Tag: 1000 pieces

Carnival Costumes

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Carnival Costumes by Aimee Stewart – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

This gorgeous thing was on my board for almost four days, but it didn’t matter how long it took because it was so much fun from start to finish!

It was the typical Buffalo quality, very good. Thank goodness my favorite puzzle artist has chosen to work with companies that actually give a crap about the quality of their products, I don’t think I could bear it if her work was only found on Ceaco puzzles, or something even worse. Luckily though, she works with Buffalo in the US, Schmidt and Ravensburger internationally, and probably more. In fact, I’ve got a package on the way to my house from the UK (as I’m writing this, by the time you read this the package will have arrived) with three Aimee Stewart puzzles from Schmidt that I wasn’t able to find in the US from Buffalo.

Usually Aimee Stewart images are chock full of little things you don’t really notice until you’re putting the puzzle together, but this image is very different. It’s costumes, and only costumes – what you see is what you get. They all look so glamorous from far away, but actually when you look at them close up some of them are kind of ugly! Each different outfit was fun to assemble, and the way the colors work together is absolutely stunning.

I loved this image the first time I saw it, and I still love it now. Fantastic puzzle with a fantastic image that made for a quite a few days of fantastic puzzling. 💖

Fantasy In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Fantasy – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

As you can see I’ve finally gotten started on the 1000 piece puzzle that I sorted last week, but unfortunately yesterday didn’t go as planned, and I didn’t get very far. Today will be better, I’m sure of it.

Hope your current puzzle is going well, happy puzzling my friends!

Favorite Cereals

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Favorite Cereals by Doug Banks – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

Bright colors, cartoons, collage, relatively good quality – just what was needed for a fun puzzle experience for me. I took it slowly and enjoyed every single piece, I even enjoyed the sorting!

This White Mountain puzzle was pretty good quality other than a slightly loose fit. The image reproduction is excellent, even with closeup images, the piece shapes are the usual WM shapes, and the entire puzzle was joy to put together. Those of us who grew up in the US should be quite familiar with most of these cereals, but they may not be as readily available in the rest of the world. Whether you know the cereals or not though, the image itself makes for a great puzzle.

Has anyone ever seen this cereal out in the wild? I’ve never even heard of it before. My son looked it up for me and apparently she’s a sister cereal to FrankenBerry, Boo Berry, and Count Chocula. She’s a monster, obviously, not sure what kind though. Her cereal is a caramel apple flavor with the usual dehydrated marshmallows. I’m not sure how appetizing that sounds to you, but to me – not so much. I love caramel apples, but if you add milk and marshmallows I’m not sure that adds up to something I’d like to eat. How about you?

Of course I know Cookie Crisp cereal, but I haven’t seen this mascot before. Apparently his name is Chip and he’s the current mascot of the brand and has been since 2005. That tells me how much streaming has taken over my viewing habits. I almost never watch actual television channels anymore, and I certainly don’t have to sit through commercials if I do record something on the dvr. Basically what I’m saying is that I haven’t seen a commercial for this cereal in many years and had no idea that Chip is their current spokes-animal. He’s kinda cute.

This is a great puzzle and even with the slightly loose fit it was fun to put together. It would be a great for a beginning puzzler, or someone who wants to move up to 1000 piece puzzles but is hesitant or thinks they won’t be able to get it done. The bright colors and many small sections could help alleviate any anxiety one might have about a larger piece count. Even so, as an extremely experienced puzzler it was still completely enjoyable, and not always as easy as you might think. This one is definitely recommended.

