Author: Stacey at myjigsawjournal

Unusual Animals

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles14 Comments

Unusual Animals by Allison Strine – Buffalo – 500 pieces

This was absolutely my kind of puzzle image – bright colors, collage, interesting artwork, informative, great quality – it had it all!

Do you ever have a puzzle that you know you’re going to love? Before you even put two pieces together you know it’s gonna be great? This was one of those puzzles! It was as fun and beautiful as I knew it would be – isn’t it fantastic when that happens? 💖

Excellent quality, as per usual for Buffalo. Lately I’ve mostly been purchasing Ravensburger and Buffalo puzzles; I’m too cranky these days to deal with crappy quality. I know when I buy a Buffalo puzzle that they care about whether or not their puzzles are entertaining and well made, and it is most definitely appreciated.

The color of both the background and the spider jumped out at me while sorting, and this was the first section I assembled. I wouldn’t want a Black Widow spider anywhere near me in the real world, but don’t mind at all it showing up next to all the other unusual animals. 🕸

I love all the information provided for each animal. Who has heard of an axolotl before? If you check out some images online you’ll see that they have the cutest faces (but they’re not brightly colored at all). Very unusual indeed.

This one I’ve definitely heard of before – there’s a whole family story about this bird – and we talk about the Blue-Footed Booby when we think something going on is ridiculous, or a waste of time.

When I was young (probably around 10 or so) my father was watching a documentary on tv about this bird, and he made me and my sisters come downstairs and watch it with him. We absolutely did not want to. Mom and dad had a “discussion” about forcing us to watch it; dad said it was educational so we should “learn something” and mom said it was stupid to make us watch it if we didn’t want to.

I don’t really remember any actual information about this bird, just the situation of being made to watch a documentary we weren’t interested in – and of course the bird’s ridiculous sounding name. It’s funny what memories stick with you, isn’t it?

The artwork by Allison Strine was excellent for puzzling, and both interesting and educational. If there are more of her puzzles out there anything like this one – I want them.

If you see this puzzle out in the wild, and you’re so inclined, I highly recommend adopting it and bringing it home. I don’t regret it, and in fact loved every single piece. 💝

Retail Therapy

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous12 Comments

Why do they call it “retail therapy”? Every time I give it a try it doesn’t do a damn thing. I’m always happy to find interesting, beautiful, or unique puzzles; but honestly it really isn’t any kind of therapy.

I don’t have remorse, or spend more than we can afford – and my shopping most definitely isn’t out of control (I really do despise shopping in general). It may boost your mood temporarily, but for me it isn’t nearly as long-lasting as I would like.

On the positive side, I did find myself about ten new puzzles; and I’m almost certain I will enjoy putting each and every one together. 💗

More Spots!*

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

More Spots!* – Brother/Sister Design Studio – 100 pieces

When I see this puzzle I imagine the little guy was trying to add more spots, so that’s what I named it. Sometimes when puzzles aren’t titled I try to give them titles that are funny, silly, ironic, or just nonsensical – this time it was just accurate – my creativity didn’t seem to be flowing well that day.

All the puzzles I’ve assembled from the Brother/Sister Design Studio (Hobby Lobby’s brand) have been very good quality; thick pieces, nice fit, good variety of shapes, and a nice matte finish.

I don’t think I’ve been in one of their stores for almost a decade now, but am sent some of their puzzles from time to time by a friend. They’re very nice puzzles, it’s just not a place I spend my money.

Keepsakes

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles7 Comments

Keepsakes by Judy Koenig – Ceaco – 550 pieces

Eh. Not my favorite type of image, but I had hopes it would be entertaining. It was alright, that’s really all the endorsement I can give it.

The quality of the chipboard was good/fair, and for the most part so was the cutting. The variety of different piece shapes and the fit were good as well. There was a lot of image lift, but this puzzle is over 25 years old and it has been assembled more than a few times from the look of it. Overall, the quality was good/fair.

This was my favorite section – more cartoony and less painterly.

Many of the piece shapes were just a little bit off of what “regular” ones look like. In several places the hole where a prong would go was made up of the joining of two pieces; it made for a more interesting assembly.

I had higher hopes for this image, there was something about it made me want the puzzle even though it’s a Ceaco. My thought process was that because it was a thrift store purchase I wasn’t really giving the brand any of my money, and the picture looked as though it would be entertaining to assemble. It wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped, but I still got my money’s worth – it was only a couple of dollars and I worked on it for a couple of days.

Where else can you get that many hours of entertainment for such little investment?

What’s In Progress?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling16 Comments

The Quiltmaker Lady by Charles Wysocki – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

For me, this is what’s happening on my board. It’s been nearly two years since I’ve assembled a Charles Wysocki image – June of 2020 was the last time I worked on one! It’s going well, and I’m enjoying myself; you know I can’t resist an image with quilts. 🧵💜

So what is everyone else working on? Any awesome puzzles you’d like to share? I’m always in the mood to see beautiful, interesting, or just entertaining looking puzzles. Got a link to the puzzle image I can check out?

I’m feeling the need for some retail therapy and I’m looking for some suggestions. (Don’t worry about enabling my PADS, I’ll be buying puzzles with or without your help – just looking for some potentially great puzzles I might have missed!)

Shopping for puzzles doesn’t solve any real world problems for me, but it takes my mind off things for a while – and if I’ve done it right in the end there are new puzzles on the way to my house! 🧩🏡