Wednesday 01-11-17 60%Done!

On January 11, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, World's Largest Puzzle Progress2 Comments

60% finished, and I must say I am enjoying this enormous puzzle a lot more than I thought I would. Even with me being a moron and dropping a section, still loving this puzzle and the assembly.

This section took me 14 days to complete. Not bad. I wasn’t rushing, just enjoyed myself. I did spend too much time working on it yesterday, but that was because I knew how close I was to the end, and it gets me all riled up! 😉

I’m not feeling great today, so I won’t be moving it off the board until tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll be able to put it on it’s cardboard bed safely, but I won’t feel better until it’s done.

I’m loving the way this section in particular looks; the colors, the fireflies, everything just works together and I think it looks amazing. I know no one really cares that much except for me, but it looks great and I’m proud and I can’t wait to get going on the next section!

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Up next, Fantasia. You can see why I think it’s going to be the hardest section. Only 1 character, Mickey. The rest is just twinklies, white foam, blues, browns and black. If it were a smaller puzzle, it would still be difficult, but being over 4000 pieces you can imagine just how many pieces are extremely similar in color and shape. Yikes!

Also, I have to say I’m a teeny bit disappointed in the filmstrip for this one. You can’t tell from the picture, but almost every cell is from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Fantasia had so many great parts to it, why not include some of them? The dance of the hours, with the ballerina ostriches, elephants, hippopotamuses and alligators. Night on Bald Mountain with the devil and evil spirits, who are all sent back to hell when dawn comes and you hear the Ave Maria. Or the Pastoral Symphony with the centaurs and “centaurettes” and cupids and Zeus. So many great scenes to choose from, why not at least put some of them in the filmstrip? Just my personal opinion of course.

Anyway – onward to Fantasia!!! 🙂

Coffee Cafe

On January 9, 2017January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I love coffee and I love jigsaws, so put the two together and it’s a great combination. This was a thrift store purchase, and the first Remarks puzzle that I assembled.

The quality of the pieces was quite good, although as you can see the finish was somewhat shiny causing glare under lights. The piece shapes were random, not a plain grid cut which made for a nice variety of shapes and a fun assembly. The piece were about average thickness, but were compact and sturdy; and the image quality was excellent. There was also a poster included in the box – added bonus!

I always love getting a thrift store puzzle finished and seeing that all the pieces are present and accounted for. It’s even more satisfying when the assembly is enjoyable and you’ve only spent 99 cents!

Matchbooks Collage

On January 6, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Was this puzzle ever fun! I am a sucker for collage puzzles and this one was no different, so enjoyable! I had a lot of help with this one too – my husband and daughter and son-in-law pitched in. I forgot that I took this picture before the puzzle was technically finished. I told my daughter she could put in the last piece, so I left it out for her (that’s the piece on the right side). I took this picture and texted it to her so she would know it was waiting for her, but then once she put the piece in I forgot to take a picture of the COMPLETED puzzle. 😉

It was a joy to put together and I can’t recommend it enough. It was entertaining to read all the matchbook covers as it was being assembled (the things they used to put on a book of matches – Wow!) Most of the matchbooks were between 4 and 6 pieces, so it was almost like doing a bunch of tiny little puzzles. Loved it!

The White Mountain brand has some of the most amazing and fun collage puzzles. And their pieces are larger than most companies, so the 1000 piece puzzle is more impressive when finished, it feels like a bigger accomplishment.

Candy Jars

On January 4, 2017January 4, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Although it looks difficult, the puzzle above was quite fun to assemble. The different textures of each of the candies were easy enough to distinguish, and I found myself enjoying it much more than I thought I would. That happens to me a lot, and I don’t know why I don’t just jump in and start doing puzzles; even if I’m not sure I’m going to like it, or even if I think I might even dislike it. Cause I’m a doofus sometimes, that’s why.

I like Cobble Hill puzzles very much. The linen coating on the puzzle and on the box feels luxurious and is even helpful if you’ve got a lot of sameness. If there is a bunch of blue sky the linen on the puzzle can show you if a piece lies vertically or horizontally in the puzzle. Bonus! The pieces are randomly cut which can be more difficult to some, or more enjoyable for others. Personal preference. I’ve never had a Cobble Hill puzzle that wasn’t very good quality. They have a lot of great puzzles to choose from as well. One of the companies I never hesitate to purchase from.

Candy Jars was a fun puzzle, with just enough difficulty to be a challenge. The colors were bright and fun, and the candy made me hungry for sweets!

Model & The Muse

On January 2, 2017February 25, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

img_2512-2 — Model & The Muse – Get Your Jig On – 513 pieces

Get Your Jig On is a young puzzle company whose CEO contacted me to see if I would be interested in doing one of their puzzles. After checking out their website, and loving their message of diversity, sexual empowerment and freedom of expression – I said absolutely! I don’t actually “review” jigsaw puzzles here, I just write about puzzles I am doing or have done, but I give my honest opinion about their quality, images, and whether or not I enjoyed doing them.

I enjoyed this puzzle very much! The image isn’t overly graphic, it is tasteful and artistic and was a fun challenge to assemble. The only editing I did to the picture was to slightly blur the breast, otherwise the image is as shown. Right now the company has only 3 images to choose from, but I am told they have more shoots scheduled this month and will be adding to their catalog.

The pieces are quite thick (about the same thickness as Ravensburger) and have a slightly waxy finish. There are a good range of piece shapes and they fit together wonderfully without being too tight which is always nice. I prefer puzzles that you don’t have to force together. There were 1 or 2 pieces where the cardboard backing was slightly split and there was a little bit of puzzle dust, but the overall quality is very good, and the puzzle is made in the USA. 🙂

The puzzle comes with a letter of authenticity, a picture of the puzzle image, a statement about why the image was chosen, and a short bio of all participants. If you’re conservative the box fits into a bookshelf and has a side that looks like a book sleeve.

It was more difficult than I expected, but a fun challenge nonetheless – and of course hubby wanted to help with this puzzle! 😉 It took me a couple of days, but I enjoyed the assembly and actually kind of fell in love with the artwork in the background as well. LOVE the skull painting on the right side of the picture!

In short I loved the image, the puzzle assembly was fun and challenging, the quality was better than I expected, and as an added bonus I really love what the company stands for!