Category: Miscellaneous

Seattle In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous19 Comments

Seattle by Eric Dowdle – Dowdle Puzzles (Mini Wooden Puzzle) – 250 pieces

This gorgeous little beauty has been sitting partially assembled on my board for several days. I received a care package from The Puzzle Fairy (aka Penny) on Saturday, and immediately wanted to try out this mini wooden puzzle. The pieces are so small – about the size of a dime! I started it on a tray in the bedroom, but this little guy needed better lighting so I had to transfer it to the puzzle room. Sorry about the wonky picture, didn’t realize that I cut off one of the corners until just now and I’m too tired to retake it.

Unfortunately that evening around dinner time my dad called and asked me to take him to the hospital, and that’s basically where I’ve been every day since. He was admitted on Saturday night, and we’re still there. There hasn’t been much puzzling going on, but there has been plenty of sitting around on uncomfortable hospital seating. I’m hoping that today I can maybe do a MicroPuzzle or perhaps one of my Wentworth minis.

If I hadn’t started this puzzle before we got the call I might have taken it to the hospital the first morning he had his own room, but actually I’m glad I didn’t. The fit is so loose that it needs constant readjustment whenever anything gets moved. Honestly, it’s one of the loosest fitting wooden puzzles I’ve ever done, and without my fabric covered board to help keep the pieces from moving too much it would be a giant pain in the butt!

Even with the loose fit I’m still really enjoying this – even if I only find one or two pieces at a time. The artwork is beautiful, and though I find Eric Dowdle’s images challenging to puzzle it remains an entertaining little assembly. At first I thought I was going to use the little poster that comes with it, but I found that I’d rather take my time and enjoy finding each piece on my own rather than know exactly what I was looking for and where it went. Sometimes I use a poster, but lately I’m just enjoying the puzzles however it makes sense for me on that particular day. It’s been fun!

It struck me as odd after typing up the previous paragraph that my last White Mountain puzzle had me complaining about the loose fit, and here I am saying that although this puzzle has an extremely loose fit that I’m enjoying the assembly. I have no excuses or explanations – all I can tell you is that it’s the truth.

It’s been nice to have this puzzle sitting on my board so that when I come home after spending all day at the hospital I can sit down, even if it’s only for a few moments and find a piece or two to add. Last night, I sat down, found one piece, and that was it. At least I can say I did a teeny tiny bit of puzzling yesterday; even just finding that one piece made me happy, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

*If you have a spare few moments today, send a good thought for my dad that he continues to improve and that we’ll be able to get him home from the hospital without needing any surgery. Thank you my friends. 💕

Living In Bird World In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous7 Comments

Living In Bird World by Lisa Houck – Liberty Puzzles – 498 pieces

I’m having a bad day today, and this beautiful Liberty Puzzle has been helping me keep my mind off of things. That’s number 138 on the list of reasons why puzzling is good for your mental health. When you work on a puzzle it isn’t possible to multi-task, every part of your brain must be engaged with finding out what shape, cut, and color you’re looking for. The best puzzles can do that with ease, they keep you engrossed in what you’re doing, there’s no time to dwell on problems you may have or situations you can’t change, etc. It’s a mindful, peaceful meditation, and that’s just what I needed today.

I love to puzzle and being a dissectologist has been such a blessing in my life.🧩❤

The symmetrical section with many repeating pieces is where I started, that’s the top section shown; when that began to become more difficult and I needed something a bit easier I went with the darker section of dots in the bottom corner. It took a bit to reorient my brain to how all these pieces worked together, but from then on it’s been pretty smooth sailing. When that was finished I started on the smaller dots in the section above it and that’s where I am now. I’ve pulled out all the pieces (I hope) with the dots on the light background and am attempting to put everything into it’s place and hopefully connect these two sections together.

When I work a premium wooden puzzle like this one I normally put the box away where I cannot easily catch a glimpse of the image on the box. It makes the assembly last a little longer for me and I enjoy figuring out where each piece and whimsy fits into the overall picture. And when I’m finished it gives me a greater sense of accomplishment.

God Bless this puzzle for being here for me today, to keep my mind otherwise occupied when things that I can’t do anything about are happening and I don’t want to wallow (which I would definitely be doing right now). Puzzles have always been a cozy, warm hug for me when I’ve needed it, and I need many hugs today. 🤗🤗

Happy Mother’s Day

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous2 Comments

To all the moms out there I wish you a wonderful day filled with love and loved ones. I hope you are all having a wonderful Sunday, and if you celebrate Mother’s Day I hope it’s a fabulous holiday for you. As for me, hopefully I’ll be in bed being pampered by the kids and hubby – or sitting in front of my puzzle board putting together little pieces of cardboard or wood to make a pretty picture.

If you’re a mom – thank you for all the wonderful, tedious, brave, boring, gracious, heartbreaking, compassionate, caring, forgiving and loving things you do. Even if it isn’t spoken aloud to you enough (and it never is), it is always appreciated. If you’re not a mom, Happy Mother’s Day anyway!

Enjoy your day everyone; my hope is that it’s full of lots of love and peaceful puzzling.

Of course the picture above is my beautiful, loving, fantastic, silly, sweet, kind momma. She was the first and most important member of my Puzzle Posse and she loved sitting with me and talking about everything and nothing while we worked together on puzzles. I treasure every moment we had no matter what we were doing, her momma mojo was amazing and as friends we were the bestest of besties. It’s hard to believe it’s been almost 7 years since we lost her; she is so very missed – especially today. 💕

It’s Been a While, I Know…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous20 Comments

Love Connection by Sage Wirth – Liberty Puzzles – 440 pieces

I know, you’re probably shocked that I’m still alive and kicking. Yup, still here! How’s everyone been? Sorry I’ve been MIA, just wasn’t feeling it. Life happens, stuff, depression, more life, you all know what I mean – hopefully.

