The 1970’s

The 1970's
The 1970’s – Re-marks – 1500 pieces

I can’t even express how much I loved putting this one together, it was a trip down memory lane and I loved every memory and every piece that clicked together. To be honest the fit wasn’t great, but for this puzzle it was all about the image. Almost every small section brought back memories and I had the best time!

Get ready for a long post rambling on and on about the days of yesteryear and my memories of these things in the 1970’s. This puzzle is a fantastic image, and for those of us that grew up in the 70’s and 80’s this collage will bring a smile to your face. 🙂

The 1970's 1

Now if you’re a young’n, this will blow your mind; the way we used to get music much of the time was compilation albums like this one. If you couldn’t afford to buy all the albums this was a much cheaper way to get all the music you loved. No downloading songs or smartphones anywhere in sight. Times were tough! There was another way too, if you had lots of time to sit and listen to the radio with your boombox you could hit record when a favorite song came on and make yourself a mix tape! I used to do that especially around New Year’s when the stations would play the top 100 or so songs of the year. The trick was to wait until the DJ stopped talking. 😉

The 1970's 2

My parents loved Laugh-In, and watched it every week. I definitely didn’t understand all the jokes, but for a child it was perfect; lots of colors and camera movements, and skits that were very quick for our short attention spans. I loved it too, but at the time I didn’t know all the reasons why. Ruth Buzzi’s character Gladys was a favorite, as was Arte Johnson’s Tyrone. Great show!

The 1970's 3

I’m sure many readers will recognize some or all of these songs, but I am old enough to remember when they were playing on the radio – not as classics, but as new music! I used to have 45’s of My Sharona, Y.M.C.A, and I Will Survive. If only I still had them they might be worth a lot of cash! (45’s were small vinyl records with only one song [per side] that you played on a turntable)

The 1970's 4

I don’t have much recollection of Richard Scarry’s books when I was a child, but my children LOVED them when they were young. I read them to my kids a lot, and my youngest even had a rug in his room with a map of Busytown on it, he adored playing with it and lining up his cars along the streets.

The 1970's 5

This is the one of the smallest sections of the puzzle, but it holds the most memories for me. My sisters and I had this album (and 8 track), watched the television special, and knew every word and every song by heart. If you’re not familiar, it was created by Marlo Thomas and released in 1972; it promoted gender neutrality, basically saying that boys and girls could be anything they wanted regardless of their gender and achieve amazing things. It had an all star cast; Rosey Grier (former pro football player), Michael Jackson, Roberta Flack, Harry Belafonte, Mel Brooks, Dustin Hoffman, Kris Kristofferson, Diana Ross, Cicely Tyson, Alan Alda, Dionne Warwick, and many more. It was a fantastic album for kids and I can still remember all the songs and scenes more than 45 years later. 🤍

I could write a little blurb about almost every section in this puzzle, but I had to stop somewhere. The Carol Burnett Show was one of my favorites – I loved all things comedy as a child (and still do). Sesame Street was another favorite when I was very young – in fact I’m older than Sesame Street. Oh my! Today’s post was brought to you by The Letter “O”. O is for OLD LADY. 👵

I loved this puzzle more for the memories than anything else, but that doesn’t mean the assembly was bad. In fact it was quite the opposite. Even with the loose fit it was great fun with a great image, and brought back great memories!

Songbirds In Progress

Songbirds IP
Stained Glass Songbirds by Ciro Marchetti – Buffalo – 500 pieces

This puzzle got started last night when I couldn’t sleep, but I made pretty good progress before I finally went back to bed. I’ve had this for quite a while now, but was never really in the right mood for it, but last night was the night!

It’s a thrift store purchase, and I was surprised to find that this puzzle was unopened – it was one that mom bought. An unopened puzzle at the thrift store is a treasure indeed, and mom was good at finding buried treasure within the shelves of the thrift store. 🙂

I was also surprised to see that this artwork was by Ciro Marchetti, I usually associate his name with fantasy images. It is beautiful though, like all of his artwork, and I’m hoping to get it finished sometime today if all goes well.

Happy puzzling today!

Computer Catastrophe

Catastrophe
Computer Catastrophe by Randal Spangler – Artifact Puzzles – 182 pieces

My sweet baby girl gave me this puzzle for Valentine’s Day; she is so generous and kind, and I’m so proud of who she is – I raised a great lady! 💗 Besides all that, she has great taste in puzzle images, how cute is this?!

