Three French Hens

On December 20, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

The artwork of Rachel Arbuckle makes for gorgeous puzzles, and even though I absolutely didn’t need them I couldn’t resist getting the first 3 puzzles in this series. I’m very much looking forward to all 12 of these beautiful puzzles. Although I’d imagine the last 5 or 6 puzzles will be quite crowded looking in comparison to these first few – this puzzle has the hens, turtledoves, and the partridge – if that continues the 12th day will be jam packed!

Three French Hens whimsies

I love that there are the correct amount of birds in the whimsies! Although if this series continues that would be quite a challenge in the later puzzles – unless you get a much higher piece count. Wentworth puzzles go all the way up to 1500 pieces, but they’re a bit out of my price range. 😏

The 250 piece Wentworth puzzles are just about right for me, in both size and price. They’re small enough that the number of pieces doesn’t overwhelm, I can work on them in bed on my white board when I’m not feeling well, and they’re very reasonably priced as far as wooden puzzles go. Also I normally only buy wooden puzzles when they’re on sale and I can get free shipping, so that the price goes down even more. I’m a proud cheapskate!

Three French Hens 1

These aren’t the last pieces that went into the puzzle, in fact they were the ones I started with (other than the edges). But I thought it was very cool that each of the hens had a hen whimsy in it – three French hens in three French hens!

From here until Christmas Day it’s going to be wooden Christmas puzzles on the blog – both micro puzzles and larger. No clue what’s happening after Christmas – I suppose that depends on if I get any puzzles from Santa or his helpers! 🎅

Harvest Farm

On October 31, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I didn’t plan ahead very well this year, so I didn’t have a Halloween puzzle to assemble. Last year there were fun, spooky, ghosty puzzles to post about; not so this year. I promise to attempt to do a better job next year! The attempt is all I can promise, my brain isn’t what it used to be.

This beautiful wooden puzzle made me so happy after not touching a puzzle for 2 whole days – it was a lovely way to feed my puzzle addiction. Once I saw it all together I knew this would be my puzzle for Halloween; I love the pumpkins, gourds, corn, and especially the little hanging scarecrow!

As usual, we start with the whimsies, they are fall/Halloween themed. I was surprised to see the bat and ghost in there; I thought it would only be fall whimsies so the spooky ones were a fun surprise. 🦇

I think the scarecrow is my favorite, but the tractor comes in a close second. The detail on these Wentworth whimsies is so fun, and I can’t wait to see the whimsies in my new puzzles on their way to my house! (Yup, I went crazy again and bought more Wentworths and also one from a new wooden puzzle company I haven’t tried before 😎)

It’s such a beautiful fall image from Alan Giana, and it made for a wonderful assembly. I started with the words as usual, and then for some reason decided to go with the grass next. There was no real plan, I went where the puzzle took me. It’s so nice to not think and just go with it. A beautiful puzzle that took me out of my head for a while, I couldn’t ask for more.

Happy Halloween! 🎃

The 12:09 – On Time Again!

On October 24, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

I haven’t assembled a good corkboard puzzle in years; I’ve assembled a few, but they weren’t very good and just didn’t live up to the first one I did. Fortunately this puzzle was great quality and a lot of fun to assemble. If you’re wondering, yes the sky is supposed to look like that according to the image on the box. It’s weird though, right? Anyway, as an added bonus it’s a fall puzzle with lots of pumpkins everywhere, and even some jack-o-lanterns! 🎃

This was a very good quality puzzle, with thick pieces and a wonderful fit. The cut was devious, with a wonky edge and color line cutting that had me checking the box often – I’ve never seen that from a Ceaco before. Although it was a pity they didn’t put a picture of the entire image on the box (other than a tiny 2 inch picture) – I hate that!

I don’t believe these corkboard puzzles are in production anymore, both of the good ones we have were found at thrift stores, and the boxes say that they’re from the early 90’s. All the cork backed puzzles we’ve found were from Ceaco, but I can’t explain why some are poorer quality than others. A few that I’ve assembled were not as thick, and the cork didn’t seem as well adhered. Different places of manufacture perhaps?

These are only some of the whimsy pieces in this puzzle, but they’re so fun, and there are so many birds in the sky! I love that you can tell the different breeds of the dogs just by their silhouettes – there’s a dachshund, a cocker spaniel, and beagle (at least that’s what I think they are 🙂 )

Sweet apple junction, how adorable is that? What a great image by Jane Wooster Scott. All the cork puzzles we’ve assembled have been with her artwork – I’d love to find some more!

This picture not only shows some of the color line cutting (you can see the straight edge at the bottom of the train); it also shows that unfortunately the name of the artwork and artist has been cut off – whoops!

The added challenge of this puzzle was to find and join the 10 railroad cars hidden in the puzzle – I did it! There was a similar challenge on the first cork puzzle I put together; you had to find and assemble all the parts of a clown. I didn’t even attempt it, but this time I was a bit more brave. 💪

I found this puzzle hiding on one of my shelves full of puzzles just in time for Halloween, and I’m so glad. Mom came and helped me with it too, which is always a joy. It was great fun and made me very happy!

Megatab, Mintaka and the Snowman

On July 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I like the colors in this image, but again with the cats? I shouldn’t really complain since I’m the one who bought the puzzles, but here I am complaining anyway. I just wish there were more dog puzzles to choose from – either that or I’m just cranky and annoyed today. There’s a good chance that the cranky thing is the reason.

I like the cat whimsies in this puzzle, which sounds really stupid after I just said I’m sick of the cat puzzles, I know. I don’t mind the whimsy cats, I guess I’m just not one for the actual image of them. Sounds ridiculous, I know – but that’s how my weird mind works, and I’m not apologizing for it.

This micro puzzle was more difficult to assemble than I bargained for, but it was still fun and engrossing. That’s all puzzlers really want, to be able to be completely absorbed in the assembly – well, that’s what I’m always looking for anyway. It’s almost meditative, whether there are 40 pieces or 4000 I enjoy being wrapped up in which piece comes next and what shape goes where.

Christmas in July is almost over, one more day and one more micro winter puzzle to go!

Cats Selfie

On July 29, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is a cute puzzle, I enjoyed the bright colors. I’m not a cat person, but the looks on their faces are so funny! I don’t know many cats that would tolerate wearing Santa hats though, do you?

As usual, this was fun to put together. Wentworth quality is very very good, and working with wooden puzzles gives you a completely different tactile experience than with cardboard puzzles. They’re more expensive, but I say we puzzlers are absolutely worth it! Even if you don’t get to work a large piece count wooden puzzle, these micro puzzles are relatively inexpensive; and they’re puzzles you’ll want to do over and over again.

The piece shapes are obvious in the finished image, but to be honest this doesn’t matter at all to me. The enjoyment of the assembly for me outweighs pretty much any of the negatives, although I don’t think there are that many negatives. That’s just my personal opinion of course, but I’m a tiny bit addicted to jigsaw puzzles of all kinds so my opinions are a bit compromised.

More cute whimsies, I love the Santa with his sack of presents – it’s so detailed! The stocking full of presents is pretty damn cute as well.

My brain hasn’t been working well lately, and it just occurred to me this morning that there are 3 days left in the month. I have today’s micro puzzle and 2 more to go, so it looks like you’re going to have to put up with 2 more days in a row of Christmas/winter micro puzzles. Sorry, I’m blaming all the new pharmaceuticals I’m having to take – and the increasing dosages – that’s my story anyway. 💊💊