Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Barbie Paris Fashion

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Barbie Paris Fashion – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

There was something extremely satisfying about this assembly; I’m not sure I could express to you why that was – but it was great fun and I absolutely loved it. 🧡

Excellent quality; slightly loose fitting but otherwise a great puzzle. The piece shapes are quite obvious in the finished image but I really don’t care – it was the process of the assembly that mattered.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Barbie dolls, but it may interest you to know that I am named after one of Barbie’s friends. Back in 1968 she got a cool new “mod” friend named Stacey, and my father liked the name so much that he convinced my mother to give me that name when I was born. The rest, as they say, is history. 😎

This was the first section that I put together, the fabric of the clothing was easy to pick out, and it’s also the only image with blue sky.

That long neck is crazy – it may be what fashion models wish they looked like, but I’m not sure it would look good on an actual person.

The wallpaper in the background is even Parisian – Eiffel Towers everywhere!

What I’m working on…

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Typefaces by Hugo Maciel – Ravensburger – 500 pieces

This very interesting and challenging image just grabbed me when I first saw it, and it’s going together really well. The artwork is very different – it almost looks as though it was done with a crayon! Still, I love a challenge, and a puzzle that is outside of the norm as well. It oughta be fun. 😉

Retro

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Retro by Lois B. Sutton – White Mountain – 550 pieces

So much fun! As with most collages this one went together quickly and I enjoyed each and every section. There’s just something about these images (and collages in general) that ticks the box for me; assembling them makes me happy.

This was a pretty good quality White Mountain puzzle, with my only concern being a little bit of a loose fit. The reproduction was the best I’ve seen from this brand for a while, I was impressed.

Ah, 8 track tapes. Boy do I have plenty of memories of these! If you’re a young’un you may not know about these – they were like cassette tapes that you cannot rewind. We had an 8 track player in our vehicle when I was young, and listening to Disney movies or songs on them is a treasured childhood memory for me.

8 tracks also remind me of a toy I received for Christmas one year, a 2XL “robot”. It was basically an 8 track player dressed up like a robot that asked you trivia questions and you answered by choosing which “track” was the correct answer. It was sort of like those make your own stories books, you choose where to go with your answers. I know my explanation doesn’t make much sense, but that was the toy and I remember it fondly.

Here’s another thing you may not know about if you’re younger – the test pattern that would come on television at the end of the broadcast day. Where I lived they used to play the national anthem and then a test pattern like this (or others) would be the only thing you could find on tv. Round-the-clock programming was not a thing; and after the late night shows there was literally nothing on tv.

Hi-yo Silver – away! I cannot think about The Lone Ranger without thinking of my dad and watching this show with him on Sunday mornings. It always seemed so stupid to me that the mask over his eyes made it so that no one recognized him; his voice never changed nor did the bottom half of his face. It was a thrilling show at the time, but my memories are mostly enjoying watching tv with my dad. 💗

About the title – it’s funny to me that “retro” means different things to different people. What’s retro to me is NOT the same for another generation. The 80s may seem retro to some, but to me it’s the time when I was coming of age – not retro.

Retro is relative, you might say.

Parisian Charm

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Parisian Charm by David Maclean – Wentworth – 40 pieces

I took the picture at the wrong angle on a truly bad day, I’m sorry for the shine. By the time I checked the image it was already taken apart and put away and I just wasn’t feeling up to putting it together again even though it was only 40 pieces.

This is what it’s supposed to look like….

Normally this isn’t really my kind of image, but at only 40 pieces pretty much any artwork is worth a shot in my book. It’s pretty, don’t get me wrong, it just doesn’t really excite. Just my personal opinion; we can’t all like the same things.

Very Parisian whimsies too!

Authors In Progress

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Authors – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

The current Re-marks puzzle I’m working on is very good quality and much more entertaining than the last few puzzles I’ve done – what a relief! I was starting to think that perhaps I should give puzzles a rest for a while.

I haven’t done well in choosing which ones to assemble this month and out of the five puzzles I’ve done so far only one of them was truly enjoyable. I need to stop picking puzzles based on what I think I need for the blog and start choosing ones I actually want to do in the moment (which seems to be easier said than done for me).

Of course it really isn’t the puzzles, it’s me and the state of my mind and body. I’m feeling awful and having to take all my pain meds all day, which makes me feel groggy and stupid – not the best for sitting at the puzzle table. And of course there’s the anxiety and depression, it doesn’t help matters at all. Having mental health issues along with physical health problems just plain ol’ sucks.

I’ll just keep plugging away, even though my puzzling has slowed down quite a bit. What’s the old expression? Fake it till you make it.