In Dreams

On November 4, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

If you read this blog regularly, you might remember I bought my first wooden puzzle this year in September. I absolutely adore it, and have already assembled it 4 times! I was looking on the Artifacts Puzzles website for more awesome puzzles and saw this beauty with hexagonal shaped pieces – OH. MY. GOODNESS! I emailed and texted my mother to show her how cool these pieces were, so she decided to buy me this puzzle for my birthday. I wasn’t hinting for a present, I just wanted to show someone who would have the appropriate response; she is the only one who loves puzzles like I do. My mom rocks. I took the puzzle over to mom’s house yesterday and let her complete it by herself. She loved it too, of course!

The piece shapes are so interesting and it made for a challenging assembly; love, love, loved it❣ It only has 116 pieces, but it took me 40 minutes to assemble – 40 fantastic minutes. (I suppose it would have been quicker if I’d looked at the box image, but where’s the fun in that?) This was so fun, I’m sure I’ll be assembling it over and over again. What a treat! The piece shapes are quite obvious in the finished image, but I honestly don’t care. It didn’t diminish the enjoyment of the assembly for me at all, and as long as it’s fun I’m a happy, happy puzzler. 😉

What do I do now? I clearly have an addictive personality; I believe I’ve developed a wooden jigsaw puzzle addiction! I’m still enjoying my cardboard puzzles, I really just love puzzles in general; but I’m pining for more wooden jigsaws too! Here’s how addictive my personality is…..I’ve ordered one puzzle each from the 4 other wooden puzzle manufacturers I’ve found who have relatively reasonable prices. (Also, my wishlist of Artifact puzzles amounts to about $2600!) Oh my.

So, you can look forward to more reviews of wooden puzzles – they’re all on their way to my house right now! Undoubtedly I have issues. Whatever. 😎

Vibrant Puzzle Calendar Kit Puzzles 5 & 6

On November 1, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

Gourds 100 pieces

Bird 100 pieces

The third of 6 double-sided puzzles in this box. The gourds make for a puzzle that looks perfect for this time of year. I love the fall! Too bad I live in Florida where we only have shades of summer, all year long. 😐

I really enjoy these small 100 piece puzzles; it’s nice to pick up a puzzle and not stop assembling until it’s done. And just because it’s only 100 pieces doesn’t make it any less enjoyable for me, if it’s a pretty picture and a fun puzzle it doesn’t matter if it’s 24 pieces or 2000. Although I must say I get that wonderful feeling of accomplishment much quicker with a 100 piece puzzle. 😉

They say that when you double the number of pieces the difficulty level goes up quadruple. So then a 200 piece puzzle is 4 times more difficult than a 100 piece; and a 400 piece puzzle is 16 times harder, I think. I tried to do the math to figure out how much more difficult a 2000 piece puzzle is but my brain got a charlie horse. Ow!

Dragon Rider

On October 28, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

What a gorgeous puzzle, and how disappointing that there’s a piece missing! Such beautiful artwork by Lynton Levengood, it is an absolutely stunning puzzle.

Ravensburger kid’s puzzles have the same excellent quality as their adult puzzles, yet another reason they’re my favorite puzzle company. The pieces are always thick and sturdy and feel good in your hand. The image reproduction is excellent and you can see above how well they fit together, it’s almost seamless.

I’m bummed that this one isn’t complete, my little “grandson” would have loved it. Oh well, I suppose it’s better than if I gave him an incomplete puzzle; it’s very frustrating for him when he can’t find a piece. At least I’ve got enough smarts to be sure and check them first. 🙂

Wouldn’t most kids (especially little boys) love to ride a dragon? I would. I need to ride side-saddle though, and the dragon has to promise to spew fire on a few places that have earned my wrath! Oops. Got a little off track there. Apologies. 😇

If you’ve got a little one who loves dragons, I highly recommend this puzzle! (Be sure you find one with all the pieces though)

Pam

On October 26, 2017October 26, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Pam by Michael Hague – Great American Puzzle Factory – 100 pieces

This puzzle was so interesting! It came in a very small box about 4 inches (10 cm) square, was produced in 1981, and it was still shrink wrapped! 😮

Michael Hague is a well known illustrator famous for his teddy bears. I hadn’t heard of the Michael Hague teddy bears before; they’re adorable, and unlike illustrations of other teddy bears that I’ve seen. In this puzzle, we meet Pam – a well dressed Panda bear from what I can see.

Being only 100 pieces it didn’t take long for mom and me to put this little puzzle together. The pieces were extremely loose, as you can see by some of the gaps in between pieces; we had to be very careful while assembling it because brushing the edge with your arm or hand would upset many pieces.

The image itself was a bit challenging with all of the fence in the background, it definitely wasn’t a super easy puzzle for kids – this one took a little bit more brain power. Still we had fun, and it was very cool to open a puzzle that had been sealed for 36 years!

Colorful Animal World Map

On October 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was a fun 100 piece puzzle that had a little bit of challenge to it. There’s lots of ocean and it wasn’t always easy to see what piece goes next. It doesn’t lay completely flat as you can see in the picture above, but it is a thrift store purchase so perhaps it was well loved before donation. Still, it is a very good quality kid’s puzzle that also glows in the dark! Check it out….

It doesn’t just glow in the dark, it glows in 3 different colors; red (hardest to see), green, and blue. I’m not always able to get a good glow picture, so I was pleased that this one turned out so well showing all 3 colors. How cool is that? Very!

I enjoyed putting this one together, I like it when a kid’s puzzle has a little bit of challenge to it. I think that’s good for kids too, if all their puzzles are too easy they get bored. It feels like a little more of an accomplishment if you had to work at it a little bit. Of course, that’s just my own personal puzzle addict’s opinion. 😉