Month: May 2022

Puppyness*

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

Puppyness* – Re-marks – 100 pieces

A cute, quick, good quality puzzle that was a welcome break from larger piece counts. And I just couldn’t resist that adorable puppy face! Like many smaller puzzles this one had no title; I wasn’t feeling overly creative when I started typing up this post, so the name is just puppyness. That’s all I see when I look at this image, the sweet puppyness of that expression. 💖

I find that many smaller piece count puzzles are quite expensive to purchase new, so usually I get them from swaps with other puzzlers or thrift stores. I don’t mind spending a dollar or two for a 100 piece puzzle, but unless it’s a truly amazing image I don’t purchase them new. I’m a tightwad sometimes, and proud of it!

Authors

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Authors – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

I knew this puzzle would be entertaining the moment I saw it, but I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. The random cut was a change from the usual grid cut that most manufacturers prefer for their puzzles. It usually takes my brain a few minutes to adjust to the difference in how the pieces fit together, but once I’m there it’s a nice break from the way my brain normally works in putting together grid cut puzzles.

Other than a slightly loose fit this lovely collage was excellent quality. Re-marks puzzles can be hit or miss sometimes, but they have so many interesting and beautiful collages in their catalog that I cannot help myself and buy them anyway. I put up with issues because the images are absolutely my pile of pieces, and most of them cannot be found with any other puzzle brand.

My favorite of the sections to put together. Lewis Carroll isn’t my favorite author, but I enjoyed the assembly of this section the most.

All along the edges were books by the authors in the image. You can read titles, author’s names, and even publishers on them all – you can even see the rips in the dust jacket on this book. Clear, crisp reproduction all the way around.

There were only two authors on more than one stamp, J.W. von Goethe and Charles Dickens. I’m not sure why they, above everyone else, deserved a double dose – but there you have it. I suppose whomever put this collage together would have had their own ideas about which authors were more important.

If you had been in charge, who would have gotten extra space?

Not Quite In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Art Nouveau Tiles by Barbara Behr – Cobble Hill – 1000 pieces

I starting sorting this one yesterday, but ended up spending the rest of the day in bed. Hopefully today will be better and I’ll finish the sorting and actually get to put pieces together. 🤞

My fellow puzzle blogger and friend from Finland/Germany (Puzzler1909) assembled this puzzle a while ago, and when I saw it I knew it would be great fun. It’s so beautiful, and absolutely my kind of image. I can’t wait to get started!

Also, happy Star Wars Day to all you fans out there – especially my two boys. 💖 May the 4th be with you!

Story of the Lion

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Story of the Lion by Amanda Michele – Sure Lox – 300 pieces

This puzzle is absolutely beautiful, but was not fun to assemble at all. It’s such a disappointment though, I really wanted to enjoy this one!

Sure Lox is much better than it used to be, with thicker pieces and a better fit: not these special editions though, it was NOT fun to work with. Adding whimsy pieces to cardboard puzzles never works the way people would hope – when things don’t connect they are constantly shifting all around and you are perpetually moving them back to where they go. It can be unbelievably frustrating – and it was.

In addition, this puzzle doesn’t lay flat – the whimsy pieces especially. As they don’t connect to anything they stick up out of the puzzle in places. Extremely annoying.

There are 75 whimsies out of 300 pieces, that’s a lot. And in this instance it isn’t a compliment. Some were huge, some small as the average puzzle piece. I found it a bit too much. Theater, if you will. Look at us, we can make fun shapes out of cardboard! Did it make for an entertaining puzzle? Nope.

Some of the pieces you can see come in different sizes, those I stacked up to be able to take the picture without using my entire board. The only one that’s image-side up is the shape of Africa; if it were turned around it would look like a bizzarro-world African continent.

Unfortunately this puzzle was not enjoyable, and I wouldn’t recommend it. Even at only 300 pieces it was difficult and cumbersome – and for me it was just annoying.

80s Shows

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

80s Shows – MasterPieces – 1000 pieces

Sadly this wasn’t as entertaining as I’d hoped. There was nothing wrong with the puzzle, it was mostly my state of mind and partly the image. Even though I love the look of the puzzle as a whole it wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be. As I said yesterday photographic images aren’t usually my pile of pieces, but I was hoping the small images in collage form would be easier to work with.

The cartoon sections (Smurfs, He-Man, Thunder Cats) were among the first I assembled and I found them the most engaging even though they were NOT shows that I watched in the 80s.

It was relatively good quality, and an excellent fit; there were weird differences in piece sizes though – some were very big, some very small – but overall the quality was good.

I’ve never watched a single episode of MacGyver. I show you this section to point out that in between some of the pictures of tv shows were snippets of 80s video games. Donkey Kong is shown here, with a little bit of Pac Man in the lower right corner. Totally awesome dude!

Murphy Brown was one of my favorite shows in this collage; I found it to be very smart, but still funny. I love the smart shows, the ones where you have to pay attention and the language and issues aren’t dumbed down. I really enjoyed this show in the 80s, but it was one of the last sections I assembled – it was difficult finding all the pieces.

Not just shows, commercials too. Back in the 80s you couldn’t get away from the commercials, and if there was a great one everyone heard about it. The star of this Wendy’s commercial became CRAZY famous because of it, and I can still remember her name 40 years later. Clara Peller. I can still hear her voice too…….WHERE’S THE BEEF?!

I wish I had more enthusiastic things to say about this puzzle, but it was kind of a letdown. The image had me very excited for the assembly, but it just wasn’t as fun as I’d hoped. Most of that was my problem though; I just wasn’t in the right headspace for this one.

Funnily enough, I did the 60s shows puzzle a week or so later and had a fabulous time with it even though I didn’t know many of the shows. I think I just chose the wrong puzzle at the wrong time.

It happens.