Heroines

On February 13, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

I had the best time with this puzzle! If you read this blog regularly you know I love a collage, this was a fantastic puzzle with such interesting images – I couldn’t walk away!

Remarks has come out with some really fun collages lately, I had a hard time choosing between them when I went to get some new puzzles. They have several, including this one, that are Barnes & Noble exclusives. So much fun! The quality on this puzzle was a little better than I remember, nice cutting, good thickness, very nice fit, and a poster inside to help with assembly. The pieces seemed a little small to me, but the previous puzzle I assembled had large EZ Grip pieces so I may be mistaken.

I bought another Remarks collage that day, and am trying to decide if I should do that one next or not. This one went so quickly that I may want to do something else in between to make them last longer. I’m still making up my mind. By the time this is posted, of course, I will have done many more puzzles.

I’m almost ashamed to say I’ve only read 9 of these 50 books. I thought I was pretty well read, but it seems not. Still, at this point in my life I have no tolerance for doing things just because I’m “supposed to” or because others think I should. I’m just going to be me, flaws and all. If people don’t like me, that’s ok; I think I’m pretty darned awesome just the way I am. My family and friends love me, that’s what counts. 😎

If you’re an avid reader, a fan of collages, or are just looking for an entertaining jigsaw puzzle I highly recommend this one. Loved it! ❤

Ancient Egypt

On February 12, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

IMG_E4208_LI — Ancient Egypt – Sassi Science – 200 pieces

This giant of a puzzle almost took up our entire board! Another new company for us to try – Sassi Science Puzzles. They make wonderful quality educational puzzles about a variety of subjects. I’m always interested in educational puzzles, I find them fascinating (and there are usually lots of words to assemble 🙂 )

This puzzle was great fun, lots of colorful clothing and hieroglyphics to assemble at the bottom; the pyramid and Sphinx were a little challenging but very entertaining. The pieces were very thick and fit together well, definitely excellent quality. And the puzzle pieces were quite large and made an impressively sized finished product. In addition, there was a 32 page book inside with all sorts of interesting information on ancient Egypt.

This was a great thrift store find, and we were happy that all pieces were present and accounted for. It has been donated to the school my daughter works for and I hope they’re enjoying it as much as mom and I did. (We’re both gray-haired old ladies who are extremely young at heart and enjoy putting together puzzles for any age)

If you find any Sassi Science puzzles that you like I would definitely recommend them. They’re wonderful quality, and I love a puzzle that can teach you something too!

Fallingwater

On February 11, 2018February 11, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

This isn’t my typical choice for a puzzle image, but the fact that this is a double sided puzzle and that the blueprints for this building is the image on the back piqued my interest and I couldn’t walk away from it. What an excellent idea!

I had a couple of issues with the quality of this puzzle, the first being the very shiny finish on the picture of the house; there was way too much shine, making it very difficult to work on under artificial lights. In fact the shininess of the pieces was part of the reason that I did the majority of the assembly with the blueprint side facing up. Secondly, the fit at times seemed a little mushy; when you tried to fit the pieces together you couldn’t always tell if the fit was correct.

I looked at other Galison puzzles at the store, luckily I was able to take the lid off and look at the pieces in the bag. There was another image that I liked very much, but the pieces were all ballerinas (2 prong, 2 hole) Blech! I prefer pieces to have more than one shape. On the plus side this puzzle had a good variety of piece shapes and once it was assembled correctly the fit was good enough to lift the entire puzzle. Here’s the image on the back…..

I was all over the place when I assembled this, the edge was put together picture side up then I flipped it over to assemble the blueprint in the center. I thought assembling the blueprint would be interesting, and it was! Once the majority of the blueprint was assembled and the only pieces left were all blue I flipped it over again and let the image assist in completing the remainder of the puzzle. I make no apologies – it was fun!

Dinosaur

On February 10, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles5 Comments

Here’s another small children’s puzzle that mom and I assembled on our visit/puzzle day. Melissa & Doug make excellent puzzles for children and they have some really interesting educational and fun images.

The colors seem a bit muted here, but it was still a pretty puzzle and an entertaining assembly. The fit is almost seamless and the pieces were wonderfully thick. Melissa & Doug are primarily focused on children’s games and toys and they have a very nice selection for children of all ages.

They also carry a small line of adult puzzles, but I don’t believe I’ve assembled any of them yet. We’ve not found any of their larger piece count puzzles at the local thrift stores, but I’m hoping for the chance to try one someday.

Melissa & Doug, I wouldn’t say no to one of your adult puzzles to review; I love trying out new companies! 😉

Review: Vintage Signs

On February 9, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

My first new puzzle purchase of 2018, and it was absolutely as much fun as I’d hoped. Collages are my favorite kind of puzzle, I love being able to assemble one small section at a time, and it’s satisfying to connect the sections together.

This Re-marks puzzle was very good quality; although they are shiny the pieces are thick and they connect together very well. The piece shape is quite obvious in the finished image, but for me that doesn’t really detract from the enjoyment of the assembly. The shine was a little annoying under the lights – even though the image isn’t dark it was still difficult at times to see the pieces properly.

I feel a little bit better now that I’ve successfully completed a 500 piece puzzle, and after a couple more I hope to get back to doing 1000 piece puzzles and maybe even higher piece counts.

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