Tag: 1000 pieces

1980s Novels

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

1980s Novels – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

This puzzle went together so quickly once I actually started on the assembly. It was sorted the day before, but didn’t start assembly at all until the next morning. It began in the morning and was finished before I went to bed that night. It was so much fun – it was definitely the right puzzle to help lift my mood!

The quality was actually on the better side of an average Re-marks puzzle, I had no issues with the fit or the reproduction at all. It was a very good quality puzzle, which made me even happier. 😎

To be perfectly honest, the fact that this cover was in the collage is basically the reason I bought this puzzle. I picked it up in the store and my eye went to this book and I didn’t even look at the rest of the book covers; it had already been decided! Ready for a little reminiscing?

When I was in the 10th grade my English teacher gave us a list of about 150 or so books that she considered very good literature, and those were the books we were to pick from to do book reports or whatever it was she called them. I LOVED reading and I think I went through more of those books than any other of her students. I didn’t turn in papers on all of them, but I loved having that list and found books I thought I would like and just read them for myself. That’s how I found this book. I enjoyed it so much that I gave my library copy to mom to read – and she loved it too. It’s the first book in a series of six, and it’s set in prehistoric times when it’s possible that Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon humans were sharing the world. I know, it doesn’t sound that interesting, but mom and I loved it! She loved it so much that she got all the books on tape that were available from the library and we would listen to them in the car on our weekend trips with dad to softball tournaments.

I’ve re-read the entire series several times. I love the books, and now they also remind me of mom because we both loved them so much. 💕

I’m not sure how I found this book, but I recall being completely absorbed by it when I first read it. Plus, look at that cover – it’s gorgeous! This is one of the ones I picked out on the initial sorting, and it was so fun to put together.

Mom and I loved Fannie Flagg books; she found some of her novels from the early 2000’s and encouraged me to read them. Honestly I’ve never read Fried Green Tomatoes, but some of her other books I’ve read over and over and mom and I absolutely adored them. The workings of a small town and the hilarity that comes from just regular people being themselves made for such fun novels, and some of them were just heartbreakingly beautiful. Fannie Flagg books make me think of mom, and how we were very alike in the books that we enjoyed.

This puzzle was a joy to put together, and many of the books made me think of my beautiful momma, which was sad but also brought back sweet memories.

If you’re looking for a puzzle with good quality and a great image, I highly recommend this one. I adored it! 👍👍

Travel

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Travel – Cavallini & Co. – 1000 pieces

This Christmas gift was the second of the puzzles that I picked out myself over Facetime call, I did a pretty good job don’t you think? It was lots of fun to put together, and even though it was on my board much longer than normally takes for a 1000 piece puzzle I was sad when it was over.

Cavallini & Co. puzzles are good quality, but quite expensive in my opinion. There are a variety of shapes, but most of the pieces are ballerinas. The fit is good, if a bit loose, the image reproduction is very good, but the finish is a bit shiny and darker areas can be difficult to work under artificial lights. Overall I’d give the brand a “good” rating. The puzzle comes in a tube, which isn’t ideal for those who keep their puzzles, it’s much harder to shelve than rectangular or square boxes; and the pieces come in a cloth bag which makes disassembly and repackaging annoyingly more time-consuming than it already is. As a bit of a pedant I also find it annoying that their packaging says “vintage puzzle”- that is just untrue. They are all new puzzles and the only thing vintage about them is perhaps the images. Just my two cents, of course.

I always like a section of a collage whose pieces are so very easy to pick out when I’m sorting. This was the easiest section to find all the pieces for – plus, it’s in the states. Gotta love “the Wonder City” – though I don’t ever recall hearing that nickname for New York before.

This was another section with easy to find pieces, and the assembly was lots of fun too.

The giraffe in this section was much more difficult to assemble than I bargained for, and I was shocked at how much it hurt my brain to try and get this one together. Perhaps it was the pain meds, but I rather think it was just that I wasn’t in the right head space when I was putting this part together. The rest of the puzzle didn’t seem that difficult, it was just this tall guy here giving me fits. 🦒

Overall it was a lovely puzzle, with beautiful old travel posters that made for an entertaining and absorbing assembly. Can’t ask for much more than that!

Wish You Were Here

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Wish You Were Here – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Although I did enjoy this puzzle, the quality – specifically the edges – left a little to be desired. Still, it’s a collage of beautiful stamps and it was entertaining to assemble, which is the point of puzzling after all.

I’m used to Re-marks puzzles and their quality, but I put up with some of the annoyances because their catalog of images contains so many fun and beautiful collages and I’m a sucker for a collage! The issue I had this time was not with the fit or the image (the usual suspects), but with the edges.

There were two separate spots on this puzzle where the edges didn’t connect and just laid next to each other. A pet peeve of mine that I find very annoying. Puzzles should fit together not sit together! Although I didn’t pull the pieces for those specific sections when I was sorting I ended up going through the trays of pieces laid out to find each of the two sections so that the border would be complete and connected and wouldn’t move around during the rest of the assembly. Annoying!

If you’re a regular reader you know I adore this holiday even though there is no Mexican heritage in my background; so of course I’m going to show you this stamp. Isn’t it colorful and beautiful? I love it!

This was an enjoyable and slightly difficult section to put together; the dots made it easy to find the pieces, but it didn’t go together as easily as I’d assumed it would. Still, isn’t it a pretty stamp? I love looking at stamps from other countries, they’re so varied and interesting.

Border quality issues aside, I really enjoyed this assembly and definitely recommend this puzzle. It made for beautiful, contemplative, and interesting puzzling. 📧💜

Travel In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling6 Comments

Travel – Cavallini & Co. – 1000 pieces

Thought I’d be done with this one yesterday, as the two spaces shown here are all that’s left to go; but I was feeling like crap on a cracker so I didn’t even sit at the puzzle table all day.

Oh well, I’m feeling a little better today and back at the table this morning, so it shouldn’t be too long before this one is done.

Are you working on something fun? Do tell!

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!