Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Gingerbread Jumpers

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Gingerbread Jumpers by Cobble Hill Puzzles – Wentworth – 40 pieces

Although this puzzle is named Gingerbread Jumpers in this Wentworth version, Cobble Hill’s puzzle (in a 1000 pieces) is named Ugly Christmas Sweaters. Whether you call them jumpers or sweaters, it’s a great puzzle image – and I have to say, whatever bakery Cobble Hill uses for these cookie puzzles does AMAZING work!

I chose this puzzle for the first day of Hanukkah, because it’s the only holiday puzzle I have that isn’t only Christmas or generic winter themed – there’s a blue “jumper” with a menorah on it so it’s the puzzle for today.

There have been several of these cookie puzzles from Cobble Hill, Sugar Skulls and Easter Eggs come to mind, and they’re always so much fun. I haven’t done this image in a larger piece count, but I couldn’t resist it in the micro puzzle size from Wentworth, it’s just too adorable! (Plus, there’s so much green in this image I thought it would be much easier in a smaller piece count puzzle)

There’s not much more I can say about Wentworth puzzles, you’ve heard it all before. They’re fantastic quality wooden puzzles and I love assembling just about any image they’ve got. Mostly I get their micro puzzles because I’m in bed a lot due to my chronic pain issues, and their small puzzles are perfect for assembling on a cookie sheet while I’m laid up. They’re more expensive than cardboard puzzles (obviously), so I usually only splurge once in a while; but when I order them I always get quite a few, to make the shipping from across the pond worth it. 😉

The reindeer is very cute, as is the snowman; and love that they’ve put a “jumper” in here too. I think I like the word jumper better than sweater. It sounds happier, “I’m putting on a jumper!” Is that just me?

My mind is weird – welcome to my world.

It’s a little chilly here today, has anyone seen my jumper? 😁

For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Hanukkah! I’m sending out wishes for a joyous eight-day festival, and a lifetime of light. 🕎

Beauty Lips

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Beauty Lips – Piatnik – 1000 pieces

Wow did I love this puzzle! I’d seen the image several years ago and really wanted it, but for some reason never purchased it. Not until Penny asked me what puzzle she should do next and this was one of the choices; I told her to do the Lips and then send it to me, but then decided I didn’t want to wait and ordered one for myself.

At the time I’m writing up this post she’s still working on this puzzle – she has a life, a full time job, and two young children – I have none of those things, so I finished first. Partly because this puzzle was just too fun to walk away from, and partly because I don’t sleep much and am up in the wee hours puzzling when most others are sleeping. Honestly though, I’m a little sad that it’s already done. 😭

*Penny has since finished this puzzle too. I don’t think she enjoyed it as much as I did, but we can’t all love the same puzzles in the same way. All the flesh colored pieces in between had her a little frustrated, but she says she did like the puzzle.*

According to my blog this is only the second Piatnik puzzle I’ve done, the first was three years ago and was a collage of vintage needle books. From these two puzzles I can say that the quality of this brand is very good. My only issue was with the shine on the pieces, it was a bit difficult to see the darker pieces under the lights, there was a lot of glare. Otherwise, the fit was excellent, the image reproduction is stellar, there were a variety of shapes – just a great jigsaw puzzle all around.

The rainbow lips on the left were so fun to assemble, that bright yellow really stood out. The deep blue with the diamond was the first one that caught my attention, it’s just such a great little picture and the pieces were easy to find as well. I’m not sure what to call the lips on the right, funky rainbow perhaps? The pieces weren’t as easy to find as the first two, but it is such a great image – and that black background made it a little less challenging.

If this puzzle is on anyone’s wish list, I highly recommend you get it for yourself. It was such great fun, and it’s a very good quality puzzle as well. Thanks Penny for giving me the push I needed to get myself this wonderful puzzle! 🧩💗

A Christmas Story Leg Lamp

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

A Christmas Story Leg Lamp – USAopoly – 500 pieces

Well ya’ll, the holiday for Americans to gorge themselves on dinner and fall into a tryptophan coma has passed. It is now – according to my father – officially the Christmas season. What better way to kick it off than with a puzzle from the quintessential holiday movie … A Christmas Story.

