comments

My darling (sometimes frustrating) husband dragged my butt out of the house yesterday to shop for a couple of things we needed. I truly despise shopping – unless it’s for puzzles. Knowing that, the first place we went was to a store that had puzzles, so I’d at least be a little happy to have gone shopping.

After a year in the sunken place with pretty much zero puzzles assembled and none blogged about, my memory of which puzzles I’ve assembled is shaky at best. While the hubs was “helping” me pick out puzzles there were times when I couldn’t remember whether or not I’d assembled a puzzle. Mostly these were collages, I’ve done so many and sometimes they look so similar that honestly there was no certainty whether or not I’d already assembled it. Sometimes I was certain, I’ve definitely done that one – many times I was clueless.

Here’s where the title of today’s post comes into play….one of the benefits of my blog is that I post about every puzzle I assemble. All that was needed was for me to take out my phone and search the blog. If the title isn’t there, it hasn’t been assembled by me. What a lovely resource!

I know there are plenty of people who use apps or lists to keep track of assembled puzzles, and that’s awesome. If it works for you then that is what you should do. For me though, it’s completely unnecessary. A benefit of being a puzzle blogger that I hadn’t even thought of. 😎

Another benefit I hadn’t realized is the memories of people and loved ones found in my writings. My mother is all over the place here, and re-reading through my old posts the past couple of weeks has been sweet/lovely/sad/funny and many other adjectives I cannot put into print due to my lack of coherent thoughts about it and also a lack of sufficient amounts of caffeine this morning. The gray cells aren’t completely awake yet today.

I’ve truly been enjoying reading through all the old posts. I just got through Christmas 2019 and the debacle of the 12 Days of Christmas puzzle advent calendar. I find I’m still pissed at Ceaco about it, and also when I’m ticked off I tend to be quite funny. Some of those posts really made me laugh!

Seeing puzzles I’d forgotten that I’d assembled, the ones I hated and the ones I loved, the posts where hubby had ticked me off about something, or my Buddy made me smile or laugh, seeing all the fun pictures, reading through the comments – all of it – it’s been lovely for me to help me in trying to get back to my former self as the Puzzle Goddess. (My mom named me that, I would never presume) I wouldn’t say The Puzzle Goddess is 100% back, but she’s on the road home and will hopefully be here soon. 🧚‍♀️

In no way am I trying to get anyone to start a blog – about puzzles or anything else. This weekend of reading through My Jigsaw Journal and having to leave the house to go shopping have brought into focus for me the two unexpected benefits of my blog. There are plenty more (again, just for myself) but these two reasons presented themselves to me this weekend and I thought I’d share them with you.*

*Partly because I find them to be two awesome benefits that showed themselves recently, and partly because the posts where I was more “chatty” about life and the goings on here at the My Jigsaw Journal household were more interesting and fun for me to re-read.

Candylicious

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Candylicious by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo (Vivid Collection) – 300 pieces

Longtime readers will remember that my favorite puzzle artist is Aimee Stewart, her use of color is stunning and her shelf puzzles have provided me with hours and hours of enjoyment. The very first time I attempted a 2000 piece puzzle it was her beautiful artwork that gave me the confidence to even give it a try. Her puzzles make me happy!

The Buffalo Vivid Collection puzzles are true to their name – the colors are so vivid! I’ve done several, and they’ve all been fabulous quality with exceptional image reproduction. They are highly recommended. Very highly.

Love all the gummy bears, especially the ones that have different colored heads! I’ve never come across any like that in the wild, have you?

That looks like the most refreshing slushy ever. With my inner child deciding to play with matches – causing serious hot flashes – this drink would be most welcome at my house. Yum!

I adore the look of these candies, for some reason that I seem unable to put into words at the moment. Suffice it to say that I simply love the artwork of Aimee Stewart and even though I don’t recall specifically this assembly, I can say with absolutely certainty that there isn’t one little bit of this image that wasn’t entertaining to assemble. She is a puzzle artist goddess and her work makes me extremely happy!