Heroines

On February 13, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

I had the best time with this puzzle! If you read this blog regularly you know I love a collage, this was a fantastic puzzle with such interesting images – I couldn’t walk away!

Remarks has come out with some really fun collages lately, I had a hard time choosing between them when I went to get some new puzzles. They have several, including this one, that are Barnes & Noble exclusives. So much fun! The quality on this puzzle was a little better than I remember, nice cutting, good thickness, very nice fit, and a poster inside to help with assembly. The pieces seemed a little small to me, but the previous puzzle I assembled had large EZ Grip pieces so I may be mistaken.

I bought another Remarks collage that day, and am trying to decide if I should do that one next or not. This one went so quickly that I may want to do something else in between to make them last longer. I’m still making up my mind. By the time this is posted, of course, I will have done many more puzzles.

I’m almost ashamed to say I’ve only read 9 of these 50 books. I thought I was pretty well read, but it seems not. Still, at this point in my life I have no tolerance for doing things just because I’m “supposed to” or because others think I should. I’m just going to be me, flaws and all. If people don’t like me, that’s ok; I think I’m pretty darned awesome just the way I am. My family and friends love me, that’s what counts. 😎

If you’re an avid reader, a fan of collages, or are just looking for an entertaining jigsaw puzzle I highly recommend this one. Loved it! ❤

The Color of Love

On January 19, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

For some stupid reason I thought this one was going to be as easy and as fun as Pencil Pushers. I am such an idiot; this was not nearly as fun. I even toyed with giving up on it once or twice. It was much more difficult, and I knew early on there were missing pieces, which always bums me out a little bit. It’s a cool picture, I just went into it with an unrealistic expectation of how it easy and fun it would be.

The quality was MasterPiece’s usual. Good thickness, interesting shapes, good fit. I started with the scribbled heart in the middle, and knew pretty quickly that there were at least 2 missing pieces – little did I know it would turn in to 11 missing pieces! Why on earth would someone donate a puzzle with this many pieces missing? It makes no sense to me. It’s a chance we take when we buy used from the thrift stores, but it’s still a let down when there are this many pieces missing.

There were colors in multiple places, so it wasn’t as easy as Pencil Pushers with just one pencil of each color. It was easy enough to separate out the different colors, but not as easy to assemble them all in their respective places. It took more time than I planned on, but it was still a fun assembly.

Luckily as I was nearing the end my daughter came over for a visit, she helped me finish it, which made it more enjoyable for me. I enjoy my “alone” puzzle time to decompress and relax, but it’s fun to share a puzzle and time spent together too. ❤

Movie Reel

On January 17, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

My youngest son gave me this puzzle for Christmas, so bright and fun and full of color! My daughter and I started it’s assembly on Christmas Day after we finished Retro Dogs, and I finished it a day or so later. I love the image, and it was mostly great Ravensburger quality but I was slightly disappointed in the image reproduction. Some of the smaller images were more fuzzy and indistinct than others; that’s not something I usually find with a Ravensburger.

The quality of the pieces themselves was excellent, as usual. The image reproduction, though, left a bit to be desired. Most of the image was crisp and clear, but some small sections were seemingly out of focus and slightly fuzzy. I haven’t had this problem with Ravensburger before, but it’s worth mentioning for this puzzle specifically.

I enjoyed this puzzle very much, I think the choice of these 3 Pixar movies was excellent, probably because I’ve seen all three of them and the kids and I loved them all. The bright colors and adorable characters made this wonderfully fun to assemble. The edges of the movies reels and the blue background gave it a bit of a challenge, but it wouldn’t be as much fun if it were too easy. 🙂

Even with the small quality issue, this was a great puzzle and I still recommend it. For me it brought back memories of watching these movies with my kids when they were younger; how in the world is Toy Story 23 years old?!

Mountain Vigil

On January 15, 2018January 15, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

My black belt thrift store shopper knows what I like, and bought this puzzle just for me, because for some odd reason I love puzzles with quilts. I don’t know why I like them so much, that’s just how it is. This was such an interesting quilt puzzle, I had the best time assembling it! Unfortunately it was missing 2 pieces, bummer. 😐

This puzzle was mostly the normal Sunsout quality – good thickness, variety of piece shapes, nice image reproduction. But it was also interesting in that it was grid cut instead of random, and the fit was much less tight than normal – I enjoyed both of these things. Normally I find the fit of the “regular” rectangular Sunsout puzzles a bit too tight but the fit of this puzzle was just about perfect. Also, most Sunsout puzzles I’ve done have been randomly cut but this was grid (ribbon) cut; I don’t know if I’ve ever done a grid cut Sunsout puzzle. I like both random or grid cut puzzles – I swing both ways. 😉

The artist, Rebecca Barker, likes quilts too as all of her puzzles are “quiltscapes”; with a quilt at the forefront and a secondary scene it blends into in the background. They’re so interesting and colorful, I love them and hope to find more. This one was a joy to assemble and even easier than I thought it would be, especially the background scene of the proud stag and his family. Just beautiful!

This puzzle is out of print, but if you find one I definitely recommend it. It was fun and interesting from beginning to end. 👍

Millside Picnic

On January 10, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve assembled an Americana type puzzle, and it was nice to get back to it. Sometimes it feels boring to do the same type of puzzle over and over again, and so I step away from it. That’s what I did with the Americana/Wysocki/Heronim images – I needed a break. For some reason, though, when I looked at this puzzle I wanted to get assembling right away. Perhaps I had taken a long enough sabbatical and this puzzle was what I needed. 🙂

I absolutely enjoyed this puzzle, the quality was very good, the image was excellent for puzzling and I enjoyed every part of the assembly. I especially enjoyed assembling the houses, although I’m not sure why. I believe this was my first Bonnie White puzzle, but looking through her puzzles available at Puzzle Warehouse, I might be wanting to try some more. They’ve even got some beautiful ♦diamond♦ shaped puzzles I’d love to try.

Here’s hoping we can find more Bonnie White puzzles at the thrift stores, or that someone sends me some to review. 😉