Woodstock

On April 11, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

Love this image, but oh my was this time consuming and difficult!

When the picture is fun I don’t usually mind if all the pieces are ballerinas, but that is NOT true when there is just flat color everywhere! There are about 200 pieces that are just red. No different shades, nothing to break up the color, just red. Yikes. The same was true for the blue, white and green pieces, but in much smaller amounts.

I love having words to assemble, even larger ones – so that was fun. Even the guitar, hand and bird weren’t too terrible even though they were are flat color with no shading. But oh my the red background 😮 I refused to give up on it though and I got it finished!

I like the quality of Andrews & Blaine puzzles, but from now on if there is a lot of flat color in the image I won’t be attempting it. I’m proud and it wasn’t horrid, but it took so long and sometimes I thought I’d never get it done. The fit was looser than I’m used to with the Andrews & Blaine puzzles, so I had to take care and sometimes had to really look closely to be sure whether or not a piece fit. It made it a bit more challenging and took a lot of time. But just like with any puzzle, the more you whittle down the pieces you have to choose from the faster it goes. It got going faster and faster and that was exciting; plus all the pieces were there – bonus! I worry with the thrift store puzzles sometimes, but no need to worry on this one.

I love the image and the blocks of color but I’ve learned my lesson and unless there are different piece shapes I’m staying away from artwork like this one. This is one puzzle I’m super proud of completing though, that’s for sure. 😎

King Dog

On April 9, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Who couldn’t love a face like that? One look at this puzzle and we just had to get it and get it done!

300 piece puzzles are fun to put together in an afternoon, or even less time if you’re working with someone else. This puzzle was no different, and we just loved this adorable dog! The pieces weren’t too bad, and it was a large piece puzzle, so the finished product was much larger than we anticipated (18 x 24). That’s alright though, it seems like more of an accomplishment – look at this big puzzle we just finished!

Like I’ve said before, if you really love the image the puzzle is fun to put together even if the quality is less than amazing. The quality of this puzzle wasn’t too bad at all, so the assembly wasn’t a chore. I’m a bit of a puzzle snob, so when I see a puzzle I’ve had quality issues with before I tend to turn up my nose, but I also try to give every puzzle a chance. I’m not always successful, but I’m getting better at it.

It’s especially nice for me when I’m working on a puzzle that may be more difficult or time consuming to stop and work on a smaller or easier puzzle. I’m working on an extremely time consuming 1000 piece puzzle that I absolutely REFUSE to give up on – so it was very nice to spend the day over at mom’s where we were able to start and finish this puzzle in no time at all! This royal pup was too cute!

I love seeing all the different puzzles mom (black belt thrift shopper) finds at the thrift stores around here. They’re not all my cup of tea, but a lot of them I try anyway and find out that it was way more fun than I anticipated. 🙂

Halloween Town

On April 7, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

My first puzzle from Vermont Christmas Company – thumbs up! I bought this for Christmas last year because I needed to buy enough puzzles to get free shipping on the Christmas present I bought for mom. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 😎

I like the quality of this company very much. The pieces are thick, and the cut is super interesting! I’m not sure you can call it a grid cut, but it isn’t completely random either. Whatever it’s called, I like it! The fit is quite nice and the pieces lie flat; the image quality is bright and colorful and I enjoyed the whole puzzle from start to finish. The coating on the pieces is somewhat shiny and can cause glare on the darker pieces when working under lights, but I don’t consider that too much of a problem at all.

I’m not sure why I decided that spring is the time to assemble this puzzle, but there ya go. I just follow my weird mind and do whatever puzzle I’m feeling at the moment. Halloween is my favorite holiday so this puzzle makes me happy no matter what time of year it is! It’s cute without being overly childish and all the spooky favorites are there – kids trick or treating, ghosts, pumpkins, spider and bats, etc. This was a great puzzle and I’m looking forward to working more!

The Mouth of the River!

On April 6, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This Wasgij was fun, but more challenging that I thought! When I finished this one I was definitely proud of myself. As usual, I’m not showing the entire puzzle so as not to spoil the fun for anyone else who may do the puzzle. It’s so much more fun if you figure it out for yourself, and it feels like much more of an accomplishment!

Graham Thompson is one of my favorite artists and his Wasgij puzzles are amazing. The artwork was fun and funny, the quality of the puzzle itself is excellent and you have the added fun of not having a picture to work from. I think it adds fun, of course some people may not enjoy that.

With a Wasgij, depending on which type of puzzle you have, you have clues to what the end of the puzzle might look like. With the Wasgij original series you have to imagine the scene from the point of view of one of the characters on the box image. For this puzzle you have to puzzle the scene from the view of the man sitting on the back of the elephant.

You know you’ll have the boat, river, fish and bird his eye line at least. So you know generally what part of the puzzle should look like and you have to figure out the rest. And let me tell you, it is AMAZING what everyone is looking at! Of course it must be if even the birds and fish are shocked!

I highly recommend any of the Wasgij puzzles, I love the added challenge of figuring out what the picture is, and I love the high quality of the Jumbo puzzles. Give yourself a challenge and try a Wasgij puzzle if you have the chance, it’s so much fun!

Catch of the Day

On April 5, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another new puzzle company, who knew that there were so many? Puzzle Makers International – not too shabby. 🙂

The pieces were mostly what mom and I call “ballerina” pieces. Two prongs and two holes = two/two = tutu = ballerina! See how my “interesting” mind works? Anyway, even though almost all the pieces were ballerinas it was still a fun puzzle to assemble. The pieces were quite thick which is always a good sign, they fit together very well and the image quality was very nice!

The artwork by Roseanne Kaloustian is an adorable image of a boy fishing with his trusty dog by his side. I can’t define what it is, but something about this picture made me want to do the puzzle right away. I have no idea why – or I can’t verbalize it properly. Needless to say, we got going on this one immediately!

It was quite an enjoyable assembly and mom and I got it done in one afternoon. Those Friday visits are excellent for puzzling. We were both impressed with the quality of the puzzle and look forward to finding more new puzzle companies to try. Especially when we find them at the thrift store! 😎