Category: Jigsaw Puzzles

How to Live with an Idiot

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles14 Comments

How to Live with an Idiot by Lucia Heffernan – Buffalo – 300 pieces

Adorable image that was more fun to assemble than I’d anticipated, don’t you just love it when that happens? I do! You can always count on a 300 piece Buffalo (at least I think so) to be good quality and fun to put together.

I just love all these descriptors! Although I highly doubt that intense looking kitty would think of any dog as a frenemy, a cat with a look like that on it’s face thinks all dogs are the enemy – at least in my mind.

There was no desire to puzzle at all when I started this one, but as I went along it became more and more entertaining and I was happy to keep working on it even when I should have gone and taken a break. Loved this one!

Sewing Alphabet

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Sewing Alphabet by Krista Hamrick – Puzzle Twist (Something’s Amiss!) – 500 pieces

I know, I know – another mystery puzzle where the image of the whole finished puzzle isn’t shown. Why do I do this to us? Well, for me mystery puzzles are lots of fun, and this blog is about the puzzles I do, so if you’re not a fan, my apologies. But then again, I don’t apologize for loving these types of puzzles because they make me happy.

I’ve done only two of this brand before now, and I enjoy them very much. The quality is quite good all around, and their different categories of mystery means there’s plenty in the catalog to choose from: Something’s Amiss!, What’s Up?, Mixed up!, 4More!, Reveal the Color!, and Here or There?. This puzzle was Something’s Amiss!, where the image on the box is more than a bit different that the one you puzzle. On this particular image there were 30 differences between the box image and the puzzle for you to find.

It really isn’t much different than putting away the box and just using the pieces to assemble the puzzle, and that’s something I do frequently so I don’t find it that difficult. For some I know that they use the box image or poster often when they puzzle so it might be a bit more of a challenge. But don’t let that stop you from trying out one of these great puzzles, you can do it!

The Gang*

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

The Gang* – Unknown manufacturer – 150 pieces

This puzzle was just at my house somehow, because I have no memory of where it came from. There’s no markings at all on the test tube it came in showing the manufacturer, photographer, nothing at all. So it has been given a title by me, just for this post. It looks like a fun group doesn’t it? So this is “the gang” everyone. Wouldn’t you love to hang out with them for a little while, I certainly would!

The quality of these little puzzles is really quite good. Most mini or micro puzzles are only one piece shape – not these – there are a very good variety of shapes, beautiful reproduction, and a relatively good fit. This one was a little looser than Vivienne*, but still not bad at all. I wish I knew who made this puzzle so I could give them their props, because these little puzzles really impressed me.

As always, this picture is in Mom’s memory, she told me you can’t really tell the size of a very large or very small puzzle unless there is something for comparison. If you crop a picture to only show the puzzle you have no sense of the size, really. That was driven home to me when we finally assembled the entire 40,320 piece Disney puzzle. If you read along on the blog as I was assembling each section you couldn’t really tell how big each one actually was, but once you see it laid out in front of you there’s no forgetting it.

This puzzle wasn’t as big of an accomplishment, but still it made me happy, and taking that second picture made me think of mom and smile – what more could this old gal ask for? 💖

Peter Pan

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Peter Pan – Mega Puzzles (Multipack) – 300 pieces

Here is a lesson in how much the image on a puzzle contributes to your enjoyment of said puzzle. The quality of this puzzle was exactly the same as the quality on Princess of the Sea; yet with this puzzle I found the quality to be much more annoying, and the assembly was just not as entertaining. It’s all about the image, baby!

I wasn’t keen on doing this one to be honest, but my son picked it out for me so off we went. It’s a good image for puzzling, and it was enjoyable, but just not what I was looking for at that time. That’s ok though, this puzzles makes five completed from the multipack of eight Disney puzzles, only three more to go. There are two 150 pieces (Phineas and Ferb, and Disney princesses) and a 500 piece called Dapper Dandies that I completed as a 300 piece puzzle many years ago, but think I will assemble again in this different piece count. There’s always a need for smaller puzzles here.

Five down, only three to go. I absolutely got my money’s worth from this thrift store purchase!

Peacock and Pattern

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Peacock and Pattern by Jane Tattersfield – Liberty Puzzles – 508 pieces

Man did I have a good time with this one, but it went together exactly the opposite of what I’d planned. When I looked at the image on the box I thought to myself that the easiest way to assemble this would be to start with the peacock in the center and work my way outwards. But when I was laying out all the pieces the puzzle told me that my initial plan was NOT the way to go.

Most wooden puzzles aren’t ones that you can start with the edges, especially if they are Victorian cut or have crazily shaped pieces. This image has a small border on it though, and that made it the most logical place for me to begin. Instead of rigidly sticking to my mental plan of how things were going to go together I decided to shift and let the puzzle lead where it wanted to go. After assembling the border, it flowed quite naturally into the yellow patterns, and so on. I did put together the peacock’s body and head earlier on, but the rest of him wasn’t finished until the very end.

This puzzle was more difficult than I’d bargained for, they’ve upped the difficulty level of their piece cuts at Liberty if you ask me. There were many times that I thought I knew exactly why I was looking for, but I most certainly did not. There were tabs where you thought you just needed to find that correct shape, but actually you would end up with two different pieces whose ends joined together to make the shape you needed. It’s hard to describe with words, but it was a tricky cut that required a little extra brain power, and it reminded me a bit of the 100+ year-old Parker Bros. Pasttime puzzle that mom and I assembled together.

Forgive the cockeyed picture, my apologies. Sometimes you can’t really tell on your phone whether you’ve got it right – or maybe that’s just me. I should blame my age, but I’m extremely tired today so please insert your own joke about old ladies and failing eyesight here…

Now that the jokes are out of the way, don’t you just love to see the back of such a well designed puzzle? I know I do!

They had this sort of picture setup on the Liberty website, and I loved it so much I wanted to recreate it here. It was fiddly work getting certain pieces out of the way without disturbing others, but I think it ended up making for an excellent picture, don’t you?

So many absolutely beautiful whimsy pieces in this puzzle, and so many multipiece whimsies as well. Aren’t they gorgeous? I need to get my thesaurus out and find some new adjectives to tell you how amazing these puzzles are. Fabulous!