Stacey & Ruth

On April 8, 2020April 7, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles17 Comments

Ok. I know I’m supposed to say something pithy here, but I can’t. It’s just so meaningful to me, and Mr. Bob Puzzles did such a fantastic job. A beautiful puzzle of my beautiful momma and me. 💗

You can read all about how my husband got the ball rolling and commissioned this puzzle by clicking here. He’d planned to give me this puzzle for my first Mother’s Day after losing mom, but he couldn’t wait and gave it to me early.

According to my husband he first requested the puzzle to be 1000 pieces, but Mr. Bob came to my rescue and suggested that a smaller piece count would be better – this would have been a b**ch with more pieces! Mom’s dress was difficult, and all the darker areas behind and between us made this quite a challenge even at only 651 pieces. Thank you Mr. Bob for suggesting that he lower the piece count!

Stacey & Ruth whimsies 1

Mr. Bob included two doves and a dancing couple for me and my husband, two flamingos for us two Florida women – a momma and her child – (or maybe that’s all in my head), a ball of yarn (for mom), and even a Boston Terrier to represent my Buddy!

There’s not much I can say here; I love this picture, I love my mom, and I’m more in love with my husband than ever for having this beautiful puzzle made for me. It’s one of the sweetest and most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received in my entire 51 years on the planet.

There were some “whimsies” I didn’t share up above, because I wanted to show them to you first this way…

Stacey & Ruth 3

Mr. Bob and his team did such a stunning job on this puzzle and it’s design, especially these words; our names at the top, the shared passions of family and puzzles between us, and at the bottom of these was deepest love that was at our core, and the base of everything that held us up and held us together. Perfection. 💖💖

Of course this puzzle will be framed, hubby is going to build it for me. I almost want to leave the letters out to highlight these words, but of course I also want the entire assembled puzzle to be displayed. How amazing are these whimsies/words? I love them!

Stacey & Ruth whimsies

Many thanks to Mr. Bob puzzles for doing such a fantastic job on this puzzle that’s so personal and precious to me. It is beautifully crafted and lovingly made and it makes me more happy than words can express.

Most of all, a special thank you to my sweet hubby for doing all of this. You never cease to amaze me with your thoughtfulness and loving kindness. I’m excited to start working on the second puzzle you got me, hopefully soon. And I promise I’ll try to remember how awesome you are when you’re home too much and annoying me. 💘

The Sweetest Man

On March 20, 2020March 20, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling16 Comments

My husband is the sweetest man. Perhaps not everyone would agree, but to me he is kind, attentive and loving and after almost 32 years of marriage he continues to surprise me with the thoughtful things he does for me. 💖

He told me a few days ago that he was having a puzzle made for me and that it would be delivered soon. I was looking forward to seeing what he chose, wondering where he got it from, and what brought this on.

He wouldn’t tell me anything at all other than that he did a LOT of research on the “puzzle project”. He said he wanted a very special puzzle for me to complete, so after he did all his research he commissioned this puzzle to be made with the image he chose and the whimsicals he wanted incorporated into it. He said he’s been working on this since January! Wow.

Yesterday he gave me my new puzzle. He worked with Bob at Mr. Bob Puzzles in Australia to craft a special custom puzzle for me; I didn’t think Mr. Bob Puzzles did any custom work! The moment he gave me the box just seeing it made me cry….

Stacey & Ruth

How adorably sweet is my husband? So sweet! I knew it had to be a picture of me and mom, but I had no idea which one he chose. As soon as I looked at the pieces I saw one with some flowers – it was immediately recognizable to me as my wedding bouquet. Aww! It’s a picture of me and mom on my wedding day! 💞 I looked through the pieces and it’s going to be such a beautiful puzzle, with such sweet and wonderful whimsies; I am so excited to assemble it and it will be on my puzzle board first thing this morning.

He said he was planning to give this to me on Mother’s Day this year, he wanted to be sure that my first Mother’s Day without her wasn’t too sad. But he just couldn’t wait until May – once the puzzle arrived and he saw the box and looked through the pieces he was too excited for me to see it and assemble it. He’s so adorable.

There was a lot of leg work involved in this “project”. He had to take our over 30 year old wedding pictures to a professional photographer to get high resolution digital pictures made. We do have the negatives, but he had no idea where they were and of course he couldn’t ask me. So they had to take a picture of the picture and turn them into files that could be uploaded for Mr. Bob Puzzles to use. I’m surprised he was able to keep all of this a secret. Well done hubby!

I thought that was it, but there was more. 😱 He had another puzzle made at the same time that he was planning to give me for our anniversary, and again he couldn’t wait until May…

Stacey & David

Another picture from our wedding day, but of course this one is of hubby and me.💕We don’t normally exchange gifts for our anniversary, we’d rather just spend time with each other. I’ll let this one slide though, because I absolutely love it! The whimsies are GORGEOUS and I can’t wait to share both of these special puzzles with everyone.

It’s getting syrupy sweet around here, I know, but bear with me…

I can’t even express how much I love this kind, generous, selfless man. He is one of the sweetest men I know, and he continues to prove it to me time and again. What thoughtful and beautiful gifts he had made for me, I’m overwhelmed!

I am so looking forward to putting these puzzles together, and seeing the finished images; I could cheat and get out our wedding albums and try to figure out which pictures he chose, but I’d rather just enjoy the assembly and watch the images come together as I go along. (Get ready for some 80’s hair and fashions y’all!)

Stay tuned, these are going to be something special!

