Tag: Mini Puzzles

Seattle In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous19 Comments

Seattle by Eric Dowdle – Dowdle Puzzles (Mini Wooden Puzzle) – 250 pieces

This gorgeous little beauty has been sitting partially assembled on my board for several days. I received a care package from The Puzzle Fairy (aka Penny) on Saturday, and immediately wanted to try out this mini wooden puzzle. The pieces are so small – about the size of a dime! I started it on a tray in the bedroom, but this little guy needed better lighting so I had to transfer it to the puzzle room. Sorry about the wonky picture, didn’t realize that I cut off one of the corners until just now and I’m too tired to retake it.

Unfortunately that evening around dinner time my dad called and asked me to take him to the hospital, and that’s basically where I’ve been every day since. He was admitted on Saturday night, and we’re still there. There hasn’t been much puzzling going on, but there has been plenty of sitting around on uncomfortable hospital seating. I’m hoping that today I can maybe do a MicroPuzzle or perhaps one of my Wentworth minis.

If I hadn’t started this puzzle before we got the call I might have taken it to the hospital the first morning he had his own room, but actually I’m glad I didn’t. The fit is so loose that it needs constant readjustment whenever anything gets moved. Honestly, it’s one of the loosest fitting wooden puzzles I’ve ever done, and without my fabric covered board to help keep the pieces from moving too much it would be a giant pain in the butt!

Even with the loose fit I’m still really enjoying this – even if I only find one or two pieces at a time. The artwork is beautiful, and though I find Eric Dowdle’s images challenging to puzzle it remains an entertaining little assembly. At first I thought I was going to use the little poster that comes with it, but I found that I’d rather take my time and enjoy finding each piece on my own rather than know exactly what I was looking for and where it went. Sometimes I use a poster, but lately I’m just enjoying the puzzles however it makes sense for me on that particular day. It’s been fun!

It struck me as odd after typing up the previous paragraph that my last White Mountain puzzle had me complaining about the loose fit, and here I am saying that although this puzzle has an extremely loose fit that I’m enjoying the assembly. I have no excuses or explanations – all I can tell you is that it’s the truth.

It’s been nice to have this puzzle sitting on my board so that when I come home after spending all day at the hospital I can sit down, even if it’s only for a few moments and find a piece or two to add. Last night, I sat down, found one piece, and that was it. At least I can say I did a teeny tiny bit of puzzling yesterday; even just finding that one piece made me happy, and isn’t that what it’s all about?

*If you have a spare few moments today, send a good thought for my dad that he continues to improve and that we’ll be able to get him home from the hospital without needing any surgery. Thank you my friends. 💕

Hummingbird’s Treasure In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

Hummingbird’s Treasure – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

I haven’t gotten as far I would have liked on this one yet, usually these puzzles are finished in one sitting. They’re what I call “one coffee puzzles” – they can usually be completed in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Having a bad time lately with being able to sit in a chair for any length of time though, so this one will hopefully be completed later on today.

There’s something about working on these little puzzles with little pieces; I can’t really explain why they make me so happy, but then again I don’t really need to understand it. I can just enjoy them, right? Of course right!

This image is beautiful, and obviously I love that the hummingbird’s treasure is a puzzle piece. This isn’t an easy one, and working with the somewhat shiny pieces under artificial lighting is proving difficult at times. I had to turn off the light over the puzzle board and just work with the room lighting. The blue color around the border is a bit darker than the image shows, but it’s gonna be stunning when it’s done and difficult or not I’m still enjoying it. 😊

Sew Happy

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Sew Happy – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

This went together VERY quickly, and I absolutely adored it. After typing up my post for Frosty Frolics I really did want to put together a MicroPuzzle. So I did. This image jumped out at me as I was looking through what there was on hand – and I had the best time putting it together.

The bright colors on a white background made it easy enough to assemble, but no so easy as to be boring. The quality was the usual excellence I’ve come to expect from MicroPuzzles; great fit, beautiful and interesting images, and just an overall well-made puzzle.

The fit was so nice that I got to take one of my favorite pictures, standing on it’s edge!

Frosty Frolics

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Frosty Frolics – MicroPuzzles – 150 pieces

*Yes, another puzzle from the land of 2024. Apologies. But I did assemble them so why not show them off, right? Unfortunately all I did for this draft was download the picture and put it into a draft with the info above – that’s where the story ends.*

So…what’s you’re going to get here is general information about MicroPuzzles and my impression of the image, because there is NO recollection of assembling this one at all. On the plus side, if there were no notes in the draft about anything negative that means this puzzle left no bad impressions and had an overall good experience with the assembly.

Usually when there is a problem with a puzzle’s pieces, fit, image, etc. I always make a quick note in the draft of something specific I want to remember to talk about when ultimately the post is typed up. In the last puzzle that was posted, Squish Summer, what I put in the draft was only three words; but they reminded me that I was unimpressed with the quality overall, and specifically that the pieces were warped.

This image is very cute, and I’m certain that the lines between sky and snow on each level helped make the assembly a bit easier. MicroPuzzles always entertain me, and even though these aging eyes need help I still enjoy working on the tiny puzzles that can be put on a tray and taken to whatever room I want/need to be in.

Thankfully I have plenty of MicroPuzzles yet to be assembled so that when a 1000 piece puzzle seems like way too much of a commitment I can pick an adorable image that I know will be a well-made puzzle that can be done almost anywhere.

Long time readers will remember how I feel about Christmas-y images, but this one wasn’t too sappy of a portrayal and/or with too much white snow that ramps up the difficulty and makes it frustrating to put together. Although I don’t actually remember assembling this one, just looking at the image I can say that it was most likely a pretty fun puzzle.

Just typing up this post has made me want to assemble a MicroPuzzle once I’m finished with the one currently on my board. Luckily I have plenty to choose from! 🧩

Balloon World

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Balloon World by Royce B. McClure – Wentworth – 40 pieces

Looking back through the blog I see that it’s been six years since I’ve completed a puzzle with an image by Royce B. McClure. Oh my! His artwork is always so colorful and imaginative, it’s no wonder there are so many puzzles with his images on them; they’re so fun to put together.

This isn’t an image I would normally choose in a larger piece count, but I enjoyed it on this mini puzzle very much. On a larger puzzle this might be quite a challenge!

I don’t remember any other Wentworth puzzle that I’ve done that had whimsies that were all the same like these; but it’s always nice when the figures they choose are perfect for the image.

My (ever dwindling) collection of mini puzzles are certainly helping me out with building up my queue again, they don’t take much time at all and when I’m in need of a puzzle to post it’s easy to put one of them together quickly.

Plus, they’re great quality puzzles that are always entertaining; perfect to make this puzzle geek’s heart go pitter patter. 💓