Megatab, Mintaka and the Snowman

On July 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

I like the colors in this image, but again with the cats? I shouldn’t really complain since I’m the one who bought the puzzles, but here I am complaining anyway. I just wish there were more dog puzzles to choose from – either that or I’m just cranky and annoyed today. There’s a good chance that the cranky thing is the reason.

I like the cat whimsies in this puzzle, which sounds really stupid after I just said I’m sick of the cat puzzles, I know. I don’t mind the whimsy cats, I guess I’m just not one for the actual image of them. Sounds ridiculous, I know – but that’s how my weird mind works, and I’m not apologizing for it.

This micro puzzle was more difficult to assemble than I bargained for, but it was still fun and engrossing. That’s all puzzlers really want, to be able to be completely absorbed in the assembly – well, that’s what I’m always looking for anyway. It’s almost meditative, whether there are 40 pieces or 4000 I enjoy being wrapped up in which piece comes next and what shape goes where.

Christmas in July is almost over, one more day and one more micro winter puzzle to go!

Cats Selfie

On July 29, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is a cute puzzle, I enjoyed the bright colors. I’m not a cat person, but the looks on their faces are so funny! I don’t know many cats that would tolerate wearing Santa hats though, do you?

As usual, this was fun to put together. Wentworth quality is very very good, and working with wooden puzzles gives you a completely different tactile experience than with cardboard puzzles. They’re more expensive, but I say we puzzlers are absolutely worth it! Even if you don’t get to work a large piece count wooden puzzle, these micro puzzles are relatively inexpensive; and they’re puzzles you’ll want to do over and over again.

The piece shapes are obvious in the finished image, but to be honest this doesn’t matter at all to me. The enjoyment of the assembly for me outweighs pretty much any of the negatives, although I don’t think there are that many negatives. That’s just my personal opinion of course, but I’m a tiny bit addicted to jigsaw puzzles of all kinds so my opinions are a bit compromised.

More cute whimsies, I love the Santa with his sack of presents – it’s so detailed! The stocking full of presents is pretty damn cute as well.

My brain hasn’t been working well lately, and it just occurred to me this morning that there are 3 days left in the month. I have today’s micro puzzle and 2 more to go, so it looks like you’re going to have to put up with 2 more days in a row of Christmas/winter micro puzzles. Sorry, I’m blaming all the new pharmaceuticals I’m having to take – and the increasing dosages – that’s my story anyway. 💊💊

The Village Tree

On July 24, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

This puzzle has a wonderfully bright color scheme, it was fun to assemble and a pretty finished image. I love these micro puzzles; I can put them in my purse and take them anywhere that I know I’ll be waiting for a while. It’s much more fun to pass the time putting together a puzzle than just sitting and reading old magazines or staring at something on my phone.

I was a little disappointed that the whimsies were a rerun of the whimsies in the Yuletide Puppies micro puzzle that I assembled earlier this month. I also realize that there must be a limited number of whimsy pieces per subject. They probably didn’t think someone would go crazy and buy all of the micro puzzles they’ve got in one shot like I did!

This image would be fun to assemble in larger piece counts too, but it isn’t really my taste. It’s pretty and bright, but the subject matter just doesn’t do it for me. If you like Christmas puzzles, this might be a good one for you. It’s available up to 1500 pieces by Wentworth, and was also produced in a 1000 piece count by White Mountain. There’s also a slightly altered image (with no presents under the tree) from Gibsons in a 500 piece. It really is a beautiful puzzle, I would recommend it from any of these companies.

After putting together 4 of these winter themed micro puzzles in one day I remembered that I still have four more 250 piece Wentworth puzzles yet to assemble. I’m recovering today from another all day car trip to a doctor’s appointment yesterday – perhaps today’s the day to start one of those. 😎

Yuletide Puppies

On July 18, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This micro puzzle has the most beautiful colors, absolutely gorgeous! It was fun to assemble and a little more complicated than it looks. It took me a little bit to find the right pieces, but it was completely worth it!

I love Dominic Davison images, they’re beautiful to look at and interesting to assemble. I’ve done several puzzles of his artwork and have enjoyed every one. There are plenty more of his puzzles I’d be happy to do.

The whimsies are so cute!

You’d think that starting with the whimsy pieces and working outward would make the puzzles very easy to assemble; and although that does help some it doesn’t make the entire puzzle easy. If it were too easy I think I wouldn’t be very interested in doing them.

There are still 4 more Christmas/winter micro puzzles to do this month. I’m hoping when I put them together it’ll bring a nice chill to the air to beat this nasty hot weather! ☀

Islands of Life

On July 16, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

IMG_E4795 — Islands of Life by APAK – Artifact Puzzles – 165 pieces

I bought this puzzle for mom for Mother’s Day – I hope she forgives me, cause this one was a bear!

We finally got around to assembling this one on the 4th of July. Mom and I did most of the puzzle, but my daughter helped here and there. It was quite difficult, especially that border, holy smokes! It isn’t as dark as it looks in the picture, it’s actually quite greenish – dark green.

I got quite frustrated with it at times, it was the border that kept giving me fits; I kept trying to find the pieces that those tree root looking pieces fit into. There were only 165 pieces, but it was very challenging. I even apologized to Mom for giving it to her! Even though it was hard, I don’t really feel bad about giving it to her. Although it was frustrating and demanding, we had a good time working on the puzzle and working together again. The Puzzle Posse is back!

There were some interesting looking buildings on one of the floating islands in space, and I loved the scene of the strange little people having a picnic on the main island. Those were some of the easiest parts to assemble besides the big tall thing with a window. I don’t know if it’s supposed to be a building or a plant of some kind; whatever it was, it was fun to put together – in a “test your puzzle abilities” kind of way.

You can also see in the smaller images above the wonderfully unique shapes of some of the pieces, they gave our gray cells quite a workout! Luckily, mom and I are pretty smart (at least we’re good at puzzles) and we got it done. 😁

Just like with Alice in Wonderland I forgot to take a picture of the whimsy pieces, although with this one there weren’t very many of them. Even so, I didn’t separate them out for a pre-assembly picture. Unfortunately the puzzle belongs to mom, so it isn’t here for me to go through and get a picture of the cool pieces. Sorry about that guys, I promise to do better.