Month: September 2023

The Dr. Seuss Collection

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

The Dr. Seuss Collection – The Op/USAopoly – 1000 pieces

Of course I loved this one! Who can resist some Theodor Geisel? The first time I saw it online I immediately purchased it – even though my previous puzzles by USAopoly weren’t the best quality.

Didn’t care.

Had to have it.

I’m so glad I did!

The quality of this puzzle was much different than previous puzzles I’d assembled by USAopoly. The brand seems to now be The Op/USAopoly, and the improvement is quite significant. The pieces are thicker with a very good variety of shapes, have a linen-type paper on the front (somewhat like Cobble Hill) that gives the pieces a great hand-feel, and the fit was excellent.

The pieces were (for the most part) extremely easy to sort so I thought I’d do them line by line. But the orange of the ground in Fox in Socks was almost the exact same color as the orange background in Green Eggs and Ham. It was easiest to just assemble both orange sections at once rather than try to just put together Green Eggs and Ham. So once the line by line plan was out the window the OCD kicked in and I decided to assemble all the sections around the outside and leave The Cat in the Hat for the end.

My brain is weird, I know that. Having that little bit of a different section already assembled doesn’t seem like a big deal, but that’s not what my brain thought. It was a big deal and I had to change my plans in a way that made sense to my weird mind. I no longer question the eccentricity – I just embrace the peculiar and try to go with it. 😜🧠

I’ve always loved the story that Theodor Geisel was given a list of 250 words that were important for first graders to recognize and was challenged to write a book that children couldn’t put down. He came back with The Cat in the Hat. Even though he had already published many children’s books that were relatively popular, The Cat in the Hat became an international success because of it’s simplified vocabulary and the fact that it could be easily read by beginning readers.

My kids all love to read, and I credit Dr. Seuss books for much of that. They not only loved to read them on their own, but they also wanted them to be read aloud to them – of course that duty usually fell to mom. One Fish Two Fish and Fox in Socks were both favorites, and at one point I could recite both books in their entirety from memory having read them so often to my babies. 💕📚

This puzzle was passed along to my honorary grandson who ADORES puzzles, and he was so excited to assemble it that I got a picture from his mom just over three hours after I dropped it off – he completed this 1000 piece puzzle in just a few hours! His mom said he never moved from the table after I left, and didn’t even want to stop to eat lunch. My exact words to her were “Holy sh*t! It’s only been a few hours!” 😮

He was there in 2017 when we finally assembled the 40,320 piece Disney puzzle, here he is…

He loved puzzles even then, and we walked around the giant puzzle together and he took a few pieces out of the border and then put them back in so that he “helped” with it. It was so sweet! 💜 When he got home that day, he took the DVD cases from all the movies that they had at home and laid them out on the floor in the order that they were shown in the puzzle. His mom sent me a picture of that too, I wish I still had it!

When he completed the Dr. Seuss puzzle, he went and got all the books he had and laid them on top, in the same way as he put those cases together all those years ago. His mom sent me a picture of that too, and said “Just like your puzzle and the movies.” It was so sweet it was almost heartbreaking!

It makes my heart so happy that he loves puzzles as much as I do, and I thought it might make you smile today to hear this story. It certainly makes me smile! 😊💖

Quilt Farm In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Quilt Farm by Eduard – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

This is one of the Country Life images from Buffalo, and as usual it’s an entertaining and well-made puzzle. There was zero progress made yesterday, but today I’m feeling as though there will be some good progress made. It seems like a good day for puzzling, doesn’t it?

My next section to tackle is the quilts; both the ones in the back of the truck and the ones set up on display behind it. It may take a while, but it’ll be so beautiful and colorful once it’s done!

Most of the fruits and vegetables are already done, as are the house, barn, and both trucks. The most difficult part seems as if it will be the grass/driveway in the middle of the picture. It shouldn’t be too terrible though, I’m actually looking forward to it. 😎

Animal Tales

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Animal Tales – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

This collage of books about animals was great fun to put together, but it made me feel like I am not well read at all. I’m sorry to say that I have only read two of these books. Shocking, I know. But I’ve seen the movies for many of them, does that count?

It was typical Re-marks quality; great variety of piece shapes, good fit, slightly shiny finish, excellent image reproduction. Their catalog of collage images always keeps me coming back for more. How am I supposed to resist collages of book covers? I just can’t!

I’m a big Agatha Christie fan (💙Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple), and honestly I’ve never even heard of this book before. I thought I knew most of her work, but apparently not.

I have read all of the James Herriot books, and have fond memories of reading them when I was a teenager. That seems like a lifetime ago. There’s something so charming about the way he writes, and reading the stories of the animals he treated was fascinating, sad, sweet, funny, tear-jerking, and so much more. I adored these books then, and this makes me want to read them again now.

Never heard of the Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny, but after assembling this cover and reading the tagline it sounds like a great read. “She can defeat the angriest of waves, outsmart the toughest pirate, and fight like a butterfly. And she never gives up.” It actually made me laugh out loud, it’s the most ridiculous little blurb; perhaps I need to get myself a copy!

Washing Time

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Washing Time by Jenny Newland – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

This one was a great puzzle with lots of puppies and kittens. It was relatively easy to sort and assemble, and didn’t take much time at all.

I’ve noticed that the smaller piece count MasterPiece puzzles, especially the ones with the EZ grip pieces are thicker and fit better than the larger piece counts they make. This one was no exception; excellent fit, great image reproduction and nice, thick pieces. All in all a fantastic puzzle that was a joy to put together.

This little kitten staring at the chicken, for some reason it makes me smile.

You know I just can’t resist a sad puppy face, it makes me want to sit down and give a very long belly rub and maybe some extra scratching behind the ears. 💖

The fit was so good that I was able to get a picture of it standing up with very little effort. Sometimes I have to work at it to get it to stand up just so; the thickness of the pieces and the great fit meant that no extra effort was required.

Tired of my stand up pictures yet? Hope not, cause I won’t stop taking them! 😎

Nothing In Progress…Yet

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling10 Comments

Even though there’s nothing on the board yet, hopefully there will be later today. Yesterday was spent writing up posts instead of sorting my next puzzle, even though the next one has been picked out. At the very least it will be sorted today (with some good luck) so that assembly can begin tomorrow.

Working on a good puzzle? Do tell!