Tag: 1000 pieces

Soda Fountain

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

Soda Fountain – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

What a fantastic thrift store find this was! Truly excellent quality with a great image that was very entertaining to assemble – couldn’t ask for more. ❤❤

This was the best fitting Buffalo puzzle I’ve put together in a while, and I have a theory as to why that is. Interested? No matter, I’m going to tell you anyway…

This puzzle is 14 years old, manufactured in 2010; and the box is different – bigger, to be exact it is taller than currently manufactured Buffalo puzzles. There is enough room for all the pieces with a little bit of extra space at the top. The extra space is key, because if a couple of pieces don’t come apart as they’re being put into the box there is enough room that they won’t be smashed against the sides or the top and bent. Puzzles made more recently have a shorter box that JUST fits all the pieces; if the puzzle fits too well they’ll be smashed against the box and bent all out of shape. The fit is looser these days to be sure they’ll come apart and fit in the smaller box. It doesn’t always work though, and I’ve had a few Buffalo puzzles lately with quite a few bent pieces because there was less room in the box.

*This is where my brain goes when I’m puzzling sometimes, off on tangents like this. 🤷‍♀️*

This is what the picture in my mind is of a typical boy from the 50’s; striped shirt, baseball hat, baseball glove. It’s probably from old tv shows and movies that I’ve seen and not based on actual kids, since I didn’t show up on the scene till the late 60’s. Once I was of an age to notice things like what people were wearing it was the 70’s. *shudder* Thankfully I was the third of three children so mom and dad don’t have many pictures of me, they were too busy taking care of their three girls to take a bunch of pictures of us wearing those HIDEOUS clothes. 😉

A 1000 piece Buffalo puzzle is quite large, and I wasn’t sure I’d be able to take this picture, but I had to try – the fit was just too good. It worked! Happy dance 💃💃💃

Of course I still prefer Pepsi, but this Coca-Cola puzzle was so much fun!

The Alchemist’s Home

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

The Alchemist’s Home by Vasilisa Romanenko – eeBoo – 1000 pieces

I enjoyed this puzzle gifted to me by my daughter even more than anticipated; there were so many fun things to find and each little room was it’s own discovery. I worked without the image so as to make it more entertaining and interesting and it didn’t disappoint.

On the back of the box is a short poem about the image…

The substance of the world, we know,

Is more than what we think is so.

Things change, persist, and sometimes rhyme

As we pass through space and time.

When something’s gone, its echo lasts;

This home holds spectres from its past.

All the figures shown in blue are the spectres, and there are only four living people shown in the house. I thought it was a fantastic piece of artwork. 💜

It’s been a while since there’s been an eeBoo puzzle on my table, and the quality was quite good (other than the finish). There were a good variety of shapes, it was well cut, fit together nicely and had excellent reproduction. The finish was quite shiny though, and it was difficult for me at times to see what I was looking at without tilting my head to get rid of the shine from my overhead lighting.

The shelving and pictures on the wall in this sitting room were so interesting to assemble, but not easy. Doesn’t this look like a lovely place to sit and think, or read? There’s lots of floor space too, it would make a very nice puzzle room. 😎

In any home my favorite place is usually the kitchen. One can sit and talk, work together to make meals, or just gather with friends and loved ones. I always love to be in the kitchen.

Now you know I’d have to show you the living room, especially if there’s a picture of a doggo with a suit and tie! How cute is that?

I absolutely adored this image and the puzzle was great fun to put together, almost like a collage. And we know how much I love those!

Funnily enough, I was able to pick out two of my Christmas gifts (after the fact). Part of the problem of trying to gift puzzles to a puzzle geek like myself is that there are literally hundreds of puzzles that I’ve already assembled. There have been a few times when I’ve been gifted a puzzle I either currently own and haven’t assembled, or have already completed in years past. Both of those happened this year and though I hesitated to say anything my daughter always wants to know the truth; so I had to tell her.

Of the three puzzles I received two were not new to me – in my mind that shows that they know me well and know what I like, not just that I’ve done tons of puzzles. Anyway, two of the puzzles were returned and I received a facetime call from the store where I helped pick out the replacements, and this was one of them. It’s not easy trying to check out what the images look like over the phone, at least it wasn’t for me. I’m old! 👵

Going to the Movies

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles8 Comments

Going to the Movies – Springbok – 1000 pieces

This thrift store puzzle had a HORRIBLE loose and floppy fit, and was so bleeping frustrating that I wanted to set the bleeping thing on fire and chuck it in the bleeping garbage! Bleep! 😡🤬

You couldn’t move two pieces without them falling apart and it was unbelievably frustrating to work with.

