Dancing Fairies

On April 19, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles1 Comment

This puzzle I’d been looking at for a while now and it has been on my wish list for months! When I finally decided to go ahead and order myself some puzzles this was the first one to go in the shopping cart. I love this image!

I am also happy to report that it was as much fun to assemble as it is to look at. In just a few minutes the edge was put together and the moon was starting to come together. Surprisingly the fairies were easier to assemble than I thought they would be; there are slight differences in their dresses or the background behind them. I enjoyed this puzzle even more than I’d hoped!

This was a “premium quality” puzzle according to the box, but I don’t see the difference. It seems to me that all Jumbo puzzles are premium quality. Same excellent fit, image reproduction, thickness, etc. I didn’t notice that anything was particularly different than the other Jumbo puzzles I’ve worked. In my mind whether they say it or not every one of their puzzles is premium quality. 😎

It’s so nice for me to be able to sit down and lose myself in assembling a puzzle. There’s a dialogue I have in my head sometimes when I’m searching for a piece; or if someone is helping me there is banter back and forth about the puzzle or piece shape, etc.

It’s important, for me at least, to do something non-electronic. Everyone seems absorbed in their phones or tablets, or they sit and watch tv doing nothing. Not that any of those things are terrible, but I think it’s important to do other things as well. Have a conversation, read an actual book, learn to cook something, or sit down and use your hands and your brain and work on a jigsaw puzzle.

Just my two cents for the day. 🙂

Jiuzhaigou Park

On April 17, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

That’s a name and a half, but also a gorgeous image and a enjoyable puzzle! I finished this one in an afternoon of watching Netflix and resting in bed. It was a bit of a challenge, but it worked out great and I think it’s a beautiful puzzle. 🙂

I haven’t done a Big Ben puzzle since I was little, I remember my grandmother having a Big Ben puzzle or two and working on them with her. I don’t really recall anything about the quality of the puzzles I did with my grandma, I just remember enjoying helping her. Big Ben puzzles have been around for a long time!

This is of course a newer Big Ben puzzle and the quality is excellent! I was surprised at how nice the pieces are, I saw the name Milton Bradley and assumed (incorrectly) that the quality would be lacking. The pieces are thick and sturdy with a beautiful image reproduction and matte finish. There are a variety of piece shapes and the fit was nice and tight without being difficult. I enjoyed the quality almost as much as I enjoyed the picture.

I assembled this puzzle from the middle out, which isn’t the way I normally do a puzzle. But for this picture I started from the sun behind the mountain and worked outward from there. The flowers in the foreground were the last thing I assembled – I usually leave the more plain sections for the end but for this puzzle I did most everything backward! It doesn’t really matter how I got there though, because I enjoyed the assembly and that’s what really counts. 🙂

Keep On Dancing

On April 15, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

So I finally broke down and ordered myself some new puzzles – I haven’t bought any new ones for myself since I bought the giant Disney puzzle. They arrived a few days ago and I was so excited! It was like Christmas morning!

Something about this image made me happy, and it was the puzzle I wanted to assemble first. It was an excellent assembly! It was fun to pull out pieces for a specific dress and assemble them, and before I knew it all the beautiful dresses were done and the dance floor was full! This is one of those puzzles you can’t seem to walk away from and it’s done in no time at all. I love puzzles like that!

I’ve only ever done one Gibsons puzzle before, and it was a 1000 piece. I love the feel of the pieces; they’re thick and sturdy and make the puzzling a tactile experience that I can’t properly put into words. The quality is exceptional! I wasn’t aware when I ordered it that it was a 500 piece with the extra large pieces, so the finished puzzle was 27 x 19. A nice big puzzle that feels like quite an accomplishment. 🙂

There’s something about a large piece puzzle for me, I’m not sure what it is, but it seems like the assembly always goes much faster. Perhaps it’s a perception thing? “These pieces are really big, it shouldn’t take any time at all to finish this entire puzzle.” And then I prove myself right by staying with it until the assembly is complete. I’m not sure if that’s it, but I enjoy the large piece puzzles whatever the reason.

I had a great time with this assembly, the only downside is that it’s over already!

Also, I wanted to wish my puzzle “dealer” a very happy birthday! Thanks for all the thrift store shopping for great puzzles and great puzzle deals. Who else would have found a 4000 piece puzzle for $1.99? But most of all, thanks for working on puzzles with me and being the only person who actually wants to hear me talk about jigsaw puzzles as much as I do, and in general just being your awesome self. Love you mom! 😉

What If #3 Home Makeover

On April 13, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another fun puzzle where I won’t show the entire image. You have to puzzle it out for yourself!

This What If shows what actually happens when the family tries to do all the home improvements themselves. Not good. You can tell by the cat’s face that he certainly isn’t impressed! They’re hoping for a great new room, but what if they get something else altogether? 😉

This one seemed more difficult for me than the other What If puzzles I’ve worked, or it may just be that my brain hasn’t been working properly lately. That’s a distinct possibility! Whatever the reason, it took a little extra brain power from me but it was still a super fun assembly. I enjoy the puzzles where I don’t have a picture – it adds an extra challenge and I feel quite proud when I’m done.

Usual great Ravensburger quality, although I think this puzzle may have been near the end of the run, because the fit was looser than normal for a Ravensburger and the piece shapes stand out in the final image more. But I’ve seen that several times with many different companies, it happens. It doesn’t diminish my enjoyment of the assembly much, and they still have great image reproduction, excellent artwork with clean lines, thick pieces – you know, the usual amazing Ravensburger puzzle. (I’m a fan, can you tell?)

I loved this puzzle and highly recommend it, even if it did require extra use of the brain cells. It’s always fun to figure out What If something else happened?!

Woodstock

On April 11, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

Love this image, but oh my was this time consuming and difficult!

When the picture is fun I don’t usually mind if all the pieces are ballerinas, but that is NOT true when there is just flat color everywhere! There are about 200 pieces that are just red. No different shades, nothing to break up the color, just red. Yikes. The same was true for the blue, white and green pieces, but in much smaller amounts.

I love having words to assemble, even larger ones – so that was fun. Even the guitar, hand and bird weren’t too terrible even though they were are flat color with no shading. But oh my the red background 😮 I refused to give up on it though and I got it finished!

I like the quality of Andrews & Blaine puzzles, but from now on if there is a lot of flat color in the image I won’t be attempting it. I’m proud and it wasn’t horrid, but it took so long and sometimes I thought I’d never get it done. The fit was looser than I’m used to with the Andrews & Blaine puzzles, so I had to take care and sometimes had to really look closely to be sure whether or not a piece fit. It made it a bit more challenging and took a lot of time. But just like with any puzzle, the more you whittle down the pieces you have to choose from the faster it goes. It got going faster and faster and that was exciting; plus all the pieces were there – bonus! I worry with the thrift store puzzles sometimes, but no need to worry on this one.

I love the image and the blocks of color but I’ve learned my lesson and unless there are different piece shapes I’m staying away from artwork like this one. This is one puzzle I’m super proud of completing though, that’s for sure. 😎