Mansfield Air Spectacular by Charles Wysocki – Buffalo – 1000 pieces
After not touching any puzzles pieces for two days the withdrawal symptoms were too much to take, so I sorted and began this one yesterday. As you can see all that’s left is sky and clouds, so it shouldn’t be too much longer and it will be finished! Once I put all the clouds together I don’t think doing the rest of the all blue pieces will take much time at all.
I got this puzzle with my Christmas gift certificate to Barnes and Noble (along with about 9 other puzzles), and I love that it isn’t the typical Wysocki image. It’s been great putting it together so far, the pieces were so easy to sort – I love that – and have made for a quick assembly.
The quick assembly part is great, because my daughter brought me a new puzzle yesterday, and I love it so much that I can’t wait to start working on it! I even told her that I was a little bummed that I had a puzzle on my board because I wanted to stop everything and work on the new one! 😍
The new puzzle happiness had my PADS flaring up and I went the teensiest little bit crazy and ordered 5 new puzzles online, I haven’t done that in quite a long time! I’ve ordered one or two puzzles here and there, but never a bigger order from one place – it’s been well over a year and a half I think, maybe even longer.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised with a credit card and a computer and I cannot be held responsible for my actions. 😇
Game Pieces by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
My last puzzle completed in January was a thrift store find that was lots of fun and went very quickly; I started at 4 am and finished just after noon (that includes some running errands too). I’m no puzzle dynamo though, collages go together much more quickly than a single image, and when an image draws me in like this one did I find it terribly difficult to stop. It’s an affliction!
It’s easier puzzling in the wee hours of the morning; there are no distractions and no interruptions – just a peaceful, quiet house and the only thing I have to think about is does this blue look the same as the blue I’m trying to match? And do I need a piece with 3 tabs or 4?
Better than typical White Mountain quality made it very nice to work with; the pieces fit together extremely well and the fantastic collage image was completely engrossing. There was no image lift at all which is surprising for a secondhand puzzle, and the image reproduction was bright and colorful with no fuzzy or blurry areas. Very good quality all around!
Anybody know what game that butterfly card is for? I don’t ever remember seeing it before. How about the Pig card, anyone know what game that is from? There were a lot of games I didn’t know, ever heard of Flinch? If you have heard of or played any of these games, please let me know. I could probably look these things up online, but to be honest I’d rather have a conversation in the comments with a fellow member of the PADS posse. 😉
Oh my! Did I love the dice bubble from the Trouble game when I was young! I would sit and just pop it/roll the die over and over – it just felt really cool! (Can you tell I am from the pre-internet generation? LOL) Just looking at it makes me smile. Was it just me, or did anyone else love to play with it too?
Even though there was a missing piece I wasn’t disappointed at all, it was still tons of fun. It was just what I needed after a puzzle that was pretty much all one color and all kinds of YAWN – I wanted bright colors and fun, and this puzzle definitely delivered. If you come across a copy I highly recommend it. Loved it! 🎲 👍😍
Candy for All Seasons by Lewis T. Johnson – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is the day for love, and gifts of flowers, jewelry, and candy if you believe the commercials. Hubby and I don’t go in for all of that; he treats me like the queen I am all year long. 👑
Anyway, to the puzzle! I don’t have any Valentine’s Day puzzles here at the house, and I don’t like to repeat any posts, so this one was the closest I could get specific to today’s holiday. I associate some holidays with candy – Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. This puzzle has one heart lollipop which is the only candy I could find for Valentine’s Day; it’s a little sad, one lonely lollipop.
There’s plenty of chocolate eggs and rabbits for the Easter holiday. The only thing I could find specifically for Halloween was the candied apple at the bottom. There are some Christmas chocolates in the foreground, but really not that much.
The surprise for me was the Thanksgiving candy. I don’t associate that holiday with candy at all, for Americans it’s all about the Thanksgiving dinner; but there were several things shown here that I’ve never seen at all.
I have never seen a chocolate turkey before, or anything like the lollipop shown here. It’s probably the least appetizing “candy” I’ve ever seen. I certainly wouldn’t want to eat it – candy corn and green chocolate – ugh. Does that sound good to anyone?
I’m familiar with most of the candies shown, but I’ve never seen or eaten Turkish Taffy or Abba Zabbas. I’ve seen and tried Lemon Heads, but never knew they make other flavors like Cherry Heads and Apple Heads too!
The quality was a little disappointing with this one, most notably the fuzzy image reproduction. I’ve seen this on several White Mountain collages, but it doesn’t stop me from buying them. It can be a bit annoying, but they have some of the best collages in the business and collages are my favorite type of puzzle to assemble – so I just deal with it. If it’s important to you though, you should be aware.
This White Mountain puzzle was a thrift store find, and I very much enjoyed putting it together, even with the four missing pieces. According to my puzzle friend Nicola, the task is to put together all the pieces you have until there are none left. The puzzle may not be complete and you may have missing pieces, but you have completed your task when you place the last piece. If you look at it that way, it’s a little less frustrating, right?
I try not to get too upset at missing pieces, most especially the ones from the thrift store. In my mind, I’m dividing the time spent by the amount paid for the puzzle. If I spent 8 hours on a thrift store puzzle that I bought for $1.99, then even if there is a missing piece or two I have gotten a fantastic deal! Where else can you get time to yourself, productive entertainment, and all the health benefits that come from assembling jigsaw puzzles for only 25 cents an hour? A bargain at 100 times the price!
This puzzle got started on Tuesday afternoon, but unfortunately there were things that had to be done yesterday that took up the entire morning. When I finally did get home I was wrung out and ready to do absolutely nothing – and that is what I did.
Life is constantly trying to insert itself into our puzzling time; the family wants food, clean clothes, a tidy house – so rude!
Hopefully I’ll be able to get back to it today and make some more progress. I was enjoying myself before quitting time came. 🙂
This was a fun and wonderfully challenging puzzle, and I think the finished image is very pretty; it reminds me of my mom who always had yarn or crochet thread with her when she went anywhere. In addition, mom got this puzzle for us at the thrift store – it has her written all over it.
It was one of those Springbok puzzles with a very tight fit, which we know I am not a fan of; but even though the fit was a bit annoying I had a great time putting this together. It took my aging brain a little longer than normal to adapt itself to working with a random cut, but the challenge of it had me completely engrossed.
Thrift stores have so many treasures like this to find, I miss my black belt thrift store shopper – not only was she the best mom ever, she also always found amazing puzzles for us to try. Love you mom. 💖💖
