Christmas Town – Day 1

On December 19, 2021December 19, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Christmas Town by Joseph Holodook – Cra-Z-Art – approx. 125/500 pieces

You know what I’m going to say here about these images. So I won’t say it. Regardless, I still enjoyed putting them together. There’s something about a small puzzle, completing it in just a few minutes – it’s very satisfying and gives me quite a sense of accomplishment. Some days you just need to feel as though you got something done; these little puzzles are perfect for that.

Just because the average Christmas puzzle isn’t my particular pile of pieces, it doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the artwork, because I absolutely do. Each scene here is very detailed and would make a great holiday puzzle in it’s own right. These are the first puzzles with images by Joseph Holodook that I’ve done, and I was very impressed with his attention to detail, and the sense of nostalgia in his art. Just lovely.

These Cra-Z-Art sets are great for working with younger children too; you could use the colored backing to separate each little puzzle, and help them to assemble a puzzle with a more “adult” theme. It could help build confidence in their puzzling and problem solving skills; plus, you end up with a beautiful little completed puzzle!

This is perfect little scene on the homefront. Look at those snowmen. I know whenever I tried to make a snowman when I was younger, the snow always had so much grass and dirt in it – they never looked that perfect for me.

This is my favorite of these three puzzles, and I love the quote. “Childhood is the country we had to leave behind, but at the holidays we can go back and speak our very first language.” I couldn’t find the quote anywhere else, so my assumption is that it is by the artist himself; whoever said it, it rings very true.

The blue of this building is beautiful, and made putting together part of this puzzle pretty easy. It’s a lovely scene, isn’t it?

Driving Home for Christmas

On December 18, 2021December 18, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Driving Home for Christmas by John Francis – Wentworth – 33 pieces

What can I say about this puzzle? It was my absolute favorite of all the cracker puzzles from Wentworth this year, the image is completely charming and colorful and I adore it. The bright colors, the overloaded car, even the license plate – all fantastic!

The cut of this puzzle was odd and wonderful and the whole thing took much more concentration than I thought it would – which was perfect. Have you ever assembled the perfect puzzle at the perfect time? One that was exactly what you needed at that very moment? That’s what this puzzle was for me.

I had a very challenging 1000 piece puzzle on my board, yesterday’s Life Rules, which was there to keep me from getting too burned out on holiday puzzles. It was very tall and thin so that it could be scooted to the back of the board when necessary. That way I could stop when I was frustrated or tired of the tedium and work on some of my small wooden holiday puzzles.

When I was sick of that difficult puzzle one day I scooted it to the back of the board and started working on Driving Home for Christmas; and it was precisely what I needed.

It’s a great puzzle that had me completely absorbed in the assembly from the very first pieces. The beautiful colors and interesting cut wiped away all the frustration I was feeling about the large puzzle; I was just in the moment and enjoying putting this little beauty together.

The perfect puzzle at the perfect time. Perfection!

Life Rules

On December 17, 2021December 17, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles5 Comments

Life Rules by Louise Carey – Andrews + Blaine – 1000 pieces

This was not an easy puzzle. Luckily, I was looking for a difficult/tedious puzzle to put on the board while I was working on all the micro puzzles for the holiday season – this one fit the bill perfectly. Putting together large letters isn’t as simple as some may think. This one tried to melt my brain!

I always love having words to assemble in a puzzle, but when the words are basically the whole image – or even when they’re just very large – it can become quite difficult. All the pieces are basically just the background color, and the color of the letter. And there were only four colors in this image, each color was used multiple times for their own set of words. It was quite the challenge.

The easiest part of this assembly was the sorting. I just had one tray for each color, and one container for any pieces that were only the background. I worked on one color at a time. Sometimes the font used for one quote was simple to find, but much of the time it wasn’t as easy to pick out the right pieces for a certain quote.

Because it was so tall and thin (13 x 37 in.), it was easy to push to the back of the board when I wanted a break from it – and that is exactly what I did. When I felt myself getting too frustrated I stopped and worked on something else. 😎

My fellow P.A.D.S. sufferer Penny sent me this several years ago, but I was never in the right frame of mind to work on it. I never have my puzzles in any order to be assembled, my brain has to be in the right “head space” to work on an image; so the puzzle I’m doing next has to speak to me in some way. This puzzle has previously never had much to say – except, “Put me back, you don’t want any of this today.”

Miss Penny has since been informed that she wasn’t getting this puzzle back – after all the work that went into this one I’ve glued the bleeping thing and will be hanging it in the puzzle room. I love the look of it, and couldn’t bear to disassemble it after all that effort!

Stevie the Hedgehog

On December 16, 2021December 16, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Stevie the Hedgehog by John Francis – Wentworth – 15 pieces

Of the three kid’s puzzles I got from Wentworth, this is the one I’m keeping….for now. He’s too cute for me to give away just yet. Besides, it’s always a good idea to have an extra gift hanging around the house for emergencies.

Stevie is absolutely adorable, and he was a lot of fun to assemble too. The extra big pieces, bright colors, and sweet image made for a great time; Wentworth did such a great job with these puzzles for children, they’re truly lovely.

It makes me wish my kids were still little so I could do these puzzles with them. We would have had so much fun with these. (I miss my kids being little 😭)

Such great whimsies, all ones that even young children will recognize. A snowman and Santa are pretty easy to spot, and there’s also a little representation of Stevie himself. Adorable!

Wanted to show you the extra large pieces that are easier for little hands to hold and work with. Mom always said to give a reference when a puzzle was larger or smaller than normal, so that people can appreciate the actual size. When you see this piece in my hand you can tell that this is a puzzle with extremely big pieces made especially for children.

I loved this one! 🦔💖

Tinsel Town

On December 14, 2021December 14, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Tinsel Town by Richard Macneil – Wentworth – 40 pieces

Tinsel Town was the last of the micro puzzles from Wentworth that I assembled this season. (Don’t worry, there are still plenty left to show you, this isn’t the end of the holiday puzzles) It was a little more time consuming than it looks like it would be, but it was a fun assembly. I had a good time in spite of myself. 😉

This was purchased a couple of years ago, but for some reason I never got around to putting it together. Most likely it just got lost in the shuffle, it’s probably not because of the image. A couple of years ago I bought EVERY single micro puzzle Wentworth had without regard to image. It’s one of those holiday puzzles I don’t normally care for; however, with such a small piece count it wasn’t nearly as tedious as my brain thought it would be.

Don’t get me wrong, the artwork by Richard Macneil is absolutely beautiful. I appreciate the colors and the use of light – it’s truly lovely. I just have an (admittedly) irrational dislike of puzzles with traditional Christmas images. They just all seem the same, and for me that’s boring. I recognize and appreciate the artwork, they’re beautiful. Honestly, some of them – like this one – are stunningly beautiful. They’re just not what I like to assemble, that’s all.