Fresh Blooms In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

Fresh Blooms – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

I’m in a mood today and not feeling very much like doing anything, let alone working on a puzzle. But I know if I haul my butt over to the board and start touching pieces and moving things around it will inevitably improve my mood. And so on, and so on…

Hopefully just telling you about it will help. Whenever I need cheering up talking to my puzzle peeps makes me feel better; you all get it. 🧩💚

It’s down to the last three trays of pieces on this one, so it’s time to decide what puzzle is next and start sorting. I’ve found that because it’s the least enjoyable part of puzzling for me if I sort my next puzzle before the current one is finished it doesn’t seem as bad. If I get sick of sorting I can just move things out of my way and actually add pieces to the puzzle I’m working on to calm my nerves or anxiety; when things are feeling better I get back to the sorting. Once that’s done it’s on to finishing my puzzle and enjoying myself again. As soon as pictures are taken and it’s put away I can jump right into the next puzzle instead of worrying over what’s next and having to slog through laying out all the pieces and sorting it. That way there’s less chance of me curling up in bed for several days and not starting another puzzle, because the next one is ready to go! Gotta do what I can to keep the depression and anxiety at bay, whatever works.

As far as Fresh Blooms goes, it’s almost done and I’ve been having a great time with it. Another quality puzzle collage from Re-marks.

Rabbit Hole Town

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles11 Comments

Rabbit Hole Town – HUADADA – 1000 pieces

Sigh. I’ve done it again. Without realizing it I purchased another crap-tastic puzzle made in China that steals artwork and does not properly license it or credit the artist on the box. My sincere apologies. Another awful puzzle with letters on the back, a bad fit, no artist credit, and missing pieces.

After it happened the first time I vowed to take more care when buying thrift store puzzles, and I thought I had this time. When I looked at the box, it had an address in Madrid, Spain on the side and I – wrongly – assumed that meant it wasn’t one of those puzzles. I should have been more diligent and read the entire box, and will do that from now on. My only happy thought around this is that this company got exactly zero of my dollars, and what I spent went to a Goodwill store that helps out in my community.

There are three edge pieces missing, all together on one side. Normally I always choose to be positive about things like missing pieces. Not going to happen today. Today I am blaming the company, I bet this thing was missing pieces when it was brand new. I have no actual proof of that, but whatever.

Yep, I’ve got an attitude. Deal with it.

This puzzle was so tall that I decided to actually use the letters on the back to sort the puzzle and to do each half separately so I didn’t have to stand up or lean way over to reach the top and cause more pain. I’ve never done this with a puzzle before; once with a 2000 piece puzzle I laid the image sideways on my board and worked it that way but I’ve not separated a puzzle in half before.

The posted included with this puzzle is RIDICULOUSLY large. It’s exactly the size of the completed puzzle – and that’s too big to be helpful honestly. The only way to use it effectively would be to hang it up on the wall, but not everyone puzzles in a place where that’s a viable option.

The artwork is absolutely adorable, and if I knew how to find who the artist is I would give them credit. It is nowhere on the box, obviously, they can’t really advertise that they stole someone’s work and put it on their sh*t puzzle. If you know who the original artist is, please let me know in the comments so that I can at the very least credit them here on my tiny little blog.

These companies that popped up during the pandemic to take advantage of the puzzle craze that was happening don’t seem to be going anywhere, and there are more of them than ever. I would never knowingly give any of these companies my hard-earned money. It disgusts me that they steal from artists, it ticks me off that their puzzles are so popular these days and that many puzzlers think they are good quality and have no problems at all buying their products. In general it is depressing, frustrating, and enraging.

I can’t tell you what puzzles to buy, it’s really none of my business. But I can tell you how I feel about this disturbing trend and let you see it from hopefully more than one side. I understand both sides, or at least I think I do. I know that I’m lucky to be able to afford the puzzles I buy, and I also know that not everyone is able to spend as much and does their best to get as much bang for their buck as they can. I really do understand, that was me in my younger days when I didn’t have extra to spend on anything. But spending money on these puzzles keeps these trashy places in business, places that steal artwork to make a quick buck. And if the artists whose work we enjoy can’t make enough money licensing their artwork to legitimate puzzle companies then it may end up that we won’t have their work any more. If they can’t make a living at it, why continue to do it; especially when others are profiting from your creations but you aren’t.

This company needs a VERY BIG STRAW. Cause it sucks.