Review: Incidental Music for a New Year’s Eve Party

On November 13, 2017November 13, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews5 Comments

Incidental Music for a New Year’s Eve Party by Dr. Suess – Liberty Puzzles – 527 pieces

This was the most entertaining puzzle I’ve ever assembled – it was so much fun! The image, the piece shapes and that it was a wood puzzle made it wonderful. Liberty Puzzles have so many interesting images to choose from, many I’ve never seen before, like the gorgeous one above. I love Dr. Suess!

When I was choosing which puzzle to purchase, I didn’t go for a smaller puzzle to try out the brand, I gravitated toward the larger piece counts from Liberty Puzzles. On their website they have several photos of each puzzle; including one of the whimsy pieces separately, and also a view of the assembled puzzle from the back so that you can see the intricate shapes of all the pieces. The shapes are amazingly detailed and interesting and I just had to splurge on myself and get a bigger one! Click the link above to check out their beautiful puzzles and stunning piece shapes.

Liberty has a dozen images from “The Secret Art of Dr. Suess”. They work with Dr. Suess Enterprises and choose 3 images each year to turn into amazing puzzles. I couldn’t resist Incidental Music for a New Year’s Eve Party – although that name is a mouthful. I love the colors, the characters and especially the piece shapes, they’re Suess-esque!

Before I started the assembly I pulled all the whimsy pieces I could find; look at these gorgeous pieces….

I enjoyed this puzzle immensely; and I took my time because I didn’t want it to end. The feel of the pieces, the beautiful detailed shapes, the gorgeous artwork, the excellent craftsmanship – they all contributed to this being my favorite puzzle ever! Liberty Puzzles have the best whimsies in my opinion, and there are many more than I’ve seen with other companies; about 15-20% of the pieces are whimsies.

I’ve noticed that I work more slowly and carefully when assembling a wooden puzzle. It’s almost like meditation – I’m completely in the moment and focused on the piece shapes, the colors, and on enjoying the puzzle. The pieces are the sturdiest you can find, but I find that I handle them with care, almost reverently. Perhaps it’s appreciation for the detail and excellent quality, or perhaps I’m just trying to stretch out the experience and make the fun last longer – I suspect that it’s most likely both of those things.

I’m in love with Liberty Puzzles and that’s quite dangerous, because I obviously have an addictive personality. My wishlist on their site is into the thousands of dollars! 😮 I won’t be able to get them all, but I’ve worked it out that I might be able to get a few every year. There’s my birthday, and Christmas, and Mother’s Day, and…um…Happy I Love You Day – that’s a holiday, right??

Details:

Title: Incidental Music for a New Year’s Eve Party
Artist: Dr. Suess
Brand: Liberty Puzzles
Piece count: 527 pieces
Size: Approx. 12 x 19 in. (31 x 48 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: 1/4″ wood
Cutting: Excellent
Image: Excellent
Box: Excellent
Fit: Excellent
Puzzle Dust: None
Piece cut: Random/whimsies/very intricate
Piece shapes: Designed for this puzzle – amazing!
Finish: Matte finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Excellent, most highly recommended

In Dreams

On November 4, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

If you read this blog regularly, you might remember I bought my first wooden puzzle this year in September. I absolutely adore it, and have already assembled it 4 times! I was looking on the Artifacts Puzzles website for more awesome puzzles and saw this beauty with hexagonal shaped pieces – OH. MY. GOODNESS! I emailed and texted my mother to show her how cool these pieces were, so she decided to buy me this puzzle for my birthday. I wasn’t hinting for a present, I just wanted to show someone who would have the appropriate response; she is the only one who loves puzzles like I do. My mom rocks. I took the puzzle over to mom’s house yesterday and let her complete it by herself. She loved it too, of course!

The piece shapes are so interesting and it made for a challenging assembly; love, love, loved it❣ It only has 116 pieces, but it took me 40 minutes to assemble – 40 fantastic minutes. (I suppose it would have been quicker if I’d looked at the box image, but where’s the fun in that?) This was so fun, I’m sure I’ll be assembling it over and over again. What a treat! The piece shapes are quite obvious in the finished image, but I honestly don’t care. It didn’t diminish the enjoyment of the assembly for me at all, and as long as it’s fun I’m a happy, happy puzzler. 😉

What do I do now? I clearly have an addictive personality; I believe I’ve developed a wooden jigsaw puzzle addiction! I’m still enjoying my cardboard puzzles, I really just love puzzles in general; but I’m pining for more wooden jigsaws too! Here’s how addictive my personality is…..I’ve ordered one puzzle each from the 4 other wooden puzzle manufacturers I’ve found who have relatively reasonable prices. (Also, my wishlist of Artifact puzzles amounts to about $2600!) Oh my.

So, you can look forward to more reviews of wooden puzzles – they’re all on their way to my house right now! Undoubtedly I have issues. Whatever. 😎

Review: Night Village

On October 23, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Night Village by Karla Gerard – Artifact Puzzles – 164 pieces

I finally treated myself! I’ve wanted a wooden jigsaw puzzle for a very long time, and I decided it was time, I deserved it! (I could say it was a reward for the 1 year anniversary of the blog, but honestly it was just because I finally decided I wasn’t going to wait anymore to get myself a wooden jigsaw puzzle 😉 )

Artifact puzzles are very reasonably priced compared to many other wooden puzzle companies in my opinion. Many companies are $100 or more for even a small puzzle! And if you’re looking for the “Rolls Royce of Puzzles”, Stave puzzles are the most expensive I’ve found. The smallest puzzle starts at over $800 for a 100 piece, and if you would like a 1000 piece Stave puzzle, be prepared to spend almost $7000!!!! 😮 Even if I were a millionaire I don’t know that I would be able to spend thousands of dollars for a puzzle! My small puzzle cost only $38 dollars. That may seem like a lot to some, and perhaps it is; but I really wanted to treat myself and I make no apologies, I’m worth it!

First of all the box feels luxurious, the pieces are wrapped in tissue paper inside a beautiful blue box with a magnetic clasp. And for me, I loved the smell of the pieces. They smell like Michigan to me. I know that sounds bizarre, let me explain. I grew up in Michigan, and in our house we had a wood-burning stove. The smell of these puzzle pieces reminds me of the smell of our house in fall and winter when we had the woodstove going. It smells great and makes me feel nostalgic.

I chose this image because it’s colorful and fun, and I like the shape of the pieces. On the website artifactpuzzles.com you can see a preview of the pieces that each puzzle contains; so you can choose a puzzle with pieces that you’ll like. I didn’t want regular looking pieces, and I wanted an image that would be fun to do over and over. I chose Night Village; it met all of my requirements. If you want to treat yourself click on the link above and see what they have, there’s a wonderful catalog of reasonably priced puzzles to choose from.

The assembly was a joy! Somehow I found the willpower to wait two whole days before I started working on it because I wanted to put it together with my mom on our weekly visit/puzzle day. We had the best time, and it was just so damn cool working with the wood pieces for the first time! I love the way they fit together, I love the feel of the pieces as they “plunk” into place, I love the image itself and the interesting piece shapes; in short – I loved this puzzle! 😍

If anyone is looking for a gift for me…..there’s a link 2 paragraphs up, pick out something fun! 😁