Tag: 80 pieces

Wintry Windows* (Advent – Day 1)

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

Wintry Windows* – Aldi – 80 pieces

We’re finally getting to my advent calendar puzzles. Hooray! Wait. Did I just say that? Perhaps aliens have finally come Earth and have taken control of my brain – where in the world/universe did that come from? 🤔👽

Onward to the puzzle!

None of the puzzles have a title or artist credit, so I’ll be giving them a title when I post them. They’re not overly creative, like today’s “Wintry Windows”, but I’ll try my best.

I was happily surprised by the quality of this little puzzle. There is no name brand, other than that it was made in China and distributed and sold exclusively by Aldi. The pieces are a very good thickness, the image reproduction is clear and crisp, and the fit is good. Unfortunately there is no variety in piece shape; they are all ballerinas (2 prong/2 holes) one thinner that is placed vertically and the thicker one is placed horizontally. The finish is a bit shiny but it’s not too terrible to work with under artificial lighting.

So as it stands there are three pros and two cons – as we get further into the calendar we shall see if the quality stays good throughout. I’m hoping that every puzzle has all of it’s pieces and that there are actually twelve puzzles with no duplications or omissions. Stay tuned!

It may look as if the pieces are interchangeable and that all the vertical pieces would fit anywhere, but happily there are small differences and they only fit where they belong. That may seem like a ridiculous sentence, but anyone who has worked with a puzzle whose pieces are exactly the same knows what I mean. It’s nice that there aren’t false fits to deal with.

Day one of the Advent calendar is done, with no drama – I’m hoping for good things from day two!

Advent Calendar Part Deux…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling14 Comments

Hubby was getting some groceries at Aldi a couple of days ago, and brought this advent calendar home to me – do I have a fantastic husband or what? What a sweetie pie!

This set is exclusive to Aldi, and retails in the US for $9.99 – not too shabby! The box tells me the puzzles were manufactured in China, but I’m hopeful that they’ll be good quality. If the box is any indication, they may be pretty good; the box is thick and feels quite premium. If you’ve got an Aldi nearby they may have this set available.

There are twelve puzzles, 80 pieces each. You can see that I’ve opened the first section to take a peek, but I haven’t taken the pieces out of their plastic bag or started assembling any of them yet. I will soon though, with the number of puzzles already in my queue it’s time for me to get to assembling puzzles with holiday images already!

Those of you that have been here for a while may remember the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad advent calendar of puzzles from 2019 – it holds bad memories for me. I’m still mad at Ceaco about it! But this was a gift from hubby so I’ll have to put those memories out of my head and assemble these puzzles with no preconceived ideas about their quality.

It’s Part Deux of my assembling an advent calendar of jigsaw puzzles and I’m hoping the sequel is better than the original. (You know, like Aliens or The Godfather Part II or Terminator 2: Judgement Day)

The Ceaco advent calendar of puzzles that I assembled in 2019 seemed like a comedy of errors; out of twelve puzzles four of them were missing pieces, one had extra pieces, and there was one puzzle missing entirely and substituted with another that had already been assembled. And for a set of puzzles with so many quality problems to find it’s way into the hands of a jigsaw puzzle blogger was just so bizarre. I was glad to be able to warn people away from purchasing it though. It was unbelievably frustrating to deal with so many problems in one set, and the customer service I received was even more upsetting. Ceaco hasn’t gotten one penny of my puzzle budget since, and they’re still on the naughty list.

Here’s hoping that this newest advent calendar does a better job in the quality department, you know how much I enjoy little “one coffee” puzzles.

I’m looking forward to happy puzzling! 🧩💚

Sunflower Face

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Sunflower Face – Wentworth (Mini Mindful) – 80 pieces

Now this is what I’m talking about when I want a Mini Mindful puzzle that completely takes over your focus – you absolutely have to pay attention with this one!

The honeycomb shaped pieces and the fact that many of them are cut in half made this puzzle one of the most challenging Mini Mindful puzzles that I’ve assembled so far. Even at the end I had to keep taking pieces out and moving them around because although they looked as though they were placed correctly they weren’t.

I truly enjoyed the challenge of this one. Although it was only 80 pieces it took me just over half an hour to complete it correctly! Normally keeping track of the time it takes to finish a puzzle isn’t something I do, but I knew this would be quite a difficult assembly and noted the time when I started and when it was finally complete.

It would probably be easier to put this together with the image side down, you wouldn’t have to make sure the colors/textures lined up. It might be interesting to do that and see how completely crazy the image would be. 😂

Pop the Champagne

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Pop the Champagne by Aimee Stewart – Wentworth – 80 pieces

This challenging and beautiful little puzzle was SO much fun to put together! It was the last one in a day where we put together two mini wooden puzzles, one larger and more difficult wooden puzzle, and a 500 piece cardboard one. Luckily, we had just as much fun with this last one as we did the first.

I’ve done a few shaped Aimee Stewart images, and they’re always a bit challenging but lots of fun – this one was no different. The swirling shapes of the pieces and the gorgeous colors made for a great assembly.

There was only one whimsy piece with this mini puzzle, a bunch of grapes right near the center of the bottle…

We had such a great time with this that it ended up staying with my sister-in-law, she kept saying how much fun it was and I just couldn’t resist leaving it for her just like the Tea Bath puzzle we put together at their cabin on our first trip. I know it will be well loved and put together many more times. 💕

Hubby and his sister worked on it by themselves for a few minutes, and I got in there closer to the end and sis and I put in the last few pieces together. Love, love, loved it!

Chilean Flamingo

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Chilean Flamingo – Wentworth (Mini Mindful) – 80 pieces

This little beauty was one of the most challenging of the Mini Mindfuls that I’ve done – it’s right up there with Space Flare. But it is a lovely image, and perfect for assembling at my cousin’s boathouse that is decorated with pink flamingos.

Although during our weekend at the boathouse there was a LOT of family there with their kiddos and it was a bit noisy. That made it a little more difficult to concentrate sometimes, but being with family is worth it; and I just decided to finish it later in the evening after everyone had settled down – kids and adults alike.

As a dissectologist I see patterns all the time in the puzzles I assemble, and recognizing the pattern of how these pieces fit together was easy once you got a few pieces together. With so much pink you really had to pay attention, and I placed a few incorrectly at one point – but eventually all was put to right.

Great little puzzle!