Tag: 250 pieces

Glorious Morning

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

Glorious Morning by Jane Maday – E&L Corp. – 250 pieces

This beautiful image is unfortunately attached to a puzzle of very poor quality – but I enjoyed assembling it anyways. Things don’t always have to be perfect; in fact, if they were things would get boring pretty quickly.

It’s been a while since I’ve done an E&L puzzle, and the quality of this one reminded me why that was. Thin pieces, sloppy fit, and shiny finish – these are puzzles I usually pass right on by. It was a thrift store puzzle given to me by a friend though, which is why I wanted to assemble it.

It was such a small puzzle (14 x 10 inches) that I just put all the pieces on the board. I tried to just put them wherever, but the OCD kicked in and I ended up laying them out neatly in rows – couldn’t help myself! 🤷‍♀️

I started with the four birds and then started filling in the birdhouses and flowers. It wasn’t an easy puzzle, but was still fun. The missing piece was a little disappointing, but it’s par for the course sometimes. Thrift store puzzles come with a bit of risk, but usually the ones I find are complete. When they’re not, it isn’t too much of a problem; the task is to put together all the pieces you have, and I completed my task.

I’ve done quite a few puzzles with artwork by Jane Maday; they’re usually outdoors with birds and flowers and they’re always entertaining to put together. Despite the quality issues it was still fun – in fact I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. 🐦❤

Rocks, Crystals and Minerals

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Rocks, Crystals and Minerals by Lars Stewart – Wentworth – 250 pieces

This beautiful collection of rocks and crystals is absolutely stunning, even more so than the picture can show. It made for such an interesting and entertaining assembly that I was really sad when it was over so quickly – I wished I had purchased a larger piece count!

Beautiful whimsy pieces that go along with the puzzle, although I was surprised to see the excavator along with the other digging tools. It does make sense though, there has to be some way to get those beautiful stones out of the Earth, and the excavator would make it much easier than hand tools.

I think I got the image upside down when I took this picture, although I didn’t notice it until right this moment. I could go back and fix it, but it would take time to change the image and then re-upload it, and to be honest in my opinion it doesn’t matter enough to take the time. I’d rather spend that time working on my next puzzle!

This beautiful image by Lars Stewart (Aimee’s boo) is absolutely striking and the colors are amazingly lovely in person – pictures definitely don’t capture it properly. This is one puzzle that will definitely be assembled again.

I give it five out of five diamonds!💎💎💍💎💎

1960s Flower Power

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

1960s Flower Power by Andrew Farley – Wentworth – 250 pieces

This beauty was a fantastic puzzle that I enjoyed from the first piece to the last – even with all the chaos on my board! There was something very soothing about the way I assembled this one, thank goodness I listened to myself and did things so contrary to the way I normally puzzle.

When I started puzzling again after my extended break I went a LITTLE crazy and ordered many, many wooden puzzles, including quite a few 250 piece puzzles from Wentworth. For me it’s the perfect size for one of their wooden puzzles – not too overwhelming, not so small that it’s over too soon – it’s Goldilocks baby….just right! 👱‍♀️ The quality is excellent, and even with a “normal” cut rather than a Victorian one the assembly is challenging and satisfying.

I absolutely love these whimsies! They even got that funky 60s font for the letters just right and made sure that Ms. Thing on the right had on some big ‘ol bellbottoms. Yikes. It really was one of the worst decades for fashion if you ask me. 🤮

I mean, look at the fabric of this tote bag – hideous! So many fabrics, patterns, and clothes were unflattering or just plain ugly. I still remember taking my mother to task when we would look at old family photos; I would say “Mom, how could you have dressed me like that? That is so ugly!” Her response was always the same, “It was the style, that’s what was in fashion.” Thank goodness the fashion of the 60s has passed us by – and here’s hoping it’s NOT one of those trends that comes back around again.

It’s been almost six years since I’ve assembled a puzzle with artwork by Andrew Farley, and this image is very different than that previous one – African Splendor. The colors in this image, and the way it’s put together reminds me of Aimee Stewart’s art; perhaps that’s why I love it so much. 💗

Great quality puzzle, beautiful artwork, and a chaotic assembly that I adored. There’s not much more to for a puzzle geek to ask for.

Chaos on the Board!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling5 Comments

1960s Flower Power by Andrew Farley – Wentworth – 250 pieces

Since getting up at 2 am I have finished and taken pics of the previous puzzle and written up the post for publication at a later date, updated the June completed puzzles page, updated the sidebar on the homepage, and decided which puzzle was up next. My decision was mostly based on how I wanted to complete the puzzle…

I honestly felt the need to dump a puzzle out on my board and just start working on it – no sorting, no trays, no order at all – apparently chaos is what my brain is yearning for this morning. Please don’t ask me why, I can’t even explain it to myself. 🤷‍♀️

The puzzle that I chose is a relatively chaotic image as well, a collage called 1960s Flower Power; ugly fabrics, tie-dye shirts, flowers, buttons, and psychedelic patterns everywhere. It’s puzzle anarchy!

The only slight bit of sorting that happened was to put all the whimsy pieces in one place so that I could take a picture for today’s post; other than that it will remain puzzle pandemonium on the board until I can bring order to the image and make a pretty picture for you all to see.

I hope y’all have as much fun with puzzles today as I plan to – happy puzzling my friends! 💟

Call of the Sea

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Call of the Sea
Call of the Sea by Josephine Wall – Anatolian – 260 pieces

This gorgeous image by Josephine Wall was thoroughly entertaining, more than a little bit of a challenge, and wonderful quality – in short – the perfect puzzle at the perfect time.

It’s been a while since I’ve assembled an Anatolian puzzle, and it was my first of their smaller piece counts. The pieces were lovely to hold, a good thickness and fit together beautifully. You can see from the picture above that the image reproduction is excellent; the colors were lovely, and even where the details in the artwork seem to blur into one another the actual image is crisp and clear.

I’ve done only a handful of images by Josephine Wall; I find the artwork to be dazzling, exquisite, pretty, pleasing to the eye and a host of other words that fail me at the moment. But for me, and only for me, they’re not always what I’m looking for in a puzzle image. It’s always so different for each and every puzzler, we all have something specific that we are or aren’t looking for.

I’ve learned that gorgeous pictures don’t always make for entertaining puzzles. I can love to look at something, appreciate it’s balance, color, motif, etc. – but know that if it were cut up into little pieces that it wouldn’t be fun for me to put back together. It’s something you get a feel for the more puzzles you assemble, and you find what images you most enjoy putting together.

After many, many, many puzzles I am still learning. Sometimes a puzzle that wouldn’t normally catch my eye makes for a fantastically entertaining assembly and I find myself surprised by it. Mom used to buy puzzles at the thrift store that I would never have gotten for myself; and I found myself shocked at how enjoyable they were. The opposite can also be true; I purchase an image that I’m in love with, only to find that the actual assembly was disappointing for me.

Josephine Wall creates stunningly beautiful works of art; but they’re not always the easiest to assemble as puzzles. Call of the Sea is gorgeous, and I consider myself lucky to have found it in a smaller piece count that brought down the level of difficulty. I didn’t want too much of a challenge with this one, so I went for the tiny piece count – I’m a chicken of the sea! 🤣