Review: Macaroons

On October 5, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews1 Comment

This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.

All the puzzles in this 8-in-1 box of Sweet & Salty foods are nameless, so I’ve been naming them as I finish each review. Obviously, this one is named Macaroons – I know, I’m being less than creative. Perhaps I’ll name the next one something enigmatic and weird; something that has nothing to do with the food shown on the puzzle. That’ll be fun to come up with!

This puzzle was one of the reasons I chose this 8-in-1 box to review. I love the look of it and hoped it would be great fun, thankfully I was right. I love the pastels (even though I usually prefer bright colors), and I finished the puzzle in one day. Usually I have to break it up over several days; but I was enjoying myself so much and was so absorbed in the puzzle that the pain that normally interferes seemed almost muted. It’s an amazing gift when puzzling can do that for me. 🎁

Ceaco puzzles have a great selection of images to choose from, although sometimes I find the quality to be lacking. The quality of these puzzles has been better than I expected, especially from a multipack. The fit is excellent, the images are beautifully reproduced, and the pieces are a good thickness. Sometimes the chipboard is fanning on the backs of the pieces, and there are some that aren’t cut all the way through; overall though, the quality is good. Click the link above to see their puzzles currently in stock at Puzzle Warehouse.

I’ve assembled 3 of the puzzles from this box so far, and I feel confident in recommending them; the quality is better than expected, and for $16.99 for 8 puzzles you just can’t go wrong. The box contains 2 300-piece, 4 500-piece, and 1 each 750 and 1000 piece puzzles – it’s quite a good value and I’m having a wonderful time assembling them!

Macaroons gets 2 cookies way up, and a glass of milk too!🍪🍪🥛

Details:

Title: “Macaroons”
Artist: iStock
Brand: Ceaco
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 14 x 18 in. (36 x 46 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review

Quality:

Board: Good
Cutting: Good
Image: Very good
Box: Average, 8 puzzles in 1 box
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Good, recommended

I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.

Under the Sea

On October 4, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Not really my favorite, but a nice palate cleanser. Sometimes I just need a quick 300 piecer to feed my addiction while I decide what larger puzzle I’ll be assembling next.

There’s nothing wrong with the puzzle itself; the pieces are ok and fit together well, the image just doesn’t tickle my fancy. Perhaps on another day I’d be more in the mood for this puzzle and would have loved it – when I assembled it, it just wasn’t that day.

It’s a busy image, with lots of cute and not so cute creatures hiding everywhere. The orange octopus was my favorite, and the sunken ship was harder to put together than it looks!

Fairytale Fantasia

On October 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

And now we’ve come to the end of the oldies but goodies, this is the last of the puzzles from over 2 years ago that I’ve never posted about. It’s been great fun going back and remembering all these puzzles!

It’s odd to me that I can remember specific things about each of the puzzles from back then, but I can’t tell you how old I am without doing math in my head first. What did I have for lunch yesterday? I have no idea, but I can tell you many things about this puzzle I did about 2 1/2 years ago. Weird old lady brain! 👵

This shelf, for me, was the easiest of the Aimee Stewart shelves that I’ve assembled. Glorious Vintage, Fantastic Voyage, World of Books, etc., these were all much more of a challenge in my opinion. I enjoyed them all, but this was the least difficult; Glorious Vintage required the most brain power, all that green had my head spinning!

For Fairytale Fantastia all the books, the beautiful colors, and the whimsical characters made this puzzle a joy to put together, and one of my favorite shelves by this artist. If I’m being honest, pretty much all puzzles by Aimee Stewart are in the favorites category (except for her Neuschwanstein image, Castle Dream. It’s just not my cup of tea/pile of pieces). 😉

And as usual, the quality of this puzzle was as excellent as the artwork. Ravensburger pieces have a wonderful feel in your hands, the “softclick” technology provides a great fit, and the image reproduction is amazingly done. No wonder they’re one of my favorite puzzle brands!

I wish there were more Aimee Stewart puzzles here at the house that I could dive into; but, alas, I’m Stewart-less at the moment. All this reminiscing has me in the mood for her awesome use of colors and whimsy – and looking at her artwork always makes me a little happier than I was before. ☺

Review: Droids

On October 2, 2018October 2, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

Droids was much more fun than I anticipated, I love Buffalo’s smaller piece count puzzles. The fit is excellent, and the pieces are the perfect size (for me). Great puzzle!

