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! 🧩💚

Washing Time

Washing Time by Jenny Newland – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

This one was a great puzzle with lots of puppies and kittens. It was relatively easy to sort and assemble, and didn’t take much time at all.

I’ve noticed that the smaller piece count MasterPiece puzzles, especially the ones with the EZ grip pieces are thicker and fit better than the larger piece counts they make. This one was no exception; excellent fit, great image reproduction and nice, thick pieces. All in all a fantastic puzzle that was a joy to put together.

This little kitten staring at the chicken, for some reason it makes me smile.

You know I just can’t resist a sad puppy face, it makes me want to sit down and give a very long belly rub and maybe some extra scratching behind the ears. 💖

The fit was so good that I was able to get a picture of it standing up with very little effort. Sometimes I have to work at it to get it to stand up just so; the thickness of the pieces and the great fit meant that no extra effort was required.

Tired of my stand up pictures yet? Hope not, cause I won’t stop taking them! 😎

Magical Journey

Magical Journey by Jan Patrick Krasney – MasterPieces – 300 pieces

My youngest son picked this puzzle out when we were at the bookstore, and he did a good job – it was much more difficult than it looks! Of course it could be that I finished up the last 100 pieces or so at 2 am, perhaps lack of sleep was the challenge, not the image. 😫🛏

I think the only reason he picked out this puzzle was the fact that it has an owl in it, and he’s been obsessed with them for quite a while now. Whatever the reason, it was more entertaining than I thought it would be for an image that I don’t think I would have chosen for myself.

The quality was excellent, and that is not something I usually say about a MasterPieces puzzle; they’re in the middle tier of puzzle companies in my opinion. But this puzzle was all around excellent: thick pieces that fit together very well, an excellent variety of piece shapes, and a crisp and clear image reproduction. It’s the second MasterPieces in a row that was such good quality, I was duly impressed!

If your eyesight is good enough you can read what’s on these postcards.

Did anyone notice the puzzle pieces when you first looked at the completed puzzle? I certainly didn’t. It didn’t register with me until I was sorting the pieces; I had to look at the box image again and see where they were.

One my favorite type of pictures to take. The fit was so good with this one that it stands up on it’s own. Truly, a wonderful all around quality puzzle that I enjoyed very much. 😍