Drunk as a Skunk

On June 23, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles1 Comment

More party animals! I really love this artwork by Mike Jupp, the looks on the animal’s faces are perfect!

To be honest, I didn’t realize at first that there is a drunk animal for each season! Drunk as a Skunk is in spring, P****d as a Newt is in summer, and the two I have yet to do are winter (Blind as a Bat) and fall (High as a Kite). I don’t know how I missed it at first, but I definitely did.

This one was a bit more difficult than P****d as a Newt; the darkness of the trees and background and the abundance of leaves made for a more challenging assembly. Still fun, still great quality, just a little more concentration required. That’s a good thing in my book, if it’s too easy it’s just boring. Better to give your brain a bit of a workout, make sure it’s staying healthy. 🙂

It was easy to pick out the pieces of the skunk, the mushrooms around the tree stump, the ice bucket and the grass in the foreground. From there it took a little more brainpower, but I was up for the challenge! It came together well without being too tedious and I had an excellent time assembling it.

I enjoy working the smaller puzzles just as much as the larger ones. 1000 piece puzzles are the average adult puzzle and the piece count with the most puzzles to choose from; but the 500 and 300 piece puzzles are just as much fun for me. I find myself ordering more of the smaller piece counts these days then I used to, and working more of the smaller ones mom finds at the thrift stores. I still do more 1000 piece puzzles than any other piece count, but I’m not as snobby about piece count as I used to be. If it looks fun, I’m all for it!

It’s not about anything but entertainment and fun, if it’s a good time to work a large piece 300 piece puzzle I’m going to do it. If I have a good time putting together a 100 piece children’s puzzle, so what? I’m puzzling because I love it and because it’s fun – those are the only reasons that are important. 😎

The Portrait

On June 22, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

What if Leonardo Da Vinci never painted the Mona Lisa? Would he still have become a famous artist? What would he be famous for? I don’t show the entire image for these types of puzzles because I don’t want to spoil the fun of solving the puzzle for anyone else. When I was just starting to find and order these puzzles I Googled one of them and clicked on a link and was presented with the finished image – I didn’t want to see that!

As usual, I completely enjoyed working this puzzle; Geoff Tristam’s artwork and sense of humor are on display here and make for an excellent puzzle. I love the added difficulty of not having a reference image to work from, it makes me pay attention even more than normal to the pieces and where they might connect. The What If collection by Ravensburger hits the mark every time and I always find myself happy with the end result.

I’m going to have to make sure I type up my post for a completed puzzle on the day I complete it! I finished this puzzle almost 2 weeks ago and I’m just writing it up now. It’s been so long, and I don’t take a picture of the entire puzzle – I’ve almost forgotten the finished image! 😮

This was one of the slightly more difficult What If puzzles I’ve completed. Usually you can tell what the background might look like or what people are wearing from the image on the box, but not so with this one. The box image shows Da Vinci painting portraits on the street long ago, and the finished image is in a more modern setting – not even close to the same background or people. Still, I was up to the challenge and enjoyed it thoroughly!

I love Ravensburger puzzles, the quality of the puzzles themselves is stellar, and they have an excellent catalog of puzzles to choose from. They are one of the companies I never hesitate to purchase if I like an image because I know I’ll be getting a quality product.

The What If puzzles are completely entertaining with an extra challenge to keep you puzzling. I highly recommend them!

Puzzleworld

On June 21, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

In the mood for a puzzle that’s a bit of a challenge? Puzzleworld! I thought this puzzle would be interesting and fun, and it was – but I had no idea how challenging it would be! All the puzzle shapes obscuring other puzzle shapes, wow. It was a challenge but I did it. 🙂

This image caught my eye while I was putting together an order and needed to be sure I was spending enough money to get free shipping. Heye quality is excellent and the image was so different and compelling that I added it to my shopping cart without much thought at all. Super entertaining purchase!

It took me 4 or 5 days to finish this one, a bit longer than normal for a 1000 piece puzzle, but not too much. The background of puzzle shapes makes for an interesting assembly and makes you pay attention. I enjoyed it very much and was proud of myself when I finished it! You can see especially in the top right corner the puzzle shapes in the background, it looks like a jumble of squiggly lines – it’ll definitely keep you on your toes.

Heye puzzles have great quality in my experience, although I think this particular puzzle may have been at the end of a run. The piece shapes are a bit more obvious than normal (although with this image that actually seems pretty cool) and several pieces were not cut all the way through. It didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the puzzle much, and I’ve had enough experience with this brand to know that it’s not the norm. They still have an excellent catalog, the pieces are sturdy with a nice variety of piece shapes, they fit together well and have beautiful image reproduction. It’s gonna take more than one slightly sub-par puzzle to make me change my mind about this brand – I’m a fan!

Love To Sew

On June 20, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another missing piece puzzle, but it was still fun to do! I was hoping all the pieces would be in this one because mom likes and collects buttons. I was wanting to glue and frame this one for her, but I guess I’ll just have to wait till we find another one that’s worthy.

I was surprised at the pieces of this puzzle, my previous experiences with Andrews + Blaine puzzles was that all the pieces were ballerinas, which doesn’t always make for the most fun assembly. But the previous puzzles worked were 1000 pieces and this one was 550. There were a very nice variety of piece shapes in this 550 piece, and they were slightly oversized which made for a nice large finished puzzle. They fit together quite well and the piece shape isn’t overly obvious in the finished image. The image reproduction seemed a bit fuzzy on this one, not as crisp and clean as I’ve seen with other A + B puzzles. Perhaps it was in the photograph itself, but it did seem a bit blurred in places.

I did this one over several days as I was having a tough time with sitting and standing, and it took me much longer than a 550 piece would normally take – partly because it was a bit challenging and partly because I wasn’t able to work on it as much as I would have liked. Then my daughter came to visit one day near the end and finished it up while I was on a phone call. I turned around and it was done!

This was a fun assembly that was about moderate difficulty and it looks great finished except for that darned missing piece. I enjoy the Andrews + Blaine puzzles, but for me with this brand the image is everything – especially when there is a 1000 piece puzzle and all the pieces are the same shape. You’ve got to have an image that doesn’t have a lot of sameness, with plenty of color changes/shades and textures to help find pieces. 😉

Root Beer Break at the Butterfield’s

On June 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

This isn’t the typical Wysocki artwork in that there is only one building, but it’s still beautiful and has his wonderfully straight and symmetrical style in the beach house itself.

This was one of the few 300 piece Buffalo puzzles that I’ve assembled, and I love them. They fit together so nicely and the pieces are large enough for younger hands to work with or older eyes to see better. They are extremely sturdy as well, and there are a nice variety of piece shapes. They do not contain any zig zag pieces that a 1000 or 2000 piece Buffalo puzzle usually has, but still a good variety. Buffalo also includes a poster with all their puzzles which is nice, especially when working on the puzzle with more than one person so you don’t have to share the box for reference.

This puzzle was a lovely afternoon distraction for me when I was having a stressful day and needed a break from the world. I was able to sit for a bit and concentrate only on which piece went next. I wasn’t able to sit long enough to complete the entire puzzle at once, but it was completed in one day. 🙂

There are so many reasons that puzzling is an excellent activity – good for hand/eye coordination, memory, stress relief, spatial awareness, pattern recognition, fun, and too many more reasons to name. Buffalo has so many wonderful Wysocki images to choose from and many others as well, there’s something for everyone. The quality is excellent and the images are lovely – there’s no reason not to pick one up!