I don’t always like the 1000 piece puzzles by Buffalo, sometimes I have to be in just the right mood. I find the piece shapes are all too similar. Not so with their 300 and 500 piece puzzles; I find the pieces to be the perfect Goldilocks size – not too small and not too big. The shapes are less “boxy”, and they offer more variety in the size of the pieces as well. The image reproduction is stellar and the fit is wonderful. Their smaller piece count puzzles are my favorite. Click the link to check out Buffalo Games and see all of their available puzzles, they have some gorgeous images to choose from!

I’m not the world’s biggest Star Wars fan, but looking for some 300 and 500 piece puzzles to keep me entertained I decided I might as well give these droids a try. It didn’t look like a ton of fun, but fortunately looks can be deceiving and it was very entertaining. I had a great time putting it together, even more fun than making the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs! (That seemed kinda Star Wars nerdy – I know – but I have so much useless information and quotes in my brain and I can’t get them out!)

If you or someone you know is a Star Wars fan, I absolutely recommend this puzzle. It’s the right amount of difficulty and the right amount of fun. 🤖

Details:

Title: Droids
Artist: None given
Brand: Buffalo
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 21 x 15 in. (54 x 38 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Sturdy, glued shut
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

My Jigsaw Journal’s 2nd Birthday!

On October 1, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Happy 2nd Birthday to My Jigsaw Journal! 🎂 It’s a couple of days late, but my aging old lady brain just isn’t what it used to be. I am still assembling jigsaw puzzles to try to keep it sharp though; here’s hoping they work their magic and keep it from deteriorating any more!

I’m shocked that it’s been 2 years already, but it’s been a great 2 years. Puzzling and blogging has been fun and rewarding, even more so than I thought it would be. It’s amazing when I go back over the stats – to me the numbers seem incredible!

766 posts (including this one)
569 puzzles assembled – holy guacamole!
324,544 pieces assembled (I did notice that while I assembled around 50 more puzzles than the previous year, there were about 70,000 less pieces. I’m not sure how much of that has to do with the 40,320 piece puzzle I assembled the first year; even so, if you take that one out of the mix it’s still 50 more puzzles and 30,000 less pieces. I guess that happens when you’ve got anxiety problems and 1000 piece puzzles are too much for you some days 😐 )
41,842 views (that’s a BIG jump from only around 8,000 in the first year)
8,674 visitors to the blog from 99 countries! (more than 7,000 new visitors in this past year – oh my!)

Those are all pretty awesome numbers for this tiny little blog I started just to keep friends and family up to date on my progress of the world’s largest (at the time) jigsaw puzzle. Once Memorable Disney Moments was finished I thought that would be it for the blog; but I discovered that talking about puzzles was, for me, almost as fun as puzzling itself! Some days I don’t have a lot to say, and some days the words just come pouring out – but almost every day there’s a new puzzle to post and plenty to say about it. 🙂

Going back over all the posts and puzzles has me reminiscing and I went back and found some interesting facts about the puzzles I’ve done. In the first year of the blog I hadn’t assembled any wooden jigsaw puzzles, but in the second year I’ve put together 52 wooden puzzles from 5 different companies! 29 of those were micro puzzles, but still, 52 is a LOT!

I’ve also assembled 5 (almost 6) 3D puzzles – I’m in the process of assembling a very large 3D puzzle for a review for a new company. It’s complicated and I’m doing my best, but it’s taking me much longer than I’d anticipated; I’m enjoying the challenge of using my brain differently and trying something completely different. 🙂

There have been reviews and posts for puzzles from 100 different puzzle companies on the blog – did you know there were that many out there? I’m shocked by the number, but I went back through all my posts and made an actual list. There are many more companies out there in this big, wide world that I haven’t tried; but the fact that I’ve done puzzles made by so many different brands/companies astounds me!

I also want to send out a special thank you to the companies that have given me the opportunity to assemble and review puzzles for them, I’m extremely grateful and I’ve loved reviewing puzzles even though I may not have always loved the puzzles themselves. 😉 Many thanks to the following companies (click the links to check out their very cool puzzles!)

I’ve had a wonderful time these past 2 years puzzling and blogging, and I’m looking forward to another year of jigsaw puzzles (along with my fantastic puzzle posse of my mom, son, daughter, and hubby – I love you guys! 💖) Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read this blog and especially for those puzzlers/readers out there who send encouragement, well wishes, comments, and suggestions – I appreciate every single one of you!

Here’s to another year of happy puzzling! 😎