Category: Miscellaneous

Where In Neverland Is It?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous4 Comments

Tink, help us find it!

It’s been four and a half years since I completed an enormous 40,320 piece puzzle (this is only 1/10 of it), and I am still to this day receiving emails and comments on the blog asking me where the Mickey Mouse icon is in this section. Well, today I decided to show everyone instead of just telling them where to look.

There is a hidden icon of our favorite rodent in each section; the one in this section not only seems to be the most difficult to find, it’s also the largest – which I think is why so many people get thrown off when looking for it. In the other nine sections it’s quite small; the markings on a deer in Snow White, a small bubble in Fantasia, etc. But the one in Peter Pan is huge in comparison, and therefore it doesn’t register at first when you’re looking for it. It didn’t for us anyway. Not at first.

Back when the puzzle first arrived, my husband and I, two of our three children, and my mother SCOURED the booklet looking for the icon in this section. Some of the others were easy to find, and we already had it in our heads that it would be small and somewhat hidden. The Peter Pan section is very dark, and we all looked at every inch of the image to try and find it. When someone finally said, “Hey could it be these clouds? They’re perfect circles, it’s gotta be this right?”, we weren’t certain but thought that it was probably the icon. After thoroughly looking through the image in the booklet, and seeing every single piece of the actual puzzle, our conclusion was that the cloud was, in fact, the icon we’d all been searching for.

The picture I took of this completed section has quite a bit of glare on it, making it very hard to see. So here’s a picture from the large booklet that comes with the puzzle (this was easier than waking up the enormous puzzle from under my bed where it’s sleeping).

Can you find it? Tink’s fairy dust is pointing the way….

I’ve added arrows pointing to the ears. They faked us out making the other icons so small and this one so big – it’s even bigger than Tinkerbell herself!

Don’t feel bad if you couldn’t find it on your own – when we put the puzzle together and it was large as life in front of everyone many people had to be shown even after being told where it was. I’ve even got a picture of me on my hands and knees crawling on the puzzle to show someone. 😊

My Good, Good Boy

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous14 Comments

My sweet Buddy

This past few years have truly sucked, and Monday the 11th of October added to the grief. My good boy had to leave us and my heart is broken. He is no longer suffering or in pain, but that doesn’t help the sorrow much. We all wish he was still here with us.

The picture above is how I will remember him, always happy and wanting to play and right in your face about it. He wasn’t a snuggler, and when you showed him any love, tried to give him tummy rubs, or even just wanted to pet him he would get so excited and go find the nearest toy and bring it to you. He wanted to share his favorite toys and activities with you; cause you cared about him and he cared about you. Unless he was tired he didn’t really like hugs or snuggles; for him, love was action. I have found that to be true as well, my Buddy was a very wise pup.

Waiting on momma to get out of bed…

Isn’t that the sweetest face ever? He always kept me company whether I was doing puzzles or in bed watching tv. Here he is with me in bed while I was resting; patiently waiting, keeping me company, and watching over me when I wasn’t well. We don’t deserve dogs, they’re so full of unconditional love.

Buddy loved to make a little nest in all the pillows on the bed, and sometimes I’d walk by and his little head would pop up to see what was happening and whether or not he’d want to get involved. The cutest, bestest boy ever.

I felt the need to put a puzzle in this post. This is from the Ji-Ga-Zo puzzle that mom found at the thrift store. You put a picture into the software and it gives you a “map” to complete the puzzle – so of course we had to put in that gorgeous face – his picture was the first one we assembled. He looks so serious, and so handsome too. There are references to my puzzling companion all through this blog. I talked about him keeping me company, making me take breaks to play with him, and there are more than a few pictures of his adorable face too. He’s all over the place here, as he should be.

Half the pictures in my phone are of Buddy, I spent so much time looking through them this past week. Remembering that sweet face, his silly antics, how his eyes would bug out when he was excited to play, and how much he meant to our entire family. Losing him was so hard on all of us. There’s an emptiness in the house now. In our hearts too.

I’ll leave you with one last image, one my oldest son had commissioned several months ago (art credit to @Zooophagous on Twitter). It’s our Buddy, looking dapper and happy – how he’ll always be remembered.

He was the happiest dog, full of kisses and excitement, love and patience, and he was a good, good boy. 🐾💔🐾

Benefits of Blogging

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous6 Comments

My darling (sometimes frustrating) husband dragged my butt out of the house yesterday to shop for a couple of things we needed. I truly despise shopping – unless it’s for puzzles. Knowing that, the first place we went was to a store that had puzzles, so I’d at least be a little happy to have gone shopping.

After a year in the sunken place with pretty much zero puzzles assembled and none blogged about, my memory of which puzzles I’ve assembled is shaky at best. While the hubs was “helping” me pick out puzzles there were times when I couldn’t remember whether or not I’d assembled a puzzle. Mostly these were collages, I’ve done so many and sometimes they look so similar that honestly there was no certainty whether or not I’d already assembled it. Sometimes I was certain, I’ve definitely done that one – many times I was clueless.

Here’s where the title of today’s post comes into play….one of the benefits of my blog is that I post about every puzzle I assemble. All that was needed was for me to take out my phone and search the blog. If the title isn’t there, it hasn’t been assembled by me. What a lovely resource!

