Happy Mother’s Day!

On May 13, 2018May 13, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Jigsaw Puzzling5 Comments

Things have been crazy this year and I didn’t have a puzzle ready for Mother’s Day. I decided yesterday to try and find a great picture of her and use the Ji Ga Zo program and put together a puzzle of my mom. It isn’t perfect, but I like it, and what better puzzle to show than that of one of my favorite people in the world?

This is my mother’s graduation picture from 1965. Wasn’t she a dish? Hot stuff!

I used this picture in Ji Ga Zo to make a mosaic puzzle of her. If you’d like to know more about the program and how it works, click the link to see my original post about this puzzle game. It took a while to get the picture cropped properly and the contrast right, but she’s worth it. 😎 I wasn’t able to get it all assembled at once, but finished the mosaic this morning. Here she is….

I like to show both pictures together so you can see how close you can actually get with just sepia tones. It isn’t an exact reproduction, but it’s pretty darn close and very entertaining to assemble. It gets better the farther away you are, if you step back from the computer (or hold your phone farther away) it becomes more “clear”. It’s a fun puzzle/game, and mom and I love playing with it and seeing which pictures would make the best puzzles. I think we may be working together to use dad’s graduation picture for a Father’s Day post this year!

My gorgeous momma!

Ji Ga Zo – 300 pieces

My mom is one of the best people I know. She’s flawed, like all of the rest of us; but she’s also kind and loving, smart and well-spoken, funny and silly, open and honest, empathetic and forgiving, and my very best friend. It seems cliche to say that, so many people do – but she truly is. When I’m hormonal and hating the world she’s the only one I want to talk to. When I’m depressed and anxious, she can make me smile and forget my troubles if only for a little while. When I’m tired and getting stupid silly she laughs with me and understands my ridiculous jokes and comments. When I worry about everything (and nothing) she’s always there to listen and just let me know she cares.

She’s also my puzzle dealer, and my favorite person to assemble puzzles with. We have almost a shorthand and work together extremely well. We tease each other, cuss at each other, and give high fives when one of us completes a section or finds that wayward piece. She’s my puzzle posse! Probably 90-95% of the puzzles we assemble come from her thrift store shopping, and as much as it annoys my dad to wade through the piles of puzzles, he knows how happy it makes me and mom and he puts up with it. Most of the time. (He’s pretty damn cool too!)

Being her daughter makes me very proud, and being her friend makes my life better. Happy Mother’s Day mom – I love you to puzzle pieces! ❤

Delphinium Cottage

On May 12, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I thought I should show one of these mini framed puzzles actually in the frame. The glue I used was high gloss, so there’s a bit of glare; but it looks pretty darn good to me. ☺

This was the second of my newly named “bathroom puzzles”, and hubby and I enjoyed assembling it very much. It’s difficult not to work on a puzzle when it’s sitting there – and you’re sitting there. To be honest, I miss not having a tiny puzzle in there now that they’re all assembled. Here’s hoping I find more of them one of these days.

I found this image easier to work with than Colors of Venice, and it went together more quickly. The bright flowers and more obvious contrasts helped speed up the pace; it was much easier to separate out certain sections. It may have helped that we were a little more experienced with the very small pieces too – they really were great fun!

To be honest, I didn’t even notice the puppy in the bushes until I was assembling the dogs in the grass. I got all the dogs in the foreground put together and still had pieces with light yellow fur on them, they didn’t seem to connect to the dogs already assembled, where in the world did they go? And how did I miss that every time I looked at the poster? I’m claiming muddled middle-aged brain as an excuse for my lack of perception.😉

I’ll puzzle just about anywhere that’s it’s possible, obviously. It actually helps me deal with my chronic pain, and reduces my anxiety and stress. And even if those things weren’t a factor I find puzzling to be fun, engaging, entertaining, and satisfying. Whatever reason motivates you to puzzle is the best reason there is. Puzzle on my friends!

