5th Avenue In Progress

On December 3, 2019December 3, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling7 Comments

5th Avenue IP — Browsing & Butterflies on 5th Avenue

I’m assembling a 2000 piece puzzle with an extremely detailed and entertaining image by Charles Fazzino for review, and I think the progress is coming along quite well. Not bad for two day’s work even if I do say so myself. 😉

The quality is much better than expected. Get ready regular readers – this is a Sure-Lox puzzle! I have put together a couple of their 300 piece puzzles recently and have remarked on the better quality; it seems as though they’ve tried to improve their all around quality with thicker chipboard and a much nicer fit. I have to say I am duly impressed.

All the pieces are ballerinas, which is my silly name for a piece with two male and two female connectors. (Two/two = tutu = ballerina) I don’t know when mom and I came up with that name, but that’s been what we’ve called this piece shape for years. I digress. Anyway, all the pieces are the same, which may be a pain in the behind for the sky portion but I obviously haven’t gotten that far yet.

I’m working on the considerably busy lower two-thirds of the puzzle, and the single piece shape hasn’t presented much of a problem. There are three types of pieces, what I’m calling long, skinny, and fat. So when I have a building or patterned area I separate the pieces into their piles of long, skinny, and fat and start working from there. It isn’t much of a bother, and while I prefer a puzzle with multiple piece shapes I’ve found many puzzle brands are using only one shape these days. It doesn’t disqualify it from being entertaining for me.

It is, in fact, wonderfully entertaining so far, and I’m loving the very detailed image. This is the first puzzle by this artist that I’ve assembled, and I think I may be looking for more of his work. 😎🎨

Doug the Pug (Doughnuts)

On December 2, 2019December 2, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Doug Donuts — Doug the Pug (Doughnuts) – Buffalo – 300 pieces

Both Doug the Pug puzzles were assembled in the same night. Insomnia is great for getting uninterrupted puzzle time; it’s not so great for the brain though. No sleep means tired, slow, hazy brain cells, which make puzzle assembly harder as you go along. Still, on this night it meant finishing two adorable puzzles and a nice long nap later that day. 😴

This image was much easier to assemble than cheesy Doug from yesterday, all the different doughnuts plus that curly tongue made it much simpler to sort and put together. They were both enjoyable in their own way, but this one is my favorite of the two – as far as assembly is concerned. If we’re just talking about the images, I think I prefer cheesy Doug.

Many thanks to my beautiful daughter who looks for puzzles wherever she shops. She gets out and about much more than I do, and keeps an eye out for puzzles her momma might like. What a sweetheart! ❤

Doug the Pug (Cheesy)

On December 1, 2019December 1, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Doug Cheesy — Doug the Pug (Cheesy) – Buffalo – 300 pieces

My daughter was out shopping and sent me pictures of two Doug the Pug puzzles – she didn’t ask if I liked them, she knew I would – she asked if I HAD them. Smart girl, she knows if I’d seen them at the store that they definitely would have found their way into my cart. I didn’t already have them, and she felt the need to get them for me and bring them over to my house the same night.

It’s a good thing she did too; I couldn’t sleep that night and not wanting to disturb my husband’s sleep I got out of bed and spent a bit of time in the puzzle room. Doug got assembled in the wee hours of the morning, but I don’t think he minded much. He was probably sleeping off all of that cheese!

The puzzle went together relatively quickly. But I will say, however, that all that cheesy goodness made for a much more difficult assembly than I thought. The colors of pretty much all of the different cheesy treats were very similar, and once you add in the shirt there were a LOT of orange-y looking pieces to sort through.

Being a Buffalo puzzle, the quality was very good. The pieces fit together very well, and their signature zig-zag pieces even helped with the assembly. With so few pieces to sort through it was easy to separate the zigs and zags and put those pieces together right away. The image reproduction was quite good as well, the picture was sharp and clear with no blurry or fuzzy areas.

