Kiss Me

On December 10, 2019December 10, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles7 Comments

I wanted to start the month with a completed puzzle on the first day – so this was assembled December 1st. I’ve been saving this puzzle since very early in the year; mom bought it for 69 cents at the thrift store, and although it was cute I thought it should be saved until the holiday season.

This is my kind of holiday puzzle, I love images that aren’t the typical Christmas themes. I think that’s why I don’t care for Christmas puzzles much, they all seem to look alike to me and I prefer to assemble images that are different and interesting. Just my opinion of course. 🙂

It wasn’t the best quality, the fit was slightly loose and there quite a bit of image lift, but both of those things could be because it was purchased secondhand. It may have been well loved and assembled many times – you never can tell. Still, I don’t expect perfection from any puzzle, let alone one from the local Goodwill store.

If you look closely, you’ll see that all the snowflakes are made up of Minions, how adorable is that?

Kiss Me 1

This puzzle makes me think of mom, knowing she bought it specifically for my “adopted” grandson who loves puzzles more than anything. Whenever she found a kids puzzle she would always buy it for him, especially if they were boy-themed or something a young boy would enjoy. She always brought them to me to assemble first because 1) we needed to be sure whether or not it was complete before it was passed on to the kiddo, and 2) because I love putting together kids puzzles perhaps more than the kids do. 😎

I’ll be giving this to my “grandson” soon, so he’ll be able to enjoy it for this holiday season. It’s the last puzzle mom was able to buy for him; he’s too young to appreciate the significance of that, but I’m not. Miss you momma. 💝

Sketches

On November 19, 2019November 18, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This adorable puzzle went together amazingly quickly, and it was exactly the right amount of challenge. I absolutely adored it! Unfortunately a piece was missing, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all.

The quality was excellent; and the piece shapes aren’t quite as obvious as they were in the last Ravensburger I assembled. I really adore cartoon puzzles, and this image had enough cartoon elements that it ticked all the boxes for me. Ravensburger puzzles are such great quality that I never hesitate buying them secondhand from the thrift stores. Even if they’ve been assembled several times they hold up quite well. This was a thrift store puzzle that mom bought for us, she always found such wonderful puzzles at the best prices. 💖

Each of the sketches correspond with the pictures from the finished film beside it, except for Sully from Monsters, Inc.

Sketches 1

Sully’s sketch was mean and scary looking, but the image from the film is him being frightened (not frightening at all) and offering a teddy bear to Boo – so cute!

All of the Pixar movies shown are ones that I’ve seen and watched with my children; I think that’s another reason I enjoyed the assembly so much, it brought back wonderful memories of spending time with my kids when they were younger.

We would all pile into the car and get ourselves to the store when the VHS or DVDs of the movies were released. With three young children at home we didn’t bother with renting them from Blockbuster or a local video store, we always bought them.* And the rule was that we always watched them for the first time together, I loved watching the kids be enchanted by the story and images; the time we spent together when they were young was time well spent and provides me with wonderful memories to this day.

*For all you young’uns, people used to have to go to the store to rent or buy movies if they wanted to watch them at home. There was no Netflix, Hulu, or any other streaming service. You couldn’t watch movies on your smart phone either – there were no such things!

Who Said That?

On November 4, 2019November 3, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

What a fascinating and fun jigsaw puzzle! It was almost as much fun sorting this one as it was assembling it. I loved reading all the quotes – many I knew, and many I’d never heard before. If you can find one of these puzzles I would highly recommend giving it a try; it’s not easy, but the challenge is oh so much fun.

In my previous in progress post regarding this puzzle I mistakenly said that this was a Buffalo puzzle, in fact it’s by Crystal Lines. It was made in Australia, a great product sent to us from Down Under. This particular puzzle is 25 years old, produced in 1994. I highly doubt it’s still being manufactured, but you might be able to find it in your local thrift store if you’re very lucky.

There were 240 portraits and 240 quotes to match up. Every portrait piece fits with every quote piece, you have to be careful. The portraits all overlapped with the pieces above or below them (or both), and they were helpful in making sure you matched them up properly. You don’t need to know them all to assemble this puzzle, but knowing some of them helps to get you started. There were quite a few quotes from movies that were easy to match up with the actors who said them: “Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn” can only be one person, find the portrait of Clark Gable and you’re on your way.

There were philosophers, artists, entertainers, businessmen and women, writers, poets, and public figures just to name a few. From Socrates to Robin Williams the quotes were thought provoking, funny, a little shocking, and hilarious. Reading through them all was so entertaining! 😎

I knew more than I thought I would, and there also were a few that I thought I knew for sure and was completely wrong. Oh well, I don’t usually get a perfect score on anything.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes – mostly silly and very true….

Who 1 Who 2 Who 3 Who 4

The quality of this puzzle was stellar, and the pieces were quite large. At 504 pieces this puzzle measured approximately 38 x 24 inches, about the size of the average 2000 piece puzzle! The pieces are very thick and fit together quite tightly. The portraits were very well done and I could tell who most of them were without reading the names (the ones I was familiar with, anyway).

If you are lucky enough to come across this puzzle, I suggest you give it a try. It isn’t easy, but boy howdy is it fun! 🙂

Trick or Treat 2

On October 30, 2019October 30, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

I found this puzzle at mom’s, it’s a thrift store find and I really like the image! The box was pretty beat up, and I was worried that it would be missing pieces, but luckily they were all present and accounted for. I love how colorful it is, and it was a lot more fun to assemble than I expected.

The random cut was pretty fun to work with, but the fit was mushy. You could put two pieces together and they felt and looked as though they fit, but they absolutely did not. With this kind of fit you can’t rely on feel, you have to pay close attention and sometimes I even had to turn the pieces over to be certain. That’s what I call a mushy fit, and I am most definitely NOT a fan.

Mushy fit aside though, it was still pretty entertaining for my first holiday puzzle of the month.

Tomorrow is the big day – I love Halloween!

👻Boo!👻

Penguins

On October 28, 2019October 27, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Unfortunately for me this is the last puzzle from the box of 20 that mom and I found at a local thrift store. I’ve had such a great time putting these together that I’m a little sad that they’re all done.

I consider myself educated and intelligent, but I have to tell you I was surprised to learn from this puzzle that there are penguins native to Africa. I may have heard that before, but I obviously didn’t process or retain it. To me the continent of Africa brings to mind deserts, jungles, safaris, and heat. Penguins in Africa? How awesome!

Penguins 1

I have to get myself to the thrift stores to see what other treasures I can find. My black belt thrift store shopping puzzle dealer isn’t around anymore to keep me swimming in interesting and beautiful puzzles – it’s time I started supplying myself. It’s worth a little pain to get myself out of the house and searching for some fun and unique puzzles.