Month: July 2026

The World of Charles Dickens

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

The World of Charles Dickens by Barry Falls – Laurence King – 1000 pieces

I had a great time with this puzzle, it was so much fun! Puzzles with a lot going on or a lot of buildings are not usually my thing, but this one was really entertaining. This is another puzzle from a swap with Penny; it’s so great that we don’t always have the same taste in puzzle images, because this way I get to do puzzles I wouldn’t normally go for and sometimes find out that even if the image isn’t something that connects with me that it can still be great fun to assemble.

This is only my third Laurence King puzzle, and the first one I’ve done that was manufactured in China. The previous ones I’ve done, Pop Art Puzzle and The World of Frankenstein were both manufactured in The Netherlands and were of excellent quality. A friend and fellow puzzle blogger from Europe told me about the bad quality of this brand’s puzzles that were made in China, so I’ve steered clear of those and only bought ones I could be certain where they were made. That being said, even though this was made in China it wasn’t too bad. We’ll start with the pros; the fit was exceptional (stay tuned for one of my famous puzzle standing up pictures), the finish was matte and had a wonderful hand feel, there were a good variety of piece shapes, and the image reproduction was excellent. On the negative side; this puzzle was secondhand from Penny, so with her disassembling it to put back in the box, the pieces showed that the chipboard used was far less superior – the tabs had already begun to fray and part of the image was delaminating. At the corners of many pieces the image was coming up and it made my usual post completion puzzle massage less satisfying as I didn’t want to cause any more damage by making the image come off even more.

Overall I’d say it was a good quality puzzle, but I much prefer the Netherlands made puzzles from this brand, they have the same quality as a Jumbo puzzle with an almost waxy feel to the finish and the much nicer chipboard. Just my opinion of course, please don’t come for me.

The image is so detailed with so many things to see, this is just one little section with many characters set in London. I’ll be honest and tell you that I have never read any of Dickens’ work, so I have no idea who these people are or anything about them. But you don’t need to know anything about the author (which I didn’t) to enjoy this puzzle, it’s just an entertaining image that makes for a fun assembly.

On the back of the very large (almost too big if you ask me) poster is this synopsis of Dickens’ life, with a legend of the characters and places represented in the artwork. It tells a little bit about each of his books, and shows you the people and places he wrote about. Very cool! I feel like I learned something after reading this, and that’s always a good thing in my book.

No one asked for it, but I did it anyway cause it makes me so very happy – puzzle standing up in the Stacey Stance picture!

Hershey’s S’mores

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Hershey’s S’mores – Buffalo – 300 pieces

Quick little puzzle that helped pass the time while we were waiting to see if dad was going to be discharged from the hospital, it’s pretty cute but almost seemed too easy – I needed to concentrate on something in order to keep my mind occupied a little more than this image required. It’s all good though, great quality puzzle with an adorable image.

My apologies for the picture, I had to come at it from an angle to keep the glare off of it, but I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. I tried. Thanks for the lend of this one Penny!

Embroidery Table In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Thrift Store Puzzles8 Comments

Embroidery Table by Andrew Farley – Milton Bradley (Big Ben) – 1000 pieces

I’m currently working on this gorgeous tableau of embroidery supplies, and all I can think about is how much mom would have loved this puzzle. I didn’t consciously plan it, but this is the puzzle I’m working on today – the seventh anniversary of her passing. How can it seem as if I just lost her yesterday and also that she’s been gone for way too long?

I found this beauty at the thrift store a month or so ago, and I’m hoping it’s complete because it really reminds me of my awesome momma; it was bagged inside the box, so there’s reason to think it may have all the pieces. The quality is fair, about the usual for a Milton Bradley puzzle, but the image reproduction is fabulous. The colors are bright and crisp, and everything looks as it should. Mom would have loved to have glued and framed this one for her craft room, of that I am sure.

