Happy 2nd Birthday to My Jigsaw Journal! 🎂 It’s a couple of days late, but my aging old lady brain just isn’t what it used to be. I am still assembling jigsaw puzzles to try to keep it sharp though; here’s hoping they work their magic and keep it from deteriorating any more!
I’m shocked that it’s been 2 years already, but it’s been a great 2 years. Puzzling and blogging has been fun and rewarding, even more so than I thought it would be. It’s amazing when I go back over the stats – to me the numbers seem incredible!
- 766 posts (including this one)
- 569 puzzles assembled – holy guacamole!
- 324,544 pieces assembled (I did notice that while I assembled around 50 more puzzles than the previous year, there were about 70,000 less pieces. I’m not sure how much of that has to do with the 40,320 piece puzzle I assembled the first year; even so, if you take that one out of the mix it’s still 50 more puzzles and 30,000 less pieces. I guess that happens when you’ve got anxiety problems and 1000 piece puzzles are too much for you some days 😐 )
- 41,842 views (that’s a BIG jump from only around 8,000 in the first year)
- 8,674 visitors to the blog from 99 countries! (more than 7,000 new visitors in this past year – oh my!)
Those are all pretty awesome numbers for this tiny little blog I started just to keep friends and family up to date on my progress of the world’s largest (at the time) jigsaw puzzle. Once Memorable Disney Moments was finished I thought that would be it for the blog; but I discovered that talking about puzzles was, for me, almost as fun as puzzling itself! Some days I don’t have a lot to say, and some days the words just come pouring out – but almost every day there’s a new puzzle to post and plenty to say about it. 🙂
Going back over all the posts and puzzles has me reminiscing and I went back and found some interesting facts about the puzzles I’ve done. In the first year of the blog I hadn’t assembled any wooden jigsaw puzzles, but in the second year I’ve put together 52 wooden puzzles from 5 different companies! 29 of those were micro puzzles, but still, 52 is a LOT!
I’ve also assembled 5 (almost 6) 3D puzzles – I’m in the process of assembling a very large 3D puzzle for a review for a new company. It’s complicated and I’m doing my best, but it’s taking me much longer than I’d anticipated; I’m enjoying the challenge of using my brain differently and trying something completely different. 🙂
There have been reviews and posts for puzzles from 100 different puzzle companies on the blog – did you know there were that many out there? I’m shocked by the number, but I went back through all my posts and made an actual list. There are many more companies out there in this big, wide world that I haven’t tried; but the fact that I’ve done puzzles made by so many different brands/companies astounds me!
I also want to send out a special thank you to the companies that have given me the opportunity to assemble and review puzzles for them, I’m extremely grateful and I’ve loved reviewing puzzles even though I may not have always loved the puzzles themselves. 😉 Many thanks to the following companies (click the links to check out their very cool puzzles!)
- Puzzle Warehouse.
- Get Your Jig On (STFU).
- Cobble Hill Puzzles.
- Bone Owl Puzzles.
- Gearheads Puzzles.
- CubicFun 3D Puzzles.
I’ve had a wonderful time these past 2 years puzzling and blogging, and I’m looking forward to another year of jigsaw puzzles (along with my fantastic puzzle posse of my mom, son, daughter, and hubby – I love you guys! 💖) Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read this blog and especially for those puzzlers/readers out there who send encouragement, well wishes, comments, and suggestions – I appreciate every single one of you!
Here’s to another year of happy puzzling! 😎
My Jigsaw Journal 