Cats Around the World

On January 28, 2020January 28, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles7 Comments

We were sorting through some of mom’s puzzles, and my daughter said to me “here’s one with a lot of cats”. My response was “Ugh, no thanks”, but then she said it was funny, so I had to take a look at it. I’m glad I did because this is not only a funny image, but was an entertaining assembly too.

I haven’t done a Dowdle puzzle in quite a long time, when did they start using just the one piece shape? And why in the world are so many companies using only one shape? It’s really frustrating, do they think that’s what we like or want? News flash puzzle companies – we like variety in shapes even if it’s only within a ribbon or grid cut – only one piece shape is BORING to work with.

This puzzle came with a legend that names all the cats and tells where they’re from…

Cats 1

Starting at the bottom in the middle and going around clockwise…

Sheriff “Cat” Masterson – Dodge City, Kansas
Audrey Hep-PURR-n – Belgium
Trojan Mouse – Greece
Fat Cat – Wall Street, New York

Cats 2

Starting at the top left and continuing clockwise…

“Mew”-stafa – Egypt
Mr. “Meow”-gi – Japan
MVP (Most Valuable Pussycat) “Go Kitty Wampus!!!”
“Feline” Nightingale – England
Yassir Ara-“cat” – Saudia Arabia

Cats 3

Starting at the top left again, clockwise…

Guillermo del “Gato (gato is Spanish for cat) – Mexico
Maurice “Chat”-velier (chat [pronounced shot] is French for cat) – France
Bat Cat – Gotham City
Coot Cat – Magnum P.C. (Pussy Cat) – Hawaii, USA

Cats 4

Starting at the top in the middle and continuing clockwise…

Captain Cat Sparrow – England
Lady Lib-PURR-ty – a gift from France to the United States
Big Lou – known for his cat calls – New York City
Chaim “khah-Tool”-evsky (khah-Tool is Hebrew for Cat) – Israel

Just for clarification, the explanations of the words for cat in different languages were part of the legend, and I copied them exactly.

While I was disappointed in the lack of variety in piece shape, I still enjoyed the puzzle and especially the names and silly faces of the cats. Chaim khah-Tool-evesky makes me laugh every time I look at him, that grumpy face is hysterical! Feline Nightingale’s cranky face is pretty funny too – the ones that make me laugh made this puzzle completely worth it. Just looking at the picture of the puzzle makes me smile. 🙂

Dog’s Life

On January 20, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles9 Comments

Is that not the cutest puzzle? It’s so adorable!!! My darlin daughter gave me this one for Christmas, and I couldn’t wait to get at it. It’s truly a dog’s life in this puzzle, and if you have dogs or have had them in the past you will relate.

It’s not the best quality, and if you ask me Eurographics is backsliding in the quality department. They used to be very good quality randomly cut puzzles, but this one piece shape with terrible cutting leaves a lot to be desired. The finish is super shiny and there is glare no matter if you’re working with dark pieces or light.

Dog's Life 1

This is basically dog ownership in a nutshell. Always looking at you for food as if they’ve never eaten a meal in their lives; that’s how Buddy looks at us anyway.

We only have one dog, just Buddy, but he certainly enjoys a ride in the car, and there is plenty of hanging out the window going on! And more than any other little vignette in this puzzle, the one on the right definitely shows how Buddy gets comfy in bed with my husband and me. He takes the middle – all of the middle!