So, after two years I’ve finally taken my puzzle off the board, the one I completed around March of 2024. And yes, it was ACTUALLY sitting on the puzzle board all that time. Yikes. That sounds horrible doesn’t it? Anyway, pictures have been taken, it’s put away in it’s box and I’ve started a new puzzle!💚🧩💚

An email from Liberty Puzzles had me looking around at some of their new releases and I was smitten by this one; decided to get off my lazy butt, buy myself a new wooden puzzle and get back to the table. It’s been a little difficult and my brain seems fuzzy since it’s been so long, but it’s good too! Liberty Puzzles can be difficult sometimes, and perhaps starting with one of their puzzles isn’t the best idea, but even though the brain is fuzzy and struggling it’s still very enjoyable for me.

Honestly, it’s been the wooden puzzles that I’ve really been missing. Don’t worry, the love for cardboard puzzles is still here, but right now the one that’s been calling to me is this gorgeous puzzle called Love Connection. It’s patchwork-y, so it reminds me of quilts, which you know I love; and it’s designed so you can work on each heart containing a letter if that’s how you want to go about it (almost like a collage, which is another of my favorite puzzle images).

Just a short note to tell you I’m back, at least for now. How I’ve missed you all! Tell me all about the puzzles you’ve been working on, what’s new in the puzzle world? How is everyone?

(Please try to be patient with me, I’ve pretty much forgotten how the site works and I’ve been fumbling around trying to figure everything out. If I told you how long it took me to remember how to download a picture from my phone and save it to my computer you would be shocked! 🤔)

p.s. Happy Belated Birthday Mom, still miss you terribly.

National Puzzle Day 2024

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous10 Comments

My favorite puzzle ever!

Happy National Puzzle Day to all my fellow puzzle posse members. Today is the day to do whatever kind of puzzles you love; crossword, sudoku, anagrams, word search, jigsaws, etc. – and enjoy!

I usually talk about the people in my life who helped or are still helping me love my jigsaw puzzles. The problem this year is that I’ve already done a National Puzzle Day post about all of them previously. Oh well, I can talk about them all again and let those who are still here know how much I love and appreciate them.

Starting on the left is my Grama (with me in my best 70s pajamas at a sleepover at Gram’s house), who started me off young helping her with her puzzles. She never gave me a kids puzzle so that I would stop “helping” her even though 1000+ piece puzzles are a LOT when you’re so little. But she knew I wanted to spend time with her and that I like working puzzles with her even though I wasn’t very good in the beginning; she taught me to be observant, look at the piece in my hand and really look at the puzzle and see if it was actually the piece I was looking for. She was never impatient with me when I got in her way (and I know for a fact I got in her way many a time), and her love of jigsaw puzzles rubbed off on me at an early age. Miss you Gram. 💟

The next picture is one I’m sure you’ll recognize if you are a regular reader, it’s my beautiful Momma holding up my favorite puzzle ever – the one we did together from a box of pieces bought off eBay. She was my black belt thrift store shopper, my closest and best friend, the original member of the PADS and Puzzle Posse, and the best Meema to her grandkids. We LOVED to puzzle together every week and she was always down to help with a difficult one that was giving me fits, or to laugh over a ridiculous one that was terrible quality and giving me fits. She was the best Mom and my best friend and I miss her every single day. 💕

Next to her is a picture of my darling hubby and my favorite sister-in-law working on a vacation puzzle from last year. My handsome hubby is always helping me puzzle even when he isn’t actually helping me puzzle. He helped build my puzzle boards, made the puzzle table that they sit on, found the best lights for over the table, and will stop whatever he’s doing to help out if something goes wrong in here that makes it difficult for me to work on my puzzles – not to mention, he goes to work every day to earn money and doesn’t care how much of it I spend on more puzzles! He’s a keeper (though I will take credit for a bit of training him in the 35 years we’ve been married) I really did get one of the good ones. 💖

And last, but certainly not least is my beautiful daughter. She’s my new bestest friend and loves to help me with puzzles when she can and is always looking out for puzzles when she’s shopping and sending pics to see if I’ve done it already or want her to pick it up for me. She always listens to my puzzle talk even though she isn’t nearly as interested in them as I am, and reads my blog every day. She loves to work on my bathroom puzzles when she’s here, and it makes me so happy that she wants to share my puzzles with me. I love my Baby Princess to the moon and back and am so proud to be her Momma. 💝

And finally, a puzzle buddy whom I don’t have a picture for, my bestest puzzle pal Penny. Although we’ve never met in person she’s a wonderful friend who always wants to hear what puzzle I’m doing, how I’m feeling, and helps me especially when I’m down in the dumps and want nothing to do with puzzles. She’s the reason I came back to blogging (both times) from my extended hiatuses; she knew when to push and when to back off, and gently nudged me back to the puzzle table because she knew how much they would help me back to some sanity. We’re constantly sending each other puzzles we’ve done and want to share, and at this very moment we each have a big pile of puzzles ready to send to each other. She a fellow PADS sufferer and puzzle posse member, and a true blue friend. 💙

I hope each of you out there has a few puzzle friends or family members in your life to encourage and uplift, or hopefully even enable you to enjoy the puzzles that you love. If not, I’ll be that friend for you. I LOVE to talk about puzzles and answer every single comment made here on the blog, and can talk your ear off about brands, piece shapes, artists, genres, wooden puzzles, cardboard puzzles, old puzzles, new puzzles, thrift store puzzles, etc.

So Happy National Puzzle Day my friends, although it isn’t a day only for our beloved jigsaw puzzles, that doesn’t matter at all to us Discerning Dissectologists. I’ll be spending today with a fun puzzle, and I hope you will too! 🧩💚