Bulldog with Butterflies

On June 17, 2020June 17, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

That sweet, beautiful, face is absolutely gorgeous! But I gotta tell you that it still burns my biscuits that they got the name so completely wrong; THAT IS NOT A BULLDOG! I’d love to change the title of this post, but if someone else wants to find this puzzle for themselves they need to know the actual title, so I grudgingly left it the way it is. But in my heart I know that it’s a Boston with Butterflies. 🐾🦋

If you haven’t read this blog before you might not know that the sweetest member of my puzzle posse is an adorable purebred Boston Terrier named Buddy, and he makes me smile and gives me love every single day. I know what a Boston Terrier looks like! Mine is a bit of a mutant though, he’s extremely big for his breed. Whatever the opposite of a “runt” is, that’s my Buddy. The average Boston weighs between 13-16 pounds. You ready for this? Brace yourselves……my “little” guy weighs 33 pounds! He’s not the least bit fat, he’s just much, much taller, longer, and bigger than the typical Boston. My neighbor across the street has a beautiful female, and Buddy is almost twice as tall as she is! He’s the “Andre the Giant” of his breed. 😉 (On a completely different topic, who doesn’t love Andre the Giant as Fezzik in The Princess Bride? “No more rhyming now, I mean it!” – “Anybody got a peanut?”)

Back to the puzzle. The quality was good/fair; the pieces are on the thinner side and the fit was a bit loose. On the plus side, there was a very good variety of piece shapes and the image reproduction was good as well. For me it didn’t matter much either way, it was all about the image.

Bulldog with Butterflies 1

The butterflies were lovely, and they were the first thing to be assembled after the edges. The picture doesn’t do them justice, the colors are really lovely!

Cardinal has a whole line of images by Coco de Paris like this one – animals painted over the pages of a book. Most are silly and fun, and they make me smile; I especially love the group of ostriches wearing bathing suits, and the giraffe wearing glasses blowing a huge bubble with her gum! 😂

I tried to find a link to a whole bunch of them in one spot to share with you, but this being the middle of a pandemic many places are still closed and sold out of certain puzzles. You can look up Coco de Paris jigsaw puzzles and see many of the images from this line. They’re so fun!

p.s. Thank you Penny❣

Building Facades In Progress

On June 15, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Buildings IP — Building Facades by Iralu – Cardinal – 500 pieces

This particular puzzle from a family pack of twelve puzzles has seen me start and stop assembling it before. This is the third time I’ve started, and this time I’m finally going to get it done!

The quality of the 500 piece puzzles in this set is pretty bad, with thin pieces and a terrible fit. The finish is quite shiny as well, and causes quite a bit of glare. Those are the reasons for me starting this puzzle previously but then putting it away; I was NOT in the mood to deal with a bad quality puzzle before.

This time I feel myself being quite stubborn about it though, I really like the artwork and so I’m wanting to power through and get this one “done and dusted”, as they say. I’m not sure I can articulate why this time was the one and why I’ve got a bee in my bonnet to get this finished. I just know that’s how it’s going this time around.

Ernest

On June 10, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Yes, you are reading that right – this image is by comedian Jeff Foxworthy. Truthfully, I thought the artwork was funny and was going to buy it anyway; but add the fact that I am a comedy nerd as well as a jigsaw puzzle nerd and I just had to get this puzzle!

Stand up comedy has been one of my loves since I was young. When most pre-teen and teenage kids had albums from the current music stars, most of my record collection was full of Steve Martin, Flip Wilson, Robin Williams, Allan Sherman, Bill Cosby (which I debated adding here, but I can’t change the facts to suit me – Bill Cosby was a very large part of my comedy collection) and many more. We listened to comedy albums as a family, and when my sisters and I were mature enough my parents let us listen to and watch Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Redd Foxx and many of the more “blue” comedians too.

I still remember having a videocassette full of episodes of An Evening at the Improv that my husband and I used to watch during our first years of marriage whenever we needed a laugh. We’ve been fans of stand up since forever it seems, so how could I not get myself a puzzle with silly artwork from a famous stand up comedian?

The quality was about average for Cardinal – I would classify it as good/fair. Even so, I enjoyed the assembly more than I thought I would, and found the image a little bit more of a challenge than I expected as well. Both of those are very good things in my book!

Bulldog In Progress…

On June 9, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Bulldog IP — Bulldog with Butterflies by Coco de Paris – Cardinal – 300 pieces

Well, as much as I love this image by Coco de Paris, I have to take issue with the title. If you’re reading this on June 9, 2020 you can see on the right side of the page (under what’s on my board) what the finished image will be – that is NOT a bulldog! It’s a Boston Terrier, and I know this because my beloved puzzle pal who faithfully sits beside me while I assemble jigsaw puzzles is a pure bred Boston Terrier. I know what they look like; I look into this sweet, smiling, adorable face all day. Every day.

If you want to split hairs you could tell me that the breed came from a cross between an English Bulldog and a White Terrier; but I’m cranky today and would suggest that no one try to split hairs with me right now. 😉

Ok, rant over.

My meds have been changed again, and now there’s a patch on my shoulder delivering pain medication every hour. It isn’t going well, so even though I REALLY wanted to get going on this puzzle I just wasn’t able to this past weekend. But I finally got myself out of bed last night so that hubby could go to sleep (he brings home the bacon, he’s gotta be able to rest), and rather than watch the news I put myself in front of my puzzle table and got to work.

The butterflies were where I started once the edge was completed, and once they were done I picked out the all white pieces and put those in. Sometimes I prefer to get the more difficult areas of an image done first, then I won’t be dreading them. So when I get back to the puzzle this morning all that’s left is that sweet face and lots of words – both of which I love. 💗

The Avengers

On May 18, 2020May 18, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

I bought this to assemble and glue to hang in the bedroom of my youngest son. He is a self-professed Comic Book Nerd, and loves to talk about it for hours on end. Mostly he talks to himself, but the entire time I was putting this one together he stayed in the room to watch and I heard about The Avengers, and when it was released, and who played who in the movies, and who the original artist was, etc., etc. etc.

For. The. Entire. Time.

Thank goodness this went together quickly! 😉

The quality was good/fair, and I have to say I adored the artwork – especially the look of the hands holding the comic book. Even the frayed edges of the comic book look amazingly realistic, it seems almost like a Norman Rockwell with its amazing accuracy. I searched every inch of the box to find the name of the artist, but I found nothing at all; it would have been nice to give credit for the exceptional artwork.

The Avengers 1

This just made me smile. It makes me think of the old movie trailers that told us all about the thrills and chills we’d be experiencing if we saw a particular movie. I’m smiling now just typing this up. 🙂