Root Beer Break at the Butterfield’s

On June 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

This isn’t the typical Wysocki artwork in that there is only one building, but it’s still beautiful and has his wonderfully straight and symmetrical style in the beach house itself.

This was one of the few 300 piece Buffalo puzzles that I’ve assembled, and I love them. They fit together so nicely and the pieces are large enough for younger hands to work with or older eyes to see better. They are extremely sturdy as well, and there are a nice variety of piece shapes. They do not contain any zig zag pieces that a 1000 or 2000 piece Buffalo puzzle usually has, but still a good variety. Buffalo also includes a poster with all their puzzles which is nice, especially when working on the puzzle with more than one person so you don’t have to share the box for reference.

This puzzle was a lovely afternoon distraction for me when I was having a stressful day and needed a break from the world. I was able to sit for a bit and concentrate only on which piece went next. I wasn’t able to sit long enough to complete the entire puzzle at once, but it was completed in one day. 🙂

There are so many reasons that puzzling is an excellent activity – good for hand/eye coordination, memory, stress relief, spatial awareness, pattern recognition, fun, and too many more reasons to name. Buffalo has so many wonderful Wysocki images to choose from and many others as well, there’s something for everyone. The quality is excellent and the images are lovely – there’s no reason not to pick one up!

Snow White

On June 17, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

The colors on this puzzle are gorgeous! The image reproduction is crisp and clean and the colors are bright and beautiful. I saved this one for last because Snow White was the first section of Memorable Disney Moments that I did, so it seemed fitting for the last day of Disney week on the blog.

The pieces for the 300 piece puzzles in this box were actually bigger than the ones for the 150 piece puzzles. Odd, it’s usually the other way around, the more pieces the smaller they are. This puzzle measures approximately 11 x 16, still a bit small for a 300 piece puzzle but a good size.

The pieces fit together a little more snugly for this puzzle than the previous ones from this box, which was nice. It makes for a better tactile experience, at least I think so anyway. It didn’t take long to assemble either, and I was very impressed with the image reproduction, it was just beautiful! This was the best puzzle in the box, in my opinion, with the best quality of them all. It’s interesting that they were all from the same manufacturer but had such variation in quality, especially between the sizes.

Today is the day we complete the final assembly of the world’s largest puzzle! It’s going to be a long exhausting day for me, so I will post pictures and info about it tomorrow. Wish me luck – it’s so exciting! 😎

Cars

On June 16, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was the last of three 150 piece puzzles in the box, and by pure coincidence the new Cars movie is being released today! Perfect time for this puzzle, don’t you think?

Thankfully all the pieces were accounted for in this puzzle, and it was another quick and easy assembly. Lightning McQueen was easy to pull pieces for, and after he was finished the rest of the puzzle kind of falls into place. Pull the trees and sky, then Mater and Fillmore, and finally Guido and any filler or background pieces left over. Quick and fun, and not too bad quality-wise.

The pieces are thin, but there was no image lift on this puzzle, the pieces fit together well, the image reproduction was very nice, and it’s not so difficult that it would be frustrating for a child. The pieces are small for a child’s puzzle, so I wouldn’t recommend it for very young children, perhaps 6 years or older; the recommendation on the box say ages 6-99.

Disney – Pixar movies were the ones released when my children were young, and hopefully they have good memories of watching them with their parents. As soon as the movies were released on VHS (yes, I’m that old), we all piled in the car and went to the store to buy a copy. We watched them together as a family, and I have wonderful memories of spending time with the kids – laughing at the jokes and getting emotional at the sad parts – but enjoying just being with them and watching them discover the wonder of Disney movies. Perhaps they will one day share these movies with their own children and create new and wonderful memories too. ❤🎞

Disney Princesses

On June 15, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another puzzle with missing pieces unfortunately. In addition, someone managed to spill ink onto some of the pieces – ouch.

I’m not sure if this puzzle was a favorite and assembled more often than the others, or if the quality was lacking. The pieces fit together well enough, but in addition to being quite thin there were several pieces with the image lifting up as you can see above. The colors were more muted than most of the other puzzles in this collection, but still pretty. I can’t definitively say that quality is the reason for the image lift, as I didn’t see that problem with any of the other puzzles in this box. I try to err on the side of positivity if I’m not sure, and so I’ll say that most likely this was the puzzle most loved and assembled which accounts for the extra wear and tear.

The assembly was quick and easy, in fact I assembled all 3 of the 150 piece puzzles in the same day. They were small enough to assemble on a cookie sheet and I was able to be in bed resting but still get some puzzling done! 🙂

Mom and I had to travel to a doctor’s appointment this week, and were discussing movies we would have liked to see in the Memorable Moments puzzle. Doing this princesses puzzle made me wonder what criteria was used to decide which movies to include – I think Sleeping Beauty would have made a gorgeous section! And mom and I both agreed that The Aristocats would have been great too – we both loved the movie and it had such wonderful songs and music (important criteria in our family), and those adorable kittens would have made for a delightful section as well. But there have been so many great Disney movies, I don’t think you’d ever make everyone happy with your choices unless every single Disney movie was included – how big would that puzzle be? 😮

This puzzle won’t be going to my grandson’s house since it’s missing pieces and damaged, but it’s Disney week and I wanted to add it to the blog because two of these princesses are in the giant Disney puzzle. Poor Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) was left out, but at least she made it here to My Jigsaw Journal. 😎

Finding Nemo

On June 14, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Next puzzle for Disney week, unfortunately this one is missing 3 pieces. Still, it was a fun assembly and a bit of a challenge too!

Mega Puzzles are thin compared to the more premium brands like Ravensburger, Jumbo, or Pomegranate; but it doesn’t always have to be about only working with premium puzzles. Sometimes a cool thrift store find with thin pieces but a great image is just what I’m looking for; sometimes I just want to work a fun puzzle with an image that I really enjoy regardless of the quality of the pieces.

Mega Puzzles does have a nice variety of piece shapes and the pieces fit together quite well as you can see, but they were thin. This image was a little challenging with all the ocean dwellers everywhere and a lot of water, but still fun! The image reproduction was nice and there was no image lift even when a piece was placed incorrectly.

This movie wasn’t one of the movies included in the Disney Memorable Moments puzzle, but I do have good memories of watching it with my kids. Disney movies were a big part of my childhood; I enjoyed sharing those same movies with my kids and experiencing the newer movies with them as well. My husband still quote the seagulls from Nemo and says “Mine?” over and over when he wants to make me laugh – it usually works. 🙂