Cottages – Part 1

On May 1, 2020May 1, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Cottages 1-1 — Cottages (1) by Kim Leo – Cra-Z-Art – 125/500 pieces

I am completely in love with these 500 piece puzzles from Cra-Z-Art. They are a series of shaped puzzles of various animals/houses/objects/food and they are so much fun! Each of the boxes is a total of around 500 pieces and includes between 12-16 smaller shaped puzzles. I think I’ve done all of them, but there may be one or two that I have yet to find. They’re all adorable and unbelievably entertaining, and great for when you don’t have a ton of time to sit and puzzle – or even if you prefer to sit down and put them all together at once.

I’ve assembled these 12 before, but I received another copy as a gift for Christmas from my puzzle pal Penny, and putting them together again isn’t a burden at all; I absolutely love these small shaped puzzles, and doing any of them again is a joy! 💝

This time around I’m showing each of the puzzles. This box of 12 cottages will be spread out over 4 posts: 1) to show each of the 12 puzzles close up and appreciate the artwork, and 2) to give myself a little breathing room as far as posts in the queue ready to go – I’m finding it hard to puzzle lately, sitting at the table is too painful for me for any length of time. So get ready for 4 days of tiny cottage puzzles, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Cottages 1-2

The flowers climbing up this house are so lovely; my thumb is NOT green, so I don’t know what kind of flowers grow on a climbing vine, but it sure would be pretty to have. They definitely wouldn’t survive a hurricane down here in Florida, but it’s nice to think about them adorning the front of my house. 🙂

Cottages 1-3

I love the color of this little flower shop, and more pretty climbing flowers! Also, keep an eye out for cats, you’ll find at least one in every puzzle. I thought at first the artist must definitely be a cat person, but after a bit of research I’ve learned that she and her husband live in Michigan and only have a dog. I wonder why there’s a black cat in each puzzle. Perhaps as a tribute to Heronim (Harry Wysocki, brother of Charles), another prominent Americana artist from Michigan?

Cottages 1-4

This seems like a perfect puzzle for fall; apples and pumpkins for sale, and a black cat resting on a bale of hay. Of the three cottages shown today, this one is my favorite – fall is my favorite season. Unlike some of the other cottages, this one looks as though it’s been “cut” out of a larger painting. You can see in the border that there was more going on in the background. I’d love to see the rest of the image!

Pig House

On April 29, 2020April 29, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles14 Comments

I hemmed and hawed about assembling this puzzle, it’s probably been at my house for two years, perhaps even longer. It’s a thrift store find of mom’s that looks like a fun image, but with it’s muted colors I knew that it would be difficult. Of course you never know until you get to assembling, but it turns out I was right; the truly random cut and muted colors made it quite a challenge.

The Great American Puzzle Factory is no longer in business, but I don’t think it could have been because of their quality. I’ve done several of their puzzles, and they’ve all been very good. The pieces were very thick, with an excellent variety of shapes and an excellent fit. The image reproduction is very good as well, the muted colors seem to be true to the original artwork.

Pig House 1

La Pension Porcinee – the pig boarding house. I love the whimsy of the artwork and the simple and silly things all the pigs are doing. One is out walking the poodle, and there is a piglet blowing bubbles on the front steps while two old timers are in rocking chairs on the porch.

Pig House 2

Bath time – cleaning up with a big bottle of Hogwash – love it!

Pig House 3

Two honeymooners, expressing their love for one another while a cat hides under the bed. It’s not something you think pigs would be doing – traveling from Cincinnati! 😉

Pig House 4

Here we see the deliveryman bringing “food” into the kitchen. I’m certainly glad I don’t live close to this boarding house!

This puzzle is 34 years old – from 1986. It seems odd to me that the year I graduated from high school is that many years ago. That can’t possibly be. My math must be wrong. Right?

Go with the Flow

On April 28, 2020April 28, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Cue the fireworks, there was finally a puzzle in this series with all of it’s pieces. Congratulations Ceaco, it seems you finally did your job. Correctly. For once. Well done.

