Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Think Good Thoughts, Please.

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous20 Comments

Hubby is having surgery today at the V.A. He’s in his 50s and this is the first surgery he’s had in his whole life. I’ll probably be away from my board for a few days until we’re settled into his recovery and how it’s going to work. He’ll be unable to drive himself anywhere for many weeks, so I’ll be chauffeuring him around to doctors appointments and physical therapy – and unable to take any of my pain medications on days that I have to drive.

I’ll probably be cranky and a little b*tchy because of it, so if that shows up in my writing please forgive me. I’ll do my best, that’s all I can do.

So if you have a moment, think good thoughts for hubby’s surgery today, and for me for the next 6-8 weeks – I may need the thoughts and prayers too.

Tropical

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Tropical – Re-marks – 500 pieces

This is such a great image for a puzzle, it would be even more fun in a larger piece count if you ask me. I had a wonderful time putting it together even with the (unfortunately) less than optimal quality.

I haven’t been having a lot of luck with Re-marks these days. I hope they haven’t gone totally downhill while trying to keep up with the increased demand that the pandemic has brought on. This puzzle had the old style chipboard, but must have been cut near the end of the run – there was a TON of puzzle dust and super loose fit. Truly annoying.

I still love the image though, it was great for puzzling!

Look After Your

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles9 Comments

Look After Your by Lauren Altes – Mr. Bob Puzzles – 201 pieces

This puzzle was commissioned for the national breast cancer foundation of Australia, and Mr. Bob Puzzles were the ones to produce a puzzle of this excellent artwork to raise money for the cause. I love the image – and that there are men included as well. Men can get breast cancer too, as I’m sure most of you know. When I saw this puzzle on the Mr. Bob website last year I had to have it!

It’s hard to see at first, but you can make out the title of this puzzle in the background – Look After Your…melons, peaches, lemons, apples, etc. Whatever size and shape, look after your ta-tas ladies and gentlemen!

I’ve included a copy of the image from the poster that came with the puzzle so that you could see it properly without the prominent piece shapes. I think it’s an awesome piece of artwork.

Great whimsies of the fruits and veggies used in the artwork, plus a breast cancer ribbon, dove, etc.

She is my favorite of course, because she looks like me. Gray hair, pale, glasses, sagging…..melons.😁

Post #1500!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous16 Comments

Can you believe it? This is post number 1500 for my little blog – the one I thought would be finished once I completed my monster 40,000 piece puzzle. The picture above is from the very first post ever on My Jigsaw Journal, a few days after I received the giant puzzle from Germany in September of 2016. It seems like a lifetime ago, although it’s only been about 5 ½ years.

It wasn’t my plan to become a puzzle blogger, I began this as a way to keep family and friends updated on the giant Disney Memorable Moments puzzle that I was assembling. Social media isn’t my thing, I have no facebook, instagram, twitter, etc., so I created the blog to post about which section I was working on and how it was going. But I realized once I started that I love everything about puzzles; I love shopping for them, looking at them, reading about them, talking about them, assembling them, and writing about them too.

I ended up with many more “followers” than just my family and friends, and was surprised to see that people from around the world were reading my posts and keeping up with them every day. It helped keep me motivated to make progress on the enormous puzzle every day, and I also found a community of like-minded puzzle geeks – what a blessing I didn’t even realize that I needed!

One thousand five hundred posts, that’s quite a lot; I’ve written about puzzles in progress, and my lack of progress on them when I’m dealing with life. I’ve written about my family, puzzling with mom and how much happiness that brought me, and working on puzzles with each of my children and my husband too – and the joy of sharing my passion with them. I’ve written about my puzzle pal Buddy, who kept me company while I puzzled, and always watched over me away from the puzzle board as well. I show off the puzzles I’m proud of, the ones that were fun and the ones that were just….meh….and warn you all about the ones I wish I’d never found. I share my life through the puzzles I complete, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the friends I’ve found here.

So congratulations to me for keeping with it; and many, many, many thanks to my faithful friends who come here to see the puzzles I assemble, read about me and my posse, my struggles with P.A.D.S., depression, anxiety and life in general, and who keep me company on my puzzling journey. I don’t think I’d still be here doing this if it weren’t for you all, thanks for sticking around.

Congrats to us all on post number 1500! 🎉🧩🎉

The Seven Chakras – Eagle Update #2

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Well, I received my re-worked eagle chakra puzzle, and have finally succeeded in assembling the multipiece whimsy that represents the eagle itself – triumph!

I couldn’t be happier with the customer service I received from Liberty Puzzles, and am grateful for both their assistance with this problem and their fantastic puzzles. Once my request alerted them to my dilemma with the eagle chakra, they wasted no time in communicating with me and resolving the issue. If you ask me, they get an A+ for excellent customer service.

So, here’s the picture that tens of readers have been waiting for – all of the whimsies from the eagle puzzle – including the multipiece representation of an eagle……

See that eagle above our woman in the lotus position? That’s the little bugger that caused me so much grief; I had all the proper pieces pulled, I just couldn’t get them to fit together properly. But a little tweak from the puzzle designer to correct a slight miscalculation and voilà! Success!

This puzzle set was so fun and interesting to assemble, and I’ve also received a hint about how they all connect together (which was what I suspected you could do when it was put together the first time). So I will definitely be working with these beautiful puzzles again, especially so that I can try to connect them all together in the proper order.

And when I do, I will take a picture of the seven of them attached together as one – to show you these amazing puzzles again, and how much intricate design goes into one of their creations.

I’m still astonished by this set of stunning wooden puzzles and how much thought went into their composition and construction. Absolutely sensational!