Dog’s Life

On January 20, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles9 Comments

Is that not the cutest puzzle? It’s so adorable!!! My darlin daughter gave me this one for Christmas, and I couldn’t wait to get at it. It’s truly a dog’s life in this puzzle, and if you have dogs or have had them in the past you will relate.

It’s not the best quality, and if you ask me Eurographics is backsliding in the quality department. They used to be very good quality randomly cut puzzles, but this one piece shape with terrible cutting leaves a lot to be desired. The finish is super shiny and there is glare no matter if you’re working with dark pieces or light.

Dog's Life 1

This is basically dog ownership in a nutshell. Always looking at you for food as if they’ve never eaten a meal in their lives; that’s how Buddy looks at us anyway.

We only have one dog, just Buddy, but he certainly enjoys a ride in the car, and there is plenty of hanging out the window going on! And more than any other little vignette in this puzzle, the one on the right definitely shows how Buddy gets comfy in bed with my husband and me. He takes the middle – all of the middle!

My youngest son surprised me by coming in at the end of this puzzle when I was finishing the middle, there were about 7 or 8 pieces left, and he just grabbed one and put it in. He NEVER wants to do puzzles with me, so it was a bit of a shock, but a very happy one. He kept on going and I let him place all of the final pieces. He stopped at the last one and looked to me, knowing that putting in the very last piece makes a hard-core puzzler like me very happy, but I told him to go ahead and finish it. It was so lovely and I was truly pleased that he came in and wanted to be with me in my puzzle room working on one of my puzzles – even if it was only for a couple of minutes! He’s so sweet, and I love that he helped me put in the last few pieces. 💖

A Cranky Camper

On January 19, 2020January 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

This is another puzzle from the multipack of 12 puzzles with artwork by Iralu, puzzles by Cardinal. I was surprised at the difference in quality between the 300 piece that I’d already assembled and this one; the 300 piece was much better quality than this 150 piece. Interesting.

I knew when I purchased it that the puzzles would most likely be of lesser quality; I find that the puzzles in most multipacks are made with thinner chipboard and as a result don’t usually fit together well – that was certainly the case with this puzzle. The fit on the edges was especially terrible and I found that the pieces seemed to fit where they didn’t belong. The top and bottom edges were assembled at the beginning, but the sides weren’t completed until the interior of the puzzle was assembled; the top and bottom edges had color on almost every piece and I could be certain that I got the assembly correct.

Each of the 150 piece puzzles in this pack are similar to this image, they are all of trucks or some sort of vehicle; I don’t dislike them, but they aren’t my favorites. The 500 and 300 piece puzzle images are the ones I really like in the box, but the 150 piece puzzles are perfect to put onto a tray and work while I’m resting in bed.

Even with the questionable quality this was an enjoyable puzzle to assemble (except for the edges), and it went together pretty quickly. It’s nice to have some very small puzzles available that I can work on my trays in bed when I’m not feeling well enough to sit at the puzzle table. 🙂

Momma’s Me Mood*

On January 17, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

I started this early in the morning before leaving to spend some time with family on New Year’s Day, and finished in the late afternoon when we got home. First day of the year, two puzzles completed; they were only small ones, but they were both entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I did something I NEVER do and bought one of those multipacks of puzzles. Usually I find the quality is really awful when you have many puzzles in one box, but I couldn’t help it – the artwork was so interesting, colorful, and completely different from what you normally see. I had to brave the questionable quality of 12 puzzles in one box from Cardinal, I just couldn’t pass them up; artwork like this is not something you normally find in a multipack.

The asterisk by the title is because although the artwork is by Iralu, the title is by my daughter. I couldn’t find the real title online (I’m not great at web searches to be honest), so I asked for some help in giving this image a name. I think it’s a perfect name for this puzzle, and I hope she’s feeling creative because none of the puzzles in this multipack have titles. 😉

I was surprised at the quality of this 300 piece puzzle, it was better than I thought it would be – at least as far as the chipboard goes. It was thicker than I’d assumed and fit together quite well. It may not be the same for the other piece counts in the box, but at least the four 300 piece puzzles are fair/good quality. In my book that’s a bonus!

Star Wars Finn

On January 16, 2020January 15, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I wanted the first puzzle of the year to be a thrift store puzzle, for mom. 💚 I went to the thrift store on New Year’s Eve, and was lucky enough to find a few kids puzzles that looked as though they might be entertaining. It’s always nice to start out a new month with a finished puzzle on day one, and kids puzzles are perfect when I haven’t timed it right to have a larger puzzle ready to be completed.

My sons both love Star Wars, so I thought this was a good choice for the first puzzle of the year. It was missing a piece, but I honestly didn’t mind. It’s the chance you take buying second hand, and I still enjoyed putting it together.

My youngest had to tell me the name of this character; I haven’t seen any of the newer Star Wars movies, so I had no idea who this was. His name is Finn, and he was a storm trooper, and lots of other information that I didn’t really grasp or process. I got the whole, long storyline for Finn from my son, and all I asked for was the name of the character!

These Cardinal puzzles for children aren’t the greatest quality, the pieces are thin and easily bent (and perhaps easy to lose too). But they’re perfect for a thrift store find; once the kids have played with them enough they find their way to me or some other puzzle junkie who enjoys assembling puzzles of all shapes and sizes. 😉

Heroes & Heroines

On January 14, 2020January 13, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This was my last puzzle of 2019, I’m glad I made it a good one – it’s an Aimee Stewart. I don’t have a lot to say about it other than it was a beautiful image and an excellent quality Ravensburger with exceptional fit and great hand feel.

It wasn’t an easy assembly, but that’s part of what made it fun – the challenge is both engrossing and entertaining.

These were my favorite couples to assemble, Marguerite and Armand (from the 19th century novel La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas), and Christine and Erik (from Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux). I haven’t read either of them, but they were fun to put together.

After reading the insert, I must admit that I didn’t know who some of the heroes & heroines were; I haven’t read many love stories and not a lot of the usual literary works either. And yes, that means I haven’t read Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby and many other works of literature that most people have read. Oh well, I have no inclination to read them now either – I’d rather spend my time with my family or a jigsaw puzzle to be honest.