Dog Lovers

Dog Lovers by Anderson Design Group – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces

As a verified dog person, of course I loved this puzzle. One of the better quality MasterPieces puzzle I’ve done in quite a while. The fit was excellent, the image reproduction was very good, and the very random piece shape kept things interesting. Great puzzle!

I started with all the wording, even though that’s not where I normally begin with a collage puzzle. But in this image there were way more pieces with no words so it seemed the best place to start.

Once these words were put together a song kept running around and around my head. “Kanine Krunchies can’t be beat, they make each meal a special treat. Happy dogs are those who eat nutritious Kanine Krunchies.” I knew of course that it must have been a Disney or Pixar movie, but just couldn’t place the song and the movie together in my brain. Luckily we’re living in the age of google, so putting the first bit of the song into a search engine brought me to a small clip of the movie where that song is sung. 101 Dalmations! I knew I recognized it, and once I found out where it came from it stopped playing in my head. Thank goodness!

Look at that gorgeous little lady! If you’ve been here for a while you know that I used to have a Boston Terrier named Buddy, and he was definitely my sunshine. I miss him terribly, but still think all Boston’s are gorgeous dogs and always love to see them in a puzzle. 🐾🧡

The fit was so good on this puzzle that I knew when I was at the beginning putting the border together that I’d be able to do this at the end. Not a fit that’s so tight you have to cram the pieces together, just snug enough. Love that kind of fit! It’s not often I can do this with a 1000 piece puzzle, so this picture here made me very happy indeed. In fact, I took this before I took any other pictures, that’s how confident I was in being able to stand it up.

If this looks like a puzzle you’d enjoy, it has a very good recommendation from me – if anyone gives a crap what I recommend. 😂

Flight of Creativity In Progress…

Flight of Creativity by Jena Dellagrottaglia – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

After completing the previous puzzle I had no idea what I wanted to do next. All I knew is that I had forgotten to choose and sort the next project and I was NOT in a place where I could sort a 1000 piece puzzle, so I had to pick something with a much smaller piece count to get myself going. Funnily enough I started this puzzle, put in enough pieces to where it was time to sort the next one – and sorted a 1000 piece puzzle all in that same day!

Sadly, that was where it ended; and even though I’m ready to start the next one I’m still recovering this morning from sitting in that puzzle chair for way too long yesterday. I’ve taken my meds and waiting for them to kick in – then we’ll be off to the races today to get this one (hopefully) finished and start on the gorgeous collage that will be next.

This image is beautiful, I love all the colors and sewing supplies, and can’t wait to see it all put together. I’m currently loving all the MasterPieces I’ve done lately, and it looks as though this one has the same great quality. The fit is exceptional and it’s been great fun so far, couldn’t ask for anything more. 😎

Frenchie In Progress…

Frenchie by Karen Burke – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces

There isn’t much to tell today unfortunately. Yesterday was a bad day for me in the pain department, so there wasn’t much work completed on today’s puzzle. In fact I didn’t get out of bed to actual put puzzle pieces together until almost two in the afternoon!

That’s ok, the little guy in the puzzle knows I love him, and that it will be great fun putting together every last bit of him. Adore this image.😍

Secrets of the Deep

Secrets of the Deep by Steve Read – MasterPieces – 500 pieces

This puzzle was a joy – random shapes, beautiful colors, excellent fit – I absolutely adored it! Ocean images aren’t really my thing, but I wanted to clear out some of the older thrift store puzzles and this had the right piece count so I gave it a go. I’m so glad I did.

MasterPieces puzzles have always had good quality in my opinion, and this was one of the best quality puzzles of theirs that I can ever remember doing. The image reproduction is stunning, the fit was exceptional, the random shapes made the assembly wonderfully interesting, it was just an all around great puzzle. 💙

It can be interesting putting together a random cut like this where the “corners” of the pieces don’t meet – it can be all over the place. In my case it makes me slow down a bit and really pay attention to the connections and be sure to grab the right piece no matter if it’s tall or short or long or thin.

In addition to being an all around great puzzle this was also a glow in the dark puzzle with hidden images to find; Steve Read likes to hide things in his artwork. I found myself going back through the blog and looking at past puzzles with his artwork, and quite a few of them were ones with hidden images – there were hidden animals, hidden fairies, etc. Anyway, back to this puzzle, there are 16 hidden dolphins to find; can you see a pink dolphin in this coral (or whatever it is)?

The fit was very good, and I was able to get this stand up picture, but just barely. You can see the pieces are moving a bit, and immediately after I took this picture a piece fell out. I almost feel as though I shouldn’t be posting this picture because it wasn’t as good as previous puzzles that stood tall and proud with no pieces moving around. But I did capture the image, so why not?

As I mentioned before this was also a glow in the dark puzzle, and a thrift store purchase. Once it was finished and pictures were taken I took it outside to “charge” for 10 minutes or so in the sun. You can never tell with a thrift store puzzle if you’re gonna still be able to get a good glow out of it and I’ve found that putting it in direct sunlight for a few minutes helps.

Let me tell you, I got the best glow on a puzzle I have EVER seen, and the absolute best glow picture I have ever taken. Ready?….

It’s a little blurry on one side, I think I was so amazed by how well it was glowing that I moved a little when I was taking it. There was absolutely no manipulation of the image other than to crop it, this is actually what it looked like in the darkened room. Isn’t that a glorious GITD picture? I was so excited to capture such an excellent glow on this puzzle – I still am!

This was a fabulous puzzle with hidden images inside beautiful artwork on a puzzle with excellent quality. I absolutely recommend it; it made this little old puzzle lady very happy indeed. 👵

Dog Lovers In Progress…

Dog Lovers by Anderson Design Group – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces

There hasn’t been too much work on this one, unfortunately. It’s been a rough week for me and I’m just hanging on and doing the best I can. Most of the week has been spent in bed, and yesterday wasn’t much different. I did make myself get in front of a puzzle though, because I knew I needed a puzzle to show you for today’s post. I’ll get my mojo back, I’m sure. I just need some rest.


This is post number 2000 here on My Jigsaw Journal. Can you believe it?!? Me neither! I should have gotten here a few years ago, but I’m known to take a break or two (sometimes for more than a year at a time). That’s alright, all good things happen in their own time, don’t they?

I wish I had something other than an in progress post for you today, but I don’t. There weren’t any plans to commemorate post 2000 and by the time I realized it there wasn’t time to plan much so I figured it would just be like any other day.

When you think about it though, the time it takes to write up that many blog posts – my goodness, I should be so proud of myself! (If you knew how many times I go back over them before posting to be sure there aren’t spelling or grammatical mistakes, you’d ask me if I was currently being medicated for my OCD *I’m not*)

Happy 2000th post to My Jigsaw Journal, and happy puzzling to us all! 🧩💚