Tag: 250 pieces

Dobby the House Elf

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Dobby the House Elf – Wentworth Wooden Puzzles – 250 pieces

I mean, come on! Is this not an adorable image? If you’re not a Harry Potter fan you probably wouldn’t think so, but as someone who has read every book and seen each of the movies I find this image to be so friggin’ cute! I had such a good time with this assembly that honestly I’d love to take it apart and start all over again right this minute.

To be honest, I was worried when I bought all these Harry Potter puzzles (remember that sale – 70% off?) that perhaps the whimsies would be the same for every puzzle. Happily that doesn’t seem to be the case at all, so far I’ve done three of the nine puzzles purchased and they have been puzzle specific whimsies for each one. The whimsies for this puzzle made me so happy, just look at all those Dobbys!

There were so many socks, almost in every picture in the image. If you read the books or have seen the movies you know, when Dobby got a sock from his master he was freed. “Master has given Dobby a sock. Master has presented Dobby with clothes. Dobby is free!”

This is where I tell you that I only did about half of this puzzle, my youngest son did the other half. I had to take a break and go rest, but my husband made me get out of bed and come look, because he was in the puzzle room all alone working on it for quite some time. It makes my heart happy that he’s really started to enjoy puzzling. He’s been doing more and more of it lately; never on his own, he only wants to help with the puzzles I’m doing – but it’s a start. Hopefully some day soon he’ll want to do one all by himself.

Such a great puzzle, I love the look of all the little Dobbys peeking out from the back of this image. So cute!

This puzzle made me so happy; the image, the fact that my son helped so much, the quality, the whimsies – everything was just right. This is one I’ll definitely be assembling again, probably very soon.

I even went back to the Wentworth website and checked on their Harry Potter puzzles, most of them were still on sale at the time and I was looking seriously at all the ones I didn’t purchase the first time thinking maybe it might be worth it to get the rest of them…I didn’t, but now I wish that I had. 😥

It’s National Jigsaw Day in the United Kingdom. I try to always post a puzzle from the UK (usually a Wentworth, since they founded this “holiday” back in 2015) and as luck would have it this was already the next puzzle in the queue. There are very few days out there that celebrate us Divine Discerning Dissectologists, so I try to always remember this one.

To all my puzzle posse and fellow P.A.D.S. sufferers out there I hope you can spend a little time with a jigsaw puzzle today; I’m going to try to spend the day enjoying a beautiful puzzle, and I hope you can too.

Spread the puzzle love my friends, this is OUR day – Happy Jigsaw Day! 🧩💚

Seattle

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Seattle by Eric Dowdle – Dowdle Puzzles (Mini Wooden Puzzle) – 250 pieces

This was much more enjoyable for me than I thought it would be at the beginning, don’t you love it when that happens? After putting the border together I thought this puzzle was gonna be horrible, the fit is so loose! Once I got it onto my puzzle board where the fabric helps keep it from moving too much and once I started assembling the image it got so much better.

These mini wooden puzzles from Dowdle are adorable, but I can’t say the quality is optimal. When I take a picture of a wooden puzzle I take time to “smush” it together as much as possible first (smush being a technical term 😉), so that it reduces obvious piece shapes and you can see the artwork more clearly. I did that here, but you can see – especially in the sky – that there are quite large gaps and it does not fit together snugly at all. In addition, all the pieces are the standard ones you would find in a grid cut cardboard puzzle which is a little boring for a wooden puzzle and there are no whimsies. All that being said this was still entertaining to put together, and when Penny sends me more after she’s finished them I will definitely be assembling them.

Mostly the main reason for how much I enjoyed this little guy was Eric Dowdle’s artwork, I love his images although many times they make for challenging assemblies. With this mini puzzle it was so interesting to study the pieces to see what’s happening and where something might go, and with each piece I found my brain sent me some dopamine and I was happy. That’s why I puzzle!

Loved this little plane with the banner. I’ve never been to Seattle, but I’m sure it’s lovely.

Most people know about the fish market in Seattle, if you don’t then you should google it – one of the images that comes up looks quite like this little section including the clock, “farmers market” sign and one that says “meet the producers”. It was difficult to zoom in this close on such a small puzzle, but I did the best I could.

My momma always told me to try and show how big or small some puzzles are because you can’t really tell in my pictures, so this next picture is in her memory….

She was right, of course. You can’t tell from that first picture how mini this mini puzzle is without something for comparison. This little guy really is a little guy!

Extremely loose fit but still entertaining, the artwork was absolutely beautiful and detailed and made for a very nice assembly.

Seattle In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous19 Comments

Seattle by Eric Dowdle – Dowdle Puzzles (Mini Wooden Puzzle) – 250 pieces

This gorgeous little beauty has been sitting partially assembled on my board for several days. I received a care package from The Puzzle Fairy (aka Penny) on Saturday, and immediately wanted to try out this mini wooden puzzle. The pieces are so small – about the size of a dime! I started it on a tray in the bedroom, but this little guy needed better lighting so I had to transfer it to the puzzle room. Sorry about the wonky picture, didn’t realize that I cut off one of the corners until just now and I’m too tired to retake it.

Unfortunately that evening around dinner time my dad called and asked me to take him to the hospital, and that’s basically where I’ve been every day since. He was admitted on Saturday night, and we’re still there. There hasn’t been much puzzling going on, but there has been plenty of sitting around on uncomfortable hospital seating. I’m hoping that today I can maybe do a MicroPuzzle or perhaps one of my Wentworth minis.

If I hadn’t started this puzzle before we got the call I might have taken it to the hospital the first morning he had his own room, but actually I’m glad I didn’t. The fit is so loose that it needs constant readjustment whenever anything gets moved. Honestly, it’s one of the loosest fitting wooden puzzles I’ve ever done, and without my fabric covered board to help keep the pieces from moving too much it would be a giant pain in the butt!

Even with the loose fit I’m still really enjoying this – even if I only find one or two pieces at a time. The artwork is beautiful, and though I find Eric Dowdle’s images challenging to puzzle it remains an entertaining little assembly. At first I thought I was going to use the little poster that comes with it, but I found that I’d rather take my time and enjoy finding each piece on my own rather than know exactly what I was looking for and where it went. Sometimes I use a poster, but lately I’m just enjoying the puzzles however it makes sense for me on that particular day. It’s been fun!

It struck me as odd after typing up the previous paragraph that my last White Mountain puzzle had me complaining about the loose fit, and here I am saying that although this puzzle has an extremely loose fit that I’m enjoying the assembly. I have no excuses or explanations – all I can tell you is that it’s the truth.

It’s been nice to have this puzzle sitting on my board so that when I come home after spending all day at the hospital I can sit down, even if it’s only for a few moments and find a piece or two to add. Last night, I sat down, found one piece, and that was it. At least I can say I did a teeny tiny bit of puzzling yesterday; even just finding that one piece made me happy, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

*If you have a spare few moments today, send a good thought for my dad that he continues to improve and that we’ll be able to get him home from the hospital without needing any surgery. Thank you my friends. 💕

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!💎💎💍💎💎