A Christmas Story

On November 20, 2021November 18, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

A Christmas Story – Ceaco – 300 pieces

There hasn’t been a Ceaco puzzle on my board in quite some time. **Flashback to the terrible, awful, very bad, horrific 12 days of Christmas advent calendar of 2019😱**

Anyway, this puzzle was a Christmas gift from that same year, and it’s taken me a while to get to assembling it. But even though I still have beef with this brand, I am NEVER ever ungrateful for puzzles that I receive as gifts. It isn’t so much about the actual puzzle itself, but more that someone cared about me enough to pick out something they thought I would like and appreciate. And if the brand isn’t a favorite or the image isn’t exactly what I would have chosen for myself, it is still loved and appreciated by me. Always.

This movie is a favorite in this house; we start watching it on Christmas Eve, and have it playing in the background most of the day on Christmas. All of my children adore this movie, and it makes a momma happy when your grown kids want to watch a movie with you. Everyone’s tastes in movies are very different these days, but this movie will bring us all together for a couple of hours – what’s not to love? 💖

If you’re a regular reader here you may know how much assembling words makes me happy. You’ll be surprised to learn that the letters in this puzzle were the very last things to be put together. Each letter is quite large, and if I had pulled all the pieces it would have been close to half of the whole puzzle! So I started with the pieces that were all red, then the red pieces with a bit of the border that surrounds the images from the movie and any pieces with a face on them.

After that, I let the pieces take me wherever they went and ended up waiting until the very end to get those words put together. Once all that was left were letters it was much easier to find whichever piece I was looking for.

This puzzle was really enjoyable, it’s a great image too – and not as easy as it looks. A good time was had, and I am so grateful for the gift. (I love you Baby Princess 💕)

Disney Friends In Progress

On July 24, 2020July 24, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I’m slowly working my way back up to larger puzzles; I just completed a 100 piece from Vermont Christmas Company and now the piece count is doubled for this 200 pc. adorable Disney image. The background of the diner makes it fun and a little more challenging, in my humble opinion, and although it’s a Ceaco I’m hoping to enjoy it anyway.

Hopefully you’re all working on fun puzzles at the moment. Happy puzzling everyone! 🧩😍

Go with the Flow

On April 28, 2020April 28, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Cue the fireworks, there was finally a puzzle in this series with all of it’s pieces. Congratulations Ceaco, it seems you finally did your job. Correctly. For once. Well done.

This one was much harder than I anticipated, and it seemed more difficult than the previous two puzzles from this series – but that is only perception and not something easy to quantify. It has been more than four months since I completed the second puzzle in the series, so it seems quite a challenge to remember all the way back to the beginning of January. And remembering the first puzzle that I put together in August of last year seems almost impossible! It’s harder for me anyway, I’m old and on lots of pain meds, my memory ain’t what it used to be.

Even though it was difficult I didn’t mind at all, it kept me completely focused on the puzzle and not on everything else going on in the world and in my house. That’s one of the reasons working on jigsaw puzzles is such a popular form of entertainment – even more especially right now – it’s almost a form of meditation. Your brain is only concerned about what shape, color, or pattern is next and there’s no room to think about your worries or stresses; it’s only the puzzle and what piece fits in next.

Blissful meditation.

Butterfly Garden

On March 16, 2020March 16, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Butterfly Garden is my free puzzle from Ceaco that I received as a “we’re sorry for our terrible quality 1200 piece puzzle you bought”. I’d like to say I was completely impartial while I assembled this and judged it’s quality, but that would be a lie. I had an attitude when I was putting this puzzle together; about the brand, the image, the quality – everything. Sorry, I’m human.

I was going to review this puzzle, but as I previously stated I found that I wasn’t going into the assembly with anything resembling a fair-minded attitude. I may not be happy with Ceaco presently, but it wouldn’t be proper for me to review this knowing I wasn’t pleased with the puzzle before I had even started the assembly.

This was way easier than I thought it would be, and I didn’t have a particularly good time with it. I’m not a fan of the artwork, it’s very dark and not as pretty as one would hope a butterfly garden would be. It’s nothing against the artist really, it just isn’t my taste. I wasn’t given a choice as to which puzzle I would be getting, and I was unhappy with both the piece count and the image, obviously.

Butterfly Garden 1

This was the hardest part of the puzzle for me, and it was only around 10-12 pieces. Didn’t take me long.

This whole fiasco with the 12 days of Christmas puzzles was an eye-opener for me, and to be honest I’m still a bit perturbed about it. There is still a Ceaco ban in place for me, I will not be buying any of their puzzles. My daughter and I were puzzle shopping after the holidays to spend a gift card, and she found a really cute Charlie Brown family puzzle that I actually loved the look of. Unfortunately it was a Ceaco and I made her put it back on the shelf. They will not be getting any of my money any time soon.

I realize one person’s boycott is a drop in the bucket, and they obviously couldn’t care less about whether or not I’m buying their puzzles; but it makes me feel better to spend my puzzle budget on companies that care about the quality of their product and the satisfaction of their customers. Unfortunately in my experience Ceaco is definitely NOT one of those companies.

Great White Delight

On March 10, 2020March 10, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This is a cute puzzle I picked up the last time I was at the thrift store. It was supposed to be a glow in the dark image, but unfortunately the glow was worn out. We even tried leaving it outside in the sun for 10 minutes (you usually get the best glow from putting them in the sunlight), but no luck. Ah well, we tried.

It is also obviously missing a piece, which is unfortunate; this would have been a great one to donate to the school my daughter works for. Some of the kids there need a puzzle with a bit of challenge, and this would have been perfect.

The color scheme makes it a bit more difficult, especially if you don’t have good lighting. This was partially assembled while I was in bed, but the lighting in my bedroom isn’t great. Once the large skeletal jaw was complete I ended up having to take it into the puzzle room to finish it; my poor old eyes couldn’t distinguish the correct pieces to place with all those different shades of blue! 🦈