Ocean Life

On December 27, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This was one of those thrift store puzzles that almost breaks my heart. We love finding fantastic quality kids puzzles, assembling them, and then donating them. When we find one of such excellent quality that’s missing a piece it’s so much more of a disappointment than regular missing pieces to me.

This Mudpuppy puzzle was one of the best quality kids puzzles I’ve seen in quite some time. Extremely thick pieces, beautiful colors, excellent fit – and it even had a little extra something – a search and find aspect. All the pictures around the edges are also shown in the main image and they’re not all easy to find.

What a bummer that it’s missing a piece! It makes me sad, as a lover of puzzles, that they aren’t taken care of. (But I do remember childhood too, vaguely, so I also understand.) But for some strange reason these missing pieces makes me wish that I could go back to my childhood and take MUCH better care of all of my toys and things. If I had, not only would they be worth some big time cash right now, I’d still have some of the things I loved to play with as a child. How awfully sweet and uncharacteristically sentimental of me, right? I know!

Vintage Greetings

On December 25, 2018December 24, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Vintage Greetings whimsies

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays to all my readers, friends, and family – and some of you are all three of those things! I hope your day is filled with peace, joy, and lots of love. 💝

Vintage Greetings 1

I’ve been wanting a puzzle that spelled something out for a while now, and I finally got one! 😁

This was a beautiful but difficult puzzle – much more of a challenge than I thought it would be. It’s so lovely though, worth every bit of time and money spent.

Merry Christmas! 🎄🎅🎁

Partridge in a Pear Tree

On December 24, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Such a beautiful puzzle, and so much more challenging than it looks! Gorgeous colors, fantastic whimsies – so enjoyable!

This puzzle had all the “12 Days” represented in the whimsy pieces. I tried to put them in order starting at the beginning, but funnily enough it was easier to start with day 12 at the bottom and sing my way back to a partridge in a pear tree. 🎶

Partridge whimsies

With six of the days represented by birds of some sort, I had to go over it in my head a few times to be certain each one is in the right spot. I’m pretty sure I got it right, though surely someone will let me know if it isn’t.

Partridge 1

As usual, a partridge in a partridge. 🙂 I absolutely adored these puzzles and had so much fun assembling them. They’re so lovely and entertaining to work with, they might become a yearly tradition.

I’m having the worst time being motivated to puzzle these past few days; perhaps it’s the big build up to Christmas and all the things that have to be done, perhaps not. All I know is the puzzle on my board at the moment has barely been touched in the last 3 or 4 days and it’s going to be put back into the box today. There’s been almost no progress at all since the first day I started working on it, so it’ll have to wait for another time.

Not one person has asked me what I wanted for Christmas this year, so I’m taking that to mean either they’re tired of me saying “I don’t want or need anything” or they’re all certain of what to get for me. Hmmm, wonder what that could be? So, in order to be sure that there is ample space to work on any gifts with that may arrive with “some assembly required”, the current puzzle is taking a nap for a few weeks at least. If there aren’t any dissected pictures under the tree, no worries, there are plenty here now!

The Stocking Filler

On December 23, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another lovely, quick micro puzzle from Wentworth, so much fun to assemble and supremely entertaining.

There’s a LOT of red in this image – you’d think I’d love Christmas puzzle images partly because red is my favorite color – but, not really, nope. As with many other things related to my oddly functioning brain, I have absolutely no explanation for it. All I can do is to embrace the weirdness that is me.😎

It’s only 40 pieces but each piece is wonderful to hold in your hand, satisfying to run your fingers over, and has a beautiful sound when it settles into place. Wooden puzzles are a joy!

The Stocking Filler whimsies

Two Turtle Doves

On December 22, 2018December 21, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I thought this would be easier than Three French Hens, boy was I wrong. It’s so beautiful though thatI didn’t mind one little bit – absolutely gorgeous!

There’s a symmetry and interconnectedness with Rachel Arbuckle’s artwork – I’m not sure I have the vocabulary to define exactly why I love it, I just do. The background, foreground, colors, accents – everything seems to work perfectly together. And pairing her artwork with the quality of Wentworth puzzles makes it even more fantastic in my mind. Loved this one!

Two Turtle Doves whimsies

I was surprised there wasn’t a partridge in this set of whimsies; Three French Hens had all the correct birds. I did enjoy the Dickensian characters though, so fun!

Two Turtle Doves 1

Doves in doves! This was my favorite of the 3 puzzles in this series so far; even though it was difficult it was completely engrossing and entertaining – everything about it was exactly right for me. 😎

I try to always remind my readers to treat themselves to a wooden puzzle at least once. Or if you don’t feel as if that’s something you can do for yourself, you can always ask for a small one for your birthday. There are a LOT of companies that make reasonably priced small wooden puzzles with excellent quality and you are worth spending a little extra money on!

*It’s too late for this year, but maybe next year write to Santa at the end of November and the elves might make you a fantastic wooden puzzle to put under the tree. 🎄