Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Where In Neverland Is It?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous4 Comments

Tink, help us find it!

It’s been four and a half years since I completed an enormous 40,320 piece puzzle (this is only 1/10 of it), and I am still to this day receiving emails and comments on the blog asking me where the Mickey Mouse icon is in this section. Well, today I decided to show everyone instead of just telling them where to look.

There is a hidden icon of our favorite rodent in each section; the one in this section not only seems to be the most difficult to find, it’s also the largest – which I think is why so many people get thrown off when looking for it. In the other nine sections it’s quite small; the markings on a deer in Snow White, a small bubble in Fantasia, etc. But the one in Peter Pan is huge in comparison, and therefore it doesn’t register at first when you’re looking for it. It didn’t for us anyway. Not at first.

Back when the puzzle first arrived, my husband and I, two of our three children, and my mother SCOURED the booklet looking for the icon in this section. Some of the others were easy to find, and we already had it in our heads that it would be small and somewhat hidden. The Peter Pan section is very dark, and we all looked at every inch of the image to try and find it. When someone finally said, “Hey could it be these clouds? They’re perfect circles, it’s gotta be this right?”, we weren’t certain but thought that it was probably the icon. After thoroughly looking through the image in the booklet, and seeing every single piece of the actual puzzle, our conclusion was that the cloud was, in fact, the icon we’d all been searching for.

The picture I took of this completed section has quite a bit of glare on it, making it very hard to see. So here’s a picture from the large booklet that comes with the puzzle (this was easier than waking up the enormous puzzle from under my bed where it’s sleeping).

Can you find it? Tink’s fairy dust is pointing the way….

I’ve added arrows pointing to the ears. They faked us out making the other icons so small and this one so big – it’s even bigger than Tinkerbell herself!

Don’t feel bad if you couldn’t find it on your own – when we put the puzzle together and it was large as life in front of everyone many people had to be shown even after being told where it was. I’ve even got a picture of me on my hands and knees crawling on the puzzle to show someone. 😊

Freak Shakes 2

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Freak Shakes – Cra-Z-Art – Approx. 125/500 pieces

Although these are shakes that would NEVER find their way to my table at a restaurant, they’re lovely to look at – and assemble! In fact, these most likely are designed as images only. I’ve never seen anything like these out in the world. Have you?

I love these puzzle sets, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda. You’ve heard it all before. Cra-Z-Art is not a “premium quality” puzzle company, but they have these fantastic sets of small shaped puzzles that bring me much joy. I don’t need them to be the world’s most fantastic quality – just need them to have good enough quality to be enjoyable, and available for me to play with. 😎

This doesn’t even look appetizing to me. How would you pick up the glass to drink it? There are sprinkles and candies everywhere on the outside of the glass. Am I overthinking this? Probably. It was fun to put together regardless of whether or not I would actually drink it.

The colors of this one are beautiful, even better in person than my picture shows. The rainbow strip of candy (it’s name escapes me at the moment) adds a nice touch – especially the part all scrunched up on a stick. Very cute!

This looks like a shake for Valentine’s Day. Pink and red with hearts and love everywhere. Blech. Cranky old lady is back. It looks like a Pepto Bismol shake. Plus, look at all the crap on the outside of this glass! Yuk.

Sorry, back to this puzzle. Despite it sickly sweet appearance, it was a little more challenging to assemble than I bargained for, but it was enjoyable even with it’s difficulty.

Freak Shakes 1

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

Freak Shakes – Cra-Z-Art – Approx. 125/500 pieces

My phone tells me that I started working on these in February of this year (that’s when I took a picture of me sorting them). Yikes. In my mind it was only a couple of months ago – not more than half a year! Anyway, I finished them. Finally.

I am obsessed with these puzzles and to my knowledge have gotten all of the ones I could find (that I wanted). But I will still be checking puzzle sites every now and again to be sure there isn’t one that’s been missed or perhaps if a new set has come out.

I adore small puzzles – I am currently the owner of well over 50 Wentworth micro puzzles – and many other small puzzles that my fellow puzzle blogger from Russia and I call “One Coffee Puzzles”. They’re small and entertaining, and you can assemble one in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. These sets from Cra-Z-Art certainly fit the bill, even though they’re technically 500 piece puzzles altogether. Each set is usually between 12-18 small separate puzzles, and they’re so much fun to assemble!

