Family Farm by Mary Thompson – Bits and Pieces – 300 pieces
This is a very cute puzzle that was definitely worth the 59 cents paid for it! 🙂
I’m enjoying the smaller piece count puzzles; it feels like an accomplishment to finish a puzzle the same day you start it. Little victories, right? If it makes me happy, then that’s what matters.
Bits and pieces, not my favorite brand, but this puzzle quality was pretty good. It seems hit or miss with this company, at least for me; and we only buy this brand from thrift stores where we can check out the pieces prior to purchase. This one was not a problem at all, and quite fun! Mom and I finished it in no time. 🙂
Very random cut as you can see, which made us pay attention – some of those pieces were HUGE! It’s a very cute image and I would definitely do other puzzles by the same artist – Mary Thompson. It reminds me of the area where I grew up – farms and cows and tractors – oh my!
The large piece puzzles make it seem easy sometimes and I think it adds fun – though that’s only my opinion. I love getting wrapped up in a big puzzle that takes a while, but it’s also enjoyable to sit down with a friend or loved one and put together a puzzle that doesn’t seem too difficult. They’re both great in their own way which is why puzzling is great for young and old; any age group or any difficulty. Bring it on!
Happy Mother’s Day! This is the puzzle I chose to do for today because it reminds me of my mom. ❤
For most of my youth mom was a stay at home mom, and there was usually something fresh baked or homemade on our table. Not only because she didn’t work outside the home, but because it’s much less expensive to cook things from scratch. We lived in the country and there were plenty of fresh foods for canning and freezing that helped keep our grocery bills down. There were lots of family trips to pick apples, blackberries, cherries, strawberries, etc. And then we “got to” help mom prepare them for whatever she was going to do with them. My sisters and I were not always thrilled about it to say the least. Raspberries and cherries were the worst! Cherries especially because they had to be washed, then you had to remove the stem and then remove the seed inside – one by one. Ugh. We didn’t even like cherries or the cherry pie filling mom made from them!
When I see a jar of canned tomatoes like in this puzzle it reminds me of my mom and how much she worked at home so that she could be at home for us. I’ve turned into my mom, because my kids know how much better homemade cookies are, and that it’s almost always cheaper to cook at home then to go out for dinner. I learned what I needed to know from my mom who is the best there is!
And now as an adult mom is my best friend. A lot of people say that, but for me it’s actually true. We talk every day, go shopping together when I’m able to, work on puzzles together and just hang out whenever we can; we have our own little jokes together and can crack each other up with a single word or a look. I’m so glad she’s my mom and in my life and that I get to see her as much as I do. I love her bunches and bunches!!
This is where the comparison to my mother ends, she’s awesome and the best – this puzzle leaves a lot to be desired. 😐
The pieces of this puzzle fit together so tightly that you can see in the picture that the it doesn’t even lay flat, it’s curled up on the sides. Every piece required a lot of effort to connect, it’s one of my puzzle pet peeves. When I have to work so much to put pieces together it makes me feel as if it’s not the correct placement. This is especially difficult when you have a darker image, you feel you need to check and double check if the pieces really fit there. Also when the fit is so tight the pieces don’t all lay flat and many of them have several edges sticking up; and the piece shapes are quite prominent in the finished puzzle, even from a distance. The image was crisp and clear in some areas and very fuzzy and vague in others. On the plus side, the pieces were quite thick and the variety of piece shapes was very good.
Sometimes it’s hit or miss with Springbok in my opinion. This one was a miss. Thrift store shopping is always interesting, it could be an awesome find or a dud. But that’s alright, there are plenty more puzzles to try – maybe the next Springbok we find has amazing quality and an excellent image!
So Happy Mother’s Day to all – but especially to my thrift store shopping, puzzle hoarding bestest friend. I love you to (puzzle) pieces, but if you need help canning some cherry pie filling YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!!! 😎
This puzzle is called The Frozen Difference because the image on the box top and the image on the puzzle are different. There are nine small differences between the two, and there is a small poster of the puzzle in the box with the differences circled. How many more times do you think I can use a form of the word different differently?
