Review: Willard & Margaret*

On July 23, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store Puzzles8 Comments

This is another puzzle that I have named (with a little help), because there is no title on the box anywhere. After some discussion with my puzzle pal Penny we have decided to name this one after the characters in a silly Ray Stevens song “It’s Me Again Margaret”. Willard & Margaret. I just love the sound of their names; and the names absolutely do NOT seem like the right ones for these pups, which makes the title even more funny to me. 😁

Re-marks has a large catalog of puzzles to choose from, and I find that because many of the images are ones I enjoy assembling I am willing to overlook some quality issues that come up from time to time. I have had the odd problem here and there, but overall I find their puzzles to be good/very good quality. The pieces are a good thickness with a very good variety of shapes that fit together well (although sometimes loosely). The image reproduction is very good as well, with beautiful colors and sharp lines.

The quality of these smaller 100 piece puzzles from Re-marks is very good, and reminds me of a White Mountain puzzle in both the quality of the chipboard used and the shapes of the pieces. They fit together well and I’ve seen no image lift on any of the pieces even though this is a second-hand puzzle. They’re fun to assemble too, and the images makes me smile – they’re both silly and entertaining to put together. 🙂

It is always my intention to be objective, although I freely admit that I am not perfect. I do try to remind the readers that all reviews are basically subjective; it is my impression and opinions about the puzzle I am assembling, nothing more. Take every review with a grain of salt – ultimately you have to decide for yourself which aspects of a puzzle’s quality are most important to you. I’m just trying to provide my perspective in the hopes that it might help you decide which puzzles you do or do not wish to try.

Happy puzzling! 🧩

Details:

Title: Willard & Margaret*
Artist: Unknown
Brand: Re-marks
Piece count: 100 pieces
Size: Approx. 10 x 10 in. (25 x 25 cm)
Purchased: Used, puzzle swap

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Good
Fit: Good, somewhat loose
Puzzle Dust: Small amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Fuyune

On July 22, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

The artwork of Haruyo Morita is so beautiful, and I love Asian art – so when I was looking through my micro puzzles to find one to put together, this one popped out and screamed “Assemble Me!”. 😍

A few years ago, near Christmas, Wentworth had a big sale on micro puzzles; I blacked out and in my fugue state I may have ordered every single one they had on sale. Perhaps. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

That’s the reason this beautiful work of art seems to have whimsy pieces that make no sense whatsoever in regards to the image. It was a Christmas sale, and so the whimsies are Christmas themed.

Fuyune whimsies

The penguin is my favorite, but I also like the detail in Santa’s beard. This puzzle (and one other) are all I’m doing for Christmas in July this year. My regular readers know that Christmas puzzles aren’t my favorite, and although I usually try to do some of that theme in July I just don’t have it in me this year. (You’d think I would though, my Christmas tree is still up! LOL)

I always enjoy putting together a micro puzzle from Wentworth; they’re so well made and sometimes they’re a little more difficult than they look. This one was no exception, it’s such a beautiful image and I enjoyed the few minutes it took me to assemble. Even just a few minutes of jigsaw puzzling makes my heart happy and calms my racing brain. 💖🧩

My Apologies…Sort Of

On July 21, 2020July 21, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Miscellaneous9 Comments

I left all you puzzle fans high and dry for the last several days, and you have my apologies…..sort of.

I needed a few mental health days; and though I do NOT apologize either for needing them or for taking them, I am sorry that I didn’t give you all a heads up first. Unfortunately I cannot say “all is well”, but it’s marginally better – enough to get back to my puzzles and My Jigsaw Journal at the very least.

So, back to the puzzles we all know and love. I will be back to the puzzle board today and working on a puzzle. Hope you all have been well, I’ve missed you! 💖

Birds – Part 5

On July 16, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Birds 5-1 — Birds – Lafayette Puzzle Factory (Cra-Z-Art) – 100/500 pieces

The final part of the series of Bird puzzles from Lafayette Puzzle Factory/Cra-Z-Art – they’re fun to assemble and pretty to look at! I enjoy these small shaped puzzles so very much, I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at them too. 🙂

There are still four more new sets that I haven’t done yet, but for right now I can’t find them, because while I was sleeping one day my husband decided that he was going to give me a larger set of shelves in the puzzle room. He took all my puzzles, piles of puzzles, and everything else and put them all together in an order he thought was best.

I know he was trying to be kind and thoughtful, and while I do appreciate the sentiment …… I would very much like to hurt him. A lot. Honest and truly. A LOT. He’s extremely lucky that I love him. So very lucky. 😡

Anyway, back to the birdies!

Chastity the Chickadee. For some reason that name makes me laugh. 🙂

The picture of all three birds shows the large difference in size between some of these puzzles – there are much fewer pieces to this small puzzle than in the next one. I find it refreshing that they’re not all the same size or piece count. At least it isn’t boring to put them together.

This beautiful bird seems more feminine to me, so I have named her Bernadette the Blue Jay. Bernie for short. The color is so striking, I wish more of the bird’s back was shown so that there was more of that gorgeous blue for us to see! The slightly orange color on the breast is quite pretty in it’s own right, this bird is one of my favorites.

What a sad name – Common Yellowthroat. If someone called me a “common Stacey” they would NOT have a good day. I’m just sayin’. Since the species says she’s common, I have given her a fabulous name – Countessa the (not so) Common Yellowthroat.

I had a really good time assembling these puzzles, and I had to stop myself from giving them all backstories even though I said they didn’t have enough personality to inspire me. Once I gave them names the whole backstory just popped into my head, I made up the personalities I wanted them to have. Perhaps I should stop puzzling and try my hand at writing the great American novel.

Or, perhaps, I should stick to my beloved puzzles and just let myself be silly and crazy once in a while with these smaller shaped puzzle sets. That’s probably for the best. 😉

Birds – Part 4

On July 15, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Birds 4-1 — Birds – Lafayette Puzzle Factory (Cra-Z-Art) – 100/500 pieces

This is the brightest, prettiest group of birds so far – the colors are beautiful! If there was one thing I didn’t like about this set of puzzles it would be that they all seem a bit duller than they should. That’s only my opinion, of course. But there’s something less bright and cheerful about this set to me. Perhaps it’s all in my head, that could very well be. We all know it’s a rough neighborhood to live, my head. Yikes.

Meet Ralph the Red Cardinal. He looks like a fun guy. When I was putting this bird together the color of the tail threw me off, it seemed much too dull to be part of this smaller puzzle. I assembled all of these puzzles without the aid of the box images, so at first I wondered if it was a branch that the bird was sitting on. The color seemed so deep and different from the body of the bird. Of course, once you follow the shapes and put everything together you see where it all fits.

This is Aunt Gertie the American Goldfinch. She looks like the nice, fun aunt who lets you get away with stuff your parents would never allow. I like Aunt Gertie.

This bird looks a little cranky to me, I’m not sure why. It looks like if I needed something I’d better think twice before asking this guy for help. His name is Tremaine. He will give you everything he has and will always help, but you’d better be sure you know what’s going on before you involve him. 😉

These birds with the duller back-ends and undersides took a little longer to put together than I thought they would. If you’re not using a picture to help guide your assembly sometimes where pieces should go and how they fit together isn’t readily apparent at first. At least that’s how it was for me. You look at them and think that it should be a quick assembly, that wasn’t always the case for me.

Whether they went quickly or a little more slowly, they were all still enjoyable and entertaining – and that’s the whole point of this wonderful hobby we call jigsaw puzzling. 🧩