Heroes & Heroines

On January 14, 2020January 13, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This was my last puzzle of 2019, I’m glad I made it a good one – it’s an Aimee Stewart. I don’t have a lot to say about it other than it was a beautiful image and an excellent quality Ravensburger with exceptional fit and great hand feel.

It wasn’t an easy assembly, but that’s part of what made it fun – the challenge is both engrossing and entertaining.

These were my favorite couples to assemble, Marguerite and Armand (from the 19th century novel La Dame aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas), and Christine and Erik (from Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux). I haven’t read either of them, but they were fun to put together.

After reading the insert, I must admit that I didn’t know who some of the heroes & heroines were; I haven’t read many love stories and not a lot of the usual literary works either. And yes, that means I haven’t read Wuthering Heights, The Great Gatsby and many other works of literature that most people have read. Oh well, I have no inclination to read them now either – I’d rather spend my time with my family or a jigsaw puzzle to be honest.

Chocolate Milkshake

On November 23, 2019November 22, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This was a fantastic quality Ravensburger puzzle with a new matte finish. The artwork is wonderfully fun and made for the exact right amount of challenge. I just love this image!

The dancing cows, the chocolate and treats flying around and everything in the background made for quite an easy assembly. I did the cows last, as they were the most difficult part, but even then they weren’t too bad at all. And they’re so cute!

Milkshake 1

You can see the difference in the finish here; on the right are pieces from a 1000 piece Ravensburger with the usual finish, the ones I’m used to seeing. On the left is this puzzle with the matte finish. You can’t tell as much from the picture, but the difference was quite evident to someone who has assembled many, many Ravensburger puzzles. I noticed right away, and was quite happy with the look of it.

I would love to find some more puzzles like this one, it was lots of fun. 🐄🐄🐄

Sketches

On November 19, 2019November 18, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This adorable puzzle went together amazingly quickly, and it was exactly the right amount of challenge. I absolutely adored it! Unfortunately a piece was missing, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all.

The quality was excellent; and the piece shapes aren’t quite as obvious as they were in the last Ravensburger I assembled. I really adore cartoon puzzles, and this image had enough cartoon elements that it ticked all the boxes for me. Ravensburger puzzles are such great quality that I never hesitate buying them secondhand from the thrift stores. Even if they’ve been assembled several times they hold up quite well. This was a thrift store puzzle that mom bought for us, she always found such wonderful puzzles at the best prices. 💖

Each of the sketches correspond with the pictures from the finished film beside it, except for Sully from Monsters, Inc.

Sketches 1

Sully’s sketch was mean and scary looking, but the image from the film is him being frightened (not frightening at all) and offering a teddy bear to Boo – so cute!

All of the Pixar movies shown are ones that I’ve seen and watched with my children; I think that’s another reason I enjoyed the assembly so much, it brought back wonderful memories of spending time with my kids when they were younger.

We would all pile into the car and get ourselves to the store when the VHS or DVDs of the movies were released. With three young children at home we didn’t bother with renting them from Blockbuster or a local video store, we always bought them.* And the rule was that we always watched them for the first time together, I loved watching the kids be enchanted by the story and images; the time we spent together when they were young was time well spent and provides me with wonderful memories to this day.

*For all you young’uns, people used to have to go to the store to rent or buy movies if they wanted to watch them at home. There was no Netflix, Hulu, or any other streaming service. You couldn’t watch movies on your smart phone either – there were no such things!

Upstairs, Downstairs

On November 16, 2019November 15, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I enjoyed this puzzle so much more than I anticipated – it’s always great when that happens. Looking at the box of pieces, they all seemed to be shades of brown for the most part, and I didn’t think it would be as entertaining to assemble as it actually was. Once I picked out some wallpaper from one room, it lead to another wallpaper, and seeing which rooms went where; and before I knew it out of the chaos came the whole house and all it’s fabulous rooms. It really was wonderfully engrossing. 🙂

Only one room was colorful, the kid’s playroom at the top of the house…

Upstairs 1

It doesn’t look very big, but perhaps to a child it would be perfect. I wonder what’s up with the big chicken on the floor?

If you ask me, the more interesting rooms are downstairs. More people, more camaraderie – more goings on. Yes, I know, they’re “the help”, but to me they’re much more fascinating. The rooms upstairs may be pretty, but they’re boring. People standing around in attractive rooms doing very little… Upstairs 4 Yawn. Don’t get me wrong, it was pretty, and one of the wallpapers that was easy to pick out; but nothing’s really happening in there – it’s just a pretty room. I’m much more interested in what’s happening downstairs. (All only my opinions of course 🙂 )

The quality was lovely, the assembly was completely absorbing, and all in all I had a fabulous time with this puzzle. If it’s in your to do pile, I definitely recommend it.

The Safari Park

On November 8, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

I had a great time with this puzzle, and found that it was very difficult to stay away from. Even when I needed to take a break and rest, all I wanted to do was get back to the board and continue the assembly. That’s not always a good thing for me physically, I love to puzzle so much that when one is this engrossing I tend to push myself farther than I should because I want to get back in the puzzle room and get back to assembling. (I always pay for it later, not a good thing. But I keep doing it, because I just can’t help myself. 🤷‍♀️)

Safari Park 2

The picture on the box tells me the types of animals I might be assembling, the color of the car and the clothes the characters are wearing. It also tells me what the premise is – What If the animals were more enterprising than we realized? That what the puzzle image will be. The box also shows one character as they will be in the finished puzzle, and this is always the character I photograph. I try to make sure that I don’t spoil these mystery puzzles for anyone who might have them in their to do pile. It’s such a bummer when they get spoiled for me, I never want to do that to anyone else. You’ll notice that the character I photographed is heavily cropped, if more was shown it would spoil some of the premise.

Normally I don’t show anything other that the one character from these puzzles, but there was something really funny that I just had to show you…

Safari Park 1

I’ve got no eye deer if you find this as funny as I do; it cracked me up!

What If? and Wasgij? puzzles make me very happy. There’s a mystery to solve and I have some hints to what the finished image will be but have to figure it out myself. There’s a real sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when it’s finished. And it’s nice to bring order to the chaos using only the colors and shapes of the pieces.

If you haven’t tried these puzzles I absolutely recommend both series. They both are excellent quality brands and the images are entertaining and great for puzzling. I have so many of them still to do, and I’m looking forward to every single one of them. 💗