The Racehorse

On July 16, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

The picture on the box shows Jim Luckless buying himself a racehorse, the puzzle shows what happened after that. What if his horse had a very special talent, what if things took an unexpected turn? As usual with these type of puzzles I don’t show the entire finished image, I don’t want to spoil anyone else’s fun figuring out what happened to poor Jim. 😉

Ravensburger puzzle, with it’s usual excellent quality. It’s so nice to “come home” to my favorite puzzle company after working with other brands. They’re just such wonderful quality and I always enjoy working with them.

Geoff Tristam’s artwork is excellent and I love his sense of humor. Oh sorry, he’s from the United Kingdom so I should say I love his sense of humour! 😉 I also enjoy the bio on the back of the box which is always accompanied by a picture of Mr. Tristam with accessories related to the puzzle – on this box he’s next to a beautiful horse. A lot of work goes into these puzzles and it’s very much appreciated.

If you haven’t tried a What If puzzle, give it a shot. They’re fun and the right amount of challenging; I highly recommend it!

What Word is That?

On July 15, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This puzzle was SO MUCH FUN! It’s an older puzzle from Buffalo Games that mom found in a thrift store. And even though someone’s child or pet chewed on one of the pieces it was still an excellent find!

This puzzle has you join words or letters with their definitions. Some could be tricky – the letters especially. Which letter is the most used in written English? What is the 3rd most used word in spoken English? It was a blast and we loved every minute of it! The best part was that you could also assemble the puzzle using just the pictures, so even if you aren’t the most loquacious raconteur you could still put the puzzle together while learning some new vocabulary. 😉

I’ve looked it up and they also made What Movie is That?, What TV Show is That?, Who Said That? and others. I bet they’d be just as fun. Here’s hoping we make another thrift store discovery like this one!

This puzzle had the typical Buffalo quality, nice thick pieces that fit together well and feel good in your hand. The background picture of what I’m assuming is the Library of Congress makes for a gorgeous puzzle that brightened our afternoon. 🙂

An awesome puzzle and a very entertaining assembly – if you can find one of these puzzles, go for it!

Winnie the Pooh

On July 14, 2017July 14, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

A puzzle from Bogota, Columbia. 😮 I’m telling you, you never know what interesting things you can find at thrift stores! My mom is a black belt thrift store explorer! 🛒

This is the first foam puzzle for kids that I’ve seen, and it’s quite large at 16.5 x 27 inches (68 x 42 cm). The pieces feel soft in your hands and they can also be cleaned easily, which is nice for a puzzle made for young children. There is no age range shown on the box, but this is a nice puzzle for younger children – non toxic, easy to handle, and large pieces.

The puzzle of Pooh Bear himself is adorable, and the little additional items around him are fun as well, most of them are only 2 pieces. Excellent thrift store find, and I can’t wait to give it to my grandson, he’s going to love this one!

Winnie the Pooh was one of my favorites as a child, we had a soundtrack to Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree that mom used to play for us in the car. The voice of Sterling Holloway as Pooh, all the silly songs, the “wise” owl and poor nervous Piglet – I loved it! Pooh’s sweet, naive face and the jars of “hunny” in this puzzle make me smile. Silly old bear. Ah, nostalgia!

Review: Santa’s Highway

On July 13, 2017July 31, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviewsLeave a comment

This post is sponsored by Puzzle Warehouse.

Santa’s Highway by Jim Todd – Sunsout – 1000 pieces

Santa’s Highway is a great shaped puzzle from Sunsout. It was so much fun that it went together more quickly than normal for a 1000 piece puzzle. Another puzzle for Christmas in July! 🎅🤶

While I’m not a big fan of the way Sunsout rectangular puzzles fit together, their shaped puzzles are altogether different. The fit of their rectangular puzzles is very tight and you have to work at putting two pieces together – really press down on them. The shaped puzzles they produce fit together differently and I enjoy the fit much more. Sunsout has an excellent catalog of shaped puzzles, click the link above to see Sunsout puzzles available at Puzzle Warehouse.

Sunsout quality is very good in my opinion. The pieces are thick and sturdy and fit together well with a random cut that gives you a wide variety of piece shapes. The image reproduction is excellent with a slightly shiny finish that can cause glare under lights. Their boxes are large and square with the name of the puzzle, artist, and manufacturer along with the piece count on all four sides – making it easy to shelve either vertically or horizontally.

The finished puzzle is 27 x 32 in. (68 x 81 cm) which is an impressive size! It’s one thing to read the number and have an idea in your head of how big it is, and it’s another thing to actually see it. It definitely makes a statement, and would look amazing framed – or even better, glued and mounted on foam backing that is cut to fit the shape. It would make more of a statement in it’s highway sign shape I think. This puzzle is part of The Highway Series by Jim Todd – gorgeous puzzles shaped like highway signs with scenes from along the route; they’d make a great wall hanging for a car enthusiast or frequent traveler! Click the link above to see all the Highway Series puzzles and others from this artist available at Puzzle Warehouse.

Santa’s Highway went together quickly as it was easy to pull out sections to assemble. Unlike rectangular puzzles it isn’t as easy to start a shaped puzzle with the edge. I started with the cactus and reindeer flying across the moon, then moved on to the map and pictures. One after another each section went into place quickly because it was so much fun to assemble that I couldn’t leave it alone! Also, I loved how the edge looks beveled; it makes the puzzle even more striking and distinctive. I had a great time with it and am now looking at getting Lincoln Highway from this series to assemble next – it has gorgeous scenes from Historic Pennsylvania Highway 30. Another one added to my wish list, which is getting quite large! 😉

This puzzle was a wonderfully entertaining assembly and I enjoyed it from start to finish! If you enjoy Christmas or shaped puzzles, or even want to give shaped puzzles a try I highly recommend Santa’s Highway. Two thumbs way up! 👍🎄👍

I received this product at no charge in return for an honest review, all opinions are truthful and 100% my own.

Shells of the South Atlantic Coast

On July 12, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another interesting thrift store find, and a very nice puzzle! There’s something unusual and fun about this image, for me at least, and I wanted to do it right away when I saw it!

Another new company for me to try, Heritage Puzzles. They specialize in coastal and nature puzzles, it’s a very interesting catalog! The pieces of this puzzle were very nice and I was impressed with their overall quality. I’d love to do more of their puzzles, here’s hoping we find more at the thrift stores. 🙂

The pieces were thick and sturdy and feel good in your hand, there were a nice variety of piece shapes, and they fit together quite well. The finish was matte and didn’t cause glare, and the image reproduction was sharp and detailed. All in all, an excellent quality puzzle.

If you read this blog regularly you know I love having words to assemble, I have no explanation for why this is; all I know is I love it when there are a bunch of words to put together, and I almost always start with them. There were PLENTY of words here and that’s part of the reason this puzzle was so much fun for me, plus I got to learn the names of many, many shells. King Helmet, Finger Sponge, Leafy Jewelbox, Minor Jackknife and lots more. The most challenging part of this puzzle was the edge, almost every piece was entirely white. 😮

Great puzzle that I enjoyed very much, if you find a Heritage Puzzle with an image you like I definitely recommend giving it a try!