Queen of Hearts

On March 13, 2022March 13, 2022 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

Queen of Hearts (Villainous) – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

Loved this one, and a special thanks to Penny for letting me borrow it. It’ll be on it’s way back to you in the next swap box that goes out. And I may take you up on your offer to borrow more of the Villainous puzzles, this was great fun! 💛

Excellent Ravensburger quality, and a super fun image to assemble made this more entertaining than I’d hoped. It’s dark along the sides, but once you get down to the last pieces it isn’t difficult at all to find what goes where.

This was the very first thing I assembled after the border was completed – you know how I love words.

The characters moving across several pictures made it more interesting, and the reproduction was stellar. I absolutely loved this puzzle!

Except for the border; the border sucked. But I’m going to let that slide because the rest of it was great fun.

Great American Novels

On March 12, 2022March 12, 2022 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles14 Comments

Great American Novels – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Not great quality – not bad either – but I had a good time regardless. To be honest I wish there had been less books and more pieces for each one – it would have made it more challenging, which is what I would have liked. Collages like this are almost like working on many mini puzzles all connected, and it would have been more entertaining for me if there had been more to each little mini puzzle.

This puzzle had a very loose fit, but thankfully it had the paper backing that I prefer – so that was a bonus. Re-marks has become another White Mountain for me, in that I am not always happy with the quality but I put up with it because of the great collage images to choose from.

This book was one of my favorites from my youth. I adored it and reread it several times.

My favorite book of all time, and I have read it too many times to count. Once I saw the movie, it became my favorite movie as well.

I consider myself an intelligent person, but out of the 50 Great American Novels shown here I’ve only read 13 of them. I’m not always a fan of the “classics” and don’t read books just because everyone else is reading them or some reviewer says I should. I like what I like.

Although a book may be a “classic” that doesn’t mean I’ll enjoy it, and if it feels like work slogging through reading them then it isn’t worth it. I’ve read my share of classics or great American novels, but it’s better if they’re read because they look interesting – not just because I’m supposed to want to read them.

Candy

On March 11, 2022March 9, 2022 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Candy – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This little one took a long time; it was difficult but enjoyable. You might think with all those bright colors and different candies that it wouldn’t be that challenging at all – I know I thought that. I was wrong.

It proved to test my brain power a little bit, and although it took a while longer than expected it was still lots of fun. Finding where a small section went on my own without checking the picture was quite satisfying – you know what I mean. Figuring out where a certain part is placed in the puzzle with no help from the image at all gives me a small measure of self-satisfaction – I’m not explaining it well but I hope some of you understand.

Great little puzzle!

Tour the States

On March 9, 2022March 6, 2022 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Tour the States by Craighton Berman – Buffalo – 300 pieces

This puzzle was very quick for someone who knows the geography of the US, if you know where the state is you know where the piece goes. I’m certain if there was a map of another continent I don’t know as well as North America it wouldn’t have been as quick to go together. I loved the bright colors and excellent quality.

The northeast was the hardest to memorize when we were learning all the states in school, at least it was for me. All those little states up there took the most time to commit to memory.

Ok, I understand the gator and Louisiana, it’s swampy and perfect for alligators. But why in the world is it eating a banana? Am I missing something?

I’d never heard of the “hit” YouTube video until I put this puzzle together. Honestly, I haven’t looked it up to watch it either but it must have been quite popular to turn into an online store and have a puzzle made up from this image. Have any of you heard of this before?

Edward Gorey’s Book Covers

On March 8, 2022March 8, 2022 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Edward Gorey’s Book Covers – Pomegranate – 1000 pieces

I was disappointed by the new, less impressive quality from Pomegranate, but this was still a very enjoyable puzzle to assemble. Assembling the border was a challenge on the sides – with all maroon pieces – but it wasn’t horrible. Overall I loved the image, collages are my happy puzzle place.

As I discussed in my “in progress” post, the quality of this puzzle was not was I was expecting from Pomegranate. The pieces were thinner and the fit was much looser than previous puzzles from this brand. It was still good quality, much better than many brands out there, but not the premium quality puzzle I’m used to from them.

According to the box Edward Gorey designed book covers and dust jackets before his own books drew acclaim and acquired a dedicated following. He designed for books by Joseph Conrad, Henry James, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot and more. I must admit I haven’t read a single book featured in this puzzle, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t thoroughly entertaining. Most of the puzzles I’ve seen with Edward Gorey’s work are very dark and lacking color, this is the brightest and most colorful one I’ve seen and therefore much more interesting to me.

Oddly, after I finished this puzzle but before I took pictures this book and cover were shown and discussed in a tv series that I’ve been binge watching on a streaming service; I took notice and decided to show a closeup here. Poetry isn’t really my thing, but it’s an interesting book cover.

I love the colors in this cover, and it was one of the few book names I actually knew. Most people have heard of this book, or the movie, or the “hoax” with the Orson Welles radio broadcast.