The finish was the only drawback, it was very shiny – much shinier than the average Buffalo puzzle. It made working under artificial lighting difficult, even with the light colored pieces there was glare that had me tilting my head to the side and wiggling the pieces back and forth to make sure what I was looking at or if I had the right piece.

Doug Cheesy 1.JPG

What an adorable, cranky, kissable face! Of course, Doug the Pug’s moneymaker is most definitely that face – and when I say money maker it is no joke. This dog has an Instagram account, his own Facebook page, and of course he’s on Twitter. All of these social media accounts have millions of followers, he’s been in music videos, is a New York Times bestselling “author”, has his own line of merchandise, and makes many celebrity appearances. He and his owner are rolling in the dough, all from his face that is so appealing, grouchy, sweet, expressive, and stone-faced all at the same time.

I hope you enjoyed this post, because Doug will be making another appearance tomorrow with another puzzle. 🐶🐾🐶

Day After Thanksgiving Blues

On November 30, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Usually the day after Thanksgiving is very hard on me. I always try too much to be useful getting the meal cooked and on the table and end up paying for it the next day. This year was no exception – but with the added pressure and sadness of cooking the meal for the first time without mom. My daughter and I wanted to get everything right this year, especially for my dad (and in a way for mom too). We did a pretty darn good job I think, and I’m unbelievably proud of my beautiful daughter for doing most of the heavy lifting and making us a wonderful holiday dinner. You were amazing sweetie! 💖

As usual I did way too much and am paying for it afterwards, but with the added problem of a new pain medication that is, no joke, kicking my ass. I spent the day after Thanksgiving in bed, but this time with all the lights off and the door closed as there was no energy to puzzle, not even laying down.

Last year after the holiday I wrote a post about how I puzzle in bed, showing off my trays and how I can work in bed even when I don’t feel well enough to sit at the puzzle table. There was none of that this year unfortunately, and there are so many puzzles I need to get to assembling!

I’ve got a 2000 piece Charles Fazzino image that I am assembling for a review, and I am still sorting it after many days. It looks like so much fun to put together, but I need to get myself out of this room and sitting in front of my puzzle board.

There are many, many buildings and look at all those butterflies in the air; it’s going to be a very interesting and entertaining assembly I think, if it ever gets past the sorting stage. Hopefully today’s the day I can start actually working on it. Fingers crossed! 🤞

Review: Dog Stamps Quilt

On November 29, 2019November 29, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews2 Comments

Dog Stamps Quilt – hmmm, a collage with dogs, I wonder if I liked it? It won’t be much of a spoiler for me to tell you I adored it! It had everything going for it before I even opened the box, and luckily once it was opened the quality was just as good as the artwork.

Bits and Pieces is a brand I normally only buy second hand because of some very bad experiences with their puzzles. When I saw this image though, and the fact that it was only 300 pieces, I had to throw caution to the wind and give it a try. And I’m very glad I did! The pieces were very thick, with an excellent variety of shapes that fit together very well. The offset, almost wavy grid cut made for some fascinating piece shapes that sometimes seemed almost geometric, and the interesting way they fit together made for an absorbing and entertaining puzzle.

Dog Stamps 1

These adorable puppies jumped right out at me when I was sorting; first of all, their little faces look like they’re about to get into a lot of mischief, and secondly the background is a beautiful shade of blue that stood out in a sea of brown and tan pieces. Their faces and expressions are just too cute!

Dog Stamps 2

This little guy had such sad, sweet eyes. I had to take a close-up picture of this stamp; it’s just too sweet to pass up, and I think it would make a great puzzle image on it’s own.

Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of this puzzle. I find that many 300 piece puzzles with large pieces have thick chipboard that is quite sturdy, even if the larger piece count puzzles from the same brand aren’t as thick. Bits and Pieces is a brand I don’t usually endorse, but in this piece count I have no reservations in giving this puzzle a thumbs up. It’s great quality and an excellent image, and if the artwork makes you smile it is definitely recommended. Two doggie paws way up! 🐾

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