Three Arches

On August 2, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This is a beautiful puzzle that I very much enjoyed assembling. As always, working with a wooden puzzle makes me extremely happy, and that the image is so lovely makes it even better.

The artist, Arturo Zarraga, was born in Mexico City and many of his paintings are scenes from the area where he was raised. The info I found on this puzzle says this is a street scene from Mexico City. The whimsies, however, tell a slightly different story…

If the image is supposed to be Mexico City, I’m not sure why one of the pieces is in the shape of South America – it’s the wrong continent! There are no llamas in Mexico, and Christ the Redeemer is in Rio, Brazil.; but I’m probably nitpicking, right? Problem is, I have way too much time on my hands to look these things up!

Inaccurate whimsies aside, this puzzle was beautiful and wonderfully entertaining to assemble; the color palette is so pleasing it makes for great puzzling. Wentworth Puzzles have such excellent quality and a large and varied catalog, it’s difficult for me to go on their website without wanting to buy way too many puzzles. Of course if I’m honest, that happens on pretty much EVERY puzzle website that I go to. 😉

Review: Yarn Shop

On August 1, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

Yarn Shop by Kim Jacobs – Milton Bradley – 500 pieces

Mom loves this image, but it’s just not my pile of pieces (cup of tea, as it were). It’s too pastel, and there’s too much going on. It’s pretty, but it just wasn’t fun for me to assemble.

The quality was good; the pieces are a good thickness with a nice variety of piece shapes. The image reproduction seems a bit fuzzy, but that could be the artwork itself. The fit seemed a bit mushy to me, it wasn’t always clear if the correct piece was chosen because sometimes a piece seemed to fit but really didn’t. I don’t always have the right words, so I’ve chosen “mushy”.

You can see in the above pictures that there was a lot of patterned background, almost none of the pieces had a solid color with no pattern. Perhaps if it were more brightly colored it wouldn’t have been such a chore, but in my opinion the color palette added to the difficulty. I seriously disliked the entire assembly, but that was more about my taste than the quality of the puzzle.

Of course, it could be that I just wasn’t in the right mood for this image. You never can tell these days; old age is setting in (I’m a few months away from 50), and there are plenty of “You kids get off my lawn!” moods that my family has to endure. 👵

If you’re in the right mood, and this image is one that tickles your fancy, I say go for it. The quality is good and if you like the artwork you should enjoy the puzzle.

Details:

Title: Yarn Shop
Artist: Kim Jacobs
Brand: Milton Bradley
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

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

Overall Rating: Good, recommended

Winter’s Warmth

On July 31, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

This image definitely isn’t one I would choose in a larger piece count, but with only 40 pieces I’m willing to try just about anything. I’ve looked at a few of this artist’s other puzzles, and they’re very different than this one – and I liked every one!

Unfortunately this puzzle’s whimsies were another repeat, but it didn’t make the assembly any less entertaining. With so many trees and so much snow it wasn’t the easiest of puzzles, but was I completely absorbed by it.

With this puzzle, Christmas in July is officially finished! Woo hoo! Christmas puzzles aren’t my thing, but I know a lot of people enjoy them very much so I try not to be too derogatory about them. If I’ve offended anyone with my attempts at humor about Christmas puzzles, I beg your forgiveness.

See you tomorrow in August, when I’m back to assembling whatever puzzles I feel like, for whatever dumb reason I choose to apply. 😁

Megatab, Mintaka and the Snowman

On July 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I like the colors in this image, but again with the cats? I shouldn’t really complain since I’m the one who bought the puzzles, but here I am complaining anyway. I just wish there were more dog puzzles to choose from – either that or I’m just cranky and annoyed today. There’s a good chance that the cranky thing is the reason.

I like the cat whimsies in this puzzle, which sounds really stupid after I just said I’m sick of the cat puzzles, I know. I don’t mind the whimsy cats, I guess I’m just not one for the actual image of them. Sounds ridiculous, I know – but that’s how my weird mind works, and I’m not apologizing for it.

This micro puzzle was more difficult to assemble than I bargained for, but it was still fun and engrossing. That’s all puzzlers really want, to be able to be completely absorbed in the assembly – well, that’s what I’m always looking for anyway. It’s almost meditative, whether there are 40 pieces or 4000 I enjoy being wrapped up in which piece comes next and what shape goes where.

Christmas in July is almost over, one more day and one more micro winter puzzle to go!

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. 💊💊