It’s going really well, and I found myself getting out of bed last night when I couldn’t sleep just to sit in front of it and put a few pieces in – one of the clues that tells you how much fun the image is. There are only three trays of pieces left and I’ve gotten used to every single one. I know where things should go and I’m familiar with every shape and color so why can’t I just be left alone so I can sit in the puzzle room till it’s finished? I’m tired of taking breaks!

Most certainly this one will be finished today, I’m just not sure what to do with it once it’s finished. I could box it up and re-donate it to the local Goodwill. But I’m thinking I might want to host a giveaway with it in honor of my crafty momma who loved making things, assembling puzzles, and finding bargains at thrift stores – but I don’t even know if all the pieces are present and accounted for.

If it’s complete would anyone be interested in winning this gently used thrift store puzzle? It’s a gorgeous image and so far has been extremely entertaining to assemble.

We all miss you mom, more than words can express. 💔

Sailing to the Tunes

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Sailing to the Tunes by Soma Folk Art – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 40 pieces

This gorgeous image was entertaining to put together, but I was wishing I had gotten this one in a larger piece count; the colors were beautiful, it’s just stunning – but it was over too quickly! I haven’t worked a Soma Folk Art image before and after looking them up I would love to do more. The artwork is so bright, colorful, and not what we usually see for jigsaw puzzle images. Love it!

You all know how I feel about Wentworth; I’ve done well over a hundred of their puzzles – small, big, shaped, easy, difficult, ones with tessellating pieces, etc. If you want to hear about their quality, please look up any of my other posts about a Wentworth puzzle because honestly after spending four days in the hospital with my cranky, elderly father I’m too exhausted to type up too much about this puzzle right now. Apologies.

This speckled counter was the only place available to work any puzzles in dad’s room, and it doesn’t make the best backdrop for showing these whimsy pieces. Apologies again. Loved these whimsies. Namaste. 🙏

*No, my dad isn’t back in the hospital. I wrote this up when I assembled the puzzle, back in June.*

Seattle

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Seattle by Eric Dowdle – Dowdle Puzzles (Mini Wooden Puzzle) – 250 pieces

This was much more enjoyable for me than I thought it would be at the beginning, don’t you love it when that happens? After putting the border together I thought this puzzle was gonna be horrible, the fit is so loose! Once I got it onto my puzzle board where the fabric helps keep it from moving too much and once I started assembling the image it got so much better.

These mini wooden puzzles from Dowdle are adorable, but I can’t say the quality is optimal. When I take a picture of a wooden puzzle I take time to “smush” it together as much as possible first (smush being a technical term 😉), so that it reduces obvious piece shapes and you can see the artwork more clearly. I did that here, but you can see – especially in the sky – that there are quite large gaps and it does not fit together snugly at all. In addition, all the pieces are the standard ones you would find in a grid cut cardboard puzzle which is a little boring for a wooden puzzle and there are no whimsies. All that being said this was still entertaining to put together, and when Penny sends me more after she’s finished them I will definitely be assembling them.

Mostly the main reason for how much I enjoyed this little guy was Eric Dowdle’s artwork, I love his images although many times they make for challenging assemblies. With this mini puzzle it was so interesting to study the pieces to see what’s happening and where something might go, and with each piece I found my brain sent me some dopamine and I was happy. That’s why I puzzle!

Loved this little plane with the banner. I’ve never been to Seattle, but I’m sure it’s lovely.

Most people know about the fish market in Seattle, if you don’t then you should google it – one of the images that comes up looks quite like this little section including the clock, “farmers market” sign and one that says “meet the producers”. It was difficult to zoom in this close on such a small puzzle, but I did the best I could.

My momma always told me to try and show how big or small some puzzles are because you can’t really tell in my pictures, so this next picture is in her memory….

She was right, of course. You can’t tell from that first picture how mini this mini puzzle is without something for comparison. This little guy really is a little guy!

Extremely loose fit but still entertaining, the artwork was absolutely beautiful and detailed and made for a very nice assembly.