Downtown Freemont, Las Vegas, Nevada

On August 17, 2026August 14, 2026 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Downtown Freemont, Las Vegas, Nevada by Susanne Kremer – Cra-Z-Art (Kodak) – 350 pieces

Thankfully I had a really good time with this puzzle. I don’t usually go for photographic images, but this one was a great picture. You can tell it’s been manipulated, the car in the foreground is the same one as the one already driving down the street in front of it. The license plates are the same! I don’t know if most people would notice that or not, but I certainly did.

The quality was good. That’s as high as I’m willing to go on the rating, the fit was a bit wonky in addition to the shapes where you can tell immediately which way they’re oriented. But it was the kind of puzzle I needed to help get me out of my funk, so extra points for that.

This section stood out to me, why is the sign for check cashing upside down? Its one of those things that pops out of the image, you see the letters on a piece and think you know which way the piece goes but it doesn’t work that way. Normally I don’t use the box image or poster when I’m assembling a puzzle, so I didn’t know that this sign is upside down in the image.

Overall I enjoyed this puzzle just the right amount, which is exactly what I needed after three less than optimal puzzles. If this image speaks to you I can recommend this puzzle. It’s a Cra-Z-Art puzzle, so it isn’t premium quality, but you don’t always need that – you just need something fun.

This one was fun!

Life is a Box of Colors

On July 28, 2026July 27, 2026 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Life is a Box of Colors – Cra-Z-Art (Kodak) – 350 pieces

I had a really good time with this puzzle. And since I don’t remember the last Kodak puzzle that was put together, I didn’t know what kind of quality this might be; I was happy to find that it was a very good quality puzzle that was also truly a joy to assemble.

For some reason I decided I was going to pick puzzles based on piece count and go upwards to 1000 pieces. One day I did both 150 and 200 piece puzzles, so of course the next one had to be 300 pieces. I thought I’d jump to 500 pieces after that, but when I looked through the shelves in my closet I was surprised to see I had a couple of 350 piece puzzles, and obviously this one jumped right out at me with it’s bright, beautiful colors.

The pieces were thick with a good variety of shapes. It’s one of those puzzles that has fat pieces and thin pieces, you can tell when you start assembling the border; the thinner, shorter pieces make up the side borders and the fatter, taller ones are the top and bottom borders. The finish was quite shiny, and I did most of the assembly without my overhead light on because there was just too much glare to deal with. The image reproduction was gorgeous, of course, look at those “kodak colors”! The fit was quite tight, almost like a Springbok or certain Sunsout puzzles – I’m not a fan of this type of fit, but at least it wasn’t loose, right?

Assembling words makes me so happy, of course this was the first section to be completed. Isn’t it a stunningly gorgeous image? Love it!

Did I mention something about an extremely tight fit? Oh yeah, I did! In fact, I was so sure that this was going to work that I stood the puzzle on it’s edge first, before I got any pictures of the completed puzzle. That can be a risk if you’re not sure, but I knew there wouldn’t be any problems with this one.

I absolutely loved this assembly. Much of it was put together when I was on the phone with my daughter, I just sat talking and absentmindedly finding pieces and putting them in. When I look at this puzzle that will be what I remember, talking to my baby girl and putting together a beautiful puzzle. 💖

Downtown Freemont…In Progress…

On June 27, 2026June 27, 2026 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling8 Comments

Downtown Freemont, Las Vegas, Nevada by Susanne Kremer – Cra-Z-Art (Kodak) – 350 pieces

I’ve had a pretty terrible week, puzzle-wise. It started quite well, with a collage of musicals from stage and screen, obviously I loved that one. It began going downhill after that into a series of three different puzzles from three different brands that were disappointing, frustrating, and upsetting. I told my bestest puzzle pal that apparently I’m not supposed to actually enjoy puzzling this week. That day was a bad day and I felt the depression creeping back in.

So, after a day spent almost entirely in bed I decided I was getting back on the horse and I was going to find a puzzle here to make me happy – no matter what! Not an easy task when you’re in a black sort of mood and nothing looks good…or like fun…or the right one for the right time. I hope you have some inkling of what I mean, otherwise I’m just rambling here.

