Review: Sugar & Spice

On February 23, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Sugar & Spice by Charles Wysocki – Buffalo – 300 pieces

I’ve done several Charles Wysocki puzzles lately with single buildings, and I very much enjoy them. They’ve mostly been Buffalo puzzles, and I honestly prefer the 300 piece count in this brand.

For me, I have to be in the right frame of mind to do a larger Buffalo puzzle, it’s something about the size of the pieces, but I’m honestly not exactly sure what it is. I open a 1000 piece Buffalo puzzle that I love the image of and look at the pieces, and most of the time I put the lid back on and say “not today”. I prefer the 300 and 500 piece counts because they’re not as overwhelming to me. Of course lately I’ve been preferring those piece counts because of physical limitations on the amount of time I’m able to puzzle; it’s not a reflection on Buffalo quality, which is quite good.

This puzzle was great fun, and the assembly was relatively quick. The Wysocki puzzles with only one building are a little more unique and therefore more enjoyable for me to do. I love the look of his artwork, but his regular folk/Americana puzzles all start to look the same to me and aren’t as interesting for me to assemble. This one was great with plenty of interesting parts to find and put together and a lovely finished image.

What makes a great puzzle image is so subjective, everyone enjoys something different. That’s what’s so great about puzzling! There are so many companies and so many artists that you’re bound to find something that jumps out at you and begs to be assembled. For me this was a great image with wonderful quality and I definitely recommend it!

Details:

Title: Sugar & Spice
Artist: Charles Wysocki
Brand: Buffalo Games
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 21 x 15 in. (54 x 38 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Winnie the Pooh

On February 22, 2018October 29, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This beautiful puzzle is SO BIG! It’s only 24 pieces, but the finished puzzle is 20 x 27 inches – the size of the average 1000 piece puzzle. I’ve never seen bigger pieces!

Another wonderful quality Ravensburger puzzle, and the fit was absolutely the best I’ve seen. There are places in the picture above where you can’t even see the shape of the pieces the fit is so good. This puzzle was very well-loved before it was donated – from the condition of the box and the little bits of wear and tear you can see on the ends of some pieces I can tell this puzzle has been assembled many, many times. Regardless, it was cared for and still in very nice shape.

I very much recommend Ravensburger puzzles for the kids in your life, they are impeccably made and stand up extremely well to multiple assemblies.

I love Winnie the Pooh and all of his friends, I have wonderful memories of listening to the stories on an 8 track tape in the family van as we traveled on the weekends. It had the real voice actors from the movies and short films, and we all loved listening to it and quoting all the dialog. Yes, I’m that old. For you young’uns, 8 track tapes were like very large cassette tapes that you couldn’t rewind. For you REALLY young’uns, cassette tapes were like CD’s that you couldn’t choose what track to listen to without rewinding and fast forwarding. Grandma’s lesson is over. 👵

Simple Pleasures

On February 21, 2018October 25, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles3 Comments

Another very interesting puzzle from the thrift store. The box opens like a book, and inside are two compartments with one puzzle in each from the same artist – with cork backing! This one was really fun, and the other I’m saving for Christmas in July on the blog. 🎄

Ceaco puzzles aren’t great quality in my opinion, but it seems they put a little more effort into their unusual puzzles. The “different” puzzles I’ve worked have been much better quality than their regular ones. This one was very good quality, the pieces are thick (with a cork backing they have to be a little thicker) and fit together very well.

This image was more complex than my previous few puzzles; I was trying to get myself back into the puzzle groove and was working easier images and piece counts. It took me a little longer than normal for a 500 piece puzzle, but I got it done! It’s a cute image that would look good framed in a country kitchen; there’s a rudimentary recipe for apple pie along the edge. 🍎

I’m not a big fan of Christmas puzzles, but I’ll be assembling the second 500 piece puzzle in this box later on this year. I’m looking forward to it! If you can find any of these box sets of cork-backed puzzles I definitely recommend giving them a try.

Ballet Lesson (1)

On February 20, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Ballet Lesson – Ravensburger – 35 pieces

I assembled another kids puzzle with the same name on the same day (that’s the reason for the number), they were both Ravensburger and both very pretty. This one was much easier to assemble, but the other one had fairies and glitter and you know I’m a sucker for some glitter!

Ravensburger kids puzzles are absolutely wonderful quality, if you’ve got kids you’d like to buy puzzles for I highly recommend them. Cobble Hill and Eurographics also make excellent quality puzzles for children and have great catalogs to choose from.

The pieces are large and easy to handle, very thick and fit together beautifully. The colors are interesting and lovely without being too bright – it’s subtle, but so very pretty. There are an excellent variety of piece shapes to work with, and enough going on in the scene that each piece has clues to where it should go. It’s important with a puzzle for very young children that it not be too difficult for them to figure out placement, each piece should have something that leads to the piece beside it. It builds confidence and gives them a sense of accomplishment, and puzzles are so very good for developing brains!

I never took ballet lessons as a child, I was too much of a tomboy to want to put on a frilly tutu and dance around. I wanted to be a gymnast like Nadia Comaneci; it seemed like much more fun to get to run around and tumble, that was much more my speed. But if you’ve got a little ballet dancer in your life, this would be a great puzzle for them! 🙂

Garden Goodness

On February 19, 2018March 14, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another fun collage, they seem to be keeping me going lately. 🙂 The vintage seed packets with the colorful pictures, the many words to assemble; I just love the look of this one. There’s just something about it that makes me smile.

This was a pretty good Springbok puzzle as far as quality. The pieces fit together well (without too much effort) and they didn’t have that halo of fuzzy paper on the backs of the pieces that you find sometimes with Springboks. The image reproduction was very good, bright and crisp; and although the piece shape is a bit noticeable in the finished image it didn’t detract from the enjoyment of the assembly.

There are so many beautiful collage puzzles out there that I would love to do, and looking back I’ve done so many already. Keep ’em coming please!