Springtime Beauty

On March 4, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Mom and I assembled this together on our puzzle/visit day; we’ve been doing more 300 and 500 piece puzzles lately because they’re easier for me. The colors of the flowers caught my eye, and I love the expression on the faces of the birds.

Buffalo 300 piece puzzles are about perfect for me, I like the larger size of the pieces compared to their 1000 piece puzzles. For some reason the pieces of their 1000 piece puzzles seem too small and symmetrical to me – not always, but sometimes. There are times when I have to be in the right mood to do a certain puzzle or work with certain piece shapes. I never claimed to be rational. 😎

The quality of Buffalo puzzles is very good, although I’ve found that the fit can sometimes be loose. The pieces are thick and the image reproduction is sharp and detailed. The fit of this puzzle though was quite good, I find their smaller piece counts seem to fit a little more snugly. Perhaps it’s just me, because I like the smaller puzzles more; it’s all a matter of perception isn’t it?

This image is more difficult than it looks, but still fun to put together. The birdhouse and birds were easy enough to pick out, but there are many flowers and lots of tree bark. We had a good time assembling it, with lots of laughing and teasing. It’s so much more fun for me to puzzle with mom, and I try not to take for granted spending time with her. She rocks!

If this image speaks to you, I definitely recommend it. It’s beautiful and well made and was great fun to assemble. 🐦

Ballet Lesson (2)

On March 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Ballet Lesson – Ravensburger – 100 pieces

This is the second Ravensburger puzzle with this title I’ve assembled, the first was only 35 pieces and not nearly as beautiful as this one. This puzzle is a lovely image enhanced with glitter – I loves me some glitter! How disappointing that it was missing a piece. 😦

The colors in this image are so pretty, and with the added fun of glitter it’s just an all around beautiful puzzle. Absent piece aside, the quality was excellent and to my surprise there wasn’t a ton of glitter loose in the box. A lot of times with a glitter puzzle much of it comes off and ends up in a pile underneath the pieces, not so with this puzzle. Yet another reason Ravensburger puzzles are my absolute favorite. I was hoping it would be complete so we could pass it on, but it’s glaringly obvious that a piece has escaped.

Missing pieces are the chance you take when you purchase puzzles used. I would say probably 90-95% of the puzzles we get from thrift stores are complete, and that’s a pretty good average. Sure, it’s a little disappointing when you find a missing piece, but you still got to assemble a puzzle. Well, most of it anyway. 😉

Green Acres

On March 1, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I think my age is showing, when I see the title of this puzzle my brain immediately starts singing the theme song to the old tv show. Green Acres is the place to be, FARM living is the life for me! 🎵

This puzzle is absolutely beautiful, and at only 300 pieces was a quick, fun assembly. The cut is random and interesting and the fit was wonderful! There was never any guessing whether or not a piece fit in a certain spot. MasterPieces large piece puzzles have excellent quality, I have never had an issue with any of them. The pieces are thick and fit together well, and the images are crisp and clear and always beautiful.

Many people only do 1000 piece puzzles, and I think they’re missing out; there are wonderful puzzles to be assembled in every shape and size. But I would never tell someone what they should or shouldn’t do, so if they’re working only the larger puzzles that leaves plenty other sizes for me, right? 😎

Spice Rack

On February 28, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This thrift store purchase made me so happy! Mom brought it over to show me and I couldn’t wait to get assembling; collages with lots of words are the best!

White Mountain puzzles are good quality, but sometimes it’s hard to make judgments about puzzle quality when you buy second-hand. I have no idea how many times this puzzle has been assembled; it may have been well loved before it was donated so I can’t say for sure if image lift on the pieces is because of repeated assemblies or because of quality issues. 🤔

Still, from my experience with this brand purchased new I can say their quality is good, about mid-range. The pieces are a good thickness, they have a nice variety of piece shapes and they normally fit together well. I’ve had a few White Mountain puzzles with an extremely tight fit, but those seem to be few and far between. Every once in a while the image reproduction can be a bit fuzzy; but again that seems to be the exception, and one I normally only notice on collages with some vintage images.

This puzzle is by one of my favorite collage artists, Charlie Girard. His collages are fun to assemble and always make me smile. I had a great time putting this one together, it was especially fun to see all those vintage spice containers from companies I’ve never heard of. There are some familiar brands like McCormick and French’s, but most are companies that have long since gone; some of them had such interesting packaging. Ben-Hur Allspice? Wow.

I can’t wait to see what fun and interesting puzzles mom finds next, I hope she finds me some more collages!

Little Red Riding Hood

On February 27, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This Milton Bradley puzzle was good quality, though the pieces seemed thin to me because I’d already assembled 6 Ravensburger kid’s puzzles that day – what puzzle company could compete with that? Not many!

This puzzle had good quality pieces with bright, fun colors and an excellent variety of piece shapes. It’s a cute image that was easy enough to assemble and fit together very well. Pretty darn good quality!

I enjoy working kid’s puzzles for several reasons. First, it’s nice to put together an entire puzzle in one sitting; it gives me a little ego boost and makes me feel like the puzzle goddess I think I am in my own mind. Second, I enjoy all puzzles no matter the piece count – even if they’re geared toward children. And lastly, I think most puzzle blogs are geared towards adults and kid’s puzzles deserve to be assembled and reviewed as much as adult puzzles are. If a company makes excellent puzzles for children people should hear about it, and parents need to know what company’s puzzles have good quality. (I’m trying to do my part ☺)

Assembling jigsaw puzzles is good for your brain no matter your age, but they are especially positive for the developing brains of children. They help promote spatial awareness, problem solving, fine motor skills and much, much more. Whether you find them at a thrift store or a retail outlet, a jigsaw puzzle is a fabulous gift for a child – you could be starting them out on a lifetime of puzzling!