To My Mom…

On July 14, 2020July 14, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous16 Comments

Mystery Puzzle and Mom — My adorable, wonderful, loving Mom with our favorite puzzle ever.

One year ago today I lost my best friend in the world. It seems trite and ridiculous to say that your mom is your best friend, but I say it because it is true. We were the best of friends; we spoke or texted every day, we talked about EVERYTHING, we had our own shorthand, our own jokes, we shared a dark sense of humor, we loved puzzles and spending time together, and we loved each other unconditionally. She called me her best friend, and she was mine.

It seems like forever ago that she left us – it also seems like yesterday. I’m not sure how that works, but that’s how it feels to me. I miss her terribly, so much that it hurts my heart. It seems ridiculous that I will never speak to her again, that she isn’t here, that I can never hug her again. I am a grown woman in my 50’s, and I feel like a toddler who let go of their mom’s hand and is lost and scared without her.

Mom, we are so sad without you. Some days it’s almost too much to bear. All those beautiful handmade beaded ornaments that you made were the only ones I put on the tree last Christmas. When the holidays were over I couldn’t take the ornaments off, I couldn’t take the tree down. It’s July and my Christmas tree is still up. I look at it every day and say “I love you mom” or “I miss you mom”. Maybe it isn’t healthy, I don’t really care – it makes me feel better.

Remember that year that we had a small artificial Christmas tree and after the holidays we took off the branches on one side and hung half a tree on the wall? Dad thought we were all crazy, but all of us girls thought it was the best, funniest thing ever! We made construction paper ornaments for every single holiday and decorated the tree all year long. Hearts for Valentine’s Day, Shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day, etc. We even decorated for little, lesser known holidays and my sisters and I loved it – and loved you for letting us do it and helping us with it.

We grew so much closer in the last 6 or 7 years you were here, and I treasure every moment we were able to spend with each other. We laughed, we cried, we cussed, we loved each other so much. I will never have a better friend who loves me as much as you did; I couldn’t love another friend as much as I love you.

The Mystery Puzzle Box I gave you for Christmas the year before you died, you told me was “the best present you’d ever gotten” and you were even more excited about it than I was – and I was pretty darned excited! We had a blast sorting it, looking at all the wonderfully made shapes, and marveling over how well the pieces fit together and what a great find it was. We laughed about the “old” smell, and our inside joke about the age of the puzzle and what it meant. We were both so excited to hear from the experts about the origin of the puzzle and how old it is – you were like a little kid at Christmas! Because of that gift we spent even more time together in your last few months than we normally did. What a beautiful gift that I ended up giving to myself. I will cherish every moment we spent together working on it, we had the best time and it was most definitely our favorite puzzle ever.

We talked about getting matching tattoos, something with a puzzle piece. We kept looking for the right image, showing each other what we liked and trying to decide on the exact thing we both agreed on. Even though you were in your 70’s and I’m in my 50’s you were still excited about us both getting our first tattoos together. We never did decide on the right image before you got sick. After you were gone my daughter and I looked through the pieces of the last puzzle that you and I assembled together and finally found the right piece. The tattoo I got early this year was for the both of us; it’s a piece of your favorite section of the last puzzle we did together. It’s beautiful to me and reminds me of you every day.

Tattoo Tattoo 1

I love it. It’s so meaningful to me. And it’s in remembrance of you and our love for each other, and our shared love of all puzzles and the time we spent together shopping for, looking at, talking about, and assembling jigsaw puzzles. 💗

We still miss you, and we’re still heartbroken that you’re gone. You were an awesome mom. You were an awesome Meema to your grandkids. You were never perfect, none of us are. But you loved us always, even when we made stupid mistakes; we knew you were in our corner, backing us up with your unconditional love. That’s all a mom and grandma can do sometimes, let her kids and grandkids know how much they’re loved, and that they’ll always be loved no matter what. You did that, and you did it so very well.

I Love the 80s…Finally in Progress

On July 13, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

80s IP — I Love the 80s by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

FINALLY! It took me until just this morning to, at last, get going on this puzzle. As of nine o’clock this morning the Selfies puzzles were still on the board, un-photographed.