After much searching through all my new purchases, my thrift store finds, and all the puzzles on my shelves I came across this one; I have hopes that the assembly will be both entertaining and a balm for my bruised and battered puzzle mojo.

smaller piece count – ✔
bright colors – ✔
easy to moderate difficulty – ✔
relatively good brand – eh, we’ll see, this one’s hit or miss

So far this is all I’ve done, but it’s been a bad week in the pain department as well so there wasn’t much time that I was able to actually sit in front of the puzzle board and work on it. I’m about halfway done, and I’m happy as a clam that it hasn’t disappointed me yet. 🤞

Storytime Kittens

On August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

A puzzle full of kittens? I know, right?! Even though this isn’t my typical genre of puzzle image, it was still pretty darned enjoyable and I would recommend it – especially to multi-generational families who enjoy puzzling together.

Every time I assemble a Cobble Hill puzzle I am reminded of what a great quality product they put out. The linen finish on their puzzles gives not only a great hand feel, but cuts down on glare and make for such a pleasant puzzling experience. The pieces are thick, they fit together well, and the image reproduction is lovely. Why am I not assembling more of their puzzles? I have no answer to that right now – because I should be, they make me happy.

This is a “family puzzle”, which means that there are three different sizes of pieces. And this brand does it the way that seems most practical to me; large on one side, medium in the middle, and smallest on the other side. I have assembled family puzzles where the largest pieces are the outer edge and the pieces get smaller towards the middle – that makes no sense to me. The point of a family puzzle is that everyone can work together, but if the entire outside of the puzzle has to be put together before the smaller pieces fit anywhere, you cannot work together; you have to wait for one section to be finished before you can actually begin. Nonsensical in my book.

Even though I almost always work on family puzzles by myself, I like that Cobble Hill family puzzles are made so that everyone can work together.

Storytime Kittens 1

This side of the puzzle has the large pieces, and takes up the most space. I love the bright colors and fun image, it made for an entertaining assembly.

Storytime Kittens 2

You can see in this image how the pieces fade from larger to smaller, and it’s pretty seamless and well done. And even though we all know kitties aren’t my preferred animal for puzzle images this was some really beautiful artwork by Amy Rosenberg.

By the way, I’ve had sort of an epiphany about why I enjoy family puzzles so much; and it truly just occurred to me this morning as I was getting ready to type up this post. It’s the sorting! It’s the ease of sorting differently sized pieces that almost buoys my spirits. Sorting is the worst part of puzzles for me, even though my mild OCD requires that I sort; but having it made so much easier and faster because of the different sizes of the pieces makes all the difference. 😎

Review: Seams Likely

On June 28, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

When mom first showed me this puzzle I was very excited, doesn’t it look like fun? It was! The bright colors and big numbers made this an excellent assembly; I enjoyed it very much. 🙂

This was a very good quality Springbok puzzle, although the fit was somewhat tight. You know I’m not a fan of the super tight fit; this one wasn’t too bad, but it was tight. The pieces are thick, the image reproduction is bright and beautiful, and the random cut gives a very good variety of piece shapes. Overall the quality was very good, and I enjoyed the assembly.

I started with the red thread, and then moved on to the yellow spool. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens with a thrift store puzzle, one of the pieces was damaged…

Someone’s child, pet, or maybe even a vacuum cleaner got hold of one of the pieces. I’m glad they included it in the puzzle and didn’t throw it away; technically all the pieces were there.

The rest of the puzzle wasn’t too difficult to assemble, all the measuring tapes weren’t as difficult as I thought they might be. It was just as much fun as I’d hoped and I really enjoyed the assembly. Mom has a knack for finding awesome puzzles at the thrift stores, and I’m the beneficiary of her amazing talent.

This is a discontinued puzzle and no longer available from puzzle sellers, but if you find a copy somewhere I highly recommend it – it’s a quick, fun puzzle and the end result would be great framed in a sewing or craft room. 👍

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