Three French Hens

On December 20, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

The artwork of Rachel Arbuckle makes for gorgeous puzzles, and even though I absolutely didn’t need them I couldn’t resist getting the first 3 puzzles in this series. I’m very much looking forward to all 12 of these beautiful puzzles. Although I’d imagine the last 5 or 6 puzzles will be quite crowded looking in comparison to these first few – this puzzle has the hens, turtledoves, and the partridge – if that continues the 12th day will be jam packed!

Three French Hens whimsies

I love that there are the correct amount of birds in the whimsies! Although if this series continues that would be quite a challenge in the later puzzles – unless you get a much higher piece count. Wentworth puzzles go all the way up to 1500 pieces, but they’re a bit out of my price range. 😏

The 250 piece Wentworth puzzles are just about right for me, in both size and price. They’re small enough that the number of pieces doesn’t overwhelm, I can work on them in bed on my white board when I’m not feeling well, and they’re very reasonably priced as far as wooden puzzles go. Also I normally only buy wooden puzzles when they’re on sale and I can get free shipping, so that the price goes down even more. I’m a proud cheapskate!

Three French Hens 1

These aren’t the last pieces that went into the puzzle, in fact they were the ones I started with (other than the edges). But I thought it was very cool that each of the hens had a hen whimsy in it – three French hens in three French hens!

From here until Christmas Day it’s going to be wooden Christmas puzzles on the blog – both micro puzzles and larger. No clue what’s happening after Christmas – I suppose that depends on if I get any puzzles from Santa or his helpers! 🎅

Wallace & Gromit Christmas Pudding

On December 12, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Now here is your “not the usual” Christmas puzzle! I love the special whimsy pieces, the image, and the exceptional Wentworth quality. I’ve never seen an episode of the show, but I love this image – it’s so cute!

This is unusual for Wentworth too, this image is only available in the micro puzzle size, you can’t get it in a larger puzzle. It’s a pity, I’d have loved to have seen even more of these fantastic whimsies….

Christmas Pudding whimsies

I’ve never had a Christmas pudding – as a matter of fact, I had to look up what exactly it was! It doesn’t sound very appetizing to me, but I’m sure that’s because it isn’t something I grew up with (and also because I’m an extremely picky eater). I’m sure some of the things I love to eat would not seem appetizing to many others. 😉

This was such a fun puzzle! Merry Christmas pudding! 🎄

Snowman Trio

On December 4, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This assembly was a special request by my youngest son. It is 3 weeks until Christmas, and he’s very much in the holiday spirit. He’s gotten himself a Santa hat and he’s ready to go! He said that this was the puzzle I should assemble next, and so I did. I admit that I am absolutely NOT in the spirit at the moment, but I guess I’ll fake it till I make it. Ho Ho Ho-hum.

There’s not much I can say anymore about these little wooden puzzles, it’s all a repeat of things said before; they’re excellent quality and wonderful to work with. It’s a “One Coffee Puzzle” as my friend from Russia calls them. Small enough to sit down with a cup of coffee and finish them both about the same time – a lovely little respite in this hurry up and get going world.

Snowman Trio whimsies

I love Santa’s face, I think he just met the m & m’s! 😉

Father Frost

On November 25, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This gorgeous shaped micro puzzle is beautiful, and a little challenging too – the perfect combination! The interesting shapes made for a longer assembly time than I thought, but a wonderful one.

I had no idea when I assembled it that it was artwork by Rachel Arbuckle, I adore her artwork! I have the first 3 puzzles in her 12 days of Christmas series, and I’m looking forward to assembling them.

Father Frost pieces

The curlicue pieces and shaped edges made for quite the entertaining puzzle! This one comes in a Christmas cracker box too; they’re a little more expensive than the regular micro puzzles, but I love them anyway.

Another Non-Problem

On November 24, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Can't pick a puzzle — I want to do all of them, and none of them!

I’m having another one of those not-really-a-problem problems. I cannot seem to make a decision about what puzzle to do next.

I feel as though I should do a Christmas puzzle, since the season is officially underway, but, ugh. And most of the holiday puzzles I have are wooden. I’ve almost exclusively been doing wooden puzzles this month because most of the ones I have are small and I was able to assemble them in bed. I have four 250 pieces and a bunch of micro Christmas puzzles from Wentworth, but I really want to do something cardboard. On the other hand, I could probably assemble all the micro puzzles in one day, and that would definitely help to rebuild my queue of finished puzzles ready to post.

I’ve got a 1000 piece puzzle from JaCaRou (new brand I’ve never tried) of The Nutcracker, and while I’m excited to try a new brand I’m just feeling blah about Christmas puzzles in general at the moment. Still, I love trying new brands, and the image isn’t your typical Santa and the Christmas tree, which is a big plus in my book.

I also have a REALLY cool older 500 piece puzzle mom found at a thrift store. It’s an American Greetings brand called Fitting Reminder, and it looks to be from around the 1970’s. The image is a gorgeous picture of a mosaic made from petrified wood. And while it’s an awesome image, the pieces are very muted and fuzzy. It’s one of those images that looks amazing completed, but the pieces separately are quite indistinct. It’ll be a challenge, and I think it would be more fun if mom and I assembled it together. The more difficult ones don’t seem as bad when there’s someone helping with the assembly.

I keep going back and forth in my head. I’ll decide on one for a minute or two, take off the box cover and hold some of the pieces in my hand, and then I put the lid back on. I realize it truly isn’t a REAL problem to have enough puzzles that I can’t decide which to do next, but I can’t decide what to do next! 😐