Tag: 150 pieces

Yeti for 2022

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles9 Comments

Yeti for 2022 – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

I know I just posted a MicroPuzzles puzzle a few days ago, but I’ve developed a health complication and haven’t been able to be at my board for the last several days. Unfortunately, it may be a week or more until I’m able to be back at the table; so the only puzzling available to me is in bed, on trays. Good thing there are so many mini puzzles from several different brands to keep me company. 😎

There are about 20 completed puzzles in the queue at the moment, so while my puzzling will be limited to smaller ones for now, you won’t be seeing them until nearer the end of January. But I always like to start the new year with a completed puzzle on January 1 – so we interrupt our December puzzles for a brand new one just completed this morning!

*Please forgive the less than optimal lighting, these pictures were taken in my bedroom, on a tray. I tried my best.*

This puzzle is from the MicroPuzzles subscription box I received in December, and it’s great having a New Year’s puzzle to share with you on New Year’s Day. Most of it was completed last year (yesterday), but I left a few pieces so that it would be the first completed puzzle of the new year. Isn’t it adorable?

Both this puzzle and the other one in the December subscription box have a little something extra too, something I haven’t seen before on any of the previous puzzles of theirs that I’ve done…

An image on the back as well! I saw all the snowflakes when I dumped out the pieces – they even helped me make sure I’d gotten the right pieces together along the edge. My assumption was that it was just a bunch of snowflakes on the back, but it was a lovely surprise when I flipped the completed puzzle over and saw the 2022. Very nice! The second December puzzle hasn’t been assembled yet, but I can see snowflakes on the backs of the pieces in the test tube; it could be the same image as above, or maybe something different – we’ll have to wait and see when I get to it.

It’s so nice for me to still be able to work on my puzzles when sitting up at the board isn’t an option, and having mini puzzles to work on to break up the monotony of watching television is a welcome distraction. There are many brands that have small puzzles that you can work on anywhere with just a little bit of space, and they make me very happy indeed!

Happy New Year to all my puzzle posse! I hope you are all safe and well, and here’s to a better year than the last. 💚🧩💚

Dogs – Who’s A Good Boy!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Dog’s – Who’s A Good Boy! – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This one was MUCH more challenging that I thought it would be. All that brown/tan fur on the paler teal background made for a difficult assembly. Most of the problem was that I don’t have adequate puzzle lighting in the powder room. 💡

Oh well, if they take a bit longer in there, it’s ok with me. With these small puzzles in the master bathroom it means I always have two puzzles going. Pardon the unintended pun. Pretty soon I’ll have to post two puzzles a day if I don’t slow down!

To be honest, I had to take this one out of the bathroom for a little bit and work on it in the puzzle room in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep. The colors really were difficult to see where the puzzle was being assembled – I needed good light to get a more of a head start on the image. Once a little more of it was together it was easier to work on.

The fit of this puzzle was also a bit looser than the previous four we’ve worked on. It made things a bit more difficult until we had more of the interior assembled. But this doesn’t seem to be a universal problem with this brand, it was most likely just near the end of the run when the die was more dull.

This is the first dog puzzle I’ve assembled since we lost our good, good boy. It was very sweet, and very cute – just like most dogs are, and like our Buddy was.

We miss him. 💗🐶

Puzzle Pow!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Puzzle Pow! – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

What’s not to love about this image? For me, not much; bright colors and lots of words – a couple of things that I really like in a puzzle. I had a great time putting this one together, and it was done without help. Hubby seemed to think it would be too difficult and didn’t really work on it at all.

That’s ok, I don’t need help – I can do it myself! 😠 *stomp*

I’m absolutely loving having these small puzzles to work on again. It’s nice to walk away from a difficult puzzle – or just a difficult section of a puzzle – and have a cute little one to work on a couple of pieces at a time.

Ya’ll may think my bathroom puzzles are weird, or whatever. I don’t really care, I love them!

Reindeer Games

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Reindeer Games – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

Is this not an adorable puzzle? I thought I was done with holiday puzzles this year, but this cutie arrived in the mail and since it had the year 2021 all over it I had to get it done. It wasn’t too much of a sacrifice. 😉

Hubby loved this one, and was constantly working on it. He’d go in and sit down, then come out and tell me what he was able to get put into the puzzle, or exactly how many pieces he was able to add. He enjoyed it very much, and was very proud of everything he was able to accomplish.

I loved it too, such a great image!

Brian’s Worst Nightmare

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Brian’s Worst Nightmare – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This one was done in about 3 days, which is pretty fast for one of our bathroom puzzles. Hubby said it was because he doesn’t care for cats and wanted to finish it quickly. I wasn’t fooled though, it was finished fast because it’s a cartoon puzzle with bright colors on a white background and it was relatively easy – and he enjoyed it more than he’s willing to admit.

You may be wondering about the title – Brian’s Worst Nightmare – it’s a great title! To tell you why I’ll have to tell you a little bit about MicroPuzzles. It’s a small company run by a husband and wife team in Anaheim, California. One of their “employees” is Brian in shipping – and he’s their adorable dog! Here’s what their website says…

Part unpaid intern, part scapegoat, part family pet – he has been a two time (non consecutive) Employee of the Month in June 2018 (and again in February 2021).  Brian (whose real name is Presto) is a 13 year old senior rescue with a sunny disposition and a bad habit of handing out discount codes.  He’s the oldest and least productive member of the staff…. but we love him anyway.

So, this puzzle full of cats is Brian’s Worst Nightmare. It made me laugh out loud when I saw the title for the first time, and it makes me smile now when I think about it. Although, since this puzzle came in a box with many puzzles and the name of the artwork isn’t on their tube’s label, I had to go to their website to find the official title.

As for the assembly, it wasn’t quite as easy as hubby thought. He put together the entire border, and started working on the inside completely on his own in the middle of the night. When I started working on it, the realization came quickly that the border wasn’t quite correct and had to spend some time trying to figure out where he went wrong. The images of the cats are repeated, so he got a little mixed up and had things switched around – but it was put to right with not too much trouble. I almost wish I’d been able to do a little more of it, because honestly he did the majority, but I love that he was so engaged with it and almost couldn’t stop working on it.

It’s such a cute puzzle, with an even cuter title – and even though it was full of cats hubby had a great time putting it together. And so did I. 😸

*On a side note, the owners of MicroPuzzles (and the company itself) own one of the oldest examples of jigsaw puzzles in existence – a John Spilsbury in it’s original box with label! It’s from 1767, and is in excellent condition. A 250 year old puzzle, wouldn’t you love to see that up close? You can see pictures of this amazing puzzle here.

For those of you who don’t know, John Spilsbury is credited as the inventor of the jigsaw puzzle, which he originally named “dissected maps”. As a young man he was apprenticed to the Royal Geographer to King George III, and he came up with the idea of mounting maps to thin pieces of wood and cutting them along borders as an educational tool to teach children geography.

It’s almost impossible to say who made the very first puzzle; in the early 18th century people were creating jigsaw puzzles by painting images on wood and then cutting them apart. John Spilsbury was the first one to “commercialize” them by making his dissected maps and selling them, so he became known as their inventor.