It was NOT a good weekend.

But, I got them photographed and got the 80s puzzle sorted and started. All the progress you see here was done this morning. I had to get myself back to the board no matter what, I was going crazy without my puzzles to help me with my depression, pain, stress and anxiety.

15,300 cases of Covid in my state yesterday. Just my state. Not a whole country. Just. My. State. What the hell is going on? BLEEPING BLEEP! With all this going on I should be puzzling 16 hours a day to keep myself calm. *insert a giant sigh here*

Anyway, I’m back at the board. I’ve written today’s post and tomorrow’s too. Hopefully by Wednesday I will be feeling a little better. Even the teensiest bit better would be a relief. Thank God for puzzles! 💗🧩💗

Birds – Part 3

On July 12, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Birds 3-1 — Birds – Lafayette Puzzle Factory (Cra-Z-Art) – 100/500 pieces

These birds are a bit more boldly colored, bright colors do make me very happy and are more entertaining for me to assemble. And I think I’ve enjoyed these posts more, showing each and every mini puzzle. The artwork is beautiful, as is the reproduction, and they each deserve to be seen in detail.

I know I told you I didn’t want to do any research to learn about any of the birds, but this one had me googling – I wanted to know if it were possible for birds to be fat. This is the stockiest bird I’ve ever seen! Apparently this is just the build of this species, but if you are interested there are some amazing photos of seriously obese birds out there on the web. Wow.

This is Bob. He’s a Scarlet Tanager. He knows he’s pretty. He’s a smug idiot.

The Chickadee is one of two sets of duplicates within this set of 15 birds. There are two each of this species and also the Tufted Titmouse. The reason why is anyone’s guess, because I certainly don’t know. There are so many species of pretty birds out there, it seems odd to have more than one of the species with the plainest colors. An interesting choice to be sure.

I have named this one Cherry the Chickadee.

I have named this one Bolero the Bluebird. Only because I like the sound of it. 😉

It seems odd to me that this multicolored bird is named the Bluebird. Perhaps the scientists/birdwatchers who started naming birds had never seen an Indigo Bunting (shown in yesterday’s post) before giving this species the name Bluebird. There are some odd names of animals in nature, so I suppose this shouldn’t be a surprise.

Birds – Part 2

On July 11, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Birds 2-1 — Birds – Lafayette Puzzle Factory (Cra-Z-Art) – 500 pieces

More pretty birds to look at, more fun puzzles to assemble. I tried really hard to make sure that I had enough variation in color in each of the sets; sometimes it’s more difficult than you think, at least it is for me. I always worry about dumb stuff like that.

You’ve all heard me tell you how much I love these puzzles, you certainly must be sick of the same things over and over. Sorry if things are being constantly repeated, I can be a bit of a broken record sometimes.

The color of this bird – wow! It’s absolutely gorgeous, when you say a “bluebird” you don’t always see such a vibrant, beautiful color. I know speaking for myself that I basically call them all bluebirds, even though that’s not the correct name. This species is a name I hadn’t heard of before, it’s so striking though, isn’t it? I have named her Indira the Indigo Bunting.

This is Talayah’s twin sister, Tatianna. They are the Tufted Titmouse Twins. Little girls with BIG personalities. 🙂

I wish the colors were brighter and more fun, but I’m certain if they were that the birds themselves wouldn’t be very safe in their own environments. I’m guessing their slightly boring coloring helps them out in some way.

Bartholomew the Baltimore Oriole. He’s from Jersey. (His parents emigrated from Maryland)

I Love the 80’s..Almost in Progress

On July 10, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling11 Comments

I Love the 80’s by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

It’s almost in progress because although I know it’s next, I still haven’t photographed the Selfies puzzles that I finished last night. But my son chose this next puzzle; and though I’m a little intimidated by it, I’m still looking forward to it.

So I’m gonna scrunch my socks down over top of my pegged pants, throw some pop rocks in my mouth, turn on some Cyndi Lauper, and, like totally get into this bitchin’, tubular puzzle!