Review: Colored Powder

On September 15, 2019September 15, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews3 Comments

This image is GORGEOUS! It wasn’t as difficult as I’d feared it would be, and I absolutely loved putting it together. 💖

The Big Ben puzzles that I’ve been finding at my local Tuesday Morning store have been very good quality and a joy to work with. I love the slanted grid cut, and the dry feel of the pieces. The fit is quite good as well, and overall the entire puzzle was wonderful.

I started with the light blue, which wasn’t too hard. But the rest of the puzzle was a bit of a challenge mostly because my husband took the extension cord off of the big light directly above my puzzle table. It took a few days for me to find a replacement and before I did, seeing the colors of whichever puzzle I was working on was a little difficult – and this one especially!

Seeing the difference between the reds, oranges, and pinks was made even more problematic because of the lack of good lighting. The hurricane shutters are still on all of our windows (hubby is out of town for work), so I couldn’t even get any help from the window near my table.

All problems aside, this image is so beautiful that I loved watching it come together as each piece was added. It’s a little challenging, but definitely worth it!

Details:

Title: Colored Powder
Artist: Big Ben Puzzles
Brand: Milton Bradley (Big Ben)
Piece count: 500 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut (slanted)
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Pet Portraits

On September 13, 2019September 13, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

My daughter found me a bunch of clearance puzzles at Barnes and Noble, and she was very insistent that I get this one. Of course, it has a Boston Terrier in it! She loves my Buddy, and we all love Boston Terriers, they are not only adorable dogs, but they’re so wonderfully sweet – especially our Buddy.

Of course it was our favorite portrait in the puzzle…

Pet Portraits 1

That frozen look, especially when we’re playing with our little guy, is what we lovingly call “crazy eyes”. Bostons love to play, and when we’re getting ready to throw a toy he freezes and looks at us with the crazy eyes, it’s because he’s just so excited!

Pet Portraits 2

I love the demure look on the bird’s face – how cute is that? It’s like she knows she’s cute and is posing for a picture. Adorable! I’m not a fan of birds as pets, only because I very much enjoy peace and quiet, and I find that birds are always making noise – no thank you. I’d much rather assemble a puzzle with birds. 😉

The puzzle itself was good quality, but I’ve had quite a few puzzles with just the one piece shape lately and they’re a bit boring. I enjoy figuring out which piece shape I’m looking for, and I find it’s also very helpful when you have a large area of one color. I’m choosing what to puzzle next right now, and if I open the box and see only one piece shape I close it right back up and keep looking for a more interesting one with a variety of shapes.

Petrified Wood Mosaic

On September 5, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles5 Comments

This image is so different and interesting; mom and I both loved it as soon as we saw it. I opened the box several times when I was looking for my next puzzle, but always put it back because it looked so difficult and it wasn’t the right time (also I wanted to work on it with mom and she wasn’t always able to come play puzzle with me).

It had great quality, thick pieces, and a nice fit too. The only minus was that there was only one piece shape, it seems that there are quite a few puzzles out there with just the one shape, and personally I would love it if they branched out a bit and added more interesting, or even just “other” shapes.

The box for this one said Fitting Reminder, but there was also a notation that it was from American Greetings Corporation. There was no date on the box, but it looks quite old. I’m guessing it’s most likely from the 80’s. It was a very cool puzzle!

There were so many darkish muddled looking pieces that it was a bit difficult. But once I got going I enjoyed the challenge and it was hard for me to get up and walk away from it. It’s so very different than most puzzle images, and I got sucked into “just one more piece” over and over again.

This puzzle very much makes me think of mom, and I ended up taping the back of it so that I could keep it. It makes me extremely sad that we didn’t have a chance to work on it together, we would have had a great time; and there would have been a quite a bit of little old lady cussing too, I’m sure. 👵

There are so many puzzles here that mom found for us and that we were both looking forward to assembling together. Perhaps that’s why I’ve been wanting new puzzles lately, the older ones all have memories attached – and all those memories are primarily of my mom. I guess I’m trying to hold on to those as long as I can.

Mexican Guitars

On September 1, 2019September 1, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

I enjoyed this puzzle way too much, and I wish I’d been able to find a 1000 piece of this image – it went by too fast!

The quality was excellent, with thick pieces that had a dry feeling finish that felt good in my hands. The fit was exceptional, and I was able to pick up the entire puzzle with one hand. I liked the angled sort of grid cut too, it made for interesting piece shapes. Sometimes Milton Bradley Big Ben puzzles aren’t such good quality as this; I was happy to find this one wasn’t lacking at all.

I’ve got another Big Ben puzzle in the to do pile, with an awesome image that I’m very much looking forward to. Having completed this one, it makes me want to get going on the next one even sooner.

If I come across the 1000 piece of this image, I’m definitely getting it. I absolutely LOVED this puzzle!

Just Ducky

On August 18, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles9 Comments

This cutie was more fun than I thought it would be. I don’t always enjoy Sunsout puzzles, as some of them have such a tight fit, it’s off-putting for me. But the fit on this one was quite good and just the right amount of hold.

I actually put off assembling it for quite a while, because I thought the background would be awful to get through. I had a great time with the assembly though, and the background didn’t take nearly as much time as I feared it would.

I’m still surprised by puzzles; ones I think will be great fun turn out to be boring or tedious, and ones that I dread assembling turn out to be charming and much more pleasant than anticipated. You’d think after the hundreds and hundreds of puzzles I’ve assembled that I’d be a better judge of what I will enjoy. Nope. Still as clueless as ever.

But I’m cute, with a great sense of humor – so I’m still a catch! ☺