“This” and Other Spellings

On December 4, 2019December 4, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

I specifically bought this “word” because I would be able to spell something G-rated with it for the blog. My Jigsaw Journal is about jigsaw puzzles first and foremost, and in a smaller sense it’s about me too. This is the perfect puzzle to show both sides of the blog: the strictly jigsaw puzzle side is “This” and the part about me is the other, more R-rated word “S**t”. (Although I don’t consider it that bad of a swear word to be honest, but some people might and I don’t want to offend anyone.)

Since the naughtier word is the one actually shown on the box, I will show the letters arranged in the correct order. This is just a warning for those of you who might not want to see it, at the bottom of the post I will put a bit of empty space and then the picture. I wanted to give you a heads up, if you’re not interested, stop reading once you see the empty space. 😉

Usually when I get a puzzle from a company that makes many other products the puzzles are quite poor in quality. This Knock Knock puzzle though had wonderful quality; the pieces are a good thickness, the fit was very nice, and the image reproduction is excellent with beautiful colors and gold foil. It’s only the first puzzle from this brand that I’ve done, but I’m quite impressed with it and hope that the second puzzle I purchased is similar in quality. Their line of Four-letter puzzles isn’t all cuss words, they also have the words Sexy, Love, Yeah, and Crap. There are only two actual swear words. My second puzzle is Yeah, and I’m looking forward to it!

As my puzzle friend Penny described it when I sent her a picture – it looks like 70’s disco. I didn’t make that connection when I was assembling it, but she’s right, it absolutely looks like a disco puzzle…

This 1

I loved both the quality and the puzzle in general. Since all the letters had the same colors, it was quite difficult at the start. All these similar pieces, where to begin? I started with the S because I could see where the colors bent. Then I focused on the white stripe that runs through each letter, and I could see it curved in the S and where they met in the H and the T. Once I got going it became easier to see what I should be looking for, and it took a bit of sorting to see which bits went with which letter, it stayed difficult till the end. If you’re planning on assembling this, be prepared – it’s pretty challenging!

All in all I’m quite pleased with this purchase. I hadn’t bought any puzzles online since around April until this one. The quality is very good, the puzzle itself makes me smile, and I’m pretty darned proud of myself for getting it assembled. I’m very much looking forward to putting the next one together, I bought YEAH because I loved the colors and the way the letters looked. All the Four-letter puzzles they have are different in color and shape, and I’m hoping the next word is as entertaining as this one was. 🙂

Empty space coming up, don’t go any farther if you don’t want to see the swear word. For the rest of you guys, meet you at the bottom of the post!

This-Shit

It’s just funny to see this word spelled out with a puzzle. I love it! There was a naughtier word available, THE naughtiest word actually; but you can’t spell anything other words with it. I just adore this puzzle, it was very naughty fun! 😈

Doug the Pug (Doughnuts)

On December 2, 2019December 2, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Doug Donuts — Doug the Pug (Doughnuts) – Buffalo – 300 pieces

Both Doug the Pug puzzles were assembled in the same night. Insomnia is great for getting uninterrupted puzzle time; it’s not so great for the brain though. No sleep means tired, slow, hazy brain cells, which make puzzle assembly harder as you go along. Still, on this night it meant finishing two adorable puzzles and a nice long nap later that day. 😴

This image was much easier to assemble than cheesy Doug from yesterday, all the different doughnuts plus that curly tongue made it much simpler to sort and put together. They were both enjoyable in their own way, but this one is my favorite of the two – as far as assembly is concerned. If we’re just talking about the images, I think I prefer cheesy Doug.

Many thanks to my beautiful daughter who looks for puzzles wherever she shops. She gets out and about much more than I do, and keeps an eye out for puzzles her momma might like. What a sweetheart! ❤

Doug the Pug (Cheesy)

On December 1, 2019December 1, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Doug Cheesy — Doug the Pug (Cheesy) – Buffalo – 300 pieces

My daughter was out shopping and sent me pictures of two Doug the Pug puzzles – she didn’t ask if I liked them, she knew I would – she asked if I HAD them. Smart girl, she knows if I’d seen them at the store that they definitely would have found their way into my cart. I didn’t already have them, and she felt the need to get them for me and bring them over to my house the same night.

It’s a good thing she did too; I couldn’t sleep that night and not wanting to disturb my husband’s sleep I got out of bed and spent a bit of time in the puzzle room. Doug got assembled in the wee hours of the morning, but I don’t think he minded much. He was probably sleeping off all of that cheese!

The puzzle went together relatively quickly. But I will say, however, that all that cheesy goodness made for a much more difficult assembly than I thought. The colors of pretty much all of the different cheesy treats were very similar, and once you add in the shirt there were a LOT of orange-y looking pieces to sort through.

Being a Buffalo puzzle, the quality was very good. The pieces fit together very well, and their signature zig-zag pieces even helped with the assembly. With so few pieces to sort through it was easy to separate the zigs and zags and put those pieces together right away. The image reproduction was quite good as well, the picture was sharp and clear with no blurry or fuzzy areas.

The finish was the only drawback, it was very shiny – much shinier than the average Buffalo puzzle. It made working under artificial lighting difficult, even with the light colored pieces there was glare that had me tilting my head to the side and wiggling the pieces back and forth to make sure what I was looking at or if I had the right piece.

