Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Peanuts – Linus

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Peanuts – Vista Puzzles – 100 pieces

Retail therapy isn’t something that I do, ever. But Monday the 11th was the worst day I’ve had all year, so I decided to give it a go and ended up with this puzzle. Shopping to feel better didn’t work for me, but at least I got a few puzzles out of it.

I thought I’d never done any puzzles from Vista before, but I was wrong. A quick search of my blog tells me that I’ve assembled 3 children’s puzzles from them before. It was about three and half years ago, so I’m giving myself a bit of a break that I didn’t remember. 😁

Anyway, this Vista Puzzle was good quality, although I was a little disappointed that some of the pieces were slightly warped. Not much, but enough that when you run your hands across the finished puzzle you come across several corners sticking up. (I do love the puzzle massage after that last piece goes in). It doesn’t detract from the enjoyment putting the puzzle together, it’s just a quality issue I feel obligated to let you know about. The pieces are a good thickness for a child’s puzzle, and the fit was very good.

Also, I don’t usually comment on boxes unless they’re quite bad or very cool; this one fits in the latter category. It’s a round metal container that reminds me of a thermos that we used to get in our metal lunchboxes back when that was a thing. It’s extremely sturdy and the top doesn’t come off easily, you have to be really trying to open it to get it off – perfect for a kid’s puzzle, it will be more difficult to lose the pieces, they won’t just fall out of the container.

How cute is Linus sitting there? To be honest, I wish there was one featuring Pigpen, as he’s the Peanuts character I identified with as a child. Being a tomboy, I was ALWAYS dirty or had stained my clothes no matter how I tried to keep clean. I wasn’t a big fan of baths either. 👎🛁

I’m intrigued by the text here, it makes me wish the entire set of panels for this strip were in the image. It looks like it would be a good one!

Anyway, I started and finished a puzzle in one sitting. I think I can hear the angels singing. Or maybe it’s Elton John…….

THE B*TCH IS BACK! 😎

Happy Almost Birthday To Me!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous4 Comments

It’s not quite my birthday yet, but there are early presents coming my way today! According to the delivery website/app a big box of puzzles that were ordered what seems like forever ago will be delivered today! I’m so excited that the use of exclamation marks is getting out of control!

I ordered a metric crap-ton (technical term) of micro puzzles from Wentworth, along with a 200 piece Christmas puzzle. You’re shocked, right? That’s fair. Regular readers know that Christmas/holiday puzzles are just not my pile of pieces, but this one is very different and looks like it’ll be really fun to put together.

You’ll be even more shocked that quite a few of the micro puzzles are holiday/winter themed as well. But, they are all very different than the average holiday images and full of cuteness, silliness, and just plain prettiness. There are three that are just winter puzzles, and those can wait until after the holidays to be assembled. With this delivery, and the puzzles that are already here, there will be lots more holiday puzzles than usual on the blog this year. Looking forward to it? I am!

It doesn’t matter if they’re Christmas images or not, there’s going to be a delivery today (if all goes as planned) of a big box of puzzles for me. Wooooo hooooo!

The PADS is flaring up today with expectation and excitement! Happy dance! 💃🎶💃

Freak Shakes 4

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

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

Alas, today is the end of the freak shakes. While the images are so bizarre to me, the puzzles themselves were a joy to put together. Little puzzles I can do quickly have become some of my favorites. While I have completed (very) large piece count puzzles, as I age the smaller ones seem to bring me more pleasure. These sets full of a dozen or more small puzzles to assemble bring a smile to my face, and give me a sense of accomplishment with each completed image. I’m in love with them!

Cra-Z-Art is about to get a little more of my money, while trolling for puzzles a few days ago I found four sets that I do not own. The purchase will have to wait several days though, as my birthday is very soon and according to family tradition I am not allowed to buy myself things so as not to inadvertently get something that has already been purchased as a gift. But the day after, those babies are gonna be mine! 😉

This one makes a little more sense to me, an ice cream cone on top of a shake – that’s not too over the top. The colors of the shake itself are beautiful.

He’s a tall boy, and holiday themed. Mr. Gingerbread has a scarf on to keep himself warm, and the red and green candies make it seem like this one is for the holidays. I’m not sure what’s at his feet though, if you ask me it looks as though it’s already been eaten. 🤢

Love the sprinkles around the edge of the donut, or whatever that is on the top of the glass. Strawberry isn’t my favorite flavor, but this one doesn’t look too bad.

It may seem odd to some that taking a picture and chopping it into little pieces – only to put it back together again – makes us puzzle people so happy. That’s ok, people can think we’re odd. No doubt odd is probably a pretty tame word for describing me. I make no apologies for my love of puzzles, how many puzzles I own, how much I spend on them, or anything else. It makes me happy; looking at puzzles makes me happy, buying them, assembling them, talking about them, sharing pictures of them, blogging about them – all of it makes this little old lady happy.

When I spend “too much” money on a big batch of wooden puzzles, or cardboard puzzles, or small piece count puzzles in tubes – there is that moment of guilt. Even though the click of my mouse to finish the purchase makes me almost giddy, in my head I’m feeling guilty for a little while. My life has been spent taking care of everyone else; married at 19 to my high school sweetheart, got pregnant five months later, had three children by the age of 23. When there was extra money it was spent on something for the kids, or the house, or my husband – almost never for myself.

Still married to my high school sweetheart (still in love too!), kids are grown, and I’ve finally found something that makes me happy. Jigsaw puzzles. Wooden ones, cardboard ones, little ones, big ones – love them all. And I’ve finally learned to spend money on myself just because. I still have those moments of feeling guilty for spending money on non-necessities, but I stomp those stupid thoughts down – I crush them underfoot. I’m worth it, my mental health is worth it, so guilt can go pound sand. Or take a hike. Or bleep all the way off.

PUZZLES ROCK!

Freak Shakes 3

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

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

Well, here we are for the third installment of ridiculous shakes that would be near impossible to actually consume. They were lots of fun to put together though, and that’s what matters most.

Have these puzzles inspired any of you to give one of these Cra-Z-Art sets a try? They really are fun to put together, don’t listen to the ornery old lady complaining about these crazy new-fangled shakes the youngsters are having. She’s in a mood. Just smile and nod.

And if you’re thinking you might want to give these small shaped puzzles a try – go for it! There is much fun to be had by all. (Plus, I found four new sets that I haven’t purchased yet. Oh my!)😊

As a child of the 70s and 80s, I must confess that little dehydrated marshmallows (like the ones in Lucky Charms cereal) are very tasty indeed. While the shake itself doesn’t interest me at all, those marshmallows look yummy – and squeaky too!

By the way, what kind of ice cream is that purple color? I’m not adventurous with ice cream flavors, mostly chocolate for me – or homemade flavors with fruit. I’ve never even seen blackberry or blueberry ice cream that color, and those are the fruits that turn the most purple.

A muffin, what looks like a mini waffle, chocolate cereal, crackers, a cookie, some other stuff I cannot identify, and lots of caramel popcorn. That is truly a freak of a shake!

Think this is my favorite of them all – just because of the colors. It’s bright and sort of exciting to look at, and it was really fun to put together as well.

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. 😊