Black Sheep Wool Farm

On June 22, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Here’s another in the Home Sweet Home series from Ceaco and Roger Nannini, the pieces are thinner and easily bent, but the fit was excellent and the artwork made for a really fun assembly.

I’ve changed my tune about Ceaco puzzles recently, and am more likely to give them a try than I was before. I wish they used better chipboard that doesn’t split and bend so easily; but they have a lot of beautiful images to choose from and the fit is very good.

For some reason I really enjoyed the symmetry of the animals in the foreground. I don’t know that I can really explain why this pleases me, but it does.

The assembly was a little more challenging than I thought it would be. I started with the sky (that’s my usual starting place), and then assembled all the words. Buildings came next and they were really fun to put together. There were so many trees in the background it added a bit to the difficulty, but it was still a fun assembly all around.

This is a thrift store puzzle that has been assembled many times before, but if you find a newer one I would recommend giving it a try. The artwork makes for a fun puzzle!

Garden Shed

On June 21, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles7 Comments

This is a beautiful puzzle that was a little bit challenging, but altogether lovely to assemble. The artwork is charming, the quality was excellent, and the entire experience was entertaining.

I don’t always care for images with so much pastel or muted colors; but this one was quite fun to assemble. The number of different flowers made me really pay attention to patterns and shades, and added to the difficulty level. I enjoyed the artwork and the color palette very much, and would love to find more puzzles by this artist. I have done one other puzzle by Geraldine Aikman, but the color palette was brighter with more primary colors.

These premium Milton Bradley puzzles have very good quality. The pieces have a good feel, are made with thick chipboard and fit together very well. There are a good variety of piece shapes, and the image reproduction is true to the image on the box. Regular readers know I don’t usually comment on puzzle boxes, but these boxes have a “premium” feel and aren’t made of the relatively thin cardboard that you find on most puzzle boxes.

I love the detail on the inside of the shed – including the cat!

For a puzzle with only 300 pieces, this one offered enough of a challenge to keep my mind engaged and keep me occupied for a few hours. Exactly what a puzzler like me enjoys! I know 1000 piece puzzles are the “norm” and the most popular piece count, but at the moment I’m mostly doing 300 and 500 piece puzzles. I’m glad there are plenty of excellent choices in those pieces counts to keep me happily puzzling for quite some time.

Oops, I did it again!

On June 20, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling12 Comments

Five new puzzles are on their way to my house, including the image above. I don’t need them, but I want them – and I don’t feel bad about it at all. 😁

I got an unexpected check recently, and after a disappointing trip to Tuesday Morning that netted me zero puzzles I had this extra money burning a hole in my pocket. What to do?

At first I planned on doing nothing; I have plenty of puzzles both here and at mom’s house and I don’t actually NEED more. Later on in the evening though, I was in bed and just looking around at puzzles online and ended up on the Wentworth site. They’re having a summer sale – many discontinued puzzles are 25% off – and I also have a code for 10% off any regularly priced puzzles. How unfair to tempt me like that!

I spent a bit of time thinking about it; I don’t really need them – just because they’re on sale doesn’t mean I have to buy them. After a while though, I remembered a few things. 1) Puzzles make me happy and help me feel better, 2) I can afford it right now, and 3) Life is short, if getting some new puzzles makes you happy why wouldn’t you? I shouldn’t feel bad for doing something that’s just for me, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks or says.

Before I knew it five puzzles had jumped into my cart. I didn’t want them to feel unloved, so I adopted all five of them. I’m a giver – these lonely puzzles need a place to go, and selflessly I will be sharing my home with them. Ain’t I a sweetie?? 😉

Review: Rooster Express

On June 19, 2018February 5, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

Rooster Express by Charles Wysocki – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

I love a Wysocki image that isn’t the norm, ones that maybe only have one house instead of many; or ones that feature something different, like this rooster. This puzzle is the perfect example of that.

Most puzzles by Charles Wysocki we’ve done are produced by Buffalo Games, every once in a while I come across one from another manufacturer. This beauty is made by Milton Bradley. The quality is very good; with thick pieces, excellent image reproduction, and a beautiful fit. It was a joy to assemble!

I assembled it a little differently than usual, I started from the top and put together the sky, buildings, and fields. Then I went to the bottom and assembled the road, wagon, and rooster. After that all that was left was the grass, which didn’t take much time at all. It was over too quickly! It was more fun than I thought it would be, those are my favorite types of puzzles. 🙂

Details:

Title: Rooster Express
Artist: Charles Wysocki
Brand: Milton Bradley
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

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

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Rosso Angelo

On June 18, 2018June 18, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

IMG_E4704 — Rosso Angelo by Ross Fiorentino – Artifact Puzzles – 228 pieces

This puzzle was really fun to assemble, and not nearly as difficult as I thought it might be. I was worried that the darker places would be tedious and very hard to complete, but thankfully I was wrong. It was a wonderful assembly all around. 🙂

Artifact Puzzles are having a sale at the moment, while supplies last, and I just couldn’t resist 50% off! I bought this and another puzzle because I knew if it were “while supplies last” that the puzzles would eventually be out of stock and gone. And at these great sale prices how on earth could I resist? They’re still having that sale, if you are so inclined there are still quite a few beautiful puzzles to choose from. (If I had unlimited funds I would get every single one of them!)

Once I started working on this puzzle, it was difficult to stop. I started with the mandolin (or whatever the instrument is), and from there went up the angel’s arm and into the wings. One section led to another and it went very quickly. For some reason the angel’s nose is located in the center of the circular end of a mandolin shaped whimsy piece. It looks odd, and my eye jumps to that section every time I look at the picture. To me, it almost looks like a clown nose.

The whimsies for this puzzle are all “angelic” There are several cherubs and mandolins, along with a harp, a violin, and one piece shaped like Italy. This image is from the Italian Renaissance after all, so the piece shaped like Italy is a perfect fit.

I’m currently working on the other puzzle I bought from this sale, it’s a secondary one I’ve been working on for well over a week now. I only put in a piece or two here and there, it isn’t the primary puzzle that I’m working on. It’s going to take a while, it’s much more difficult than I bargained for and will take plenty of patience. I don’t mind though, to me time spent puzzling is never wasted – it’s always worthwhile. Especially with a wooden puzzle! 😉