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten a new Artifact wooden puzzle, or any new wooden puzzle for that matter. It’s so much fun to look through the all the pieces and find the whimsies, and to see all the interesting shapes. The whimsy pieces in this puzzle are all parts of the image…

Catastrophe whims

They are all easy to find except for the interesting shapes at the top of the picture; they are shapes that are shown on the spines of two of the books, it took me a few minutes to figure out what they were. The 3 piece dragon whimsy is so cute, he’s obviously my favorite. 🐲

Catastrophe IP

The geometric shaped pieces made for an interesting assembly, but once you figure out how everything fits together it’s great fun!

Catastrophe 1

I love to see the wooden puzzles from the back, it’s always interesting to look at the shapes and how everything fits together. The cut of this puzzle is something I’ve never seen before; it’s a little simple, but was very entertaining to assemble and placing every piece was a joy.

The artwork by Randal Spangler is so whimsical and adorable, I absolutely love it! I’ve been looking around for more puzzles with his work; it looks as though Artifact and Vermont Christmas Company are the only brands who have Randal Spangler images. I’m thinking I may have to get me some more puzzles with his artwork!

Thank you again to The Baby Princess for this beautiful puzzle! 😘

Daddy’s Down Time*

Daddy
Daddy’s Down Time by Iralu – Cardinal – 300 pieces

Another fun image from my box of 12 puzzles by the artist Iralu. I love his bright colors and fun sketch-style drawings. They aren’t the best quality puzzles out there, but I just couldn’t resist the artwork. None of the images in this set have titles, so I am naming them as I go; since the lady in the tub puzzle was named Momma’s Me Mood, I have titled this Daddy’s Down Time*

The 300 piece puzzles in this set are better quality than the 150 piece puzzles in the same box. They’re a little thicker and fit together MUCH better, and I have no idea why that is – it makes no sense to me. I would think that they would all be manufactured in the same facility – shouldn’t the quality be the same?

Anyway, this was a fun one and I enjoyed it very much! I don’t really recommend buying puzzles in a multipack box set, the quality is usually questionable. But if you find one with artwork that you can’t live without I say go for it – everything doesn’t have to be perfect for you to enjoy putting the puzzles together. 🙂

How to Sort a Puzzle

Sorting
How do you sort?

Seriously? I can’t tell you how you should do it! Whichever way works for you is how you should sort. Or not. You may be a scrabbler who likes to root around through the box to find pieces, or someone who doesn’t sort at all and just lays them all out. Whichever way works best – that’s what you should do.

I dislike posts that tell you how you should assemble, sort, or work on your puzzle; it’s not my place to tell you how to do something. Everyone has their own way that works, and for them that is the perfect way to do it. But if you’re just starting out and looking for suggestions I’ll tell you how I do it and maybe something might work for you.

I use a strainer (shown above) to get rid of puzzle dust as I’m sorting. I dump the pieces into it while it’s sitting in the box, and as I grab them to lay out on trays most of the dust falls to the bottom and out into the box. Cookie sheets from the dollar store that I’ve lined with paper are my trays where I lay out the pieces.

Sorting

I use plastic containers to hold pieces that I pull out to work on after the edges are assembled, but I let the puzzle tell me which pieces/sections to pull out. It could be a pattern, a color, or pieces with words – it all depends on which puzzle I’m assembling. Sometimes I go into the sorting with an idea of what I’m going to pull, but that usually changes a bit once I’ve put a few handfuls of pieces on the tray and see what I’m working with. Whichever pieces I don’t pull I lay out on the trays. I’m a bit OCD, so they’re laid out in orderly rows so that I can compare shapes and colors when I’m looking for a piece.

Most of the time I pull out the edges as I’m sorting, so when I’m done I have the edge to assemble, and also the sections that have been sorted into containers to begin working on once the edge is put together. Sometimes with a shaped or wooden puzzle the edges aren’t easy to find or assemble, so that isn’t where I start. The puzzle leads me in both the sorting and assembly, so each time is different – that’s part of the fun of jigsaw puzzles!

Sorting isn’t something I actually enjoy doing, but I find that in the end it helps me and works best for the way I puzzle. Many people don’t sort at all, so you have to find the way that works for you. You may be a sorter, a scrabbler, or a lay them all out kind of person – you just have to figure out which one. 

A sorter, a scrabbler, a lay them all out-er, or something else altogether; which one are you?

Happy puzzling!