Month: January 2024

Clown Fish

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Clown Fish – Wentworth (Mini Mindful) – 40 pieces

This Mini Mindful puzzle from Wentworth certainly lived up to it’s name! The collection is designed to “calm your mind, piece by piece” with mostly difficult shapes and images that require concentration. You had to pay extremely close attention and I ended up finding that the rest of the world almost fades away as you’re looking for the next piece or color to fit into the picture.

Wentworth’s mini puzzles were already favorites of mine, but the Mini Mindful collection is even better in my opinion. Sometimes with the regular 40 piece minis it goes together a little too quickly, but the Mini Mindful puzzles take more brain power and it normally isn’t a quick assembly – love that!

The triangular pieces made this already challenging image even more so – it probably took me around 25-30 minutes to put this one together. Exactly what I needed that day. 🔺💖

Wish You Were Here

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Wish You Were Here – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Although I did enjoy this puzzle, the quality – specifically the edges – left a little to be desired. Still, it’s a collage of beautiful stamps and it was entertaining to assemble, which is the point of puzzling after all.

I’m used to Re-marks puzzles and their quality, but I put up with some of the annoyances because their catalog of images contains so many fun and beautiful collages and I’m a sucker for a collage! The issue I had this time was not with the fit or the image (the usual suspects), but with the edges.

There were two separate spots on this puzzle where the edges didn’t connect and just laid next to each other. A pet peeve of mine that I find very annoying. Puzzles should fit together not sit together! Although I didn’t pull the pieces for those specific sections when I was sorting I ended up going through the trays of pieces laid out to find each of the two sections so that the border would be complete and connected and wouldn’t move around during the rest of the assembly. Annoying!

If you’re a regular reader you know I adore this holiday even though there is no Mexican heritage in my background; so of course I’m going to show you this stamp. Isn’t it colorful and beautiful? I love it!

This was an enjoyable and slightly difficult section to put together; the dots made it easy to find the pieces, but it didn’t go together as easily as I’d assumed it would. Still, isn’t it a pretty stamp? I love looking at stamps from other countries, they’re so varied and interesting.

Border quality issues aside, I really enjoyed this assembly and definitely recommend this puzzle. It made for beautiful, contemplative, and interesting puzzling. 📧💜

National Puzzle Day 2024

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous10 Comments

My favorite puzzle ever!

Happy National Puzzle Day to all my fellow puzzle posse members. Today is the day to do whatever kind of puzzles you love; crossword, sudoku, anagrams, word search, jigsaws, etc. – and enjoy!

I usually talk about the people in my life who helped or are still helping me love my jigsaw puzzles. The problem this year is that I’ve already done a National Puzzle Day post about all of them previously. Oh well, I can talk about them all again and let those who are still here know how much I love and appreciate them.

Starting on the left is my Grama (with me in my best 70s pajamas at a sleepover at Gram’s house), who started me off young helping her with her puzzles. She never gave me a kids puzzle so that I would stop “helping” her even though 1000+ piece puzzles are a LOT when you’re so little. But she knew I wanted to spend time with her and that I like working puzzles with her even though I wasn’t very good in the beginning; she taught me to be observant, look at the piece in my hand and really look at the puzzle and see if it was actually the piece I was looking for. She was never impatient with me when I got in her way (and I know for a fact I got in her way many a time), and her love of jigsaw puzzles rubbed off on me at an early age. Miss you Gram. 💟

The next picture is one I’m sure you’ll recognize if you are a regular reader, it’s my beautiful Momma holding up my favorite puzzle ever – the one we did together from a box of pieces bought off eBay. She was my black belt thrift store shopper, my closest and best friend, the original member of the PADS and Puzzle Posse, and the best Meema to her grandkids. We LOVED to puzzle together every week and she was always down to help with a difficult one that was giving me fits, or to laugh over a ridiculous one that was terrible quality and giving me fits. She was the best Mom and my best friend and I miss her every single day. 💕

Next to her is a picture of my darling hubby and my favorite sister-in-law working on a vacation puzzle from last year. My handsome hubby is always helping me puzzle even when he isn’t actually helping me puzzle. He helped build my puzzle boards, made the puzzle table that they sit on, found the best lights for over the table, and will stop whatever he’s doing to help out if something goes wrong in here that makes it difficult for me to work on my puzzles – not to mention, he goes to work every day to earn money and doesn’t care how much of it I spend on more puzzles! He’s a keeper (though I will take credit for a bit of training him in the 35 years we’ve been married) I really did get one of the good ones. 💖

