Catchin’ Bugs

On February 2, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

I tried a 1000 piece puzzle just before this one. It was on my board for the entire week, I barely made any progress at all, and ended up putting it back in the box. I said out loud “This isn’t fun for me at all”, but to be honest I think I was more upset that I couldn’t work on it much. Normally it takes me 2 or 3 days to complete a 1000 piece puzzle, and I’ve been known to do an entire one in just one day if I’m really enjoying it. It’s a little depressing for me at the moment to have been working on one for more than 5 days and barely have more than 200 pieces of it together. So I decided to go back to the smaller ones and hope to try again on a 500 or 1000 piece soon.

Hubby helped me work on this one. We spent most of the day in bed and he helped me finish this; it was nice to work on a puzzle with him again, it’s been a while since he’s had the time. 💕

I really had a good time with this puzzle. I enjoy the Wysocki’s that are a little bit different; especially ones that have only one building. I find them a little more interesting and entertaining; sometimes the “regular” ones all seem to blend together and look the same. Just my opinion of course.

The color palette here is a little muted, but it still made for a pretty picture and an enjoyable assembly. The quality of the puzzle was very good as well, with thick pieces and interesting shapes – really nice all around puzzle. This is one of the batch we got from a friend, and she does her puzzles many, many times before she gets rid of them. The masking tape with dates on the box tells me she and her husband assembled this puzzle at least once every year since 2010; and there was not one piece with image lift or any damage at all! This is an exceptionally well made puzzle, and if you come across one I would definitely recommend giving it a go. 🙂

White Duck Inn

On February 1, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another small piece count puzzle to get me back into the groove after being stuck at the hospital doing small puzzles to fit on my bedside table. This one was fun and fast and the image makes me smile, doesn’t that look like a lovely place to spend the weekend?

I love the extremely random cut of MasterPieces puzzles, it makes for a fun and interesting assembly. Their EZ Grip 300 piece puzzles have large, easy to handle pieces that are great for hands with dexterity problems, or just someone who enjoys large pieces from time to time. Like me!

The finish was a little bit shiny, but not too terrible to work with under artificial lights. I was able to assemble it resting in bed on my white board without too much difficulty from the overhead lights; and it was easy, which was what I was looking for. I’d love to able to get back to 500 and 1000 piece puzzles soon. Hopefully by the time I get this posted I’ll have a larger piece count on my board and be back to puzzling sitting up. Fingers crossed! 🤞

Mother and Daughter (2)

On January 31, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

It’s finally finished! It was on my board for more than 2 weeks, most of the time it sat untouched while I was hospitalized, but I finally completed it and it’s off my board. Hooray!!

I absolutely love this image and it’s companion that I previously assembled; both images remind me very much of my mother, who is just as beautiful as the woman pictured and also loves knitting and crafts. As soon as I saw these puzzles I had to get them, and I’m glad I did. They were both challenging assemblies, but it doesn’t take away from how much I love the images themselves. Love, love, love them! ❤

I’m not sure how I feel about this brand, Falcon de luxe. They are a good thickness and sturdy and the image reproduction is gorgeous. Most of the pieces are ballerinas, although there are a few other shapes to work with. The pieces can seem to fit where they do not belong, and that I am not a fan of – especially with an image that looks vintage. I find these images a challenge because although the finished puzzle doesn’t look difficult the pieces themselves seem almost blurry and indistinct; it’s the “vintage” look (just my opinion here). When you have “fuzzy” pieces to work with it’s even more difficult if pieces seem to fit in multiple places. I will have to assemble an easier image or two in order to compare; I don’t like passing judgement until I’ve given a brand a few tries.

Until I allow myself more puzzle shopping I’m holding back judgement on this brand. For the most part it’s good, they’re not a cheaply made puzzle. Although I do wish there were more variety in the piece shapes. This puzzle in particular though, made me very happy. I absolutely love it, and the beautiful lady it reminds me of. ❤❤

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The Seabuglers

On January 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was the first puzzle I did when I got home from “vacation”. There was a partially assembled 500 piece puzzle that had been on my board the whole time, but I wasn’t feeling as though I could sit at the board for any length of time and work on it. So I got out my white board and grabbed the easiest looking 300 piece puzzle I could find, here it is!

For some reason in my head it seems that a puzzle by Hasbro wouldn’t be good quality. They’re the company that made games when I was young (many, many moons ago) and I don’t remember them being overly sturdy or well-made. Luckily, all that nonsense is just in my head because the Hasbro puzzles I’ve done have all been exceptionally well made; they’re sturdy, wonderfully thick, and fit together amazingly well. I’ve only ever done 300 piece Hasbro puzzles so I have no frame of reference for any other piece count, but the their EZ Grip puzzles are wonderful!

As I’ve said before, I very much enjoy the Wysocki puzzles that aren’t the norm, like this one. Most of his puzzles are lovely Americana/folk art images of towns with many buildings; while they are all beautiful images, for me they can seem too similar. I’m a bit of a rebel and enjoy things that are different from the usual, so my favorite Wysockis are the ones that really stand out. Although this image itself isn’t really odd, it’s different from most of his other works which makes it more special to me.

Although it took longer than usual for me to assemble this puzzle, I was pretty darn proud when I got it finished. It was mostly assembled while I was in bed, but I was able to take it in the puzzle room and put the white board on my puzzle table and work on it there for little bits of time. I guess I have to get my butt back into puzzling shape! 😉

The Thames at Westminster

On January 28, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I like this image very much and as usual this micro puzzle was a fun assembly. Looking at this picture now, when the puzzle has already been put away, makes me want to take it out again and check the castle whimsy pieces; I wonder if you can line them up and make a bigger castle. Hmmm. 🏰

I’ve been having such a hard time getting back to my puzzling routine that was interrupted by a weeks “vacation” away from home. Side effects from medications and other issues have made it extremely difficult for me to sit at my puzzle table and puzzle for any length of time. I think because of my limitations at the moment I’m extremely picky about what puzzles I want to do; I want easy puzzles, like collages, where I can pick a small group of pieces and assemble them and feel like I’ve accomplished something. I have well over 100 puzzles here at the house, and hundreds more over at moms to choose from but none of them interest me right now. It doesn’t make much sense to me that with so many puzzles available I still can’t find one I want to do.

I’m planning to buy a new chair for puzzling very soon in the hopes that it will be a little more comfortable to sit for more than a minute; which means perhaps soon I’ll be back to my regular puzzles. Yesterday I went on a quick puzzle run with mom and my daughter; I got a couple of cool collages (and a few others) and I’m hoping they will help me get my puzzle juju back soon! 🛍

This is the last of the hospital puzzles – hooray! There are still about 10-15 micro puzzles left I haven’t assembled, but I can pepper them in here and there; there’s no need to do them all at once.

It was such a blessing to me to have puzzles to do to break up the boredom and take my mind off of everything stressful going on. The micro puzzles are small enough to do all at once, which is nice because for some reason laying in bed all day is exhausting; the larger puzzles I assembled took a day or two, but it didn’t matter – I loved them all. Wentworth Wooden Puzzles helped save my sanity. Thanks Wentworth! 💕