Computer Catastrophe

On March 5, 2020March 5, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

My sweet baby girl gave me this puzzle for Valentine’s Day; she is so generous and kind, and I’m so proud of who she is – I raised a great lady! 💗 Besides all that, she has great taste in puzzle images, how cute is this?!

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten a new Artifact wooden puzzle, or any new wooden puzzle for that matter. It’s so much fun to look through the all the pieces and find the whimsies, and to see all the interesting shapes. The whimsy pieces in this puzzle are all parts of the image…

Catastrophe whims

They are all easy to find except for the interesting shapes at the top of the picture; they are shapes that are shown on the spines of two of the books, it took me a few minutes to figure out what they were. The 3 piece dragon whimsy is so cute, he’s obviously my favorite. 🐲

Catastrophe IP

The geometric shaped pieces made for an interesting assembly, but once you figure out how everything fits together it’s great fun!

Catastrophe 1

I love to see the wooden puzzles from the back, it’s always interesting to look at the shapes and how everything fits together. The cut of this puzzle is something I’ve never seen before; it’s a little simple, but was very entertaining to assemble and placing every piece was a joy.

The artwork by Randal Spangler is so whimsical and adorable, I absolutely love it! I’ve been looking around for more puzzles with his work; it looks as though Artifact and Vermont Christmas Company are the only brands who have Randal Spangler images. I’m thinking I may have to get me some more puzzles with his artwork!

Thank you again to The Baby Princess for this beautiful puzzle! 😘

My Darlin’ Daughter

On February 16, 2020March 5, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

My sweet darlin’ daughter took it upon herself to be the Valentine’s fairy this year and put together gift bags for the entire family – I raised a fantastic girl who grew up to be the most amazing, selfless, thoughtful woman I know. The whole family is doing their best to get through all the “firsts” after losing a loved one, and she decided to try and make our first Valentine’s Day without her beloved grandmother a good one for us all. I’m so proud of her and how she truly wants to take care of us all. 💝

She did a great job, and of course she went a little overboard and for my present I received the most adorable wooden puzzle from Artifact! How sweet is my girl? So sweet!

computer_catastrophes_web_1024x1024

This puzzle is just the cutest! The artwork is by Randal Spangler, and I don’t think I’ve assembled any other puzzles with his artwork before. I don’t know where he’s been hiding, but I adore the look of this one and hopefully I’ll be able to find more puzzles with his images on them. 🙂

I’ve only just started working on it, and have already succumbed to my OCD; the pieces are all laid out on the board in very orderly rows. I started with the pieces just all over the board willy nilly, but my brain can’t function well with things in such disarray. And there’s something very soothing about getting all the pieces lined up neatly, I can’t really explain it. My hunch is that many of us who love jigsaw puzzles have a little bit of the OCD, and putting things right by getting the picture put back together gives us immense satisfaction.

The pieces are very squared off and geometrical looking, but that doesn’t mean it’s overly easy, because it most definitely hasn’t been so far.

Catastrophe IP

I love the interesting cut and the squared off connectors, and I’m looking forward to seeing the completed puzzle – it’s so adorable! It shouldn’t take too long, the puzzle is only 182 pieces so it should be completed today if all goes well.

Thank you to my darlin’ sweet baby girl for the amazing gift, I love it – but I love you more! 💗

Review: The Prague Clock

On February 3, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews6 Comments

My husband surprised me with this puzzle; and not only was I surprised that he bought it for me, I was surprised that he picked such a great image too. It turned out to be a fantastic, well-made, very challenging puzzle and I absolutely loved it. Well done hubby!

The image is of the Prague clock, which I knew nothing about when I received this puzzle, but it lead me to do some research on it and I was fascinated. It was built in 1410, and is the oldest working astronomical clock in the world! The clock face gives you all sorts of information; if you know how to read it you can tell the date, how long until sunrise or sunset, the location of the Sun on the ecliptic (which tells you the date in relation to the sign of the zodiac), what lunar phase the moon is currently in, and, oh yes, it tells time too (both current standard time and Ancient Bohemian Time). It makes for a great puzzle image too!

Nautilus puzzles is a newer wooden puzzle company, started in 2018. I was highly impressed by the quality of the puzzles, but even more so by the cut of the pieces. The cut is exceptional; it is designed so that every single piece touches at least one of the whimsy pieces – which makes for wonderfully varied shapes and a much more challenging assembly. Their catalog is large and varied as well, and along with some images you see quite often in puzzles they’ve got some very unique images as well. They weren’t in business when I started my wooden jigsaw puzzle experiment three years ago, because I definitely would have given these a try. Their smallest puzzles start at around $15, which is quite affordable in my book.

If you’re into astrology, you’ll recognize many of the whimsy shapes. I recognized the zodiac symbols, but not all the rest of them.

This is quite a large number of whimsies for only a 500 piece puzzle, and they all match the “theme” of the image. It was fun to sort through the pieces and find all the interesting whimsies, it’s one of my favorite parts of working with wooden puzzles. 🙂

All the whimsies were themed towards time, astrology, astronomy, etc. In this corner you can see the phases of the moon! That’s going an extra step, instead of just throwing whimsies around in between pieces they’ve put some thought into the design. It made for quite an entertaining assembly, and I will definitely be buying another puzzle from this company.

Hubby did an awesome job picking out this puzzle, it was a joy to assemble and I absolutely loved it! It was exceptionally well made, expertly designed, and was great fun to put together – it is very highly recommended!

*Also, as usual, I recommend giving wooden puzzles a try if you haven’t before. There are many affordable companies out there, like Nautilus, and we puzzlers are definitely worth a splurge now and then. If you can’t bring yourself to buy one, how about requesting one for a birthday or Christmas present? You’re so worth it!

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