Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Another One…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous4 Comments

Blooming Heart – Crafthub – 80 pieces? (I’ll count them up later)

Here’s another of the terrible quality wooden puzzles from Crafthub; unfortunately I bought three of them to make the shipping cost worthwhile so there’s still one more after this one. Even though the first one was so frustrating that doesn’t mean I would just get rid of the other two – of course I’m going to put them together, exasperating as they might be.

I’m not sure why, but as we were packing for our trip I threw both of these remaining Crafthub puzzles into my suitcase. It turns out that was a good idea though, because there are still several days left on our trip and I’m almost out of puzzles. The horror! 😱

Yesterday morning when talking about them with hubby a fantastic idea popped into my head; so believe it or not I was actually excited to start working on one of the crappy puzzles right away – even though there are two Wentworth puzzles in my suitcase that have not yet been assembled.

Once this puzzle is complete I plan on committing what normally would be a terrible puzzling sin in my own eyes – I’m going to glue this wooden puzzle. Shocked? I don’t blame you – never thought I would hear myself put all those words together in that order. Never. Ever. Wooden puzzles are such a joy to work with that prior to these Crafthub puzzles I would never have even considered gluing one. Part of the reason they’re more expensive is that they can be assembled over and over, even passed down through family sometimes. Gluing a beautifully made wooden puzzle is a TERRIBLE idea if you ask me, you would never again be able to experience the delight and satisfaction of assembling it.

But here is my thought process; these puzzles are NOT beautifully made, not ones I would ever want to assemble again, and inflicting them on anyone else by giving them to friends or donating them elsewhere doesn’t seem like a good idea either. The only positive with these puzzles so far is the beautiful images, so the thought came to me that it would make a lovely little wall hanging or decorative tchotchke – why not glue the sucker and at least get some future use out of it?

That’s my plan anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes. 😎

Peanuts – Day 4

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Peanuts by Charles Schulz – RoseArt – approx. 125/500 pieces

On our last day of the Peanuts puzzles we have Linus and his security blanket (felt a kinship with him as I was a thumb sucker for a little bit too long as well), Snoopy again, and my most favorite of the Peanut characters – Pig-pen. I was a tomboy who spent her days climbing trees, digging in the ground and in general having as much fun and getting as dirty as possible. I hated having to take a bath or shower at the end of the day and one of my parents’ nicknames for me was Pig-pen. 😎

I hate having to say over and over that this set of puzzles disappointed me, but not everyone reads every post and I feel obligated to say that although I’ve always been happy with the quality of these RoseArt/Lafayette Puzzle Factory sets – this one was different. The fit wasn’t good, the chipboard was too thin, and there were one or two missing pieces. *I can’t really be sure about the missing piece count because these are shaped puzzles and it could be one larger or two smaller pieces missing.*

In general, these puzzles sets are great for when you don’t have much time or space to puzzle; you can use the colored backing to sort the pieces and just grab one color and start assembling one small puzzle at a time. I love them, they’re great when I’m feeling anxious about sorting or starting a larger piece count puzzle; I can just grab this “500 piece puzzle” and put together each little one without worrying about anything else.

Specifically though, this Peanuts set was less than optimal quality, and unfortunately I wouldn’t recommend them. I wish this set had been more entertaining to assemble, but it just wasn’t.

I really did want to enjoy it. 😢

Peanuts – Day 3

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Peanuts by Charles Schulz – RoseArt – approx. 125/500 pieces

Here we have Franklin, Marcie and Sally – of these three I liked Marcie the most, she was matter of fact and logical and totally out of place with the craziness of the other characters in the Peanuts world. To be honest I remember that Franklin was in the comics but I don’t recall a thing about him. That’s most likely my old age brain – I don’t remember much about Sally either, other than she was Charlie Brown’s sister.

There isn’t much more to say about these little puzzles. They weren’t great quality and even though the set was a gift from hubby I wasn’t happy with them at all. Damn the bleeping pandemic – for many much more important reasons than this – but in a small way for it’s effect on our puzzles.

Until now these sets have never let me down, this one did.

Lots of Puzzling…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous2 Comments

There’s been quite a bit of puzzling so far on our trip, even more than I anticipated! We spent the weekend up in Northern Michigan with my sister and brother-in-law at their cabin – a bonfire all weekend long, lots of sitting around and visiting, several puzzles assembled with family, and plenty of good food and good times.

Hubby designated himself in charge of the fire, and he took this picture early one morning when the rest of us were sleeping. I told him it was a beautiful image and my sister-in-law said it would make quite a difficult puzzle. It’s very pretty, but I don’t think I’d be interested in a puzzle with this image unless it was a wooden one with a Victorian cut – otherwise it would be way too difficult for these old eyes.

I brought several puzzles for myself to put together while we were on vacation – because I purposely don’t want to be “entertained” while we’re on our little holiday. Hanging around and not doing much at all is my favorite kind of vacation. I was showing my sister-in-law all the different puzzles I’d brought, and she was excited to do a couple of them – at one point I told hubby that I may not have brought enough puzzles, we were gonna run out if we kept putting them together so quickly!🤣

Of course his answer to that was that we should find more puzzles to buy. (I sure did find me a good husband, didn’t I?)

Peanuts – Day 2

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Peanuts by Charles Schulz – RoseArt – approx. 125/500 pieces

Of the Peanuts characters shown today I related to Peppermint Patty the most – she was her own person and didn’t really care about what others thought of her. Charlie Brown (the main character of the comics) just never really clicked with me; he always seemed resigned to his fate and that is DEFINITELY not me at all. And Snoopy – I always loved Snoopy’s commitment to making mischief wherever he went. 😁

I talked about the quality of this set in yesterday’s post, it was my first disappointing set of these mini puzzles by RoseArt/Lafayette Puzzle Factory. I’m hoping that the other two sets I have left – Hello Kitty and Main Street – are of better quality than this one was.

The assembly was enjoyable, but not as much as with previous sets. I guess I’m going to have to say that this particular set of puzzles isn’t recommended; or perhaps if you’re looking to assemble these be cautious and check to see where they were manufactured. If it’s in China, beware.