High Jinks on the High Seas!

On May 8, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This puzzle is adorable and a very cool thrift store find! Very nice quality for a Springbok puzzle from the 80’s – and all the pieces were there. Bonus!

I really love the artwork by Ulli Schneider, cartoon puzzles are up there in my favorites and I like the characters very much. I wanted to say “her characters” but realized that I don’t know if the name Ulli is male or female. I’m not sure why I assumed the artist was female. Interesting, I hope that doesn’t make me a sexist!

The piece cut is very random as you can see and it was extremely entertaining to assemble. The characters were quite fun to put together; the ship and sails were daunting at first, but as usual we worked it out. Mom and I got it done relatively quickly working together – we are an awesome puzzle team. Wonder Twin Powers………. activate! (Silly cartoon from the late 70’s – The Wonder Twins)

Springbok is a company we prefer to purchase only from thrift stores; sometimes the pieces have a LOT of hanging paper on the back and fit together way too tightly for our taste. But to each his own, everyone has their own opinions on what constitutes a good puzzle – and every single one of them is correct! The quality on this puzzle was very good, it’s from the 80’s and has held up pretty well.

How is it that the 80’s were 30 years ago? I cannot possibly be that old! Oh wait, I just quoted a tv cartoon from the 70’s, I AM that old. 😐

Emergency Room

On May 7, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles1 Comment

Would you believe this is only the 2nd 2000 piece puzzle I’ve ever assembled? It’s true! My only other 2000 piece was the World of Books by Ravensburger. Then I decided why not kick it up a notch and try a puzzle 20 times bigger than that? I’m off my rocker, I know, but in an adorable way. 🙂

I have to be honest, I was intimidated by this puzzle once I had the edge assembled. I thought, “where in the world do I begin?”, and “this is going to be difficult!”. The image is packed full of people and trees and shrubs and there’s so much going on! There is a lot going on that’s for sure; it’s a Loup puzzle, there’s always plenty of stuff going on! I even considered putting it back in the box and leaving it for another time. That’s how much I was almost dreading this puzzle. I thought to myself that it was too overcrowded and it wouldn’t be a very enjoyable assembly and that perhaps I’d be in a better mood to do it at some other time.

It sounds ridiculous that a person who just finished the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle would be intimidated by this 2000 piece thing. But I was, then I decided to just jump in and start doing something, it didn’t matter where I started I just had to begin. So I started out small and assembled the buildings on either side of the hospital itself. That wasn’t bad at all, so then I pulled and assembled the roofs, and it just went on from there. Trees, pavement, ambulances, they all got done in time and it turns out I was completely wrong to be intimidated and I enjoyed this puzzle so much!

This was my first puzzle by Jean-Jacques Loup, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. It became less and less intimidating with each piece I added. Even though there was a LOT going on I was still able to pull out small sections to assemble without having to refer to the poster constantly, I appreciated that. This puzzle was a bit naughty with some nudity and adult humor, but I found it amusing (cause I may be an adult, but I refuse to grow up) I was glad to see it wasn’t only female nudity, there was a naked man trying to escape from the psychiatric ward. 😉 Thumbs up for equality!

I have a few other Loup puzzles by Heye yet to assemble, and I think after this one I won’t be so intimidated by them. I can’t wait to assemble them actually!

Decision!

On May 6, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlingLeave a comment

I’ve just decided today that I’m going to get the giant Disney puzzle assembled soon so I can take plenty of pictures of me with my accomplishment. I have been waiting to make a final decision about what is going to happen with the puzzle, but I’m tired of waiting and the options I’ve been going back and forth about haven’t worked out as of yet. It’s been just over a month since the final section was completed and like a toddler having a tantrum, I don’t want to wait any longer! 😈

It doesn’t matter where it ends up, I want to see the entire thing assembled. Even though I have a sense of it I don’t think it’s something you can really tell until you see it in person. I’ll have to schedule a day to use a room in my parent’s church – none of us have homes big enough to even assemble this bad boy! Once I get it scheduled it’ll be good to go. I’m anxious to get pictures of the entire thing – what an accomplishment!

I hate having my picture taken, and I do not like people putting pictures of me online anywhere either – but I am making an exception in this case. I will definitely be posting pictures of the puzzle on the blog. 😎 Although we may have to get a tall ladder, how in the world are we going to get a good picture of a puzzle that’s almost 23 feet long? Oh well, I’m sure we’ll come up with something. Hubby is great with figuring out the logistics!

So if you watched and kept up while I assembled the puzzle and have been waiting for a conclusion, it shouldn’t be too much longer. I’ll hopefully be assembling it soon and will have the pictures to prove it! 🙂

Fountain Pens

On May 5, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

This puzzle was more difficult than it looked, and we sure were proud of ourselves when it was finished! It’s a beautiful puzzle, and the pieces were quite large for a 1000 piece puzzle, it makes an impressive statement when it’s assembled.

Mom loves fountain pens, so this puzzle was her Christmas present last year. We finally got around to assembling it and it took us much longer than we anticipated. We’ve also learned that while we appreciate a semi-random cut puzzle, we prefer a grid or ribbon cut. We’re used to judging the shape of the piece we’re looking for by the shape of the piece it attaches to – not a wise move when the cut is offset! Your brain has to work differently when the cut is random or offset and you can’t prejudge the size or shape of the piece you need. It’s good to give your brain a workout by changing things up every once in a while, but when you pair that challenge with a challenging puzzle image – WOW!

I did enjoy the quality of this puzzle as well – the pieces were pleasantly thick and fit together well, there are a variety of piece shapes and the image reproduction was beautiful! This was the first 1000 piece by Vermont Christmas Company that mom and I have assembled and we enjoyed the challenge. The assembly was fun, difficult at times, but overall a very nice puzzle.

Vermont Christmas Company has more than just Christmas puzzles, there’s a lot to choose from – including this challenging but gorgeous puzzle!

At The Vets

On May 4, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I’ve been in a What If and Wasgij mood lately, I keep switching from one to the other. I like the added challenge of not having a picture to work from and I suppose I’ve been wanting to use my brain to prove it’s still there and functioning. 🙂

So for this puzzle, the picture shows what Brett the vet hopes the surgery (they say surgery in Europe instead of office) would look like if he stops making house calls and everyone has to come to the surgery instead. The puzzle is what actually happens when everyone has to come to the surgery/office. It doesn’t turn out to be as calm as Brett had hoped!

This puzzle was really fun for me as I didn’t even use the box for clues. Usually you can tell what certain characters are wearing and where they might be in the image and use those clues to assist in the assembly. I put the box away completely and just started working the puzzle and I must say it was a great time! I didn’t know who was wearing what or where anything was supposed to be so it was all just assembling and paying attention.

I can’t really put into words how much I enjoy taking a few pieces of a certain color and looking how they may fit together and putting them where they’re supposed to be. It’s a sense of pride almost, but also it’s just a good time for me. Again, this is clumsily worded and it doesn’t convey how much I adore doing jigsaw puzzles, but it’s the best I can do for today. Apparently my brain is helping with puzzles today, but not vocabulary. 😉