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! 😎

Fantastic Voyage

On September 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Here’s another oldie that I didn’t post about because of the truly horrid picture I took. The vertigo seems to have resolved itself very nicely. 😉

It’s by Aimee Stewart, one of my absolute favorite artists. Fantastic Voyage was pretty challenging, but I enjoyed the journey of it. Her artwork is deceptive; the colors are blended so expertly and the overall look of the image is so beautiful that you don’t think the assembly will be that difficult – but it is. It takes more time than you assume it will, but in my opinion it’s absolutely worth it. It’s a gorgeous puzzle!

FantasticVoyage

If you haven’t tried an Aimee Stewart puzzle, I urge you to give it a go. They’re stunning, and I’m pretty sure you’ll be glad you did! 🙂

Science

On September 29, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is the second of four mini puzzles that hubby and I did together. He had so much fun with this one that he took it into the living room and almost did the entire puzzle by himself! I had to tell him to let me at least put in a few pieces, if I don’t help in the assembly I can’t post it on the blog. 😉

There’s something about the very small pieces that is so engrossing and entertaining – as long as they’re good quality. You start to put a few pieces together and you just can’t put it down; although that could be just me. I wouldn’t want to work with the teeny tiny pieces all the time, but once in a while is pretty darn fun.

This image is very busy, and with the piece shapes in the finished image it’s hard to see all of the line drawings. Honestly, it was my least favorite of the 4, but still fun to put together. You can see the image a little better on the poster below…

Science Poster

It’s so detailed that I wanted to enlarge the poster to show all the drawings. It was tough to work with all the black and white lines, especially because the pieces are so small. The quiz on the back is fun to read through as well…

Science Quiz

These puzzles are a lot of fun, and if you want a challenge I highly recommend them! Stay tuned in the next few weeks for Technology and Mathematics. 👩‍🎓

Who’s Your Favorite Jigsaw Artist?

On September 28, 2018September 28, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Spectacular Peacock by Aimee Stewart – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 240 pieces

I Remember Those! by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 300 EZ Hold pieces

The Racehorse – Ravensburger (What If #8) – 1000 pieces

These are puzzles from 3 of my very favorite jigsaw puzzle artists – Aimee Stewart, Charlie Girard and Geoff Tristam. Of course they’re not the only ones, there are many more. There’s so much out there to choose from, so many puzzles and so little time (and money)!

Who are your favorite artists?

Review: Reese’s

On September 27, 2018September 27, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.

Reese’s was an excellent quality, entertaining to assemble puzzle that surprised me. It was better quality than I was expecting, and not nearly as difficult as I’d anticipated. It made for a fun couple of days, and for some reason it also made me extremely hungry for peanut butter cups. 😏

I enjoy MasterPieces puzzles, they have a great catalog of diverse images to choose from, with very good quality and even better value. They have both grid cut and random cut puzzles, so there’s something for everyone. The quality of the chipboard is very good with thick pieces that fit together extremely well. Sometimes the fit can be a bit loose, but with this puzzle the pieces fit together snugly – so much so that I could lift the puzzle by one piece and nothing came apart!

I thought perhaps the image would end up being quite difficult with all the repetition of packages, but I found it to be much easier than I’d assumed. That doesn’t mean that it was an easy puzzle; it took just the right amount of concentration, but not so much that it became frustrating. I enjoyed diving in to all of that yummy chocolate and peanut butter!

The image reproduction was spot on, and the bright colors made it fun to work with. You just have to decide where you’re going to start and jump right in. After assembling the edge I started with the white packages (which I would NEVER do in real life, “white chocolate” isn’t chocolate!), but they were the easiest pieces to pick out. Then I went with the largest logo in the center, those pieces stood out as well…

I had a great time with this puzzle, I find shaped puzzles to be a lot of fun and they end up looking amazing when you’re finished. Check out some of the amazing shaped puzzles at Puzzle Warehouse, there are so many to choose from!

If you’re looking for a yummy puzzle to get you revved up for Halloween (best candy holiday there is), I highly recommend Reese’s. It’s wonderful quality, a great image, and was extremely entertaining to assemble.

I’m hungry for some reason…maybe some peanut butter and chocolate…🥜🍫

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