Review: Circles Strokes

On January 11, 2020January 11, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews8 Comments

I do so love blocks of color. 💖 This puzzle was a lovely respite from holiday images (it was finished on December 22), and even though it was a bit difficult I enjoyed the unique image and the gold foil accents. It’s such different and interesting artwork, and you know how much I love things that aren’t the norm.

As I do many times, after purchasing this puzzle I opened the box to look at the pieces; then, as I do, put it away because it looked like it would be pretty difficult. Several times the box came out when it was time to choose the next puzzle, and it went back in the pile every time. Luckily, this time I jumped at the chance to do a puzzle without snow or Santa, and started sorting before giving myself a chance to question how challenging it would be.

This is a special Gold edition Milton Bradley puzzle, and I found the quality to be quite good. Nice, thick chipboard with a good fit, wonderful colors, and beautiful gold foil accents. I wish pictures could capture the gold foil, it’s really quite beautiful.

Some of the colors were easy to pick out, and once I started getting things assembled the pieces became more familiar and it was easier to notice the subtle differences in color. It’s like most images, the more you do the more you become familiar with it; the more familiar the pieces become, the easier it is to see what you’re looking for. It provided a good challenge though, and kept me intensely focused only on what piece was next and which color goes where.

If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary and this image is one that strikes your fancy, I can definitely recommend this puzzle. I found it to be very good quality, with an image that made for a challenging and engrossing assembly. 👍

Details:

Title: Circles Strokes
Artist: Kirsten Hinte
Brand: Milton Bradley
Piece count: 750 pieces
Size: Approx. 27 x 20 in. (69 x 51 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent, gold foil
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

True Love

On January 10, 2020January 9, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

This puzzle is just too, too adorable. It’s a little bit odd though, did you notice the owl in the window? It took me a while to see it at first, in fact the only reason I noticed it was that I was trying to figure out where an eye went! And if this tableau is about the True Love our pets give us, tell me, who has a deer as a pet? That’s just a little weird. Cute, but weird.

True Love 1

French bulldogs are my absolute favorite breed, how adorable is this little one? I just want to cuddle with him/her for hours and hours!

True Love 2

There’s something about that sad face underneath the shower cap, I can’t really explain it – it just makes me laugh.

I’m off to have a painful wisdom tooth removed this morning, so I’ll probably be loopy and in bed all day, with no puzzling going on at all. Please put a few puzzle pieces together for me today, I won’t be able to. 🧩

Helpful Garden Paws In Progress

On January 9, 2020January 9, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Helpful IP — Helpful Garden Paws by Jenny Newland – 550 pieces

After I finished Art City yesterday my brain and my body were both exhausted. I spent the rest of the day in bed taking many naps, and was worried that I’d have no in progress update to share with you all today. 😥

Unfortunately an upsetting thing happened in the evening, and even though I was still exhausted (I’m certain adding antibiotics to my pain regimen is part of the problem) I couldn’t turn my brain off enough to allow me to sleep.

As usual, when I can’t sleep it’s off to the puzzle room, and I was able to sort the entire thing and actually got quite a bit of it assembled too. Every cloud has a silver lining, yadda yadda yadda.

There were plenty of small sections that were easy to separate during the sorting, but other than the white kitten I didn’t try to sort any of the animals. There are many, many pieces of fur left on the trays, but I hope as I’m putting this one together that the different animals will become a little more familiar and it won’t be too much of a chore to get them assembled.

This puzzle was a Christmas gift, and I was going to apologize for how long it took me to get to assembling it – but it’s only been just over two weeks! How in the world does it feel like Christmas was forever ago? My life is whizzing past me at breakneck speeds; perhaps that’s just what happens when you’re over the hill, you’re on the down slope and speeds pick up. Yikes.

To that end, there are eight more puzzles I received as gifts, and to the two lovely ladies who gave them to me, it might be a while until they’re all assembled. The two Christmas themed puzzles may have to wait until December, but the remaining six will find their way onto my table in due course. I promise that I love them all and will absolutely be assembling them, but it may take a while.

