Month: June 2023

Portrait of a Quilt

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Portrait of a Quilt by Helen Klebesadel – Cobble Hill – 500 pieces

Once I actually opened the box for this puzzle and saw the pieces it had to be next. An explanation wouldn’t really make sense, it just had to be the next one on my board, and I’m so glad it was.

The larger pieces of this puzzle, the bright colors and interesting patterns – it made for excellent, entertaining puzzling and I adored it with every single piece I placed. ❤

Excellent Cobble Hill quality; the linen pieces felt amazing in my hands, and the fit was near perfect. The image reproduction is stunning, and I cannot recommend this puzzle enough!

I hope whatever puzzle you’re working on right now is as much fun as this one was. Happy puzzling my friends! 🧩

What’s Puzzling…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Cozy Bathroom by Olga – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

I’ve only done a couple puzzles with artwork by Olga, and both of them have had only kittens/cats in them – how delightful to have this adorable puppy in this image! How could you resist that sweet face?

Yesterday I had only started on the sorting of this puzzle, but spent most of the day in bed. Luckily (not really), I was up and at the puzzle board at 3 am; so it’s now completely sorted and there is actual assembly going on.🧩

Insomnia is not great for me personally, but it is good for giving me plenty of quiet time to puzzle with no one asking questions or expecting anything of me. It’s also good for making sure there are plenty of puzzles in the queue to be posted – there is much more time for me to puzzle if sleep doesn’t interfere much.

There’s no need to worry about having enough puzzles to get through our upcoming trip, there will be plenty ready to go before we even leave. There will even be enough completed to have a cushion of a couple of days after we return – time for me to get back into the groove of puzzles and posting. I’ll be taking some smaller wooden puzzles and my computer with me, of course, but it’s nice to have a big enough queue of completed puzzles that there’s no worry about keeping up. 😎

Love Letters

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Love Letters – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Such a bright, colorful, entertaining puzzle – where do I begin? We all know how much collage puzzles make me happy, and this one was no different. The piece shape is quite evident in the finished image, but it doesn’t take away from how much fun I had putting it together. In addition to their many images with book covers, Re-marks has quite a few of these stamp collages as well – I’ve not been disappointed with any of them. 😁

I was so glad the border had a pattern, it was easy to pick out the pieces while sorting; the cut was very random and there were many, many pieces that looked as though they would be edges that were not. It was quite helpful to be able to see at a glance whether or not the pieces were actually part of the border.

This puzzle had a very loose fit, but was otherwise good quality. The random cut made for interesting piece shapes, and the image reproduction was good, though somewhat shiny.

These were two of my favorite stamps, but they were all so interesting and beautiful – it was hard to choose just a few to show up close.

To Fetch or Not to Fetch

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

To Fetch or Not to Fetch by John Cuneo – NY Puzzle Co. – 500 pieces

I like the image of this New Yorker cover, although the painterly style sometimes made for a more challenging assembly. It’s a well made puzzle, good quality – but it isn’t for beginners.

The border of this one needed a big straw (it sucked) – but only on the side with the black stripe. It was so dark, and a couple of pieces seemed to fit where they did not belong; that’s one thing I despise in a puzzle, I like to know when a piece fits that it’s the correct one. Several pieces that fit perfectly in the same space is so annoying!

Otherwise this was an entertaining assembly, there was a LOT of grass, but there’s enough shading, etc. so it didn’t seem too insurmountable.

This is what it looked like once I’d put in every piece that had something other than green – the rest were all shades of green. Not much fun, but once it was finished I was glad I kept at it. Yay me!

How is Our Posse?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous6 Comments

We have a few different posses here – The Puzzle Posse and The PADS Posse being the most prominent. So to all posse members, here’s my question of the day – how are you? It’s not a question I’m asking in passing that I don’t really want to hear the answer to; I’m truly asking how you all are and I am sincerely interested in your answers.

Asking how others are doing and actually listening to their answers is so important in any friendship or relationship – and it’s so good for your well being to be able to really talk to someone about how things are going and how you’re doing physically, mentally, and emotionally. I find sometimes it’s easier to share online than it is to have these conversations in person: if you feel the same way and are inclined to share, please let me know how you’re doing. Everyone deserves to be heard.

I’ll go first…

I’m having a hard time right now dealing with the many stresses in my life, and I find myself diving headfirst into my puzzles so that I don’t have to interact with anyone in my family or others who may stop by. I sit in front of my puzzle board and either work on the puzzles themselves or on the blog so that when someone comes in to see me I’m busy “working” on something and there isn’t as much conversation as there normally would be. It isn’t healthy, and I’m doing my best to stop hiding in the puzzle room.

We have a trip coming up in a couple of weeks, so I’m stressed about making sure the blog has enough puzzles ready to be posted, getting all of our stuff packed and ready, and making plans so that my boys and the house are taken care of while we’re gone. There are lists being made, conversations being had, and much anxiety taking place on my part. It’s supposed to be fun, a 10 day trip up north to Michigan to see our family, and it will be fun once we get there; but the pre-trip preparations are stressing me the bleep out.

I’m healing, slowly, from my oral surgery – one way I can tell is that the chronic pain I have in my hip and leg is back in full force. In the beginning all I could feel was the dental pain, now I’ve got them both together. Thank goodness for pharmaceuticals is all I have to say about that. Additionally, I don’t speak the same way I used to because of the surgery, and am embarrassed to have to speak in public when I go out. It’s causing a great deal of depression and anxiety; my dentist tells me it will right itself in time, but it’s been over two weeks already. I want my speaking voice back the way it was, and even though I know it isn’t true my brain has convinced me that I’ll be talking like this forever. 😢

So that’s how things are with me. How are you all doing?

June is both PTSD Awareness month and Alzheimer’s/Brain Awareness month. As someone who has experienced PTSD and the damage it can do to your life, I’m just doing my best to make sure all my puzzle posse friends are doing ok – or at the very least have someone to talk to.

As far as Alzheimer’s/Brain Awareness, I hope you all know how good puzzles are for your brain. They help with memory, spatial awareness, pattern recognition, fine motor skills, and much more. They are also calming, relaxing, and stress relieving – puzzling releases dopamine into your brain – it makes you feel good!

So I’m advocating that you puzzle when you can, talk to us – or anyone – when you need to, and perhaps consider donating your completed or unwanted puzzles to a local senior center or retirement home/community. I’m sure they will be most appreciated, and can especially help those with Alzheimer’s or dementia.