This one was much harder than I anticipated, and it seemed more difficult than the previous two puzzles from this series – but that is only perception and not something easy to quantify. It has been more than four months since I completed the second puzzle in the series, so it seems quite a challenge to remember all the way back to the beginning of January. And remembering the first puzzle that I put together in August of last year seems almost impossible! It’s harder for me anyway, I’m old and on lots of pain meds, my memory ain’t what it used to be.

Even though it was difficult I didn’t mind at all, it kept me completely focused on the puzzle and not on everything else going on in the world and in my house. That’s one of the reasons working on jigsaw puzzles is such a popular form of entertainment – even more especially right now – it’s almost a form of meditation. Your brain is only concerned about what shape, color, or pattern is next and there’s no room to think about your worries or stresses; it’s only the puzzle and what piece fits in next.

Blissful meditation.

Lucky Charms

On April 26, 2020April 26, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

So now we’ve come to the end of the set of cereal mini puzzles, and the last of them is my favorite of the six cereals – Lucky Charms. For a sugar-hungry kid like I was, how could the cereal with dehydrated squeaky marshmallows not be my favorite?

I’m sad that this multipack set is over. Having some 100 piece puzzles around to assemble in between larger ones was nice, and now the smallest puzzles I have are 300 pieces. Not that they aren’t entertaining, because they most definitely are; but the 100 piece mini puzzles are great for when you only have a few minutes to puzzle and don’t want to sort and start something larger.

Lucky Charms have been around longer than I have, and I still remember the commercials from long ago. The marshmallows have changed over the years, but I still remember the roster as Lucky the Leprechaun used to say in the commercials, “Pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers – and new blue diamonds!”🎶Frosted Lucky Charms, they’re magically delicious!🎶

My mom always said that I was never really interested in tv shows when I was young, but as soon as the commercial break started I would stop what I was doing and run into the room to watch every single commercial. Then apparently when we went grocery shopping I would walk down the aisles next to her cart and perform the commercials for the products on the shelves. That must be why, almost 50 years later, I can remember the order of the marshmallows.

I was a weird little kid. 🤪

What’s the Temperature?

On April 25, 2020April 25, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

It will be no surprise to anyone that I had a fantastic time with this puzzle. I love collages, but the downside of them is that they are over too quickly because I can’t seem to walk away. Even if I sit in the chair at my puzzle table until the pain makes me stop, I end up resting for only a little while because I just have to get back to it!

This thrift store puzzle was complete, which isn’t something I can say about every puzzle bought second-hand. It was well loved, and it looks as though it’s been assembled several times; many of the tabs had the image lifting off from repeated assembly and disassembly. Otherwise, it was still in relatively good condition.

What's the Temperature 1

This made me smile, you almost need a magnifying glass to read it, but between the degrees of temperature it tells you why you should go fishing. At the colder end it says “Oh yay! Pre-frozen fish”, “Frozen worms aren’t slimy”, and “Wouldn’t sweat if we fished today”. At the warmer end it says “We fish, we get a tan, what d’ya say?”, “Too hot for anything but fishing”, and something like “Get the fish pre-baked today”. I’m not one for fishing, but I think this may be the cutest thermometer I’ve ever seen.

What's the Temperature 2

Looks to me like this is some sort of “snake oil” medication, but it makes for a cool looking thermometer. My son says “Dr.” Ramon looks like the Monopoly Man. 😄

What's the Temperature 3

You can see above many of the tabs with the image sticking up. It’s a thrift store puzzle that has been assembled before – you can’t say how many times – and there’s quite a bit of image lift on this puzzle. It makes the end of puzzle “massage” a little less satisfying; you can feel them sticking up and you have to try not to rip any of the image off while it’s getting it’s rubdown.

And when’s the last time anyone heard of Ken-L Ration dog food? Looooong time!

I started this one in the morning and finished before bedtime. Perhaps I need to see if I can find some 2000 piece collages – are there any of those out there? I’m sure there aren’t right now, but once we’re able to find puzzles again I’d love to get my hands on two or three — or twenty-seven of them. 😇