What Do You Think?

On April 20, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling12 Comments

Recently I was contacted by a new puzzle company, looking for feedback from puzzlers about their new product; they’d love to hear your thoughts about their puzzles.

Starz Puzzles are a new brand of wooden jigsaw puzzle and their product seems quite new and different. Unlike many other companies their puzzles are made of solid maple hardwood – not plywood or MDF; in addition, they print the images directly onto the wood, there is no paper involved. They also have designed a new star-like piece shape, which according to Starz allows for an unlimited puzzle, an infinity puzzle. Are you intrigued? I am.

Please check out their website by clicking the link above, and if you’re so inclined please leave a comment here letting them know your thoughts. Any feedback, good or bad, is welcome; they would very much like to know what those of us who actually assemble jigsaw puzzles think. Even though I haven’t actually assembled one of their puzzles I’m giving them my feedback as well.

Thanks so much for your help! 🙂

Something Fishy

On April 19, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

This has beautiful colors, but wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped; I’m not a big fan of underwater images. Isn’t it interesting how I love bright colors in a puzzle, but if they’re fish or a scene under the ocean it isn’t as entertaining? My brain is so odd!

That isn’t to say that it wasn’t fun to assemble at all, because it was. It just wasn’t as much fun as I’d hoped. Who’s to say why some images make us happy and some don’t, we like what we like. The best pictures don’t always make the best puzzles, and sometimes images look like they’ll be fun, but for some reason we can’t explain they just aren’t.

Unfortunately this had a missing piece so it ended up in the recycle bin instead of being given back to goodwill, but those are the chances we take. It’s a tiny bit disappointing, but I still got to put the puzzle together; I can’t be unhappy with that. 🙂

Want a Ride?

On April 18, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

Another silly title by me for a puzzle with no title shown on the box. How intense are these puppy/kitty looks? Pretty intense. Would you want a lift from a car full of these darlings? I definitely would!

Fair quality kids puzzles from Milton Bradley. The fit was good, the pieces were on the thinner side, and the finish was a bit shiny. Not too bad for a thrift store purchase, I got 3 silly puzzles to assemble for a dollar – not bad at all! 🙂

Inspiration Please!

On April 17, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling10 Comments

I’m wallowing, I’ve been wallowing for more than a week now and have absolutely no ambition, energy, physical strength, or anything else I need to get out of bed and work on a puzzle.

In my head I want to puzzle, but then I’m lacking whatever else is needed to actually get up and do it. There’s a 500 piece puzzle that has been on the board for about a week now, and I just can’t seem to get my butt in there and finish the damn thing. It’s very pretty, a bit challenging, and has been fun so far – but the inspiration seems to have flown away from the Hummingbird Garden.

68460hummingbirdgardencat

All nine hummingbirds are assembled, as are the flowers in both the upper and lower right corners. It’s more than halfway complete, putting it away now is just stupid. Besides, who says if I take this one down and start another that there’d be any more inspiration? Sigh.

Ah well, today is Wednesday. Hump day. Maybe I’ll finally get over the hump and finish this one. Perhaps all I needed was to moan and complain about it to my PADS posse and get all that whining out of my system; here’s hoping!

T’s General Store

On April 16, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles14 Comments

This puzzle is called Trump’s General Store on the box, but I didn’t want that title on my blog – I’m sure you understand. I don’t talk politics on this blog, we’re all about jigsaw puzzles and puzzle people here – that’s it. For my purposes I’ve renamed the puzzle, and apparently so has Ceaco; it’s available for purchase now under the name “General Store”.

This was such a fun image to assemble, and it was fascinating how the tiny look-alikes were made for the photograph. A quick look at the image makes you think it’s just the inside of an old general store; but a more detailed inspection reveals that not much is what it seems to be at all.

There are 156 common items that fool the eye in this image: playing cards are ceiling tiles, checkerboards are floor tiles, bathtub stoppers are light fixtures, etc. To be honest I didn’t try to find them all, but it was fun to find things as it was being assembled that I hadn’t seen at first. I’d absolutely love to find more of Joan Steiner’s “Can You Find?” puzzles like this one. ❤ Here are my favorite look-alikes…

Cut crayons are substituted for deli meats, and the front of the deli case is a light switch cover…

T's General Store 1

A razor, paper fasteners and nail clippers as vacuums…

T's General Store 2

Grenade as a fireplace, cinnamon sticks as logs…

T's General Store 3

It’s an average Ceaco puzzle, not terrible but not great either. This puzzle was all about the image and seeing each element close up as you assemble it. I had a great time! Sometimes we find the most interesting puzzles at the thrift stores. 🙂