Month: June 2023

Boobie Trapped

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Boobie Trapped by Angie Rees – Artifact – 340 pieces

This is the most fun I’ve had with a puzzle in a long time, the bright colors, the silly artwork, the excellent pieces – it all made for a great puzzle that I would love to start all over again. I gave myself over completely to the puzzle and just put in pieces wherever I found them; no pressure, no peeking at the box, just a little bit of puzzle paradise whenever it was needed.

When I first started stocking up on puzzles to work on after my surgery I was only looking at the smaller piece counts. I didn’t look at much else and ended up completely missing this one. Penny and I were window shopping online together (lots of texts back and forth with links to cute puzzles) and she came across this image. She knew immediately that I would love it, and it ended up that several cute ones had gone totally unnoticed by me because smaller piece counts were all I was looking at. Thankfully she’s always there to pick up the slack and enable me as much as possible, so an additional order was placed – we couldn’t leave this poor boobie trapped moose all alone!

The dangers of air-drying your laundry in places where there are roaming moose; well, it seems apparent what one of those dangers is doesn’t it?

Great whimsy pieces, including a bra and underwear set. Love the sense of humor with with one! The two beavers with the forest ranger hats were adorable as well.

The “drop out” in this puzzle was perfect. 💕 I don’t think I could have enjoyed this puzzle more, it was fantastic!

Merlin

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Merlin by Phil Lewis – Liberty – 103 pieces

This adorable puzzle is a “Little Liberty”, made for kids. The pieces were much bigger than the usual ones from this company, and the image is an easy one for kids to work on. Although I am a “grown up” this puzzle was still completely entertaining for me – just a big kid at heart I guess.

The image is by one of my favorite artists that Liberty uses, Phil Lewis, he’s a local artist in Boulder, Colorado – where Liberty Puzzles are located. His artwork makes for gorgeous puzzles; he made the image on one of my favorite puzzles I’ve ever assembled, Sugar Magnolia. I love his illustration here of a dreaming doggy with the clouds above showing what he’s dreaming about; you can see a rabbit being chased and a tennis ball, so cute!

Almost 25 percent of the pieces were whimsies, Liberty has the highest percentage of whimsy pieces per puzzle that I’ve ever worked with (from a contemporary company). They’re all appropriate to the image and easy to recognize, which is also excellent in a puzzle designed for children.

After I pulled all the whimsies out I commented to my husband that they all made sense to me in relation to the image, except for one – the standing woman. (I was working on this one in bed, hubby was right next to me while we binged a favorite show) Neither one of us could figure it out, hubby said perhaps she was holding a treat in her left hand that she might be giving to one of the dogs. We decided to wait and see what it looked like from the back once it was completed; sometimes in Liberty puzzles there are tableaus using more than one whimsy in the finished image. Any guesses for what it turned out to be? Hubby and I were both wrong…

At the top near the middle you can see where the lady fits in – she’s walking her poodle! I love how the designer fit in a straight line between pieces as the leash (the only straight line in the whole puzzle). There are a few little scenes in this image, all things Merlin may be dreaming about; barking at a cat, chasing a rabbit, playing with kids, etc.

It went together quickly, but it was a fantastically made puzzle with beautiful artwork by Phil Lewis. I adored it. 💖

In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

I’ve got a few puzzles going at the moment…

Color Garden – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This is one of my “bathroom puzzles” in progress. The lighting in this picture doesn’t do it justice; it’s an excellent image that I’m truly enjoying working on even if it’s only just a few pieces at a time.

Kuala Lumpur by Harimao Lee – Blanc Puzzles – 300 pieces

This is the puzzle on my board right now. Yesterday was a terrible pain day and I basically didn’t get out of bed until early this morning to update this post – so this puzzle sat alone and unloved all day. I thought it would be finished by now, but it looks like it won’t be completely assembled until perhaps later today or maybe even tomorrow. It’s been pretty fun so far, but the easy part is over and now all that’s left is the more difficult section at the top, we’ll see how it goes.

Flower Bee – Crafthub – 146 pieces

This horrid little puzzle is something I’m almost regretting purchasing in the first place, but at the same time I’m glad I gave it a shot. At the very least I can warn others not to purchase any of these terrible quality things.

In the beginning it was being assembled in one of my trays (in bed) but I had to move it to one corner of my fabric-covered board – because the pieces do not connect together well or at all, and the slightest touch will disrupt everything. I was constantly having to reposition pieces that moved around because they were accidentally brushed with my arm or merely by trying to connect another piece. The fabric makes it a little less likely that pieces come apart with an accidental touch.

I bought this wooden puzzle because it was – no joke – $7.99. Here’s what I’ll say about that…you get what you pay for and I should have known better. To say I’m disappointed in the quality would be a gross understatement; I’m disgusted with myself for buying it and am finding the assembly oddly engrossing as well as extremely frustrating. But, as usual, I’ve got a bee in my bonnet (no pun intended) about finishing this one. You’ll be hearing plenty from me when I post about the puzzle once it’s complete. I have MUCH to say about it. 🤬

I’m hoping to have all three finished before we leave for our vacation on Thursday. It’s always good to come to home to an empty board; we might find a fun looking puzzle or two while we we’re out and I might want to get to assembling it right away when we return. 😎

So those are the puzzles in various states of assembly right now at my house. What are you working on?

King Lion

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

King Lion by Marjorie Sarnat – Wentworth – 140 pieces

Holy crackers is this puzzle BEAUTIFUL! Every time I was working on it in bed my hubby commented about how striking it was, how the colors were so gorgeous – every time I took it out to add some pieces. Either he was just trying to keep my spirits up or he really thought those things; I think he really liked the image.

This was one that took loads more time than anticipated. The box image wasn’t used as a reference and with all the colors and patterns it took more brain power than your average cottage scene, landscape, or photographic image. But that was a plus in my book. Even if I was only able to put in a few pieces at a time I enjoyed searching for just the right one and hearing that satisfying “plunk” as it dropped into place.

Love all the whimsies, they completely fit in with the theme of the puzzle – and the details are amazing. Excellent puzzle all around, so much so that I’m looking forward to completing it again. 🦁

Secret Ingredient: Love

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Secret Ingredient: Love – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

My apologies for the wonky picture, as you can see it wasn’t taken on my board; it was on a tray in my bedroom and getting the lighting and the angle just right is difficult in there. I did my best, that’s all I can do. You can’t really tell because of the glare at the bottom, but it says p.s. the secret ingredient is love. 💕

If all that dark blue makes you think this was a little difficult you are absolutely right. Luckily there was some extra help available – this is a double-sided puzzle with a recipe for “Puzzle Pie” on the back, all those wonderful little words were perfect for when finding the right blue piece became a challenge. 🥧

This one was sitting in the bathroom for a while, but hubby seemed to want nothing to do with it, so the assembly fell completely to me. That’s alright, it was easy enough to take into the bedroom and work on it while watching tv. Besides, with the darker side better lighting was a must.

This recipe isn’t too far off from my own apple pie recipe, sounds like it would taste amazing (as long as it was a homemade pie crust). You can see in instruction #5 that you need to cut using MicroPuzzles cutters; they came in the box with that month’s subscription – two baking themed puzzles and four cookie cutters shaped like puzzle pieces.

I’m not feeling up to making pies just yet, but I’m looking forward to making some puzzle shaped sugar cookies soon. 🍪