This puzzle was first assembled over four years ago; back then mom wanted to assemble it too so I took it apart and off it went to her house. The plan was to glue it after she was finished, and then I would hang it in the window or on the door as a Christmas decoration. She never did get to it, and so it came back to my house and this year it was finally reassembled – it is already glued on both sides and ready to show everyone my oddball Christmas spirit! 🤪

Reading through my previous post about this puzzle, it was a little surprising that I didn’t mention the edges and how in some places the pieces just sit together instead of attaching to each other. It’s a big pet peeve of mine, and assembling the shaped edge was hard enough without the added annoyance of having to find the piece to make it all click together. Either I was much more excited about this puzzle four years ago, or I am much crankier these days. Or both.

Probably both.

But, if you’ve got this puzzle and are going to assemble it, here’s a tip…. When you’re sorting for edge pieces take every piece that has any bit of the white border. Then, when you come to edges that don’t connect you can help anchor them with the inside pieces

It was simple to sort ; edges, lampshade, fringe, fishnets, and shoe/base. The assembly was pretty simple as well, but nonetheless enjoyable. Truly a fun puzzle, and I’m excited to finally have it as a holiday decoration.

As I sit here typing up this post I’m thinking of where exactly to hang my new Christmas decoration. Hubby wants to build a custom frame for it, complete with LED lights! We gotta show it off – “It’s a major award!” 🤶

Happy Thanksgiving/Happy Thursday!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

It’s Thanksgiving here in the United States, and just plain ol’ Thursday in the rest of the world. Whether you spend the day with family and/or friends eating lots of food, or it’s just a regular Thursday for you – this is the day that I traditionally tell all my readers how thankful I am for them. This year it means more than ever.

You have no idea how much it means to me to have so many faithful readers of my insignificant little jigsaw puzzle blog. How much I appreciate everyone who comments just to say hi, or tell me what a cool puzzle I just posted about – or even to tell us all what you’re working on. I love my readers, and am so thankful that you’ve stuck with me; through thick and very, very thin.

If you only read and don’t comment, if you comment a little or a lot, if you only pop in once in a while, if you just like the giveaways – it doesn’t matter – I’m truly thankful for you all. 🤎

2037 Calories

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

2037 Calories – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

They’re baaaack! The bathroom puzzles have at last made a reappearance! When I started puzzling again last month I re-read the entirety of this blog to help me get back my puzzle mojo. When I started reading about my self-titled “bathroom puzzles” it really made me laugh, and also made me think I should get some more of those little puzzles again; hubby and I had so much fun with them. If you’re a newer reader, here’s a link to the first Bathroom Puzzle with info on how they were born here at My Jigsaw Journal.

A trip to Barnes & Noble (where I found the STEM puzzles) netted us zero puzzles in test tubes, nor any small ones at all. So online I went, and found MicroPuzzles. They’re a small business in California, and they only make “micro” puzzles in test tubes. The company is doing very well, they started out in their one bedroom apartment, and now have a 2500 sq. ft. warehouse – little puzzles have helped grow a bigger company! Their catalog is pretty sizeable for a small puzzle company, and I love their unique and interesting images.

I splurged and spent “too much” on a gift pack of 13 mini puzzles, and this is the first one we did. It was mostly me, but hubs came in at the end and finished it up … he loves that. It’s a guy thing, at least for him. He loves to come to my rescue, and help me with anything that needs to be done – that includes jigsaw puzzles. 😉

We had such a great time putting this puzzle together, working with the small pieces was truly entertaining. And the quality was quite good as well. I’m so glad I found this company, their puzzles are making me very happy indeed.

Don’t we all need a little happy these days? I definitely do!

*On a funny side note, our daughter came over to visit while we assembling this puzzle, and when she went into our bathroom we heard her all the way out in the living room; “Oooh, there’s a pooping puzzle in here again!”. 🤣

(I think I’ll stick with my moniker for the time being, it’s a little less uncouth)