Doug Cheesy 1.JPG

What an adorable, cranky, kissable face! Of course, Doug the Pug’s moneymaker is most definitely that face – and when I say money maker it is no joke. This dog has an Instagram account, his own Facebook page, and of course he’s on Twitter. All of these social media accounts have millions of followers, he’s been in music videos, is a New York Times bestselling “author”, has his own line of merchandise, and makes many celebrity appearances. He and his owner are rolling in the dough, all from his face that is so appealing, grouchy, sweet, expressive, and stone-faced all at the same time.

I hope you enjoyed this post, because Doug will be making another appearance tomorrow with another puzzle. 🐶🐾🐶

Review: Dog Stamps Quilt

On November 29, 2019November 29, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews2 Comments

Dog Stamps Quilt – hmmm, a collage with dogs, I wonder if I liked it? It won’t be much of a spoiler for me to tell you I adored it! It had everything going for it before I even opened the box, and luckily once it was opened the quality was just as good as the artwork.

Bits and Pieces is a brand I normally only buy second hand because of some very bad experiences with their puzzles. When I saw this image though, and the fact that it was only 300 pieces, I had to throw caution to the wind and give it a try. And I’m very glad I did! The pieces were very thick, with an excellent variety of shapes that fit together very well. The offset, almost wavy grid cut made for some fascinating piece shapes that sometimes seemed almost geometric, and the interesting way they fit together made for an absorbing and entertaining puzzle.

Dog Stamps 1

These adorable puppies jumped right out at me when I was sorting; first of all, their little faces look like they’re about to get into a lot of mischief, and secondly the background is a beautiful shade of blue that stood out in a sea of brown and tan pieces. Their faces and expressions are just too cute!

Dog Stamps 2

This little guy had such sad, sweet eyes. I had to take a close-up picture of this stamp; it’s just too sweet to pass up, and I think it would make a great puzzle image on it’s own.

Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of this puzzle. I find that many 300 piece puzzles with large pieces have thick chipboard that is quite sturdy, even if the larger piece count puzzles from the same brand aren’t as thick. Bits and Pieces is a brand I don’t usually endorse, but in this piece count I have no reservations in giving this puzzle a thumbs up. It’s great quality and an excellent image, and if the artwork makes you smile it is definitely recommended. Two doggie paws way up! 🐾

Details:

Title: Dog Stamps Quilt
Artist: Barbara Behr
Brand: Bits and Pieces
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Offset grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, highly recommended

1980’s

On November 27, 2019November 27, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles3 Comments

If you’re a regular reader of this blog you won’t be surprised by this – I absolutely loved this puzzle! Even though it’s 1500 pieces there was zero anxiety about starting it; it’s a collage puzzle about the 1980’s, what’s not to love? I remember every single thing shown, and even if I wasn’t a fan of The Police or never watched an episode of 21 Jump Street that doesn’t mean I didn’t love putting every single piece of this puzzle together. Many sections brought back memories that put a smile on my face, and even just looking at this picture of the puzzle makes me happy. 🙂

Since the last Re-marks puzzle I assembled had a stain over the image, I’m happy to report that this puzzle had no problems. The pieces were a good thickness and fit together well, and the reproduction had no issues other than being slightly shiny. There was only one piece shape, but it didn’t bother me much because there weren’t any large areas of one color (and most likely because I enjoyed the image so much). 1500 pieces with all one shape would normally be quite annoying for me, but it’s all relative; with a great image on the puzzle and good quality otherwise it wasn’t much of a bother at all.

80's 1.JPG

My family loved The Muppet Show, and never failed to watch it every week. This was back in the time of only three tv channels – yes youngsters, you heard that right – only three! There was cable tv, but that was basically just HBO (and they didn’t make tv shows or movies, they only showed movies that had once been in the theaters). So on Saturday or Sunday nights we had only 3 choices, it definitely made deciding what to watch much easier that’s for sure! My dad loved Statler and Waldorf, mom loved Kermit, and I loved The Swedish Chef and Beaker (odd choice, I know, but I was an odd child). The show was fun and funny, and sometimes a little bit raunchy, and thinking of it brings a smile to my face.

80's 2

These are two more things I loved. Spirograph kept me entertained for hours and hours and I used to make cards and gifts for my family with it when I was young. Mom used to get out her colored pencils and help me color the images in sometimes to make the “artwork” even more beautiful. Sometimes she would take a spirograph picture she really liked to work and make copies for us to color over and over.

As for Clue, we found the board game boring for the most part, but we absolutely loved the movie! Back in 1985 there weren’t DVD’s, but we did have a video cassette player and as soon as we were able to find the movie on VHS we most definitely had a copy. I’m sure the statute of limitations has run out, so I can tell you that we rented the movie and made a copy of it. 😇 The movie was so unusual with it’s many different endings, and we were a family that loved a great comedy. (How awesome were Madeline Kahn, Tim Curry, and Michael McKean? Just an awesome cast in general, and we adored this movie)

80's 3

This was another great action/comedy movie, and we all loved it. I can’t see anything about this movie without saying “Hey you guuuys!” in my head, and sometimes out loud. My kids loved it too when they were younger, it’s just a great all around family movie. (Well, it was PG, so there were some not so family friendly moments, but in 1985 my sisters and I were teenagers, and I didn’t show it to my kids until they were ready 😉 )

If I were to reminisce about every section of this puzzle it would be a very, very long post indeed. There are things I would have to explain to the younger generations, and most of the explanations would draw blank stares and looks of disbelief. How in the world would you explain Max Headroom, or the popularity of the Trapper Keeper?! Ah, the 80’s. What a decade! It made for a thoroughly entertaining puzzle though. I’m giving it two pairs of Calvin Kleins, standing way, way up! 👖👖