Pretending to be Normal

On August 6, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

I’ve been putting off writing up this post because sadly this is the last puzzle my mother and I assembled together; happily though, I love Suzy Toronto and this puzzle was a joy to put together – I have wonderful memories. I’m planning to reassemble it and hang it on the wall in my puzzle room.

Good quality, lots of words, great fit, fun colors – but it really doesn’t matter, because it was our last puzzle together I will cherish it forever.

In Progress

We started with all the little words, of course – we both enjoyed assembling words in a puzzle – like mother, like daughter. 🙂 Everything was put approximately where it goes and then the harder part began.

These were our two favorite quotes; mine was the hissy fit and mom’s was the sofa. And they both describe each of us perfectly. 😇

Thank you so much Penny for swapping puzzles with me and sending this one. I loved it when mom and I put it together – not knowing it was our last. Now that I do know, I love it even more and it will always have a special place in my heart (and in my puzzle room too). 💖

I miss you mom.

Pop Culture

On May 4, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Ah…collages. I love them so much. I’ve said many many times why I like them, but reasoning aside they just make me happy when I assemble them. End of story.

White Mountain has the best catalog of collage puzzles around in my opinion. They have so many that it’s difficult for me to whittle down which ones I want. They’re not always the best quality – I’ve had problems with before with twinsy pieces still connected, too tight fit, and fuzzy images. Most of the time though, there aren’t major problems with the puzzles and I enjoy working with them.

Pop Culture 1

Any NCIS fans out there? It’s Ducky! I’m a little young to have watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E. on television, but I know that the actor who plays Ducky on NCIS (David McCallum) was a heart-throb back in the day because of that show. That makes me laugh for some reason. 😉

Pop Culture 2

MAD Magazine and Gumby – love them! I had a subscription back in ye olden times when people actually got magazines in the mail and read them. (It’s sort of like a papery kind of blog – if you’re a young’un and not clear on what magazines were) I’ve always been a fan of satire, improv, and standup comedy, even when I was younger. I think I had more comedy albums than musical ones; which might be a clue why this part of the puzzle made the smile. 😀

Dog Tales

On April 26, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

I had a great time with this collage – these are my favorite sorts of puzzles – lots of words, many colors, many textures, they are never dull!

The piece shape is quite obvious in the finished puzzle, which is annoying if you want to frame and hang it, but doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment of assembly as far as I’m concerned. Otherwise the quality was quite good; thick pieces, nice fit, and beautiful colors.

These are a few of my favorite bits… Dog Tales 1

This tiny puppy squaring off with a very big bear – how adorable is that? I don’t know the book or anything about it but the cover is fantastic.

Dog Tales 3

This poor guy looks like I feel sometimes, ugh. He makes me want to sit down next to him and give him a nice belly rub. 🙂

Dog Tales 2

And of course, any book cover with a Boston Terrier is gonna make me happy. My Buddy is a Boston so the breed itself is one of my favorites, and they have such wonderful expressive faces. So adorable! If that’s a French Bulldog, I don’t even care – it looks like my Buddy. 😉

Pencil Collage Revisited

On April 25, 2019April 25, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles11 Comments

Pencil Collage by Maureen Rupprecht – White Mountain Puzzles – 1000 pieces

I’m not sure why, but this puzzle’s been on my mind the last few days. It was finished almost 3 years ago, and was really a joy to assemble. I haven’t touched a jigsaw puzzle since Sunday morning, and I’ve been thinking about certain puzzles I’ve done and really liked – perhaps just trying to get my groove back.

This puzzle stands out for me, I was almost afraid of it and put it off for quite a while because it was supposed to be very challenging. I found it to be highly entertaining to assemble and not nearly as hard as it was supposed to be. The fit was so tight that I could pick it up and stand it on it’s bottom edge!

I still haven’t started a new puzzle yet, but looking at this one makes me want to find one with lots of words like this pencil collage. Or perhaps I’ll get a few of the educational kids puzzles done, they’ve got a bit of wording and at only 24 pieces it’s not too much of a commitment. 🙂

Travel America

On April 22, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles10 Comments

No, the “smoky” look isn’t the picture, it’s the actual puzzle. It had very odd coloring in my opinion, but I’ve seen a lot of odd things in puzzles in my time. 😉

This puzzle wasn’t as entertaining as I’d hoped, but they can’t all be fantastic. The quality was fair; the pieces were thick enough and fit together extremely well. But the image reproduction was fuzzy and smoky and altogether weird. I’ve never really come across a puzzle like this from any brand. Interesting.

Travel America 1

The artwork made for quite a challenge, everything was so muted and smushed together.

Travel America 2

There were a lot of blue pieces, but luckily there were plenty of things to break up the monotony. The grid cut was offset, so you couldn’t rely on piece size to see if they lined up, which made the ocean sections a bit more challenging.

I’ve never worked a puzzle with this odd coloration before, it was….something.