Avocado Doug

On July 26, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I absolutely loved this image and thankfully the assembly was as much fun as this silly and adorable image. The quality was great, with an excellent fit – I never hesitate to buy Buffalo puzzles, thank goodness they have so many great puzzles to choose from.

Honestly, I have to admit that when I bought this puzzle I though the costume was a pea pod. It was only when I looked this puzzle up to see if I could find a title (because there was no title on the box other than Doug the Pug) did I find that the title was Avocado Doug. I was pretty embarrassed that I didn’t see it! In my own defense though, I don’t like avocados so it’s no surprise that it wasn’t the first thing that popped into my head.

The couch is quite a large portion of the image, and it made the puzzle a bit difficult. There were so many pieces that were a pale cream color! Luckily, being the puzzle goddess that I am (sometimes) it didn’t take too long to get it done. 👸

Avocado Doug 1

My favorite thing to do when the fit is tighter than normal is to stand the puzzle up on it’s end and take a picture. I don’t know why I like to do that, I just do. It makes me really, really happy – and we all need a little happy these days, don’t we?

Disney Friends In Progress

On July 24, 2020July 24, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I’m slowly working my way back up to larger puzzles; I just completed a 100 piece from Vermont Christmas Company and now the piece count is doubled for this 200 pc. adorable Disney image. The background of the diner makes it fun and a little more challenging, in my humble opinion, and although it’s a Ceaco I’m hoping to enjoy it anyway.

Hopefully you’re all working on fun puzzles at the moment. Happy puzzling everyone! 🧩😍

Review: Willard & Margaret*

On July 23, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store Puzzles8 Comments

This is another puzzle that I have named (with a little help), because there is no title on the box anywhere. After some discussion with my puzzle pal Penny we have decided to name this one after the characters in a silly Ray Stevens song “It’s Me Again Margaret”. Willard & Margaret. I just love the sound of their names; and the names absolutely do NOT seem like the right ones for these pups, which makes the title even more funny to me. 😁

Re-marks has a large catalog of puzzles to choose from, and I find that because many of the images are ones I enjoy assembling I am willing to overlook some quality issues that come up from time to time. I have had the odd problem here and there, but overall I find their puzzles to be good/very good quality. The pieces are a good thickness with a very good variety of shapes that fit together well (although sometimes loosely). The image reproduction is very good as well, with beautiful colors and sharp lines.

The quality of these smaller 100 piece puzzles from Re-marks is very good, and reminds me of a White Mountain puzzle in both the quality of the chipboard used and the shapes of the pieces. They fit together well and I’ve seen no image lift on any of the pieces even though this is a second-hand puzzle. They’re fun to assemble too, and the images makes me smile – they’re both silly and entertaining to put together. 🙂

It is always my intention to be objective, although I freely admit that I am not perfect. I do try to remind the readers that all reviews are basically subjective; it is my impression and opinions about the puzzle I am assembling, nothing more. Take every review with a grain of salt – ultimately you have to decide for yourself which aspects of a puzzle’s quality are most important to you. I’m just trying to provide my perspective in the hopes that it might help you decide which puzzles you do or do not wish to try.

Happy puzzling! 🧩

Details:

Title: Willard & Margaret*
Artist: Unknown
Brand: Re-marks
Piece count: 100 pieces
Size: Approx. 10 x 10 in. (25 x 25 cm)
Purchased: Used, puzzle swap

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Good
Fit: Good, somewhat loose
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Fuyune

On July 22, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

The artwork of Haruyo Morita is so beautiful, and I love Asian art – so when I was looking through my micro puzzles to find one to put together, this one popped out and screamed “Assemble Me!”. 😍

A few years ago, near Christmas, Wentworth had a big sale on micro puzzles; I blacked out and in my fugue state I may have ordered every single one they had on sale. Perhaps. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

That’s the reason this beautiful work of art seems to have whimsy pieces that make no sense whatsoever in regards to the image. It was a Christmas sale, and so the whimsies are Christmas themed.

Fuyune whimsies

The penguin is my favorite, but I also like the detail in Santa’s beard. This puzzle (and one other) are all I’m doing for Christmas in July this year. My regular readers know that Christmas puzzles aren’t my favorite, and although I usually try to do some of that theme in July I just don’t have it in me this year. (You’d think I would though, my Christmas tree is still up! LOL)

I always enjoy putting together a micro puzzle from Wentworth; they’re so well made and sometimes they’re a little more difficult than they look. This one was no exception, it’s such a beautiful image and I enjoyed the few minutes it took me to assemble. Even just a few minutes of jigsaw puzzling makes my heart happy and calms my racing brain. 💖🧩

Birds – Part 5

On July 16, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Birds 5-1 — Birds – Lafayette Puzzle Factory (Cra-Z-Art) – 100/500 pieces

The final part of the series of Bird puzzles from Lafayette Puzzle Factory/Cra-Z-Art – they’re fun to assemble and pretty to look at! I enjoy these small shaped puzzles so very much, I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at them too. 🙂

There are still four more new sets that I haven’t done yet, but for right now I can’t find them, because while I was sleeping one day my husband decided that he was going to give me a larger set of shelves in the puzzle room. He took all my puzzles, piles of puzzles, and everything else and put them all together in an order he thought was best.

I know he was trying to be kind and thoughtful, and while I do appreciate the sentiment …… I would very much like to hurt him. A lot. Honest and truly. A LOT. He’s extremely lucky that I love him. So very lucky. 😡

Anyway, back to the birdies!

Chastity the Chickadee. For some reason that name makes me laugh. 🙂

The picture of all three birds shows the large difference in size between some of these puzzles – there are much fewer pieces to this small puzzle than in the next one. I find it refreshing that they’re not all the same size or piece count. At least it isn’t boring to put them together.

This beautiful bird seems more feminine to me, so I have named her Bernadette the Blue Jay. Bernie for short. The color is so striking, I wish more of the bird’s back was shown so that there was more of that gorgeous blue for us to see! The slightly orange color on the breast is quite pretty in it’s own right, this bird is one of my favorites.

What a sad name – Common Yellowthroat. If someone called me a “common Stacey” they would NOT have a good day. I’m just sayin’. Since the species says she’s common, I have given her a fabulous name – Countessa the (not so) Common Yellowthroat.

I had a really good time assembling these puzzles, and I had to stop myself from giving them all backstories even though I said they didn’t have enough personality to inspire me. Once I gave them names the whole backstory just popped into my head, I made up the personalities I wanted them to have. Perhaps I should stop puzzling and try my hand at writing the great American novel.

Or, perhaps, I should stick to my beloved puzzles and just let myself be silly and crazy once in a while with these smaller shaped puzzle sets. That’s probably for the best. 😉