Garden Traditions

On January 13, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was a fun puzzle that went together pretty quickly. Again, it wasn’t a puzzle image that I would buy new, but it was definitely one that we’d buy at the thrift store. As usual, I enjoyed it immensely and ended up liking the image much more once it was all assembled.

A 500 piece Ravensburger is just about the perfect size puzzle for me when I haven’t been feeling well. I can only sit for a limited amount of time and a 500 piece is 4 times easier than a 1000 piece (according to conventional wisdom) and therefore doesn’t seem to require as much thought or time studying the pieces. I can pull the pieces for a section and put them together relatively quickly, giving me a sense of completion and making it easier for me to walk away for a while to take a break from sitting or standing to work on it.

I enjoy the 500 piece Ravensburger puzzles in both the smaller and larger piece sizes. The larger size seems to go together more quickly for me, but they’re both quite fun if you’ve got a good image. I’ve done a couple Jane Maday puzzles in the past month or so and find that they’re quite fun to do and just the right amount of challenge. I hope we find more of her puzzles at the thrift stores. 🙂 There’s an adorable 350 piece puzzle of hers from Cobble Hill called Christmas Train that I’ve seen on Puzzle Warehouse’s site, it looks like a great puzzle for next Christmas!

My Space

On January 12, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Absolutely gorgeous puzzle, but much more challenging than I’d assumed! The water in the background was easy enough to find and assemble, but the rest of the pieces took much more focus and attention. I was planning on this little 300 piece puzzle only taking an hour or so. Wrong!

The quality of this puzzle was fair. The finish was fairly shiny and caused glare even on the lighter color pieces, and the tabs were very easily bent, and all the pieces were ballerinas (2 prong/2 hole). On the plus side, you can see that besides the shine the image reproduction is beautiful, and the pieces fit together very well. It still shocks me sometimes how each piece with blobs of smudgy colors fits together to make such a lovely image. Taking the picture gives you a completely different look at the finished image, and it’s surprising how a slightly different perspective changes things.

I didn’t enjoy this puzzle as much as I’d hoped, but I still had fun with the assembly. Most of it was done in bed because it was a bad day for me and sitting wasn’t possible for more than a few minutes at a time. I’m glad I still have my old white board that I can use in bed for assembly – it comes in very handy!

Vibrant Puzzle Calendar Kit Puzzles 11 & 12

On January 11, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Potted Plants – 100 pieces

Cottage – 100 pieces

I’ve assembled all 6 puzzles (12 images), and I have to say I really enjoyed them, even much more than I thought I would! I think these two images are my favorite out of all of them, why did I save this one for last?

There’s not much left to say about these one coffee puzzles; I had a great time assembling them, and it’s so nice to sit down and work a puzzle from start to finish in just a few minutes. If you haven’t seen the rest of the images, follow the links below.

Puzzles 1 & 2 Flower shop & Butterflies

Puzzles 3 & 4 Bouquet & Window Box

Puzzles 5 & 6 Gourds & Bird

Puzzles 7 & 8 Aspens & Heart

Puzzles 9 & 10 Ladybug & Ivy

I’d love for us to find the other calendar kit they produced, because I loved this one. It’s going to mom’s house next, and I’m sure she’ll enjoy it as well. We absolutely got our 99 cents worth from this purchase! 🙂

Millside Picnic

On January 10, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve assembled an Americana type puzzle, and it was nice to get back to it. Sometimes it feels boring to do the same type of puzzle over and over again, and so I step away from it. That’s what I did with the Americana/Wysocki/Heronim images – I needed a break. For some reason, though, when I looked at this puzzle I wanted to get assembling right away. Perhaps I had taken a long enough sabbatical and this puzzle was what I needed. 🙂

I absolutely enjoyed this puzzle, the quality was very good, the image was excellent for puzzling and I enjoyed every part of the assembly. I especially enjoyed assembling the houses, although I’m not sure why. I believe this was my first Bonnie White puzzle, but looking through her puzzles available at Puzzle Warehouse, I might be wanting to try some more. They’ve even got some beautiful ♦diamond♦ shaped puzzles I’d love to try.

Here’s hoping we can find more Bonnie White puzzles at the thrift stores, or that someone sends me some to review. 😉

Vibrant Puzzle Calendar Kit Puzzles 9 & 10

On January 9, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

Ladybug – 100 pieces

Ivy – 100 pieces

I wanted to start off the new year by keeping track of the number of puzzles and pieces assembled, so I started the year with a one coffee puzzle. There’s only one left after this one! Very pretty images, but I choose poorly – I hadn’t yet finished my first cup of coffee and both of the sides of this puzzle were a little bit of a challenge for my pre-caffeinated brain.

I assembled the edges on the ladybug side first, but seeing the pieces left I decided to flip the puzzle over to assemble it, my poor brain wasn’t awake enough yet to handle those red flowers! The other side was a little less difficult, but I have to say that it took me much longer than it should have. I’m going to say that the reason is not enough sleep – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! 😉

I’ve really enjoyed these small piece count puzzles partly because they’re quick and fun to assemble, and partly because they’re not childish pictures. It’s nice to assemble a puzzle in just a few minutes and for it to be a more mature image. One more to go!