Review: Harvest Festival

On January 22, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews4 Comments

Harvest Festival is a colorful, entertaining, and gorgeous puzzle that I enjoyed immensely! It combined the fun of working with such an interesting image with the challenge of a semi-random cut – and to top it off it was a very good quality puzzle. 🙂

Tidemark puzzles are a new to me company, and I was pretty impressed with both the image and the quality. The pieces are semi-randomly cut, a good thickness, and fit together quite well. The image reproduction is bright and colorful with crisp lines and very little glare. Their catalog is quite small with only 8 images to choose from, but if one of them strikes your fancy you should give it a try. (Most of them are a little muted for my taste, but there may be something you’d love to assemble.)

The wavy lines of color weren’t easy and got a little tedious on the last day of assembly, but I still love the image and am super proud of myself for sticking with it.

harvest festival 1

The artwork by Jonathan Green is so striking that I couldn’t help but enjoy myself; bright colors in a puzzle make me happy, and don’t we all need a little more happiness in our lives? I know I do. 🙂

Details:

Title: Harvest Festival
Artist: Jonathan Green
Brand: Tidemark
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 19 x 27 in. (48 x 67 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Semi-random cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Harry Potter Book 3

On January 19, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

These Harry Potter cover puzzles are harder than they look, but so much fun! The colors are beautiful, the quality is excellent, and they’re small enough to finish with a cup of coffee. 🙂

I’ve read all the books several times, and to be honest I never really paid attention to the detail on the covers before – but you absolutely have to pay attention when you’re putting these together. I’m a puzzler, so you would think I have some eye for detail, but I never noticed the shadow of Sirius Black in the window before!

Or perhaps I did register it, but my muddled brain didn’t keep that information on file. Who knows? Obviously, not me!

Mystery Box – Day 8

On January 18, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

mystery puzzle 5

It’s coming together slowly, and at first after taking the picture this morning it didn’t seem to be very much progress. Then I went and looked at the picture from 3 days ago, and it’s filling in much more than I’d realized….

Oooh! Corners!

It’s filling in!

It’s sort of like when you see something every day you don’t notice the slow change. But when you put the pictures together you can really see the progress. Mom came over yesterday and worked on it while I slept in the other room and put lots of pieces together – good job Mom, thanks for taking up the slack! 🙂

Songbirds

On January 17, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Alas, this is the last of the mini shaped puzzles that I had left, and now they’re all done. They’re beautiful and so entertaining for me to assemble, I’m a little sad that there aren’t any more. 😥

The colored backing makes them easy to sort, each mini puzzle has a different color so you can separate them easily. Or if you’re looking for a little more of a challenge you can ignore the backs and assemble them with no pre-sorting. I absolutely adore these little puzzles! You get that wonderful sense of accomplishment with each figure completed, and it revs me up to get going on the next one.

Puzzling is all about enjoyment and relaxation for me, and assembling these puzzles gives me so much pleasure. I love them❣

**Lafayette Puzzle Factory, I hope these were excellent sellers for you and that you might want to make more of this series. I’ll be waiting outside your virtual doorstep for a new release and will scoop up every one you have to offer!

Cupcake Heaven

On January 16, 2019January 16, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

My first completed 1000 piece puzzle of the year. I chose it because it’s the kind of puzzle image that makes me happy – a collage with bright colors – and I wanted the first puzzle of the year to be awesome and entertaining.

Cupcake Heaven had 7 missing pieces and a devious random cut that had me using more brain power than I’d bargained for. If the puzzle was complete and the fit were less spongy it would definitely be one I’d assemble again. It wasn’t always easy to be sure the pieces were in the correct places because the fit was odd.

Even though it had missing pieces and a wonky fit I still enjoyed myself, which was the aim all along. Everything doesn’t always have to be perfect – life certainly never is! It’s what you do with what you’re given that counts in the end.

Cupcakes for everyone! 🙂