Donuts and Pastries

On January 12, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

91wvgsghldl-_sl1200_ — Donuts and Pastries – White Mountain Puzzles – 1000 pieces

Since I showed the Coffee Cafe on Monday, I figured we’d add some donuts and pastries to go with!

Obviously this is not a picture of the completed puzzle that I did. I do have a picture of that on my completed puzzles 2016 page (April – June) but I must have been having an inner ear problem or I desperately need new glasses because the picture is extremely cockeyed and I don’t have the entire puzzle in the picture. Although if you’re interested you can see a bit of my bedspread at the bottom. 🙂 So I decided it would just be better to show the WHOLE puzzle in a picture. Ta-da!

This was another extremely fun collage from White Mountain. It’s so much fun for me to have a bunch of smaller images to put together, it makes it seem like even a 1000 piece puzzle is no big deal and it goes so quickly! The puzzle was the usual good White Mountain quality, and the image quality was so good it made me hungry. The donuts were interestingly decorated, the backgrounds were fun and all together it was just a great puzzle to assemble.

When I’ve been working on a difficult or challenging puzzle it’s so nice to have a collage puzzle as a palette cleanser. I can pull out a few pieces and assemble them, which leads to the next space and so on. Not to say one is more fun than the other, the challenging ones are fun for me as well!

If you’re a fan of collages, donuts or puzzles, I highly recommend this puzzle. Yum!

Wednesday 01-11-17 60%Done!

On January 11, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, World's Largest Puzzle Progress2 Comments

60% finished, and I must say I am enjoying this enormous puzzle a lot more than I thought I would. Even with me being a moron and dropping a section, still loving this puzzle and the assembly.

This section took me 14 days to complete. Not bad. I wasn’t rushing, just enjoyed myself. I did spend too much time working on it yesterday, but that was because I knew how close I was to the end, and it gets me all riled up! 😉

I’m not feeling great today, so I won’t be moving it off the board until tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll be able to put it on it’s cardboard bed safely, but I won’t feel better until it’s done.

I’m loving the way this section in particular looks; the colors, the fireflies, everything just works together and I think it looks amazing. I know no one really cares that much except for me, but it looks great and I’m proud and I can’t wait to get going on the next section!

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Up next, Fantasia. You can see why I think it’s going to be the hardest section. Only 1 character, Mickey. The rest is just twinklies, white foam, blues, browns and black. If it were a smaller puzzle, it would still be difficult, but being over 4000 pieces you can imagine just how many pieces are extremely similar in color and shape. Yikes!

Also, I have to say I’m a teeny bit disappointed in the filmstrip for this one. You can’t tell from the picture, but almost every cell is from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Fantasia had so many great parts to it, why not include some of them? The dance of the hours, with the ballerina ostriches, elephants, hippopotamuses and alligators. Night on Bald Mountain with the devil and evil spirits, who are all sent back to hell when dawn comes and you hear the Ave Maria. Or the Pastoral Symphony with the centaurs and “centaurettes” and cupids and Zeus. So many great scenes to choose from, why not at least put some of them in the filmstrip? Just my personal opinion of course.

Anyway – onward to Fantasia!!! 🙂

Coffee Cafe

On January 9, 2017January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I love coffee and I love jigsaws, so put the two together and it’s a great combination. This was a thrift store purchase, and the first Remarks puzzle that I assembled.

The quality of the pieces was quite good, although as you can see the finish was somewhat shiny causing glare under lights. The piece shapes were random, not a plain grid cut which made for a nice variety of shapes and a fun assembly. The piece were about average thickness, but were compact and sturdy; and the image quality was excellent. There was also a poster included in the box – added bonus!

I always love getting a thrift store puzzle finished and seeing that all the pieces are present and accounted for. It’s even more satisfying when the assembly is enjoyable and you’ve only spent 99 cents!

Matchbooks Collage

On January 6, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Was this puzzle ever fun! I am a sucker for collage puzzles and this one was no different, so enjoyable! I had a lot of help with this one too – my husband and daughter and son-in-law pitched in. I forgot that I took this picture before the puzzle was technically finished. I told my daughter she could put in the last piece, so I left it out for her (that’s the piece on the right side). I took this picture and texted it to her so she would know it was waiting for her, but then once she put the piece in I forgot to take a picture of the COMPLETED puzzle. 😉

It was a joy to put together and I can’t recommend it enough. It was entertaining to read all the matchbook covers as it was being assembled (the things they used to put on a book of matches – Wow!) Most of the matchbooks were between 4 and 6 pieces, so it was almost like doing a bunch of tiny little puzzles. Loved it!

The White Mountain brand has some of the most amazing and fun collage puzzles. And their pieces are larger than most companies, so the 1000 piece puzzle is more impressive when finished, it feels like a bigger accomplishment.

Candy Jars

On January 4, 2017January 4, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Although it looks difficult, the puzzle above was quite fun to assemble. The different textures of each of the candies were easy enough to distinguish, and I found myself enjoying it much more than I thought I would. That happens to me a lot, and I don’t know why I don’t just jump in and start doing puzzles; even if I’m not sure I’m going to like it, or even if I think I might even dislike it. Cause I’m a doofus sometimes, that’s why.

I like Cobble Hill puzzles very much. The linen coating on the puzzle and on the box feels luxurious and is even helpful if you’ve got a lot of sameness. If there is a bunch of blue sky the linen on the puzzle can show you if a piece lies vertically or horizontally in the puzzle. Bonus! The pieces are randomly cut which can be more difficult to some, or more enjoyable for others. Personal preference. I’ve never had a Cobble Hill puzzle that wasn’t very good quality. They have a lot of great puzzles to choose from as well. One of the companies I never hesitate to purchase from.

Candy Jars was a fun puzzle, with just enough difficulty to be a challenge. The colors were bright and fun, and the candy made me hungry for sweets!