I had such a good time last year with the Unicorn and Selfie sets. Not only did the assembly make me happy, writing up the posts for each of them was quite entertaining as well. They were each given fabulous names and elaborate backstories, and it was wonderful, silly fun. These shakes don’t seem to have much personality, so they’re going to have to remain unnamed – but never fear, I assembled a set with pretty kitties and they should let me get a little wild and crazy with the stories, perhaps later on this month. 😁

I have never in my life seen a shake this EXTRA. Dayum! It may just be me, but these seem like they’d be more fun to look at than to actually drink/eat. There’s too much froo-froo stuff getting in the way and taking up space in the shake. Are those banana candies? No thank you. I’m old and crochety and I just want a plain ol’ chocolate shake thank you very much.

The colors of this one are beautiful, and I think that may be a piece of cake on the backside of the glass. The little marshmallows are pretty though.

This one also looks like it has a piece of cake sitting on the top – my goodness this one is over the top! Toasted marshmallows, cake, candies, a peanut butter cup (?), caramel and whipped cream. That seems like a couple of days worth of calories in one “drink”.

Good thing I don’t want to actually have any of them, just wanted to put the pretty pictures together. That was plenty satisfying on it’s own.

My Good, Good Boy

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous14 Comments

My sweet Buddy

This past few years have truly sucked, and Monday the 11th of October added to the grief. My good boy had to leave us and my heart is broken. He is no longer suffering or in pain, but that doesn’t help the sorrow much. We all wish he was still here with us.

The picture above is how I will remember him, always happy and wanting to play and right in your face about it. He wasn’t a snuggler, and when you showed him any love, tried to give him tummy rubs, or even just wanted to pet him he would get so excited and go find the nearest toy and bring it to you. He wanted to share his favorite toys and activities with you; cause you cared about him and he cared about you. Unless he was tired he didn’t really like hugs or snuggles; for him, love was action. I have found that to be true as well, my Buddy was a very wise pup.

Waiting on momma to get out of bed…

Isn’t that the sweetest face ever? He always kept me company whether I was doing puzzles or in bed watching tv. Here he is with me in bed while I was resting; patiently waiting, keeping me company, and watching over me when I wasn’t well. We don’t deserve dogs, they’re so full of unconditional love.

Buddy loved to make a little nest in all the pillows on the bed, and sometimes I’d walk by and his little head would pop up to see what was happening and whether or not he’d want to get involved. The cutest, bestest boy ever.

I felt the need to put a puzzle in this post. This is from the Ji-Ga-Zo puzzle that mom found at the thrift store. You put a picture into the software and it gives you a “map” to complete the puzzle – so of course we had to put in that gorgeous face – his picture was the first one we assembled. He looks so serious, and so handsome too. There are references to my puzzling companion all through this blog. I talked about him keeping me company, making me take breaks to play with him, and there are more than a few pictures of his adorable face too. He’s all over the place here, as he should be.

Half the pictures in my phone are of Buddy, I spent so much time looking through them this past week. Remembering that sweet face, his silly antics, how his eyes would bug out when he was excited to play, and how much he meant to our entire family. Losing him was so hard on all of us. There’s an emptiness in the house now. In our hearts too.

I’ll leave you with one last image, one my oldest son had commissioned several months ago (art credit to @Zooophagous on Twitter). It’s our Buddy, looking dapper and happy – how he’ll always be remembered.

He was the happiest dog, full of kisses and excitement, love and patience, and he was a good, good boy. 🐾💔🐾

Laundry Day

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

Laundry Day by Adrian Chesterman – Vermont Christmas Co. – 100 pieces

Forgot about this one; my “grandson” and I put it together when I visited him in July once everyone was vaccinated and safe. I had to do a little research to find the title and artist, cause I left the puzzle with him. Oops!

It’s on the October page, it seems silly to make a “July” page just for this one puzzle.

Also, please excuse the bad photo, I had to take the picture on the kitchen table at someone else’s house. I did my best.

*edit* While re-reading through my blog this past weekend I came across another puzzle with the same title by the same artist but a different puzzle company. It looks as if some of the characters are exactly the same, with some changes. Check it out here. I wonder if the artist gives them license to muck around with the image, or if they change things themselves and sell the image again to a different company. It’s probably the latter.

In all my years of puzzling I’m not sure I’ve run across this before; or perhaps I have, but just didn’t notice. I probably wouldn’t have noticed this time if both puzzles didn’t have the exact same name.