Balconies in Bloom

On May 11, 2020May 10, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

I’ve had this set of 12 puzzles in a multipack since way before the world stopped rotating, and I sometimes forget that it’s sitting under the puzzle table. I’m glad I decided to find myself a 300 piece puzzle to assemble, because this one was really fun to do.

I put the box away and assembled it without help from the image, and had a fantastic time. It makes me want to put together the rest of the puzzles in this multipack because I just love the artwork! There are still four 500 piece puzzles, two 150 pieces, and one more 300 piece. They aren’t the best quality, but I knew that before I purchased them; it was all about these images by Iralu. You don’t see artwork like this on puzzles usually, and I absolutely adore it. 😍

I decided to show each of the balconies separately, they’re all pretty cool looking…

Balconies 1

Each one is very detailed and deserving of it’s own picture. There is coffee, wine, and/or cigarettes on every table.

Balconies 2

Everyone smokes in this tableau. Perhaps these are French balconies?

Balconies 3

This is my favorite of the four. You know me, I love the colors – especially the purple chairs! And I’m great with coffee at all hours of the day, keep it coming! ☕

Balconies 4

Wine AND coffee. Hmmm. Not a good combo for me. I’d much rather put some whiskey in my coffee – I am partly Irish after all. I’m not allowed to drink with all the pain meds I’m on, but an Irish coffee sounds really good right about now. 😎

Daddy’s Down Time*

On March 4, 2020March 3, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

Another fun image from my box of 12 puzzles by the artist Iralu. I love his bright colors and fun sketch-style drawings. They aren’t the best quality puzzles out there, but I just couldn’t resist the artwork. None of the images in this set have titles, so I am naming them as I go; since the lady in the tub puzzle was named Momma’s Me Mood, I have titled this Daddy’s Down Time*

The 300 piece puzzles in this set are better quality than the 150 piece puzzles in the same box. They’re a little thicker and fit together MUCH better, and I have no idea why that is – it makes no sense to me. I would think that they would all be manufactured in the same facility – shouldn’t the quality be the same?

Anyway, this was a fun one and I enjoyed it very much! I don’t really recommend buying puzzles in a multipack box set, the quality is usually questionable. But if you find one with artwork that you can’t live without I say go for it – everything doesn’t have to be perfect for you to enjoy putting the puzzles together. 🙂

Surf Shark Bar

On January 31, 2020January 31, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

This was a quick little puzzle I was able to assemble in bed when I wasn’t feeling well. It’s one out of a multipack of 12 puzzles, and I’ve found that the 150 piece puzzles in this set are terrible quality. The fit is bad – so much so that you can’t put together the edges until the rest of the puzzle is put together.

I knew when I bought these puzzles that they wouldn’t be the best quality, but it was the images that made me buy it anyway. All of the artwork by Iralu makes for fun puzzling and are the kind of illustrations that you don’t normally see on many puzzles; it was worth it for me to brave the less than stellar quality. (But on the plus side, the 300 piece puzzles have been much better quality than these 150 pieces.)

Even with the awful quality, I still enjoyed most of the assembly. I don’t regret buying this set of 12, because I’m having a good time putting them all together.

None of the 500 piece puzzles in this set have been put together yet, and I’m hoping that their quality will be more like the 300 piece ones. I don’t know why I haven’t gotten to them just yet, but I’m looking forward to them very much. Honestly there are so many puzzles here to be done that it’s becoming truly difficult to decide which one comes next. There are so many that I absolutely want to do that choosing between them is getting quite difficult. I need to get these giant stacks of puzzles pared down somehow! I’m puzzling as fast as I can, but it never seems to even put a dent in my to do pile. Please don’t suggest that I stop shopping for puzzles, that’s just silliness and it would never work! 😉

A Cranky Camper

On January 19, 2020January 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

This is another puzzle from the multipack of 12 puzzles with artwork by Iralu, puzzles by Cardinal. I was surprised at the difference in quality between the 300 piece that I’d already assembled and this one; the 300 piece was much better quality than this 150 piece. Interesting.

I knew when I purchased it that the puzzles would most likely be of lesser quality; I find that the puzzles in most multipacks are made with thinner chipboard and as a result don’t usually fit together well – that was certainly the case with this puzzle. The fit on the edges was especially terrible and I found that the pieces seemed to fit where they didn’t belong. The top and bottom edges were assembled at the beginning, but the sides weren’t completed until the interior of the puzzle was assembled; the top and bottom edges had color on almost every piece and I could be certain that I got the assembly correct.

Each of the 150 piece puzzles in this pack are similar to this image, they are all of trucks or some sort of vehicle; I don’t dislike them, but they aren’t my favorites. The 500 and 300 piece puzzle images are the ones I really like in the box, but the 150 piece puzzles are perfect to put onto a tray and work while I’m resting in bed.

Even with the questionable quality this was an enjoyable puzzle to assemble (except for the edges), and it went together pretty quickly. It’s nice to have some very small puzzles available that I can work on my trays in bed when I’m not feeling well enough to sit at the puzzle table. 🙂

Momma’s Me Mood*

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

I started this early in the morning before leaving to spend some time with family on New Year’s Day, and finished in the late afternoon when we got home. First day of the year, two puzzles completed; they were only small ones, but they were both entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I did something I NEVER do and bought one of those multipacks of puzzles. Usually I find the quality is really awful when you have many puzzles in one box, but I couldn’t help it – the artwork was so interesting, colorful, and completely different from what you normally see. I had to brave the questionable quality of 12 puzzles in one box from Cardinal, I just couldn’t pass them up; artwork like this is not something you normally find in a multipack.

The asterisk by the title is because although the artwork is by Iralu, the title is by my daughter. I couldn’t find the real title online (I’m not great at web searches to be honest), so I asked for some help in giving this image a name. I think it’s a perfect name for this puzzle, and I hope she’s feeling creative because none of the puzzles in this multipack have titles. 😉

I was surprised at the quality of this 300 piece puzzle, it was better than I thought it would be – at least as far as the chipboard goes. It was thicker than I’d assumed and fit together quite well. It may not be the same for the other piece counts in the box, but at least the four 300 piece puzzles are fair/good quality. In my book that’s a bonus!