Normally Springbok puzzles aren’t loose, many times I’ve had Springbok puzzles with a fit that was too tight and you had to really work at getting the pieces together; neither is fun to work with in my opinion. This one was so frustrating that at times I was almost enraged by how the pieces would crumble apart when you tried to adjust them even just a tiny bit. Grrrr!

The collage image was one I was very excited to put together, you know how I love an interesting collage – it’s my puzzle happy place. Unfortunately the puzzle that this image was attached to made me very, very sad. Very sad indeed. 😭

Regardless, the image was fun to assemble and the family and I all took turns saying how many of the movies we hadn’t seen. Usually with a book cover collage we say how many of the books we’ve read, but with this one most of us have seen almost all the of movies. There are only five movies in this image that I haven’t seen; Weird Science, The Blues Brothers, A Clockwork Orange, Scarface, and Blade Runner.

*Please don’t say, “Oh, but you have to see ______, it’s such an iconic/funny/wonderful, interesting movie”. While I appreciate your opinions, truly, I am very particular about movies and have to be in just the right mood to watch certain genres. And as I get older I find I have much less taste for deep, insightful, upsetting, or thought-provoking movies; entertainment, not introspection is what I’m looking for.*

I’ve chosen three to highlight here because they’re movies that I love and have seen multiple times and can quote from. Ready for some reminiscing?

The Princess Bride is a family favorite, and my entire family can quote extensively from this one. It’s a fabulous movie that I highly recommend if comedy, drama, romance and fun are what you’re looking for. Princess Buttercup, Wesley, Fezzik, Inigo Montoya, Vizzini, Miracle Max, Prince Humperdinck – all amazing characters in a wonderful movie that the whole family can enjoy. There’s only one swear word in the entire movie, and I’ve already told the story of my youngest son yelling out the movie quote at his teacher when he was upset at school. “I want my father back you son of a b*tch!” Oh dear.

Being the comedy nerd that I am, of course I loved Airplane! All the slapstick, the little jokes that you have to pay attention to hear, it’s a fantastically funny movie in my opinion. Barbara Billingsley (Beaver Cleaver’s mom) talking jive, the “drinking problem” of the hero, the little guy visiting the cockpit and talking to the pilot – thinking of all the stupid, ridiculous, naughty, silly jokes really does make me smile.

As a teenager in the 1980s, of course John Hughes movies are on my list of great movies to watch. My whole family loved this movie, and we can quote from this one too. Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald were fabulous in this one (and who can forget Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong?), and the comedy and one liners are still funny to me today. Sweet, silly, touching – John Hughes knew how to make a great movie.

I wish I’d enjoyed this puzzle more, but the quality left a bit to be desired. 😐

Oh well, at least talking about some of my favorite movies has made me happy.

Soda Fountain In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

Soda Fountain – Buffalo – 1000 pieces

Don’t you love the look of old-timey ads and artwork? Well, I do. They make for more difficult puzzling sometimes, but the end result is worth it in my opinion. I’m loving this one!

This is a thrift store purchase and the quality has been EXCELLENT so far. It’s obvious that it’s been assembled a time or two (it was manufactured in 2010), but there are no bent pieces, no torn or lifting image, and the fit is absolutely amazing. It makes me want to be sure my next puzzle is a Buffalo as well. I know they’re all not going to be the same as far as quality, but this assembly is making me quite happy.

I’m still working on completing all the faces and skin, but it’s getting there and looking really nice. It’s funny how when I look at the picture of what I’ve done so far it seems as though it would be simple to find the missing pieces of this face or that spot; but in reality it ain’t easy at all!

I’m a Pepsi gal myself, but Coca-Cola really does have such great old advertising images. Good thing drinking Coke while I’m puzzling isn’t required. 🥤

The Alchemist’s Home In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

The Alchemist’s Home by Vasilisa Romanenko – eeBoo – 1000 pieces

I’m loving this puzzle that my beautiful daughter gave me for Christmas and although it’s slow going I’m enjoying every bit of it. It’s been quite a while since I’ve put together an eeBoo puzzle, but the image on this one is fantastic and it’s been very entertaining so far.

Just a side note, the “stamp” on the front of the box says that the company is Woman Owned and Mother Run. LOVE THAT!