Category: Miscellaneous

Another One…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous4 Comments

Blooming Heart – Crafthub – 80 pieces? (I’ll count them up later)

Here’s another of the terrible quality wooden puzzles from Crafthub; unfortunately I bought three of them to make the shipping cost worthwhile so there’s still one more after this one. Even though the first one was so frustrating that doesn’t mean I would just get rid of the other two – of course I’m going to put them together, exasperating as they might be.

I’m not sure why, but as we were packing for our trip I threw both of these remaining Crafthub puzzles into my suitcase. It turns out that was a good idea though, because there are still several days left on our trip and I’m almost out of puzzles. The horror! 😱

Yesterday morning when talking about them with hubby a fantastic idea popped into my head; so believe it or not I was actually excited to start working on one of the crappy puzzles right away – even though there are two Wentworth puzzles in my suitcase that have not yet been assembled.

Once this puzzle is complete I plan on committing what normally would be a terrible puzzling sin in my own eyes – I’m going to glue this wooden puzzle. Shocked? I don’t blame you – never thought I would hear myself put all those words together in that order. Never. Ever. Wooden puzzles are such a joy to work with that prior to these Crafthub puzzles I would never have even considered gluing one. Part of the reason they’re more expensive is that they can be assembled over and over, even passed down through family sometimes. Gluing a beautifully made wooden puzzle is a TERRIBLE idea if you ask me, you would never again be able to experience the delight and satisfaction of assembling it.

But here is my thought process; these puzzles are NOT beautifully made, not ones I would ever want to assemble again, and inflicting them on anyone else by giving them to friends or donating them elsewhere doesn’t seem like a good idea either. The only positive with these puzzles so far is the beautiful images, so the thought came to me that it would make a lovely little wall hanging or decorative tchotchke – why not glue the sucker and at least get some future use out of it?

That’s my plan anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes. 😎

Lots of Puzzling…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous2 Comments

There’s been quite a bit of puzzling so far on our trip, even more than I anticipated! We spent the weekend up in Northern Michigan with my sister and brother-in-law at their cabin – a bonfire all weekend long, lots of sitting around and visiting, several puzzles assembled with family, and plenty of good food and good times.

Hubby designated himself in charge of the fire, and he took this picture early one morning when the rest of us were sleeping. I told him it was a beautiful image and my sister-in-law said it would make quite a difficult puzzle. It’s very pretty, but I don’t think I’d be interested in a puzzle with this image unless it was a wooden one with a Victorian cut – otherwise it would be way too difficult for these old eyes.

I brought several puzzles for myself to put together while we were on vacation – because I purposely don’t want to be “entertained” while we’re on our little holiday. Hanging around and not doing much at all is my favorite kind of vacation. I was showing my sister-in-law all the different puzzles I’d brought, and she was excited to do a couple of them – at one point I told hubby that I may not have brought enough puzzles, we were gonna run out if we kept putting them together so quickly!🤣

Of course his answer to that was that we should find more puzzles to buy. (I sure did find me a good husband, didn’t I?)

How is Our Posse?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous6 Comments

We have a few different posses here – The Puzzle Posse and The PADS Posse being the most prominent. So to all posse members, here’s my question of the day – how are you? It’s not a question I’m asking in passing that I don’t really want to hear the answer to; I’m truly asking how you all are and I am sincerely interested in your answers.

Asking how others are doing and actually listening to their answers is so important in any friendship or relationship – and it’s so good for your well being to be able to really talk to someone about how things are going and how you’re doing physically, mentally, and emotionally. I find sometimes it’s easier to share online than it is to have these conversations in person: if you feel the same way and are inclined to share, please let me know how you’re doing. Everyone deserves to be heard.

I’ll go first…

I’m having a hard time right now dealing with the many stresses in my life, and I find myself diving headfirst into my puzzles so that I don’t have to interact with anyone in my family or others who may stop by. I sit in front of my puzzle board and either work on the puzzles themselves or on the blog so that when someone comes in to see me I’m busy “working” on something and there isn’t as much conversation as there normally would be. It isn’t healthy, and I’m doing my best to stop hiding in the puzzle room.

We have a trip coming up in a couple of weeks, so I’m stressed about making sure the blog has enough puzzles ready to be posted, getting all of our stuff packed and ready, and making plans so that my boys and the house are taken care of while we’re gone. There are lists being made, conversations being had, and much anxiety taking place on my part. It’s supposed to be fun, a 10 day trip up north to Michigan to see our family, and it will be fun once we get there; but the pre-trip preparations are stressing me the bleep out.

