Bread Baking by Kim Jacobs – Milton Bradley – 500 pieces
This image would make for a lovely wall hanging in someone’s kitchen. But it made for a challenging jigsaw puzzle – at least for me. The color palette is so pale and sometimes indistinct; and for someone who loves bright colors (me), it made the assembly a little more difficult to get through.
It was a gift though, and even if the colors aren’t to my choosing or the image isn’t one I’d pick out I thoroughly appreciate the thought that went into it. Someone took the time to select this puzzle for me because they thought I would like it, that is what’s really important – not the image, the quality, or the size. Even though it isn’t a puzzle that I would have chosen for myself I love it for who gave it to me, and the thought it represents. 💝
I loved the red oven – not only would I love to have a red oven because it’s my favorite color, I loved this one because the pieces were easy to pick out. There really wasn’t anything else red in this image besides the rug. It was a good place to start. 🙂
So many cats! There must be cat hair all over that kitchen! I’m not sure I’d want them hanging around sticky bread dough being shaped and proved.
I’ve never had any major quality issues with these smaller piece count Milton Bradley puzzles. The fit on this one was a bit loose, but not too much so. Otherwise it was good quality; thick board, nice variety of shapes, and very nice image reproduction. For me they’ve always been a good quality puzzle that I never hesitate to purchase when I find them.
The colors and brush strokes made this assembly a challenge for me, but I conquered it anyway – like the Goddess of Puzzles that I am. 👑
Great White Delight by Jerry LoFaro – Ceaco – 100 pieces
This is a cute puzzle I picked up the last time I was at the thrift store. It was supposed to be a glow in the dark image, but unfortunately the glow was worn out. We even tried leaving it outside in the sun for 10 minutes (you usually get the best glow from putting them in the sunlight), but no luck. Ah well, we tried.
It is also obviously missing a piece, which is unfortunate; this would have been a great one to donate to the school my daughter works for. Some of the kids there need a puzzle with a bit of challenge, and this would have been perfect.
The color scheme makes it a bit more difficult, especially if you don’t have good lighting. This was partially assembled while I was in bed, but the lighting in my bedroom isn’t great. Once the large skeletal jaw was complete I ended up having to take it into the puzzle room to finish it; my poor old eyes couldn’t distinguish the correct pieces to place with all those different shades of blue! 🦈
Suds and Pups by Jenny Newland – Karmin – 550 pieces
Unlike many puzzlers who prefer cats, I absolutely prefer a puzzle with dogs – in fact I’m working on another one right now. This is such a cute image by Jenny Newland, but unfortunately it didn’t have the same quality as the previous puzzle with her artwork by the same brand. Still, I had a good time putting all those sweet puppy faces together. 🐶
This is one of my Christmas gift puzzles, and I LOVE the image. This puzzle had quite a few pieces not cut all the way through, and some that were bent. It must have been one that was cut when the die was duller – although I’m not sure how that results in bent pieces. Karmin isn’t usually a brand that I buy, but I was surprised at the thickness of the pieces and the way they fit together; they were much better than previous Karmin puzzles I’ve worked.
What an adorable face! I really enjoyed this artwork, it had exactly the right amount of difficulty for a 550 piece puzzle. It wasn’t too easy, in fact it was harder than I thought; but that is perfect for a smaller puzzle, I don’t want it to be over too quickly.
I had a great time assembling this puzzle, even with it’s issues. It was full of sweet puppy faces!
Whether she gave you love, kindness, support, encouragement, friendship, or life itself – there’s a woman, or most likely many women in your life to whom you owe a debt of gratitude. Celebrate today by letting those women know how much you appreciate them for who they are and for all they’ve done to make you the person you are today. 💗
Today I want to be sure to appreciate my daughter who has become my bestie in this past year. We’ve been through a lot and held tight to each other and have grown incredibly close. She’s made me a better mother, a better friend, and a better person. I love you to the moon Baby Princess!
Also, to all my women puzzle friends both online and in “real life” – you have supported, encouraged, and enabled me, and brought smiles to my face when I needed it most – you are awesome ladies!
Happy Women’s Day, and as always, happy puzzling! 🧩
I can’t even express how much I loved putting this one together, it was a trip down memory lane and I loved every memory and every piece that clicked together. To be honest the fit wasn’t great, but for this puzzle it was all about the image. Almost every small section brought back memories and I had the best time!
Get ready for a long post rambling on and on about the days of yesteryear and my memories of these things in the 1970’s. This puzzle is a fantastic image, and for those of us that grew up in the 70’s and 80’s this collage will bring a smile to your face. 🙂
Now if you’re a young’n, this will blow your mind; the way we used to get music much of the time was compilation albums like this one. If you couldn’t afford to buy all the albums this was a much cheaper way to get all the music you loved. No downloading songs or smartphones anywhere in sight. Times were tough! There was another way too, if you had lots of time to sit and listen to the radio with your boombox you could hit record when a favorite song came on and make yourself a mix tape! I used to do that especially around New Year’s when the stations would play the top 100 or so songs of the year. The trick was to wait until the DJ stopped talking. 😉
My parents loved Laugh-In, and watched it every week. I definitely didn’t understand all the jokes, but for a child it was perfect; lots of colors and camera movements, and skits that were very quick for our short attention spans. I loved it too, but at the time I didn’t know all the reasons why. Ruth Buzzi’s character Gladys was a favorite, as was Arte Johnson’s Tyrone. Great show!
I’m sure many readers will recognize some or all of these songs, but I am old enough to remember when they were playing on the radio – not as classics, but as new music! I used to have 45’s of My Sharona, Y.M.C.A, and I Will Survive. If only I still had them they might be worth a lot of cash! (45’s were small vinyl records with only one song [per side] that you played on a turntable)
I don’t have much recollection of Richard Scarry’s books when I was a child, but my children LOVED them when they were young. I read them to my kids a lot, and my youngest even had a rug in his room with a map of Busytown on it, he adored playing with it and lining up his cars along the streets.
This is the one of the smallest sections of the puzzle, but it holds the most memories for me. My sisters and I had this album (and 8 track), watched the television special, and knew every word and every song by heart. If you’re not familiar, it was created by Marlo Thomas and released in 1972; it promoted gender neutrality, basically saying that boys and girls could be anything they wanted regardless of their gender and achieve amazing things. It had an all star cast; Rosey Grier (former pro football player), Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, Harry Belafonte, Mel Brooks, Dustin Hoffman, Kris Kristofferson, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Alan Alda, Dionne Warwick, and many more. It was a fantastic album for kids and I can still remember all the songs and scenes more than 45 years later. 🤍
I could write a little blurb about almost every section in this puzzle, but I had to stop somewhere. The Carol Burnett Show was one of my favorites – I loved all things comedy as a child (and still do). Sesame Street was another favorite when I was very young – in fact I’m older than Sesame Street. Oh my! Today’s post was brought to you by The Letter “O”. O is for OLD LADY. 👵
I loved this puzzle more for the memories than anything else, but that doesn’t mean the assembly was bad. In fact it was quite the opposite. Even with the loose fit it was great fun with a great image, and brought back great memories!
My Jigsaw Journal 