Delphinium Cottage

On May 12, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I thought I should show one of these mini framed puzzles actually in the frame. The glue I used was high gloss, so there’s a bit of glare; but it looks pretty darn good to me. ☺

This was the second of my newly named “bathroom puzzles”, and hubby and I enjoyed assembling it very much. It’s difficult not to work on a puzzle when it’s sitting there – and you’re sitting there. To be honest, I miss not having a tiny puzzle in there now that they’re all assembled. Here’s hoping I find more of them one of these days.

I found this image easier to work with than Colors of Venice, and it went together more quickly. The bright flowers and more obvious contrasts helped speed up the pace; it was much easier to separate out certain sections. It may have helped that we were a little more experienced with the very small pieces too – they really were great fun!

To be honest, I didn’t even notice the puppy in the bushes until I was assembling the dogs in the grass. I got all the dogs in the foreground put together and still had pieces with light yellow fur on them, they didn’t seem to connect to the dogs already assembled, where in the world did they go? And how did I miss that every time I looked at the poster? I’m claiming muddled middle-aged brain as an excuse for my lack of perception.😉

I’ll puzzle just about anywhere that’s it’s possible, obviously. It actually helps me deal with my chronic pain, and reduces my anxiety and stress. And even if those things weren’t a factor I find puzzling to be fun, engaging, entertaining, and satisfying. Whatever reason motivates you to puzzle is the best reason there is. Puzzle on my friends!

Review: Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag

On May 4, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.

Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag by Maira Kalman – Mudpuppy – 300 pieces

Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag is a fantastic collage that I had the best time assembling! It’s quite a different image – it’s based on the illustrated book featuring 31 interesting objects from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. I couldn’t resist it, you know how much I love a collage!

This is my first puzzle from Mudpuppy, and I liked the quality very much. The pieces are a good thickness, and they are made from extremely sturdy board that does not bend or flake easily – no puzzle dust at all! The fit and image reproduction is very good as well, and overall I was impressed with the quality. I do wish that there was more variety in the piece shape, as all the pieces are what I call “ballerinas” (2 prong/2 hole standard puzzle shape). It’s not too much of a problem when you have a colorful interesting image like this one, but can be difficult when the image has large areas of color like the sky or water. Click the link above to see all of their puzzles currently in stock at Puzzle Warehouse.

I’ve been doing a lot of 300 and 500 piece puzzles lately, and have come to enjoy them very much. They’re a great palate cleanser after a larger puzzle, or just fun on their own when you don’t have the time or space for a puzzle of 1000 pieces or more. If you normally only work 1000 piece or larger puzzles, I recommend giving a smaller one a try every once in a while. They’re great fun, and can give you a boost of confidence – I finished that puzzle so fast, I must be becoming a puzzle master! 😎

Collages are my favorite type of puzzle images, it’s like having many mini puzzles to assemble. Even if I only have a few minutes to puzzle I can still find and assemble a small section and feel as though I’ve accomplished something. Click here to see all the interesting collages from many different companies available at Puzzle Warehouse – there are so many to choose from that there’s something for everyone.

This puzzle was a joy from start to finish. The border of the image made the edge pieces easy to find, but it wasn’t too thick which can sometimes make it very challenging to assemble. The blocks of color helped with the sorting as well, and even though it was a relatively easy assembly I was never bored. Mudpuppy puzzles are a little on the pricey side, but the quality is very good and they have many unique images that you won’t find with other companies. And aren’t we worth it? I think we are! 😉

Details:

Title: Ah-Ha to Zig-Zag
Artist: Maira Kalman
Brand: Mudpuppy
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 14 x 18 in. (35 x 45 cm)
Purchased: N/A, sent for review

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Excellent, hinged metal tin
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: None
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: All one shape, 2 prong/2 hole
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

I received this product at no cost in order to facilitate this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are truthful and 100% my own.

