Pets Selfie

On February 14, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Pet Selfie — Pets Selfie by Howard Robinson – Wentworth – 40 pieces

For Valentine’s Day this year I decided to assemble this micro puzzle, because what better example of pure, unconditional love and friendship than our furry friends and family? They’re amazing, and always ready to give lots of love❣

You would think a puzzle hoarder like myself would have plenty of “love” puzzles to choose from, but I don’t (at the moment). There are many puzzles here that I love and am looking forward to assembling, but not ones that are love-related. But when I picked up this puzzle and saw the goofy faces of the pets I thought that this would be the perfect image for today. I think I was right; it’s so adorable and I love their sweet faces.

Pets Selfie whimsies

How cute are these whimsies? I was a little confused by the one in the middle though, perhaps it’s a dog house? Or do I have it upside down? Suggestions anyone?

Hubby and I don’t really do Valentine’s Day, we haven’t for most of our marriage. I expect him to treat me as if he loves me every single day of the year, and he expects the same from me. We don’t need a special day for it, in our house that stuff happens all the time. 💖

I do usually celebrate February 15th though – half price candy day!! 😉

As the Sun Sets

On January 30, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles9 Comments

The posse and I put this together at a family dinner while waiting for the food to be ready. It’s adorably cute, but wasn’t as fun to assemble as we’d hoped; though I’m not sure why that was. Sometimes the interesting, cute, or pretty image isn’t the most entertaining to actually put together. Or maybe we were all just hungry. 😉

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. 💊💊

Barnyard Antics

On July 6, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

This panoramic puzzle is so adorable, it helped make up for the less than wonderful quality of the pieces. Also, there was no name of the image or artist on the box. I don’t understand that, if I were an artist whose work was made into a puzzle I would definitely want my name and the name of my artwork somewhere on the box!

This thrift store puzzle was in pretty good condition, but it didn’t seem to be the best quality to begin with. The pieces were thin and easily bent, and separating them caused them to split and peel. The image reproduction seemed quite nice though, and I very much enjoyed watching it come together.

The faces of the animals and their silly smiles were so cute that I enjoyed assembling them very much. Look at two of my favorite faces….

I love that the bunny was sticking it’s tongue out – that’s definitely something I would do when having my picture taken! And the lamb’s face is just funny, it makes me smile every time I look at it.

For me, all the puzzles I assemble don’t have to be perfect. If the quality isn’t premium or a piece is missing I can still enjoy putting it together. It’s the assembly itself that I enjoy, being able to zone out and focus solely on the pieces, shapes, and colors. It helps me to reduce stress and deal with anxiety and chronic pain. It’s almost meditative for me.

Every puzzler has their own reasons for why they enjoy puzzling, what’s yours?

Among Friends

On June 16, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

This is such a cute puzzle, I didn’t expect it to be as much of a challenge as it was. At 200 pieces it was the perfect puzzle at the perfect time.

Ravensburger puzzles are such great quality, they’re always a joy to assemble. Even opening the box and seeing the pieces makes me happy. I’ve heard that their quality has been declining, but I haven’t actually seen any of that so far. This puzzle was a thrift store purchase and it was the usual excellent Ravensburger quality with wonderfully thick pieces, a gorgeous image, and exceptional fit.

I’ve done several puzzles with artwork by Howard Robinson, and they’ve all been “cute”. His images are usually adorable animals that seem to have a personality, and they always make me smile – this puzzle is an excellent example of that. Charming animals aren’t always the images I’m looking for, and sometimes they can be quite difficult to assemble, but they do make me happy.

Sometimes cute and easy is exactly what I need. These days the “easy” is pretty important; I’ve pretty much been in bed all day every day since the beginning of April. I haven’t been able to do many 1000 piece puzzles, or even many 500 pieces. Puzzles that are 300 pieces or less are mostly what I’ve been doing; I’ve been surprised at how much I’m enjoying them. Puzzles are great fun for me and excellent for helping me deal with stress, anxiety, and chronic pain – it doesn’t matter how many pieces there are or how big it is. Puzzles make me happy regardless of the piece count. ☺

Sometimes I worry that I’m doing too many small puzzles or too many wooden puzzles and that these aren’t always what people want to see on my blog. I have to remind myself that this blog is about the puzzles that I do, and whatever puzzles I assemble are the ones that I write about. I don’t do puzzles for other people’s enjoyment, I do them for me. You can’t please everyone, and you shouldn’t try. I struggle to remember that sometimes.

So when a cutesy puzzle comes along, if I want to put it together, I do. If I have a good time putting it together that’s what’s important. If you enjoy reading about it – even better! If it’s not really your cup of tea (or pile of pieces), that’s ok. Maybe tomorrow’s puzzle will be perfect for you. 😎