My life complicates things all the time, and it gets in the way of my puzzling. Rude. 🤨

Follow Your Nose

On January 8, 2020January 8, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Follow Your Nose is chock full of delightful doggie faces and it made for a truly entertaining assembly. It didn’t take long to put together, and I would love to assemble it in a larger piece count as well, it would make for a fabulous 1000 piece puzzle!

Many times I’ve said that, “It would make a great 1000 piece puzzle”, and almost every time I’ve never seen that image in a larger count. It makes me wonder why so many images are only in a certain piece count; wouldn’t it be advantageous to make each one into different piece counts to reach a larger number of consumers? Honestly, I have no idea how licensing works; when you sell artwork to a puzzle company is it only for use once, on one puzzle? Or does licensing have nothing to do with it, and it’s the puzzle companies who makes all of these decisions?

I have emailed the VP of Sales, Marketing, and Product Development at Buffalo Games to hopefully get answers to these questions, just for my own “piece” of mind. Stay tuned to see if I can get this information for all of us puzzle nerds. 🤓

Back to today’s puzzle! My daughter bought me four Buffalo 300 piece puzzles a few weeks ago, and I’ve enjoyed every single one – from Doug the Pug to this gorgeous collage. I always feel better when I have a few smaller piece count puzzles around, it lessens my anxiety. It means I’m not surrounded by only 1000 piece or larger puzzles, and that if I need to get my puzzle on there are plenty of little ones around to feed my habit without the stress of opening and sorting a larger one.

Nose 1

While all of the puppers in this puzzle were cute, these two were my favorites, and they were right next to each other. Both of my sons love Corgis, so I’m a little biased towards them – if my boys like them, then I do too 😉 And the German Shepherd (hopefully I got the breed right) is just so sweet with the adorable puppy dog eyes and that nose; he’s off the charts on the cuteness scale!

These 300 piece Buffalo puzzles were all great quality: thick pieces that fit together well, a good variety of piece shapes, and excellent image reproduction – I highly recommend every one! They made me smile, relieved some stress, gave me lots to do when I couldn’t sleep, and helped me deal with my extremely severe case of PADS.

Although, these puzzles make me want to stock up with many more, so perhaps the PADS is flaring up again. Win some, lose some 🤷‍♀️

It’s All Good

On January 7, 2020January 7, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

Another sleepless night, another puzzle finished more quickly than it should be. I’m not complaining mind you, I relish the time at night when the house is silent and I’m left with my puzzle and my only thoughts are which piece fits here, and where does this pattern go. No one needs anything from me in the middle of the night, and I’m free to puzzle with no interruptions.

This is the second puzzle from a trio of images by Thaneeya McArdle that I’ve assembled. The first one was so enjoyable that I immediately had to return to the store and pick up the other two. It’s been a while since the first one was put together, but I distinctly remember that it was missing a piece. Guess what? Yep, you guessed it, another missing piece!

All Good 1

I’m not one who immediately assumes it’s the company’s fault, in fact I’m certain most missing pieces are the fault of the consumer. This is very odd though, it seems unlikely that I would lose a piece from each of these puzzles (although it very well may be what happened). Perhaps it’s purposeful; do you really believe “It’s All Good”, even with a missing piece? Can you remain calm and happy with an incomplete puzzle? 😉

That may be a bit too existential for Ceaco though, and most likely the missing piece stowed away on my sleeve to another room. It’s most likely hiding under a pillow, near the baseboards, or in the pantry, etc. The possibilities are endless!

Other than the small problem of an errant puzzle piece possibly hiding somewhere in my house, the quality was pretty good for a Ceaco; there were the odd pieces still connected, a slightly bent piece or two, and a LOT of puzzle dust. But overall it was good quality and the assembly was entirely captivating. The image is so bright and interesting that it totally sucked me in and had me completely engrossed. Isn’t that what a good puzzle is supposed to do?

I’d better finish the third puzzle soon, any bets on whether or not there’ll be a piece missing? I’m going to say the third time will be the charm and it will be complete – here’s hoping!