Tag: Jigsaw Puzzles

Embroidery Table

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

Embroidery Table by Andrew Farley – Milton Bradley (Big Ben) – 1000 pieces

This gorgeous image made for a great time puzzling, and had me thinking of my momma whenever I worked on it. Is this not just a beautiful all-around puzzle? Stunning!

This section was one of the last to be completed, but one of the parts of the image that means the most to me. Mom taught me to cross-stitch at a young age, and I continued on doing that particular kind of embroidery until well into my marriage. The small skeins of floss (yes, that’s what they’re called) really brought back memories for me. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve done any cross-stich at all, but I remember vividly going to the craft store with my list of the numbers of each color that the pattern called for and picking them all out. My old eyes are failing me, but even though this particular hobby is no longer available to me, there are always puzzles with embroidery and cross-stitch to bring back memories. 💖🧵

Buttons, buttons, who’s got the buttons? The short answer is, my mom had the buttons! In tins, in jars, in whatever container she could find, she had SOOOOO many buttons. Any time I see a collection of buttons in an image the first thought that pops into my head is mom. Always.

And lastly, scissors. They were always a point of contention when I was growing up, for some reason mom could never find her “good scissors”. One of us girls had taken them to make something, or destroy something, or whatever reason we came up with – and the poor woman could never find a good pair of scissors in the house! I know how she feels now, I have my own “good scissors” and misery, woe, and pestilence to anyone who uses them or takes them without permission!

I adored this puzzle, and all the memories it brought back. And I also loved how much it made me think of her. I honestly didn’t plan it, but for me to be working on this puzzle on the anniversary of her passing – she was just letting me know she’s always with me. 💙

Mysterious Owl

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Mysterious Owl by Pixie Cold – Ravensburger – 150 pieces

So I finally decided to try out one of Ravensburger’s wooden puzzles, and I was very happily surprised by how good the quality is! Perhaps because they’re my favorite brand I didn’t want to tarnish my perception of them so I stayed away purposely; whatever the reason, it makes no difference as I thought the quality was excellent!

Many puzzle brands that go from cardboard to wooden don’t seem to understand that the way you design the pieces of a wooden puzzle is very different; Ravensburger doesn’t seem to have stumbled over that problem. The thickness of the wood, the image adherence to the wood, the image chosen, the design of the pieces, how they fit together and most especially how they fit around the whimsies – all of these things are fantastic!

Beautiful whimsy pieces that match with the image perfectly, although to me that owl in the lower right corner looks somewhat like a cat.

Yes, this is the back of the puzzle. You can barely see the lines of cutting, which to me tells me they wanted to be sure that the fit of the puzzle wasn’t too loose – and it wasn’t. It’s a little sad that you can’t see all the piece shapes and whimsies on the back, but it also shows that it’s a well made puzzle.

This puzzle was excellent, and much better quality than I gave it credit for. Shame on me for waiting so long. This puzzle was stunning and fabulous all around!

Mood: Capybara

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Mood: Capybara – MicroPuzzles (Puzzle Packs) – 80 pieces

This little darling image was just what I needed after a rough week and a 1000 piece puzzle. It only took a few minutes but it was fun, not so easy as to be boring and perfect for what I wanted.

I’m enjoying these mini puzzles that have larger pieces than the regular MicroPuzzle that comes in a tube. They’re great for when I want a small puzzle to do but don’t have the fine motor skills or functioning brain cells to work with the smaller pieces. Actually, both sizes are great and thankfully I have plenty of them here for whenever I’m feeling like a little puzzle is what I need.

Mood: Capybara

Stance: Stacey

Ok, that actually made me laugh out loud. I kill me! 😂

Aristocats

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Aristocats – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

There’s just something about a great quality Ravensburger puzzle, I cannot keep my hands off of it! Even before this one was finished I found myself absentmindedly running my hands over the completed sections – over and over again. I know there are many excellent puzzle companies out there, and some may even have better quality than this brand, but it’s still my favorite puzzle brand and I think it always will be.