Fantasy Palace

On May 11, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

This puzzle made me think it would be difficult, but it wasn’t. Quite the opposite, it was entertaining and beautiful – and it makes me a little sad that I don’t have any more new bigger wooden puzzles to assemble. Eventually I’ll get myself some more though, no worries.

I’ve long admired the artwork of Ciro Marchetti, his use of color and whimsy is absolutely beautiful – it reminds me of Aimee Stewart’s art. This is the first puzzle of his that I’ve done and it was more fun than I’d hoped for. That it was a wooden puzzle added to my enjoyment, it’s the best time I’ve had puzzling in a while.

I’ve run out of adjectives to describe how fabulous working with wooden puzzles is. It’s a special treat, and I make no apologies for spending money on something that makes me happy. Every post with a wooden puzzle ends with me encouraging you to treat yourself to a wooden puzzle, and I will continue to do that. Wooden puzzles are a visual and tactile pleasure to work with; we’re completely worth it – no question.

Mr. Potato Head

On May 10, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is a cute 48 piece puzzle of Mr. Potato Head that comes with 20 clings that you can mix and match to create different faces. And to think that in the early 1950’s when the toy was first produced it was just separate plastic body parts with pushpins that you used on a real potato! What?!

I think the idea for this puzzle is excellent, but I was pretty disappointed with the quality. I really wanted to like this one too! The pieces were thin and easily bent, what I consider to be not sturdy enough for repeated play. If the object is to assemble and play with this multiple times I don’t think the pieces will hold up well. As you can see in the image above, the puzzle also doesn’t lay completely flat – not great. The clings themselves seem like good enough quality, but to comment on them specifically I would want to spend more time with them. All in all I was hoping for better from this puzzle, we found it new and unopened at the thrift store.

I wanted to make at least 2 different faces to show some of the clings that come with the puzzle. I had a good time choosing and trying to make a funny face. 🤓

Perhaps if this puzzle is something your little one would really enjoy you could glue it once it was assembled to keep the pieces from bending and wearing out from repeated use? I don’t have an answer. It’s a great idea, but not as well executed as I’d hoped for. This puzzle is unfortunately not recommended.

Irises

On May 9, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This is another very small piece puzzle that mom found somewhere. The image is only the top of Van Gogh’s Irises, but it was lovely and challenging and I had the best time putting it together!

The two puzzles we have from this series were truly the best quality smaller piece puzzles that I’ve worked with. The pieces are thick and fit together extremely well, there is no wondering if you have placed the piece correctly or not. The image reproduction is very good, but seems a bit darker than the original artwork (from my non-artist point of view anyway). If mom finds any Andrews + Blaine small piece puzzles at the thrift store we’re definitely getting them!

The whole puzzle fit on a cookie sheet, and I assembled the entire thing while in bed. I haven’t been able to sit at my puzzle table for well over a week now, so all the puzzles I’m doing have to fit on my white board or something smaller so that I can do them while lying down or propped up. There’s another advantage of the tiny puzzle! 😉

I was actually a little afraid of this puzzle for a while, the image is a bit difficult. I found it to be quite calming to assemble though; and even if I had to sit and stare at them for a bit, I could find and place the pieces correctly. In the end though, I’ve discovered that I’m much braver about difficult images if there aren’t many pieces. I don’t think I’ll ever attempt Starry Night in 1000 or even 500 pieces; but I didn’t have a problem putting it together as a 40 piece wooden puzzle. If it’s super challenging my courage is directly related to piece count. 300 pieces or less? Sure! More than that? Probably not. Maybe 500 tops – maybe.

I really enjoyed this puzzle much more than I anticipated, just as much as the first one I assembled – Fairgrounds. You can’t really tell how small they are until you see the tiny little box they come in. I took a great picture of the puzzle box next to my coffee cup in that post!

It doesn’t look like these small puzzles are being produced by A + B anymore, but if you happen across one in a thrift store, go for it! It’s a nice change from larger piece counts, and just may be more fun than you think. 👍