Garden Study In Progress…

On July 16, 2023July 16, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Garden Study of the Vickers Children by John Singer Sargent – Laurel Ink – 500 pieces

I finished sorting and started assembling this thrift store purchase yesterday, and made very good progress if I do say so myself. Fine Art puzzle images can be notoriously difficult to assemble, and this one is no different – but for some reason this one seems more enjoyable than others I’ve done.

The only pieces that are left now are shades and shapes of green, so they have all been sorted by shape and then we’re off to the races. Wish me luck!

Sweet Treats

On July 15, 2023July 2, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

Sweet Treats by Tatiana – Buffalo – 500 pieces

I had the best time working on this puzzle – the bright colors, the excellent reproduction, the wonderful fit – just a fantastic quality puzzle with such beautiful artwork!

This is a puzzle with hidden images in it, there is a list on the poster of ten things to find in the puzzle once you have completed it. Full disclosure, I only found 9 out of the 10 and had to use the answer key (also on the poster) to find the last one. Many of the things weren’t too difficult to find, but a few of them required a little more attention than others. The first one was shown on the cover of the box, can you find the kitten…

The puzzle on my board just before this one was a White Mountain of very poor quality, and even sorting this one was a joy comparatively. Working on this beautiful puzzle was like a breath of fresh air after slogging through one that was frustrating because of quality issues. Image reproduction was an big problem with my previous puzzle, but this one was stellar.

Everything is so crisp and clear that you can even read the words on this scale! Great quality puzzle from Buffalo, and the image was so bright and beautiful that it was a joy to put together.

💖Every 🧩Single 🧩Piece 💖

Space Flare

On July 14, 2023July 13, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Space Flare – Wentworth – 80 pieces

This Mini Mindful puzzle from Wentworth sure does make a person slow down and focus completely on the puzzling – of course I loved it!

The repetitive tessellating pieces made for a challenging but fantastic assembly; the geometric shapes were so fun to work with. The “extra difficult” puzzles from Wentworth are very entertaining, and even in such small sizes give your gray matter a little bit of a workout!

As usual the puzzle itself is beautifully made, an excellent quality puzzle all around. You can see from the picture above the stunning image reproduction. Gorgeous 😍

Once I put together the obviously easier sections (shown above), the difficulty level ramped up significantly. We worked on it in the bathroom for a while, you can also see in the picture above how the light is much poorer than it is in the puzzle room.

My daughter came over to visit and while sitting in the puzzle room with me she asked my son to bring out whatever puzzle was in the bathroom so she and I could work on it together. At first she was NOT happy about which puzzle was there, she was hoping to work on Casual Friday but hubby and I had already finished that one. She was a trooper though and got into it after a few minutes, eventually we had a great time working on it together. I love that she wants to work on puzzles with me when she’s here. 💕

There are quite a few more Mini Mindful puzzles here to be done, and after seeing how entertaining this puzzle was I am very much looking forward to the next ones!

Tranquil Waters In Progress…

On July 13, 2023July 13, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Tranquil Waters – Tuco – 408 pieces

I made a fantastic find at the thrift store this week – this amazing Tuco puzzle that was manufactured in 1958! I’ve never had the opportunity to work on one of these puzzles before, and I’m so amazingly thrilled to have found it.

The image isn’t anything like I would normally choose, but the very old box caught my eye. It doesn’t tell you a piece count, only that there are “approx. 425 to 990 Tuco king-size puzzle parts” and it also says it is a “100% Interlocking Picture Puzzle”; there was also the word complete handwritten on the front of the box. Well, I was intrigued. I’ve seen Tuco puzzles in other blogs or on resale sites but for the most part they were all puzzles whose pieces just push together and I usually just find that frustrating.

My mother and I developed a system for thrift store puzzle shopping – mostly for brands with quality that can be questionable. We always had a small pair of scissors or something sharp in our purses along with a small roll of clear tape. When a puzzle from a questionable brand was in a taped up box we could open it, check out the pieces to see if it was something we might want to assemble and tape it back up if necessary.

I still do this when shopping for puzzles at thrift stores and I opened this puzzle box to check out the pieces, to say I was stunned would be an understatement! The pieces are the thickest I’ve ever seen for a cardboard puzzle, they put Ravensburger and Pomegranate to shame…

That’s a piece from Ravensburger on the left, and a pre-pandemic Pomegranate on the right – the pieces of this Tuco puzzle are as thick or thicker than some wooden puzzles I’ve worked! (I think when I write up the post for this completed puzzle I’ll show pieces from premium cardboard brands along with wooden puzzle brands for comparison.)

Once I saw the thickness of the pieces, and that most of them had tabs that fit into other pieces there was NO WAY I wasn’t buying this puzzle. As an added bonus the color on the price tag was the “color of the week”, so it was half price, which means I paid $1.50 for this amazing find!

The image is mostly a dark landscape with lots of green and a pond or river in the foreground with even more green, but it doesn’t matter. It’s such an amazing puzzle to have found at the thrift store, and I am extremely excited to assemble it! 😍

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

On July 12, 2023July 12, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Cardinal – 48 pieces

My youngest son decided it was time for me to put together one of my kids puzzles that have been hanging out at the bottom of my puzzle shelves way in the back – and of course he chose TMNT. He tells me this is from the 2012 version of the show, in case anyone was wondering. 🐢

*In case you were wondering if I was wondering – I wasn’t. But he loves to talk about the things he’s interested in, and I’m his mother, so I listen.*

In addition to providing all the information I learned about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, he even helped out with the assembly right from the beginning! I’m sure the fact that it was only 48 pieces was a consideration, but he was genuinely excited about this puzzle and I was happy to have his assistance.

I was quite impressed with the quality of this puzzle, it came in a 6 pack of kids puzzles of varying piece counts (all from Nickelodeon shows) that I paid $1.49 for. I was expecting much lesser quality, but was happily surprised that the pieces were thick and fit together well, and the image reproduction was very good.

It was a bargain at even twice the price. Cowabunga dudes!