My youngest son surprised me by coming in at the end of this puzzle when I was finishing the middle, there were about 7 or 8 pieces left, and he just grabbed one and put it in. He NEVER wants to do puzzles with me, so it was a bit of a shock, but a very happy one. He kept on going and I let him place all of the final pieces. He stopped at the last one and looked to me, knowing that putting in the very last piece makes a hard-core puzzler like me very happy, but I told him to go ahead and finish it. It was so lovely and I was truly pleased that he came in and wanted to be with me in my puzzle room working on one of my puzzles – even if it was only for a couple of minutes! He’s so sweet, and I love that he helped me put in the last few pieces. 💖

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

On January 13, 2020January 13, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Mr Rogers — Mister Rogers Neighborhood – Aquarius – 500 pieces

The top half of this puzzle was much easier than the bottom; I knew it might be a little challenging, but I had no idea how much. Fortunately I did enjoy it as much as I’d hoped, and the background colors were my favorite part – obviously. 🙂

It’s fun when you receive puzzles as gifts, they may not always be what you might have chosen yourself, but most of the time they end up being more fun than you thought. I almost always give them a try; someone cared enough to pick out a puzzle just for me, it would be thoughtless of me to dismiss it just because I didn’t pick it out myself.

Most of the difficulty in this puzzle lies with the picture they’ve used; in the background Mister Rogers is in sharp focus, while in the foreground The Neighborhood of Make Believe is out of focus and quite blurry.

You can see the difference when the pictures are side by side, it’s quite striking actually. Still, I don’t believe the fault lies with the reproduction, it’s the picture itself.

This image brought back memories, I recall watching the show when I was young, mostly the opening scene where he would come in singing and changing his sweater and shoes. I also recall the Neighborhood of Make Believe with King Friday who bellowed and didn’t always think first before speaking, and Daniel Tiger who was very shy and sweet. (Daniel was my favorite 🐯)

I’ve watched the documentary about Fred Rogers, and I’m looking forward to the movie starring Tom Hanks. Mister Rogers was a kind, loving man who cared deeply about children and spent his life educating, uplifting, and championing them. I don’t know if many outside the US are aware of him or his show, but I certainly watched and loved it as a child. 💗

True Love

On January 10, 2020January 9, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

This puzzle is just too, too adorable. It’s a little bit odd though, did you notice the owl in the window? It took me a while to see it at first, in fact the only reason I noticed it was that I was trying to figure out where an eye went! And if this tableau is about the True Love our pets give us, tell me, who has a deer as a pet? That’s just a little weird. Cute, but weird.

True Love 1

French bulldogs are my absolute favorite breed, how adorable is this little one? I just want to cuddle with him/her for hours and hours!

True Love 2

There’s something about that sad face underneath the shower cap, I can’t really explain it – it just makes me laugh.

I’m off to have a painful wisdom tooth removed this morning, so I’ll probably be loopy and in bed all day, with no puzzling going on at all. Please put a few puzzle pieces together for me today, I won’t be able to. 🧩

Yeah

On January 4, 2020January 3, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

Please forgive the angle of this picture, I tried to go back and fix it but the stupid photo program wouldn’t let me change anything after I’d renamed it. Stupid technology. 🤐

This was much more challenging than the previous four letter puzzle that I assembled. The shading at the back made for odd shapes, and my brain took quite a long time to wrap itself around the concept. But I loved that about it; when you know the solution is right in front of you and all you have to do is SEE it. You just have to let your brain catch up and figure it out. And then, when you finally do get it, the exhilaration is fantastic! (My PADS posse understands, don’t you?)

A friend says I should have left the other puzzle assembled and then taken a picture of “S**t Yeah!”. Why didn’t I think of that? I was moving the letters around to spell other words, and was thinking that I’m only one letter short of being able to spell my name; if I had gotten the other naughty word or even the word Crap I’d have the C so I could spell out my name in pretty letters. Ah well, I missed my chance.

This puzzle was very good quality, just like the first one. I’m quite impressed with them, especially because the company doesn’t only do puzzles. In fact, these four letter words are the only puzzles they carry. To get such good quality is a surprise, a very pleasant one. Check them out at Knock Knock.

I’ve enjoyed assembling these words/letters, and I think any of the others would be very entertaining. If you’re looking for a silly, challenging, enjoyable puzzle, I would absolutely recommend these four letter words.

S**t Yeah! 😉