Month: December 2023

Nordic Tree

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Nordic Tree – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

How cute and colorful is this image? I love it! All the different patterns at the side, the circle around the tree, and the interesting shapes on the tree itself made for slightly difficult but very entertaining puzzling.

In a larger piece count I would be all over this image, all the colors and shapes are absolutely my pile of pieces! With only 150 pieces and it being a micro puzzle, it was more challenging than expected. Your brain tells you you’re looking for a certain color or shape, but it changes so quickly into the next shape or color that your eye goes right past the correct piece and lands on what you think you should be looking for. Normally I puzzle without looking at the image on the box (or tube), and that made for a longer assembly than would usually be normal for a puzzle of this size.

I do enjoy the challenge of a more difficult puzzle, if everything is too simple it can easily become a boring assembly. There was no chance of that happening with this image though, it kept me on my toes!

Happy Holidays!

Holiday Books

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Holiday Books – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Collages are my happy place, and this collage of holiday books was really quite fun – even though it was Christmas themed. The bright, fun colors and the interesting book covers made it much more entertaining than I thought, and I enjoyed myself very much.

This was the loosest fitting Re-marks puzzle I’ve done in a while, and it made it quite annoying to work with until you could get more sections joined to the border to anchor everything together. Still, it wasn’t horrid, and the rest of the quality points were quite good. The image reproduction, the piece shapes, and the cut were all good. I know going in that sometimes the fit is a bother, but I love Re-marks book cover puzzles and am willing to put up with it to enjoy assembling the image.

1875! This is from November of 1875! I found it interesting that it doesn’t say edited by, it says “conducted by”. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that wording before – very cool. Also, it was conducted by a woman, in 1875 that’s something!

Ah, memories. This cover reminds me of the Little Golden Books I used to have as a child, and the image reminds me of the TV specials we used to watch every year. This one really brings out the nostalgia for me. 💖

Did anyone out there know L. Frank Baum wrote a Santa Claus story? I certainly didn’t! With his amazing imagination I bet this book would be quite an entertaining read. Have any of you read this?

I enjoyed this puzzle very much, but still I find myself tired of the Christmas puzzles already. As I write this post it’s only November 17th, but having assembled two 1000 piece holiday puzzles already I am OVER it!

Still, I’m very much looking forward to all the little holiday puzzles in my advent calendar, and the other assorted mini puzzles I’ll be putting together in December. Small puzzles make me very happy!

Christmas Spirit

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Christmas Spirit by Susan Winget – Ceaco – 577 pieces

This special edition Ceaco was quite a difficult puzzle to assemble, but I’m glad that I finally put it together. Mom bought this at the thrift store at least 5 years ago, and paid a whole 99 cents for it! I can’t say it was overly enjoyable, but it wasn’t too bad either.

Ceaco came out with a few puzzles backed in velvet many years ago, and this is the second one mom found at a thrift store. They’re interesting to work with…

Beautiful to look at isn’t it? Not so much fun to assemble on a fabric covered board though; the velvet grabs onto the fabric and sliding sections around is almost impossible. The irregular border meant that I didn’t start there, I started with the words in the middle. When you don’t start with the border all you can do is “guesstimate” where everything goes, and it’s never perfect; there’s always adjusting and wiggling pieces around to get things exactly where they belong. Once the pieces were laid down they didn’t want to let go of my beautiful fabric board; and because there are whimsy pieces in the puzzle, lifting a completed section to move it meant pieces falling out. Frustrating. Annoying. So, because the border wasn’t put together first, things had to be moved around to fit together properly – and the damn velvet made it so difficult!

The pieces are thicker than a regular Ceaco puzzle, and the velvet adds even more thickness. Otherwise the quality is only fair/good. Many of the pieces were bent and had image lifting off, the fit was very tight, and the finish is shiny. It’s a beautiful image, but working with this puzzle had me to ready to say NO MORE CHRISTMAS PUZZLES!

There were quite a few whimsy pieces as well as these letters, but so many of them were two pieces that weren’t easy to find on the initial sort – that means I didn’t take a picture of anything other than this.

I wish I’d enjoyed this more, but I just didn’t. 🤷‍♀️

If you find one at a thrift store, or somewhere out in the world – give it a try. Hopefully you’ll like it more than I did.

Sweata Weatha

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Sweata Weatha – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

Now this is my kind of Christmas puzzle! There is no perfectly decorated tree with snow falling softly outside, no Coca-Cola Santa, no roaring fire – just silly sweaters in a colorful image. It was so much fun!

If memory serves me correctly this was in my MicroPuzzles subscription box from the holiday season in 2021, it was an extra puzzle sent “compliments of Brian in shipping“. You remember Brian, don’t you? If not, check out Brian’s Worst Nightmare that I assembled a couple of years ago.

Unlike all the rest of the puzzles you get in your subscription box each month, this image is actually available on the MicroPuzzles website. Each subscription puzzle is an exclusive you can only get in your monthly box, but this one was a gift from Brian, so if you like it you can get your hands on this one.

Loved it!

Christmas Day (What If? #15)

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Christmas Day by Geoff Tristram (What If? #15) – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

Another wonderful What If? puzzle from Ravensburger; great quality, hilarious image, and fun all-around puzzling. Was there any doubt as to whether or not I’d enjoy this one? Nope.

This one’s been hanging around my house for about…..seven years or so. Oh my! It’s been constantly moved down on the list of puzzles to be done, because I have this irrational dislike of Christmas puzzles. Even though I know that images by Geoff Tristram are always entertaining and funny it still took me forever to get this one done.

As per my usual I do not show the finished puzzle, as it’s a mystery what the image is. You have to figure it out as you assemble. The box says “We all dream of the perfect Christmas, a day full of happy family memories, where gifts are gratefully received, everyone is full of festive cheer, and the catering goes without a hitch. But WHAT IF Christmas Day wasn’t perfect? And WHAT IF our family’s Christmas wasn’t that merry?” The image on the box top shows the type of Christmas we all dream about, but the puzzle inside shows the holiday many of us really experience.

Normally I never show anything other than the small hint on the box top, which is usually one of the characters – but this time there was a little joke that actually made me laugh out loud, so I wanted to share it with you too…

As I was assembling it I thought it would be Monopoly, but this is so much better! Actually, that’s how I feel about Monopoly, it takes so long and I find it mind-numbingly boring. Hours of misery for all the family! 😂

This was a great puzzle with a hilarious image, it is most definitely recommended. I’m giving it two snowflakes way up! ❄❄