Proud Lion In Progress

On February 7, 2020February 7, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Proud Lion IP — Proud Lion by Martin Nasim – 300 pieces

Usually for a 300 piece puzzle it gets finished the day that I start it, but this one has been on my board for 2 days now. It’s been a horrible week, but I’ve made it a point to get myself into the puzzle room at least once a day and do SOMETHING with a puzzle; whether it’s sorting pieces or putting a few of them together, as long as I got a little bit accomplished it helped.

I started with the more difficult side, the brush strokes make it a bit more of a challenge – but there’s fun in the harder ones, and every piece placed is a little victory. And once that side is finished the bright colors and interesting patterns on the opposite side should make for much quicker assembly.

So this beauty is still in progress, but hopefully I’ll be able to stay awake during the day and get it finished. You can’t really tell from the picture, but it’s a beautiful image, it’ll be gorgeous when it’s done. 🙂

A Box of Peace and Calm

On February 4, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

I have been having one of the worst days in quite a while – full of pain, anxiety, stress, and just in general a terrible day. It was even too much for me to get my regular blog post out this morning, my apologies for the delay, it truly has been an awful day.

But even with everything going on, as long as I could get myself into the puzzle room and sit down in front of the board, everything negative starts fading a little bit into the background. I open a new puzzle, see the pieces and colors and hold them in my hands, and the world seems a little less stressful. What better hobby could there be? I can’t think of one.

Even just a few minutes with some puzzle pieces takes my mind off of everything else, and things seem a little more tolerable. I opened a box, and there’s peace and calm for me inside; I get to bring order to the chaos, put together a beautiful picture, and in doing so find much relief from the stresses and anxieties of the day.

I love jigsaw puzzles. 💟

Nothing in Progress

On February 1, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

Question Mark

All of my puzzle boards are empty, and I haven’t chosen what’s next for any of them. I have two large fabric covered boards and a white board, and for the first time in several weeks they’re all bare. There are so many puzzles to choose from here that I haven’t been able to narrow down which one is next.

I’ve had a VERY difficult 1500 piece puzzle on my second board for a few weeks now, working on it here and there, but never long enough to get too frustrated. It’s not an image that I would normally choose to assemble, but it is beautiful artwork and the puzzle was one that I brought over from mom’s house. I remember when she found it at the thrift store and that she loved the image; and even though she knew it would be a challenging puzzle she thought that the two of us together would be able to get it done. We never got the chance to work on it together, but I got it done for her. 💝

So, many empty boards and no new puzzles in the works just yet. Hopefully I can decide on something today and get it started. Although, I may take the day off and lay around in bed, we’ll have to wait and see.

National Puzzle Day 2020

On January 29, 2020January 29, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

It’s National Puzzle Day! Today is the day to celebrate all things puzzle – jigsaw puzzles, crosswords, logic puzzles, sudoku, word searches, etc. I enjoy puzzles of all kinds, but it won’t be a surprise for you to hear that jigsaw puzzles are my favorite. I learned my love of puzzles from my family, so today is a day for me to remember and appreciate my loved ones as well as enjoying some puzzles.

Every year I write a special post on this day, to remember the people who helped me love jigsaw puzzles as much as I do. This year, with my heart still broken from losing my mom, all I can think about is her and how much we enjoyed puzzling together. We’ll never sit together in front of a puzzle board again, and the loss still feels too heavy to bear.

I miss her on many levels, she was my mother after all. But in her later years we became the best of friends, and our shared love of all things jigsaw puzzle was one of the reasons why. We could talk about, look at, shop for, and work on puzzles for hours on end; no one else in our lives felt about puzzles the way we did, and we loved sharing them with each other. She was the first and most important member of my puzzle posse, and I miss her terribly.

My mother encouraged me to assemble the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle, and to start this blog; she was my first follower, my most faithful reader, and always cheered me on. My love of puzzles blossomed mostly because I was always able to share them with her, and they will always be a reminder of her too.

National Puzzle Day will forever be a day for me to remember my mother, and her mother – the two women in my life who taught me to love puzzles of all kinds. I got my start with jigsaw puzzles as a child at my grandmother’s side, and spent countless hours as an adult side by side with my mother assembling them. They were beautiful, kind, loving women, and for me this day is another reason to remember and honor them.

Happy National Puzzle Day my friends!

I miss you Gram, I miss you Mom. 💖

Knitters Stash In Progress

On January 27, 2020January 27, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Knitters IP — Knitters Stash – Springbok – 1000 pieces

It’s taking me a little bit to get my brain back into “random cut mode”, but I think it’s finally there. Thank goodness, because this puzzle has been more challenging than I bargained for already. I’ve been assembling grid cut puzzles almost exclusively this month, and I’ve had to wait for my brain to remember how to think around the random cut pieces and how they go together.

I’ve only gotten these two balls of yarn completed, but oh my has it been challenging! It’s mostly been getting used to the random cut, but assembling skeins of yarn isn’t as easy as I’d hoped either. I’m sure I’ve put together yarn puzzles before, but I don’t remember any specifically; maybe the memory of them is why it’s taken me so long to finally start assembling this one. 😉

The image reminds me of mom, but not only because she got the puzzle at the thrift store for us, it’s the yarn. My mother did crafts all her adult life and there was always yarn, crochet thread, beads, knitting needles, etc. all over our house. Stored in closets, hung in garment bags, next to her chair, in the office – pretty much anywhere there was a flat surface or a place to stack things up you could be sure to find some craft supplies.

She always had to have some sort of project going (most of the time there were several projects in the works), and always took her knitting or crochet bag with her when she went anywhere. Waiting in the doctor’s office or sitting in the car waiting on one of her kids after band practice she’d be crocheting a coaster or knitting an afghan, or whatever beautiful project was being worked on at the moment. There was always a “go bag” of yarn or thread near her purse so that she’d be ready if she had to go anywhere.

Mom taught me to knit, crochet, embroidery, cross-stitch, and even a little sewing; I really only knit anymore, and it’s not very often. I’m set for life in the yarn department though, I’ve got quite a bit of it stashed away from mom’s house, and there are still so many more boxes to go through!