I’m healing, slowly, from my oral surgery – one way I can tell is that the chronic pain I have in my hip and leg is back in full force. In the beginning all I could feel was the dental pain, now I’ve got them both together. Thank goodness for pharmaceuticals is all I have to say about that. Additionally, I don’t speak the same way I used to because of the surgery, and am embarrassed to have to speak in public when I go out. It’s causing a great deal of depression and anxiety; my dentist tells me it will right itself in time, but it’s been over two weeks already. I want my speaking voice back the way it was, and even though I know it isn’t true my brain has convinced me that I’ll be talking like this forever. 😢

So that’s how things are with me. How are you all doing?

June is both PTSD Awareness month and Alzheimer’s/Brain Awareness month. As someone who has experienced PTSD and the damage it can do to your life, I’m just doing my best to make sure all my puzzle posse friends are doing ok – or at the very least have someone to talk to.

As far as Alzheimer’s/Brain Awareness, I hope you all know how good puzzles are for your brain. They help with memory, spatial awareness, pattern recognition, fine motor skills, and much more. They are also calming, relaxing, and stress relieving – puzzling releases dopamine into your brain – it makes you feel good!

So I’m advocating that you puzzle when you can, talk to us – or anyone – when you need to, and perhaps consider donating your completed or unwanted puzzles to a local senior center or retirement home/community. I’m sure they will be most appreciated, and can especially help those with Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Where Do You Puzzle?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous29 Comments

Do you have a special place to work on your puzzles? Do you have a puzzle board that’s exclusively for you or do you have to take over the dining room table from time to time? Do you work only in one place or do you roam the house and puzzle all over?

I’m always interested in how others get their jig on, so to speak.

When this post starting forming in my brain it had me thinking about how my Grama (who instilled in me my love for jigsaw puzzles) used to work on her puzzles, and I’m amazed at where she chose to puzzle. She always sat in “her” chair in the living room and used a huge piece of cardboard that she placed on the big footstool in front of the chair. Thinking about how much leaning over that required, I’m stunned she didn’t develop back problems. When my sisters and I would spend the night at her house there were many times when we went to bed and Gram was working on a puzzle; when we got up in the morning she was still sitting there in her pajamas in front of the board and the puzzle was much closer to completion. I used to think to myself that I couldn’t wait to be a grownup so I could stay up all night if I wanted to and work on puzzles. (I have done so on several occasions, and it is very nice not to have to answer to anyone about my bedtime, that’s for sure.😉)

Mom used a big sheet of white board paneling, cut down to a manageable size, that my dad bought from the hardware store. When she was working on a puzzle she’d put it on top of her big table in the office (it had plenty of room for us to sit side by side and puzzle together when I visited), and when she needed the table for other things she’d just pick up the board and set it on the day bed. She also worked late into the night on puzzles, especially if we hadn’t finished a puzzle on one of our Friday visit days. She’d text me a picture of the finished image and say something like “worked on this one till 3 am, but we finally got it done!”.

I have several boards and have both a dedicated room where I work on my puzzles, and extra boards and trays so that if need be I can work on larger and smaller puzzles in other rooms of the house. My main boards were made by hubby, my mom, and me – it was definitely a team effort.

My fantastic husband helped me to make a board to work the giant 40,320 piece Disney puzzle, measuring 5 feet by 4 feet, plenty of room for each section to be completed.  Mom and I found some gorgeous suede-like fabric on clearance at Joann Fabrics that was perfect for the cover.  I purchased enough material to cover a smaller board (4′ x 3′) and 2 large boards (5’x 4′) for about $12.  We bought a 4′ x 8′ sheet of sub-flooring (luan) for about $13, and cut it into the 2 sizes I wanted.  Mom and I then glued the material on the boards and for about $25 total I have two beautiful jigsaw boards, and they are extremely nice for working puzzles. The fabric makes it so the pieces don’t slip around easily and the color makes a nice background contrast so the pieces are easier to see.

The smaller board fits puzzles up to approximately 3000 pieces and is the main one in use.  The larger one was primarily for my Disney monster, but is also needed for some bigger piece count puzzles I still have to get to. Plus I have a white board (dry erase) that I use when working on larger puzzles in bed, and various other boards that can be put to good puzzle use if need be. And let’s not forget my paper-lined cookie sheets that I use for our bathroom puzzles and for working on small puzzles in bed. 🛌🧩

Well, that’s where and how three generations of women in my family got/get their jig on. I’m certain most people’s homes aren’t as crazy with so many boards and places to work on jigsaw puzzles as mine is, but I’d love to hear where and how you puzzle.

Sound Off!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Miscellaneous16 Comments

So who’s working on what? Tell us all what fabulous puzzle you’re working on at the moment; or let us know if you found a great puzzle or image you’ve recently purchased.

I’m hoping I’ll be feeling up to having the computer in bed, and will be replying to everyone’s comments if at all possible. We’ll have to wait and see. Every time there’s another surgery or procedure with anesthesia it takes longer and longer for me to recover from it – and it sucks.

But at least I’ve got my puzzle posse to talk to, right?