12 Days of Christmas Puzzles Day 2

On December 15, 2019December 16, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

12 Days - 2 — Full Mailbox – Ceaco – 100 pieces

I know, the picture is cockeyed. Normally I would fiddle with it until it looks better, but I literally just finished putting it together and I’m a little miffed that there’s a missing piece. These things happen, and it isn’t the end of the world, but it’s annoying.

The image, once assembled, doesn’t look that difficult at all – it’s deceiving. It was a bit of a challenge for a 100 piece puzzle, and all the greenery, ribbons, and fence posts looked the same to me. Still, I am a puzzle goddess (according to my daughter who loves me) and in the end this little puzzle was all put back together, almost.

A missing piece!

It’s a little funny because last night Penny was putting together the puzzle for day 6, and she had an extra piece! I know the piece isn’t anywhere here because I opened the bag, dumped the pieces on a tray, and never left the room while I was assembling it. It isn’t stuck to my arms, or on the floor, it’s almost certainly in someone else’s bag of pieces.

Ah well. Life goes on.

The image isn’t one I would normally choose for a puzzle, it’s honestly the type of Christmas image that I don’t really care for. But in 100 pieces I can assemble just about any image. For me, this is the one I have to get through in order to assemble the images that look more fun – it’s the brussel sprouts of this advent calendar. 🤢

12 Days of Christmas Puzzles Day 1

On December 14, 2019December 16, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

My puzzle pal Penny bought this collection for herself this past week, and when she sent me a text showing a picture of the box I just fell in love. My faithful tens of readers know that I’m not a huge fan of Christmas puzzles, but these are all only 100 pieces and the images (most of them) made me smile. I can’t tell you the exact reasons why, but I just had to have these. So the next day I enlisted my ever patient father to drive me to the store to find this box – and find it we did!

The image of each day’s puzzle is shown on the box both opposite the numbers and also through the numbers themselves – I like that! You can see that the cute Santa image for day one is shown completely on the left, and his little face is peeking through the number 1 on the right.

12 Days - 1 — Day 1 – Cute Santa with Gifts

Cute Santa was assembling in bed this morning on a cookie sheet. These are Ceaco puzzles, and the quality is good/fair. The fit is somewhat loose but not too much so, and the pieces are a good thickness. Santa went together pretty quickly, and he was lots of fun to assemble. I’m giving him four out of five on the Mrs. Claus advent calendar scale – mostly for cuteness!

🤶🤶🤶🤶

There’s just something about these puzzles, I’m looking forward to each and every one. It’s weird for me to say that, as I am just not a fan of the usual Christmas images, but this collection makes me smile. I don’t know if I want to post only 100 piece puzzles here every day until Christmas (and I have yet to make a decision), but no matter what you’ll be seeing all of them eventually.

Kiss Me

On December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles7 Comments

I wanted to start the month with a completed puzzle on the first day – so this was assembled December 1st. I’ve been saving this puzzle since very early in the year; mom bought it for 69 cents at the thrift store, and although it was cute I thought it should be saved until the holiday season.

This is my kind of holiday puzzle, I love images that aren’t the typical Christmas themes. I think that’s why I don’t care for Christmas puzzles much, they all seem to look alike to me and I prefer to assemble images that are different and interesting. Just my opinion of course. 🙂

It wasn’t the best quality, the fit was slightly loose and there quite a bit of image lift, but both of those things could be because it was purchased secondhand. It may have been well loved and assembled many times – you never can tell. Still, I don’t expect perfection from any puzzle, let alone one from the local Goodwill store.

If you look closely, you’ll see that all the snowflakes are made up of Minions, how adorable is that?

Kiss Me 1

This puzzle makes me think of mom, knowing she bought it specifically for my “adopted” grandson who loves puzzles more than anything. Whenever she found a kids puzzle she would always buy it for him, especially if they were boy-themed or something a young boy would enjoy. She always brought them to me to assemble first because 1) we needed to be sure whether or not it was complete before it was passed on to the kiddo, and 2) because I love putting together kids puzzles perhaps more than the kids do. 😎

I’ll be giving this to my “grandson” soon, so he’ll be able to enjoy it for this holiday season. It’s the last puzzle mom was able to buy for him; he’s too young to appreciate the significance of that, but I’m not. Miss you momma. 💝

Paris

On October 24, 2019October 24, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I didn’t realize when I was assembling it that this artwork was by Ciro Marchetti – no wonder I loved the image so much, now it makes perfect sense! There are two other images in this series, New York and London. Hopefully these aren’t exclusive to Ceaco, I’d love to find them by another brand with better quality.

I was very disappointed by the quality of this puzzle. The pieces weren’t completely cut through, some so much so that I couldn’t separate them without damaging them. There was an abundance of puzzle dust that got everywhere, the fit was terrible and loose, and the pieces were thin and very easily bent. It’s been my experience that Ceaco puzzles of 750 pieces or less are better quality than their puzzles of 1000 pieces or more. I certainly won’t be assembling any more of their puzzles over 750 pieces if I can help it.

Paris 1

The fireworks and the word Paris were so much fun to assemble, I didn’t find them overly challenging. Many puzzlers say that assembling fireworks is frustrating and difficult, though I didn’t find that to be the case with this puzzle. I absolutely loved it!

Paris 2

This statue/light post was the most challenging part of the puzzle in my opinion. It was the last bit to be assembled, but I love the look of it – it’s very Parisian.

Paris is a beautiful image, but unfortunately the puzzle it was attached to was of poor quality. I can’t recommend this puzzle, but if you find the image made by another brand it is highly recommended. Even with the awful quality I found the actual assembly of the artwork to be extremely entertaining.

Paris In Progress

On October 17, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Paris in progress

I’ve started this 1000 piece Ceaco puzzle title Paris. I have to say I’m sorely disappointed in the quality. I’ve noticed that their puzzles up to 750 pieces aren’t too terrible, but the 1000 pieces are less than stellar. For me, I highly doubt I’ll be working another Ceaco over 750 pieces again.

The amount of puzzle dust was astounding, and the pieces weren’t all cut completely though. The fit is awful as well, and moving around completed sections is a nightmare. Even just scooting them over a tiny bit results in everything crumbling apart.

I’ll continue on with it, because my daughter got it for me and I try to always assemble puzzles given as gifts. The image is a very pretty one, and I’m hoping once more of the pieces are in place that it will be a bit more stable. I’m not giving up on it, because I want to see the finished image and I’ve got to send my daughter a picture of the completed puzzle!