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.

Goofy

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Goofy – Ravensburger (Disney Treasures from the Vault) – 1000 pieces

This beauty was gorgeous and extremely entertaining, and the puzzle massage at the end was SOOOOO satisfying – it’s been forever since I’ve assembled a Ravensburger. Their finish has an unmistakable feel to it, and it was lovely to run my hands over it once it was complete. 👋

Disney Treasures from the Vault special edition Ravensburger puzzles – there’s a crap ton of them! This is the first one I’ve seen in person though, and I just couldn’t help myself; the poor thing looked so lonely on the shelf, it needed to be adopted and come home with me where it would get the love it deserves. There’s one for Pluto that also is a collage of “posters”, I’d love to get my hands on that one. Many of the other special edition vault puzzles are just a single image of certain characters, and they’re not as attractive to me for some reason. Although I might feel differently if I were to see them in person rather than online.

Doing a 1000 piece puzzle isn’t so intimidating if it’s a collage (at least for me), so getting this one going wasn’t a problem at all. Easy to sort, easy to assemble – but not too simple. All around it was great fun, and I can’t ask for much more.

My kids and hubby tell me that we’ve seen this short, but as usual there is no recollection of it whatsoever.

Unusually this was one of the most entertaining sections to assemble. I had my money on one of the brighter sections being the most fun, but nope – it was this one. I can’t really explain why it was so enjoyable, it just was.

100 Aussie Icons

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

100 Aussie Icons by Jim Tsinganos – Mr. Bob Puzzles – 40 pieces

While getting posts ready for when I’d be out of commission I realized I needed a few more completed puzzles, so I took this one off the shelf and put it together quickly – while I was finishing a cup of coffee. Truly a one coffee puzzle!

I put together this same image for a review over 3.5 years ago (as a much larger 515 piece puzzle), you can see it here if you’re interested. I remember having to ask Mr. Bob who all the icons were, being an uninformed American I had absolutely no clue. It’s a great image by Jim Tsinganos, and really fun to put together – whether it’s over 500 pieces or only 40.

These are the whimsy pieces. For my friend Kazza and any Aussie readers out there I made sure to put the country the right way up this time. My apologies for getting it wrong previously. I didn’t even think about it, just turned all the pieces over so you could see the extra lines in the figures and didn’t for one moment think about making sure it was right side up! So sorry guys, please forgive an aging Yank – it won’t happen again.

Currently In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

My youngest son and I went to the bookstore yesterday, and he helped me pick out a few puzzles – he also helped me pick out which puzzle was next. So currently I’m in the process of sorting an adorable and silly puzzle called Night Owls Study Group; my son is crazy about owls at the moment, so we’re just going with it.

*The picture above is a “recycled” one and not the puzzle I’m sorting. There is a limited amount of space for media on my current WordPress plan, and since the puzzle isn’t even started yet I decided to use any old “sorting” picture and save space for future puzzles.*

It’s Memorial Day here in the United States; a day to honor and mourn those who gave their lives in service to our country. It isn’t about an extra day off work or getting a great deal on some new furniture or a mattress – it’s about remembering those who gave all. So if you’re an American, maybe take a minute or two today to think about what this holiday is really about.

To all of those who currently serve in our military, to those who have served, and most especially to those who gave their lives to try and keep our country safe and free – Thank You. ❤🤍💙

Broadway Musicals

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Broadway Musicals – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Doesn’t this look like fun? If you answered yes – get yourself a cookie, you were absolutely right! Even though it’s 1000 pieces (and I hadn’t done one that big in a more than a year 😲), it didn’t seem like a larger puzzle because it felt as though I were assembling a bunch of smaller puzzles, little bits at a time.

As an added bonus it’s a panoramic puzzle, so there was much less leaning over the board to reach the top of the image than there normally is. I adore panoramic puzzles, they’re so much easier on this old body.

The quality was the usual for Re-marks. There weren’t any issues at all other than a slightly loose fit, but even that wasn’t too bad. The pieces are a good thickness, there were a good variety of piece shapes, and the image reproduction was crisp and clear (just a bit shiny). Their catalog of collage images is just too good to pass up, so whatever quality issues the brand has doesn’t matter much to me. My head gets turned by a pretty “face” on the box and before you know it the puzzle has been adopted and has come home with me.

I haven’t really seen many musicals in the theater, but I have seen the movie West Side Story many, many times. We also had a record of the soundtrack when we were little, and my sisters and I knew every word of every song. My parents love to tell the story of them taking us all to the movies to see it for a matinee; and as soon as the first song started playing there were three young girls singing along at the top of their lungs. Luckily the other people in the theater weren’t too upset with us, perhaps we were just too cute. Apparently we even got some applause after that first song! 🤩

I haven’t seen this show, but I’ve heard lots of good things about it and would love the opportunity to watch it. Music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper – yes please! It’s too bad they don’t record the show and put it on a streaming service for the rest of the world to see. A streaming service with theatrical shows would be amazing for those of us who don’t live in or near New York. In fact, a streaming service that has plays and musicals from around the world (not just Broadway) would be an excellent idea. I would definitely be a subscriber – how about you?

I don’t recall ever hearing about this show, but reading all those signs makes me think I would absolutely love it. Coming of age in the 80’s means I love all that music, all those hair bands, all that arena rock – it’s one that would most likely have me singing along at the top of my lungs, just like when I was a little girl at the movies. 😁🎶