And last, but certainly not least is my beautiful daughter. She’s my new bestest friend and loves to help me with puzzles when she can and is always looking out for puzzles when she’s shopping and sending pics to see if I’ve done it already or want her to pick it up for me. She always listens to my puzzle talk even though she isn’t nearly as interested in them as I am, and reads my blog every day. She loves to work on my bathroom puzzles when she’s here, and it makes me so happy that she wants to share my puzzles with me. I love my Baby Princess to the moon and back and am so proud to be her Momma. 💝

And finally, a puzzle buddy whom I don’t have a picture for, my bestest puzzle pal Penny. Although we’ve never met in person she’s a wonderful friend who always wants to hear what puzzle I’m doing, how I’m feeling, and helps me especially when I’m down in the dumps and want nothing to do with puzzles. She’s the reason I came back to blogging (both times) from my extended hiatuses; she knew when to push and when to back off, and gently nudged me back to the puzzle table because she knew how much they would help me back to some sanity. We’re constantly sending each other puzzles we’ve done and want to share, and at this very moment we each have a big pile of puzzles ready to send to each other. She a fellow PADS sufferer and puzzle posse member, and a true blue friend. 💙

I hope each of you out there has a few puzzle friends or family members in your life to encourage and uplift, or hopefully even enable you to enjoy the puzzles that you love. If not, I’ll be that friend for you. I LOVE to talk about puzzles and answer every single comment made here on the blog, and can talk your ear off about brands, piece shapes, artists, genres, wooden puzzles, cardboard puzzles, old puzzles, new puzzles, thrift store puzzles, etc.

So Happy National Puzzle Day my friends, although it isn’t a day only for our beloved jigsaw puzzles, that doesn’t matter at all to us Discerning Dissectologists. I’ll be spending today with a fun puzzle, and I hope you will too! 🧩💚

Oh Dear…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous8 Comments

The past two (almost) weeks have been rough on this old broad, and there hasn’t been much in the way of puzzling at all. The puzzle on my table has been finished for a few days now, and although the pictures have been taken it’s still there waiting to be disassembled before I can start a new one.

Problem is, sitting at the table and puzzling has been damned difficult with my recent back injury and the added pain is not only tough to deal with, but it also does a number on the mind – at least for me. It makes me want to not do anything at all except find a comfortable position and stay there forever and not have to think or talk or do or deal with the world. NOT GOOD.

I finally gave in and went to urgent care yesterday; got a couple of shots in the behind (steroids and a painkiller) and will be taking steroids for the next week to reduce the inflammation. I’m hopeful it will start helping me feel better at last – to help me get back to my table to enjoy the gorgeous puzzles that are patiently waiting to be assembled and loved.

The next puzzle I do is going to be one that I’m excited about; it won’t be one I choose because “it’s best for the blog to do a _____ type puzzle next”. I need to get back to the puzzle love and enjoy the hell out of whatever puzzle is next, no matter what! 💚🧩💚

Happy Beads

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Happy Beads by Elspeth McLean – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This gorgeous image was even more fun to assemble than I thought it would be. Great quality, beautiful colors and interesting designs – absolutely adored it! 🧡💛💚

Elspeth McLean is a new to me artist, who actually hand paints everything you see here, they’re just completely stunning little works of art, and it makes for really fun puzzling as well. Very smart of Ravensburger to partner with her to make such detailed and fabulous puzzles. This is my kind of artwork.

There is just so much intricate detail, and even though when you look closely you can see little differences in the size of the dots and lines it still looks almost perfect. Her use of color and the beautiful designs she creates are just so striking, and I can’t wait to get more puzzles with her artwork.

The fit was really quite good for a Ravensburger puzzle. Normally the fit is somewhat loose, but this one had such a good fit that I was actually able to stand it up – I’ve NEVER been able to do that with a Ravensburger before, not ever!

It’s a little warped out of shape, but still, I was amazed that I was able to do it at all. Being able to stand this one up and get a picture absolutely made my day. My emotions are sometimes tied too tightly to my puzzles (the scourge of PADS strikes again) but days when I can do something like this to make myself happy are completely worth the bad days.

I absolutely recommend this puzzle, if you can find it and feel as if you’re up to the challenge then by all means you should go for it; it’s a gorgeous, well made puzzle and there are hours worth of fun in that little box; it makes this puzzle geek’s heart go pitter patter. 😍