Mountain Grazing

On May 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Mom and I worked this puzzle together, though it isn’t the usual image we prefer; brighter colors and sharper lines are what we usually go for. But since I’ve mostly been doing smaller piece count puzzles lately we decided to give it a go. It was a lot of fun to assemble. ☺

Bits and Pieces puzzles aren’t our favorites, the pieces are usually good but I can’t say the same thing about the fit. I’ve had puzzles where in multiple spots you could just pull the pieces away, but I’ve also had nice fitting ones that I enjoyed assembling. It’s so much more about the fit and the image for me, but I know others have different preferences – we all know what works for us.

This puzzle was pretty darn good quality though, and although the artwork isn’t what we’d typically choose we enjoyed ourselves anyway. (That may have more to do with the quality of my puzzle posse than the puzzle company though. 👵)

Colors of Venice

On May 2, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

When I bought this puzzle I wasn’t paying attention at all, I saw that it was a 300 piece puzzle that also came with a frame for less than $5. What a great deal, and I even like the image. I didn’t realize until I got it home and opened it up that they were MINI pieces – oh no! I had horrible flashbacks of Winter Aspen, but it was only 300 pieces instead of 1000, so I figured I might as well give it a try.

The finished puzzle is only 6.5 inches square – there was more than enough room to put the entire thing on a cookie sheet including laying out all the pieces. Once I got the edge put together I had a great idea; I decided to put the puzzle on the table in the master bathroom and have my husband make good use of all the time he spends in there. He could help me with this tiny puzzle! I told mom and a fellow puzzling friend from Canada (Hi Linda!) what I was going to do and they both thought it was pretty funny. I wasn’t kidding – I knew he’d help if it was right there, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to finish it. (But it is pretty funny 😁 Why do men spend so much time in there?)

Turns out it was an excellent idea! Not only did hubby help me out with the puzzle, we both enjoyed it very much – much more than either of us thought we would. When it was near the end we brought it out of the bathroom and sat on the bed working on it together. He hasn’t helped me with my puzzles for quite a while, but we both had a great time working on this teeny little thing together. Good thing too, because when I bought this one I also bought a second one, he helped me finish that one too. I loved working on puzzles with him again, so I went back and got another one yesterday. Bathroom puzzles are awesome! LOL

Just so you can get an idea of how small this thing is, here is the entire completed puzzle next to my computer mouse…

IMG_E4495

Talk about teeny tiny! It wasn’t the greatest quality, but I didn’t mind that much. The piece shapes were pretty obvious in the finished image, but once I glued it they weren’t as noticeable. The fit was quite loose as well, but there was something about the small pieces that made it really entertaining – so much so that I overlooked the annoyance of the fit. I enjoyed the challenge of working with such tiny pieces, and this time I had colors to work with, unlike Winter Aspen!

It’s a cool little puzzle that was more fun than I thought, and I’m glad I was too stupid to read the box in the store and process what the word “mini” means. There’s a third mini puzzle in our bathroom at the moment, and hubby and I will hopefully have a great time with that one too! 😎

Pattern 4

On April 28, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I am completely in LOVE with this image! It isn’t my best picture – it’s a bit fuzzy at the bottom, which I didn’t notice until I had already disassembled it. My apologies. 😪

This Milton Bradley puzzle was very good quality, I was impressed! The pieces have an excellent feel to them and are a good thickness. The fit was exceptional – you can barely see the piece shapes in the finished puzzle – it would be perfect to frame and hang as artwork. The colors are amazing as well, and it made for an all around wonderful assembly.

When I was a child my mom used to buy these extremely interesting “coloring books”. They weren’t your typical pictures for children; they were intricate patterns to fill in with color, very much like the patterns in this puzzle. We weren’t even allowed to color in the book itself (it was more like a pad of paper than a book), she would photocopy the pattern and we could color on the copies only.

For me it was much more fascinating to color these patterns than the average coloring book for children and I spent many an hour with my colored pencils or crayons designing new color palettes for my favorite patterns. Mom was a pretty smart cookie to copy the pages, it made only a couple of these books last us for years.

This puzzle was exactly what I was looking for and I had the best time putting it together! It was part of a recent group of smaller piece count puzzles that I purchased to keep me stocked up while waiting for my puzzle mojo to come back. I’m so glad that I found this one, because it was so entertaining to assemble and the image is absolutely gorgeous. Now I’m on the hunt for patterns 1-3!