Dad’s Shed

On September 3, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I really enjoy Ravensburger’s large piece puzzles; the pieces feel thick and amazing and it seems like the puzzle goes so much faster with the larger pieces. This was another thrift store find, of course. 🙂

It’s a nice picture; but it’s very brown, and not a picture I would normally choose. Although it’s only 500 pieces it took me a little bit longer than normal – there was a LOT of browns. Still, it wasn’t too bad an assembly. I prefer more colors to work with, but that’s just me. Even though the image itself isn’t my cup of tea, the quality of the puzzle made all the difference.

Puzzling is a very tactile experience for me; I find myself rubbing my fingers over the pieces when I’m thinking and I always run my hands over the puzzle during and after the assembly. Working with a premium puzzle makes most images, even ones I wouldn’t normally do, more enjoyable for me. So when we’ve got a puzzle with excellent quality, but not my preferred kind of artwork I usually go for it. Most of the time I end up enjoying it in spite of myself. 🙂

Dinosaurs

On September 2, 2017September 2, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Very nice quality puzzle from International Playthings. Unfortunately it was missing a piece; I was a little bummed out because the quality was really quite good and I was hoping to pass this one on. Those are the chances we take buying used. 🙂

I’d love to find more of these puzzles, they’re excellent quality children’s puzzles with very nice image reproduction. I’ll set my thrift store guru on the task, I’m sure she won’t disappoint! On your mark, get set………shop!! 🛒🛒

Safety First

On August 31, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is an extremely old puzzle, mom and I think it’s more than 70 years old – there’s an ad selling war bonds on the front of the box! You never know when you’re going to find something awesome at the thrift store. She’s so good at finding interesting puzzles, maybe because when dad gets on her nerves she goes shopping at all the goodwill stores. She gets annoyed often it seems! 😉

This was a cardboard puzzle, but so thick and sturdy that it feels almost like wood. The pieces don’t all actually connect, but where they do the fit is wonderful. I found this puzzle much more difficult than expected, which was wonderful and interesting. There were several spots where it was very difficult to figure out what went where.

The image itself is beautiful, but looking at the pieces separately they have an almost blurry quality. Makes for a more challenging assembly, and then when you look at the finished puzzle you wonder why you had difficulty at all. Deceptive! Loved it!

We can’t bring ourselves to throw away such a wonderful, old puzzle even though a piece is missing. I might try my hand at fashioning a replacement piece; that may be difficult though because the box is showing it’s age as well and wouldn’t work for copying the color. We’ll do the best we can, but even with the missing piece it’s a wonderful vintage puzzle. 🙂

Chat Noir

On August 29, 2017March 2, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This is an interesting image, but in my opinion it isn’t ideal for puzzling. There’s too much flat color, and with a random cut it was extremely difficult to find the proper piece. We’ve found that sometimes the “coolest looking” puzzle isn’t one you’d want to assemble; that was definitely the case here.

Mom did the majority of this one, I helped when I could; but it was a bear! Boy were we ever happy when we finally finished it. And I don’t think I’ve ever said this about a puzzle – I’m glad a piece was missing. I truly am. There was something very satisfying about putting this bleeping puzzle in the trash once we had conquered it. 😈

Butterflies

On August 27, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another funky and interesting find from the thrift store. This puzzle has only 16 pieces – they are perfectly square, 3D, and magnetic.

The puzzle comes in a small square metal tin; you can solve the puzzle in it and store the pieces in there too! That would be great to keep in the car to occupy little hands, as long as they’re old enough not to put things in their mouths.

Ceaco makes some of the most interesting puzzles. We’ve found many different types of puzzles from them, too bad their regular cardboard puzzles aren’t a little more sturdy. Oh well, bring on the interesting – I love all the oddball puzzles we’ve found!