Space Flare

On July 14, 2023July 13, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Space Flare – Wentworth – 80 pieces

This Mini Mindful puzzle from Wentworth sure does make a person slow down and focus completely on the puzzling – of course I loved it!

The repetitive tessellating pieces made for a challenging but fantastic assembly; the geometric shapes were so fun to work with. The “extra difficult” puzzles from Wentworth are very entertaining, and even in such small sizes give your gray matter a little bit of a workout!

As usual the puzzle itself is beautifully made, an excellent quality puzzle all around. You can see from the picture above the stunning image reproduction. Gorgeous 😍

Once I put together the obviously easier sections (shown above), the difficulty level ramped up significantly. We worked on it in the bathroom for a while, you can also see in the picture above how the light is much poorer than it is in the puzzle room.

My daughter came over to visit and while sitting in the puzzle room with me she asked my son to bring out whatever puzzle was in the bathroom so she and I could work on it together. At first she was NOT happy about which puzzle was there, she was hoping to work on Casual Friday but hubby and I had already finished that one. She was a trooper though and got into it after a few minutes, eventually we had a great time working on it together. I love that she wants to work on puzzles with me when she’s here. 💕

There are quite a few more Mini Mindful puzzles here to be done, and after seeing how entertaining this puzzle was I am very much looking forward to the next ones!

Cape Cod Pier

On June 26, 2023June 26, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Cape Cod Pier by William Glackens – Artifact – 139 pieces

What a fantastic puzzle! I can’t say enough good things about it, the unique cut of the pieces, the beautiful artwork, the quality of the puzzle itself – it all went together to make for a wonderfully challenging assembly, even at only 139 pieces. I adored it! 💜

Love the whimsies in this puzzle, and the image was difficult enough that I “cheated” and used the unique shapes of the pieces around the whimsies themselves to get started. That isn’t something I normally do, as I like to make my wooden puzzle experience last as long as possible. But the painterly style of the image and the split tendril cut of the pieces made for a most challenging assembly – and I am on a LOT of pain meds these days.

*If you use the shapes of the pieces around the whimsies to get started on a wooden puzzle, of course it isn’t really cheating. However you choose to puzzle is exactly the right way, and there’s really no such thing as cheating (unless you have someone else assemble it and claim the work as your own). What I meant was that I considered it slightly “cheating” for me because that’s not where I usually begin, and it seemed to lessen the difficulty level somewhat once I had several small sections complete.

There’s something so satisfying for me in seeing the back of an interestingly and well cut wooden puzzle. I hope you guys like the picture too!

Fabric Owls

On June 23, 2023June 23, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Fabric Owls by Annya Kai – Artifact – 156 pieces

I cannot stress enough how adorable and entertaining this puzzle was to assemble. Such a great little puzzle from Artifact, and if you’re so inclined it is highly recommended – it gets two very enthusiastic hoots! 🦉🦉

The decorative border was quite interesting, it was my first time was a border like this and I found I liked it very much. There were no whimsy pieces, but honestly it didn’t need any. And the artwork by Annya Kai makes for a great assembly – the colors and patterns were lovely to work with.

My youngest son picked this out for me to assemble, and even came in and helped me near the end – a minor miracle! Although these days he seems more interested in what puzzles I do and has been helping more often when the image is to his liking. This makes his old momma very happy.

This was one of those puzzles that I wanted to take apart and immediately start working on again. Love, love, loved it! ❤💕❤

Another One…

On June 22, 2023June 21, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Miscellaneous4 Comments

Blooming Heart – Crafthub – 80 pieces? (I’ll count them up later)

Here’s another of the terrible quality wooden puzzles from Crafthub; unfortunately I bought three of them to make the shipping cost worthwhile so there’s still one more after this one. Even though the first one was so frustrating that doesn’t mean I would just get rid of the other two – of course I’m going to put them together, exasperating as they might be.

I’m not sure why, but as we were packing for our trip I threw both of these remaining Crafthub puzzles into my suitcase. It turns out that was a good idea though, because there are still several days left on our trip and I’m almost out of puzzles. The horror! 😱

Yesterday morning when talking about them with hubby a fantastic idea popped into my head; so believe it or not I was actually excited to start working on one of the crappy puzzles right away – even though there are two Wentworth puzzles in my suitcase that have not yet been assembled.

Once this puzzle is complete I plan on committing what normally would be a terrible puzzling sin in my own eyes – I’m going to glue this wooden puzzle. Shocked? I don’t blame you – never thought I would hear myself put all those words together in that order. Never. Ever. Wooden puzzles are such a joy to work with that prior to these Crafthub puzzles I would never have even considered gluing one. Part of the reason they’re more expensive is that they can be assembled over and over, even passed down through family sometimes. Gluing a beautifully made wooden puzzle is a TERRIBLE idea if you ask me, you would never again be able to experience the delight and satisfaction of assembling it.

But here is my thought process; these puzzles are NOT beautifully made, not ones I would ever want to assemble again, and inflicting them on anyone else by giving them to friends or donating them elsewhere doesn’t seem like a good idea either. The only positive with these puzzles so far is the beautiful images, so the thought came to me that it would make a lovely little wall hanging or decorative tchotchke – why not glue the sucker and at least get some future use out of it?

That’s my plan anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes. 😎

Boobie Trapped

On June 15, 2023June 14, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Boobie Trapped by Angie Rees – Artifact – 340 pieces

This is the most fun I’ve had with a puzzle in a long time, the bright colors, the silly artwork, the excellent pieces – it all made for a great puzzle that I would love to start all over again. I gave myself over completely to the puzzle and just put in pieces wherever I found them; no pressure, no peeking at the box, just a little bit of puzzle paradise whenever it was needed.

When I first started stocking up on puzzles to work on after my surgery I was only looking at the smaller piece counts. I didn’t look at much else and ended up completely missing this one. Penny and I were window shopping online together (lots of texts back and forth with links to cute puzzles) and she came across this image. She knew immediately that I would love it, and it ended up that several cute ones had gone totally unnoticed by me because smaller piece counts were all I was looking at. Thankfully she’s always there to pick up the slack and enable me as much as possible, so an additional order was placed – we couldn’t leave this poor boobie trapped moose all alone!

The dangers of air-drying your laundry in places where there are roaming moose; well, it seems apparent what one of those dangers is doesn’t it?

Great whimsy pieces, including a bra and underwear set. Love the sense of humor with with one! The two beavers with the forest ranger hats were adorable as well.