I know there are plenty of people who use apps or lists to keep track of assembled puzzles, and that’s awesome. If it works for you then that is what you should do. For me though, it’s completely unnecessary. A benefit of being a puzzle blogger that I hadn’t even thought of. 😎

Another benefit I hadn’t realized is the memories of people and loved ones found in my writings. My mother is all over the place here, and re-reading through my old posts the past couple of weeks has been sweet/lovely/sad/funny and many other adjectives I cannot put into print due to my lack of coherent thoughts about it and also a lack of sufficient amounts of caffeine this morning. The gray cells aren’t completely awake yet today.

I’ve truly been enjoying reading through all the old posts. I just got through Christmas 2019 and the debacle of the 12 Days of Christmas puzzle advent calendar. I find I’m still pissed at Ceaco about it, and also when I’m ticked off I tend to be quite funny. Some of those posts really made me laugh!

Seeing puzzles I’d forgotten that I’d assembled, the ones I hated and the ones I loved, the posts where hubby had ticked me off about something, or my Buddy made me smile or laugh, seeing all the fun pictures, reading through the comments – all of it – it’s been lovely for me to help me in trying to get back to my former self as the Puzzle Goddess. (My mom named me that, I would never presume) I wouldn’t say The Puzzle Goddess is 100% back, but she’s on the road home and will hopefully be here soon. 🧚‍♀️

In no way am I trying to get anyone to start a blog – about puzzles or anything else. This weekend of reading through My Jigsaw Journal and having to leave the house to go shopping have brought into focus for me the two unexpected benefits of my blog. There are plenty more (again, just for myself) but these two reasons presented themselves to me this weekend and I thought I’d share them with you.*

*Partly because I find them to be two awesome benefits that showed themselves recently, and partly because the posts where I was more “chatty” about life and the goings on here at the My Jigsaw Journal household were more interesting and fun for me to re-read.

Hi All, I’ve Missed You!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous38 Comments

Hey everyone! Thought I’d drop in to tell you all that I’m still alive. 🙂 You’ve probably forgotten all about me, but I’m still here!

Things are still crazy around here, and I have barely done any puzzling at all in more than a year, but I haven’t given up completely, just took a much needed mental health break for a bit. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed to tell you that I suffer from severe depression and anxiety, and it has been overwhelming; especially with the worldwide panorama…panatella…panamiga…panini…pandemic…plague – whatever you want to call it. To be honest, the last couple of years have been extremely difficult for me and I needed to take time for myself to process everything.

I’m still struggling, but doing my best – and that’s really all I can do.

Hubby is well and whole and fortunately/unfortunately working from home more often than not. I’m incredibly grateful that he has that opportunity and is able to stay safer at home – but also a little miffed that our house is so small that the only place he has to work is on top of my puzzle board. I started working on a puzzle a few months ago (one of those 500 piece puzzles that is really 10-12 smaller puzzles that you assemble individually), but wandered away from it and haven’t been able to go back. I’m trying to work out a way to get back to puzzling, because to be honest I’ve basically been in bed for the last year and I need to try to get myself out of this hole I’ve dug myself into.

My boys are both healthy and well, and I’m extremely grateful for that – more than I can possibly say. My daughter had a terrible car crash earlier this year and seriously broke/injured her leg. I roused myself out of bed and cared for her at her home for a couple of months until she was able to be up and around on her own. She had multiple surgeries and is still healing and dealing with the trauma and injury. But she is alive and otherwise healthy and we are grateful beyond measure.

I’m still on multiple pain meds 24/7, which I need to function, and they are part of the reason the depression became overwhelming. Once my heart condition made itself known I was no longer able to take my medications for depression – when choosing between happiness and a heartbeat I chose the latter. 😉 But then I lost my mother, Covid happened, my husband was hospitalized, and it was just too much for me to bear. I always tried to keep this blog lighthearted and fun, and it seemed that I was no longer able to do that. I had to take care of myself first and foremost, and that’s why I took a break from puzzling and blogging.

But I’m trying to get myself back now. I won’t be posting daily again for a while probably, but I won’t be gone for months at a time either. I have to figure out this new format that WordPress has for posting (I DO NOT LIKE IT AT ALL!), so my posts will probably look different until I figure it all out. Plus I still have to figure out how puzzling is going to work with hubby hogging my space! Please have patience with me if you can.

You’ve all become friends that past several years since I started this blog, and I truly missed talking to you all every day through my posts and the comments. I hope I haven’t been gone too long and that some of you are still hanging around. Please let me know how you are, I’d love to hear from you! 💗

*I’m adding a link to a previous post I wrote about mental health. I just re-read it, and I think I did a pretty good job talking about how we need to be more open and talk about our struggles. No Puzzling In Progress

A Break…Hopefully a Short One

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous23 Comments

I won’t be posting for a bit. Somewhat similar to what happened last year, someone I love is in the hospital, and my focus is required both there (where I cannot be) and here at home taking care of my family.

My husband is the one in the hospital right now, but unlike last year I cannot be with him or even visit. My hope and prayer is that he will be home very soon. Until he is home and we know that all is well, I will be taking a break.

Here’s hoping it’s a short one.