Grandpa’s Cabin

On February 10, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles5 Comments

I’ve had this puzzle at my house for a few months, and just wasn’t in the right mood for it when mom first found it. I finally decided to dive in, and had a great time. The artwork by William S. Kreutz made for a challenging and beautiful puzzle and I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Love it when that happens!

MasterPieces random cut usually keeps things interesting, but this one was quite devious! Many times I was convinced a piece was missing, and it turned out to be 2 oddly shaped pieces in a configuration I hadn’t even considered. It certainly kept me on my toes right until the very end. This isn’t one of those puzzles where the nearer you get to the end, the faster the pieces fly into place; and I really enjoyed the challenge of it. Maybe our work on the Mystery Box Puzzle is giving me a greater appreciation for fun of conquering a complicated puzzle. 😎

I love the image, especially the characters. Grandma’s face is so sweet looking! Although if it were my family my daughter would be the one who went fishing and my sons would have stayed inside at the cabin to play video games or watch a movie. 😉

There’s something about this puzzle that makes me very happy, but I’m not sure how to articulate it. I had a wonderful time with the assembly, and just looking at the pictures brings a smile to my face.

Trolls (1)

On February 8, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This was a fun little puzzle with beautiful colors, and it’s a bit more difficult than it looks. The quality was very nice, and the fit was excellent – not bad for a dollar store puzzle!

Mom was going to the dollar store to look for something specific, and I asked her to look at the puzzles to see if there might be a small puzzle or two there that I might be able to use for a mash-up. She bought some kids puzzles to try out, but none of them really worked for that purpose, so I just puzzled them. My brain is far too muddled these days for combining two puzzles into one anyway. 😉

Such funny and interesting creatures! I love the glitter guy on the far left, I haven’t seen the movie so I have no idea what his name is; but they are all very cute in my opinion.

There was no name on the puzzle at all, so I’ve named this one Trolls (1) because she bought two of these puzzles and the other one is unnamed as well. This was the prettier of the two, so this one gets top billing.

This was the first puzzle we’ve gotten at the dollar store, and I was impressed with it. I’m sure others aren’t as good quality, but if we take a chance on missing pieces at the thrift store, then I guess we might (if we love the picture) take a chance on a cheap puzzle. 🙂

*probably not very often, I truly can be quite the puzzle snob sometimes*

Harry Potter Book 5

On February 7, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This was the hardest one of the 7 puzzles, but it was still entertaining and I enjoyed the challenge. I finished the last 3 puzzles on the same day, and had a great time with every single one of them.

Assembling these puzzles has made clear to me that I didn’t pay much attention to the actual book covers when I read them. I guess I was too excited to get to reading. 🙂 But putting these together I’ve seen things in the background that went unnoticed before – and now I’ve got a hankering to read them all over again.

I wonder if there are any more fun series of puzzles that NY Puzzle Company has, I’ve enjoyed this one so much!

The Cake Off (What If #12)

On February 5, 2019February 5, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Just what I was looking for in a puzzle, though it took longer because I’ve been sick. I wanted something a little easier to assemble and this was perfect. They aren’t easy, because you don’t know what the final image will be, but the cartoony aspect makes it simpler than, say, a landscape.

It’s sort of a take of on The Great British Baking Show, there is talk of soggy bottoms on cakes, etc. Although I’m pretty sure what happened in this image would never happen on the actual show! The contestant’s names were hilarious; Ben Offie, Sue Flaye, Victoria Spunge, etc. The box shows a one of the contestant’s dreams collapsing, but “What If” she responded by rising to the occasion? That’s what you have to puzzle, and it’s quite an image. 😉

As is my custom, I don’t show the whole image so as not to spoil anyone else’s fun. I find it’s more entertaining to figure it out all by myself and want you to have the same fun too. I only take a picture of the part of the solution that’s shown on the front of the box, so I’m really not spoiling anything at all. This was an excellent quality Ravensburger puzzle, with wonderful artwork by Geoff Tristam. I’m looking forward to finishing up the other 6 What If puzzles I have here. It’s been so long I’d forgotten how much enjoy putting them together. The next one is What If #13, The Safari Park; looks like another good one!

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It might be a week or so before I get to this one, as I’m still working on my 2000 piece collage; but the Safari Park looks like fun, doesn’t it?

Introducing Frenchy!

On February 3, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

A cute little kids puzzle, with the added fun of glitter! I love the Fancy Nancy images, they’re adorable, and remind me of myself. I’m all about being who you are, especially if you don’t fit in – who wants to be just like everyone else? Not me! 🙂

This is the fourth Briarpatch puzzle that I’ve assembled, and they’ve all had differing levels of quality; it makes me wonder why that is. This puzzle had thick enough pieces, but the chipboard used wasn’t very sturdy at all, and the way the pieces fit together was……odd. It wasn’t too tight, it wasn’t spongy, it simply felt very weird. I’m not sure I can properly explain it; you could plainly see that the piece was in the correct place, but it didn’t feel as though it was. Not a good fit, bent and flimsy pieces, and the puzzle didn’t lay flat.

Questionable quality aside though, Fancy Nancy is adorable!