Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Happy Valentine’s Day!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous2 Comments

Whether or not you celebrate Valentine’s I hope your day is filled with friends and family that love you and that you love. 💘

We don’t do much for the love holiday here at our house. We try to treat each other with love and affection all year long; and gifts, chocolate, flowers or jewelry just aren’t our love language. There’s nothing wrong with celebrating and exchanging gifts with your partner, it just isn’t for us.

In fact, my husband and I (with our dark senses of humor) tell each other “Happy St. Valentine’s Day Massacre!” We are weird, hubby and I, and perfect for each other.

Anyway…….Happy Valentine’s Day! ❤

Bee Farm

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

Bee Farm by Tom Wood – SunsOut – 300 pieces

There’s something about this image. I don’t know why, but it’s just compelling. I’m not much of a SunsOut fan, but when I saw this puzzle at the thrift store I had to get it.

The puzzle itself was good quality, I loved the random cut pieces – it’s a nice change from grid cut. It takes a few minutes for my brain to catch up and remember how to look at the pieces and see how they could fit together; but it’s nice to switch things up and keep my gray matter on it’s toes, so to speak. The fit was on the loose side, but it’s a pre-loved puzzle and that’s to be expected sometimes.

The assembly didn’t take very long, and the most difficult part was the two beehives. I enjoyed it very much and it was completely worth the $1.99 I spent on it. Excellent image by Tom Wood, and it made for a great afternoon of puzzling.

Book Covers In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling10 Comments

Edward Gorey’s Book Covers – Pomegranate – 1000 pieces

According to My Jigsaw Journal this is the first 1000 piece Pomegranate puzzle that I’ve worked on in almost four years! I’ve done a few of their 300 pieces, but that’s all. Mainly, I think, because the 1000 piece Pomegranate puzzles I have in my stash are all beautiful but very challenging images; they get passed over quite a bit when the “next” puzzle is being chosen.

Which leads me to a question for my readers, has anyone noticed a change in the quality of Pomegranate? As soon as the bag of pieces was opened I could tell that the thickness of the chipboard was different than I recalled – thinner, unfortunately. I even opened one of my older ones to check, and the pieces are definitely thinner than they used to be; and the fit isn’t the same either.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a VERY good quality puzzle, it just isn’t the same as it was. I have high expectations for this brand because that’s what I’m used to. Perhaps with the run on puzzles that we’ve seen in the past two years the chipboard they normally used wasn’t available, or it could be any other myriad of reasons. I noticed though, and was wondering if anyone else did too.

Dogs

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles13 Comments

Dogs – Cavallini & Co. – 1000 pieces

Isn’t this a great image for a dog and puzzle lover like myself? I absolutely adored it and had a great time putting it together. My apologies for the glare on the picture, the shiny/slick backing made it so that I couldn’t stand my board up for a good pic of the completed puzzle – it kept trying to slide off!

This was a new company for me. All of their puzzles that I’ve seen are in tubular containers and a little more on the pricey side. The quality is good/very good; good thickness, excellent fit, good reproduction and variety of shapes. They have a nice hand feel on the front of the puzzle, but use that slick/sharp coating on the back – I am not a fan of this type of backing.

Again, my apologies for the pictures. They’re at an angle so you could see the image without glare, it isn’t optimal but it was the best I could do.

Of course if there’s a Boston Terrier I’m gonna take a close up. Actually there are two sections with Bostons in this image, this was my favorite of the two.

I mean, how cute is this? A choir of adorable dogs giving a performance – love it. 💚

Cavallini & Co. – from what I’ve seen – make good quality puzzles. I’ve only done this one so I can only speak for this puzzle specifically until I’ve done at least one more. They’re a bit on the pricey side from what I’ve seen, so unless one of their images grabs me and I HAVE to get it, I’m not sure I’ll be getting another one any time soon. Not because there’s anything wrong with them, I’m just watching my puzzle spending at the moment.

Roz*

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Roz* – Brother Sister – 100 pieces

This is an unnamed puzzle, so I have christened it “Roz”. That stern face reminds me of the character Roz from Monsters, Inc. Roz here is a no nonsense kinda gal who doesn’t take crap from anybody; she’s smart and fair, but short on patience. Do what she says and no messing around!

Brother Sister Design Studio is the house brand for Hobby Lobby. I don’t shop there, but the few puzzles of theirs that I’ve done (from swaps/thrift stores) are good quality. Somewhat thin, sturdy, good reproduction and a variety of shapes. They have some great images that I’ve seen and I’ve been impressed with each of their puzzles that I’ve assembled.