As you can see by the picture, the pieces are somewhat warped and do not lay flat. I have never seen that in an adult Ravensburger puzzle, however I haven’t done any children’s puzzles from them and can’t say if it is typical or not. I believe from knowing the excellent quality that Ravensburger produces that the issue with this particular puzzle lies in the fact that it was a thrift store purchase and was most likely used plenty and/or perhaps not reboxed or stored properly. (This is Florida after all, and you wouldn’t believe the things that can become warped in the heat. Plastic, cardboard, minds, ideas, etc.)
I will admit that I have not seen Frozen. My kids are adults now and I don’t have to sit through their movies any more. I know the sisters are Anna and Elsa, I know the snowman is Olaf, I know the song Let It Go is burned into the brains of parents with young children, and I know that I’m thankful that I don’t have young children. 😉
The thickness of the pieces, especially compared to other children’s puzzles, is excellent! They feel sturdy in your hand, and the linen finish is top notch as well. There is a nice variety of piece shapes and they fit together well in spite of the slight warping. The quality overall is excellent, and I will always recommend Ravensburger puzzles. They’re top of the line in my book!
Ravensburger has been and continues to be my favorite jigsaw puzzle manufacturer. This puzzle has issues, but I cannot say for certain if it was a manufacturing problem, or just because the puzzle was purchased secondhand and was loved and used a lot.
High Jinks on the High Seas! by Ulli Schneider – Springbok – 500 pieces
This puzzle is adorable and a very cool thrift store find! Very nice quality for a Springbok puzzle from the 80’s – and all the pieces were there. Bonus!
I really love the artwork by Ulli Schneider, cartoon puzzles are up there in my favorites and I like the characters very much. I wanted to say “her characters” but realized that I don’t know if the name Ulli is male or female. I’m not sure why I assumed the artist was female. Interesting, I hope that doesn’t make me a sexist!
The piece cut is very random as you can see and it was extremely entertaining to assemble. The characters were quite fun to put together; the ship and sails were daunting at first, but as usual we worked it out. Mom and I got it done relatively quickly working together – we are an awesome puzzle team. Wonder Twin Powers………. activate! (Silly cartoon from the late 70’s – The Wonder Twins)
Springbok is a company we prefer to purchase only from thrift stores; sometimes the pieces have a LOT of hanging paper on the back and fit together way too tightly for our taste. But to each his own, everyone has their own opinions on what constitutes a good puzzle – and every single one of them is correct! The quality on this puzzle was very good, it’s from the 80’s and has held up pretty well.
How is it that the 80’s were 30 years ago? I cannot possibly be that old! Oh wait, I just quoted a tv cartoon from the 70’s, I AM that old. 😐
Why go to the trouble of donating a puzzle to a thrift store when there are so many missing pieces? While I honestly appreciate everyone who donates to thrift stores (it’s our main source of cool puzzles!) I don’t understand why they would donate a puzzle missing 7% of it’s pieces. When mom and I are done with a puzzle that we don’t want to keep we take it back to the thrift store – unless it’s missing pieces. We know how frustrating it is to work on a puzzle only to find out at the end that all the pieces aren’t there and we don’t want to knowingly do that to anyone else. I know that’s the risk we take buying a jigsaw puzzle used, a piece or two could have escaped while it was being re-boxed, things happen. Those don’t bother me as much as the ones that are obviously missing a LOT of pieces. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it be better to just put it in the recycling? This is why I’ve started assembling the smaller puzzles that we get for my “grandson”, I don’t want to give him a puzzle that can’t be completed. Alright, I’m climbing down off my high horse. 😉
Pretty good day of puzzling today, I’m working on the 1500 piece golf puzzle for hubby. It’s coming along quite well and I’m enjoying it immensely. From what I’ve been able to find online I don’t think this brand of puzzle is still being manufactured; the one I’m assembling is from 1993. There are Mandolin puzzles on Amazon and eBay, but I’m not finding a website or a place to purchase them from the manufacturer. Interesting.
Also, mom and I finished a 500 piece Springbok puzzle today that we started yesterday, and it was very cute! I haven’t written the post about that one yet, but it’ll be up on the blog eventually. It’s so nice to have time with mom where we can just sit and talk and do puzzles together, we always have such a good time. Even when the puzzle isn’t the best the fact that we’re working on it together is what matters. Puzzle buddies rock! 🙂
My Jigsaw Journal 