This movie has wonderful memories associated with it, and I absolutely adore this image. If you look at the box image, it seems a bit darker than the actual puzzle. In reality, this puzzle was bright and beautiful and it was fun from the border all the way to the last piece of the harp. It’s a gorgeous Disney image, and I’m so happy that they didn’t change how the characters look, as they do with some of the other older movies.

Marie was always my favorite character in the movie, she was sassy and smart and tried to be ladylike, like her momma. Of course the sassier side of her was the best in my opinion. To quote this lovely little lady – “Ladies do not start fights, but they can finish them!” 😇

Ah, Duchess and Thomas. I was enamored of Duchess just a little bit, because I loved her accent. Little did I realize as a young child that Eva Gabor’s accent was Hungarian, not French! Still, I thought it was grown-up and beautiful – just like Duchess. Thomas on the other hand, well I guess I should use his full name; Abraham de Lacy Giuseppe Casey Thomas O’Malley. He was also a favorite because he was also Baloo from The Jungle Book and Little John from Robin Hood. Phil Harris gave voice to all those characters and he was an amazingly talented man. The whole time I was putting this puzzle together I kept singing “Abraham de Lacy Guiseppe Casey, Thomas O’Malley, O’Malley the alley cat”. It wasn’t as well sung as Phil would have done, but it made me smile.

I loved this puzzle much more than I thought I would, it’s so much brighter and more fun than the box shows. It certainly gave me hours and hours of happy fun puzzle time, and that’s all I ask for. 💖

Page & Screen

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

Page & Screen – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Soooo…………of course I loved this one! The dopamine that book cover puzzles gives me makes me so very happy. Unfortunately I only have three or four of them left here, perhaps a shopping trip is in order???

The quality of this puzzle was excellent all around, my only problem was with the glare from the shiny finish – it was one of those puzzles I needed to turn off the light above the puzzle board and only use the room light. When I find myself tilting either my head or the tray of pieces I know that the light above the board needs to go to sleep for a bit. The previous puzzle I assembled, Admont Abbey Library, had such a beautiful matte finish that it was almost shocking to start working with this puzzle which seemed very very shiny in comparison.

Usually what I do with a book cover puzzle is pick out a few books and talk about them and my history with them. This puzzle is about the page and the screen though, so I decided to do something different this time. First, I’m going to tell you that I’ve only read nine of the fifty books shown here; and I’ve seen 22 of the movies. There’s quite the difference, huh? We’re a streaming society now, and movies are much more readily available than books are, unfortunately.

Second I’m going to ask a couple of questions.

First question, if there was one book shown here that you would recommend as perhaps an underappreciated gem, what would it be?

Even though it’s a bestseller, I don’t think this book is appreciated enough. There’s a lot of blather in the first chapter about money and deals and yadda yadda yadda. The first time I read the book I thought, “what the hell is this crap?” and almost stopped reading. Thank goodness I kept going, because this book triology is one of my all time favorites and I can’t even remember how many times I’ve read all three books. I don’t recommend the movie made in the US though, the Swedish version is much better, and they made all three movies in Sweden. My darling hubby bought me the set (dubbed in English) cause he knows how much I loved the books and he’s a very good guy. 💕

Now for the second question, if there was one movie shown here that you would recommend to someone who hadn’t seen it, which one would it be?

I absolutely adore a good thriller, and even though this isn’t a book I’ve read I very much enjoyed this movie and have seen it several times. There’s something wonderful about a movie that sucks you into the story and you suspend all disbelief and just go with it wherever it takes you. This movie was like that for me, and it gets my recommendation if you’ve never seen it. Or if you’ve seen it already, maybe watch it again – it’s fun!

This puzzle was great fun, and a little bit of a challenge for me as I didn’t use the box image or poster and did this one just using the image on the pieces and let it take me where it went. I’ve done so many of these book cover puzzles that they’re almost too easy using the poster and more of a challenge was needed this time.

If you find this one out in the world it’s highly recommended. Great image!