Country Store by Art of Eduard – Buffalo – 500 pieces
I enjoyed this puzzle very much, and if it suits your fancy I highly recommend it! The quality is excellent, and the image makes for entertaining puzzling. Mom came over to help me finish it and we both had a great time. 🙂
General Store puzzles are usually great fun – there are so many little signs to assemble, and so many things to discover. One of my readers asked me to be sure to show what was behind the windows, and here they are…
You can’t see much with all the signs and things in the way, but there are some shelves inside that you can see.
I love the “Free Beer Tomorrow” sign – it’s never tomorrow! 😉
Hummingbird Garden by Rosalind Solomon – Sunsout – 500 pieces
This is a GORGEOUS image, although it was a little tough in certain sections it was quite fun to assemble. It was very odd to work a grid cut Sunsout, there aren’t many of them around that I’ve seen.
This is another secondhand puzzle that my daughter gave to me, and I’m happy to say it was much nicer to put together than the other one. Sunsout isn’t one of my favorite brands, but I’ve worked some really nice puzzles of theirs too. Most of their puzzles that I’ve done have been a random cut, and this was a refreshing change. The pieces were a good thickness, fit together quite well, and the image reproduction was stellar.
As I’m writing up today’s post it’s reminding me of why I love puzzles. Beautiful images cut into little pieces; and I get to bring order to the chaos. A jumbled bunch of pieces with many colors turns into a complete picture using only my brain and hands. And while I’m putting it together it almost a meditative state; all I think about is what shape fits here, and what color goes there. It’s calming, entertaining, and many other words my sleep-deprived brain can’t think of at the moment. Puzzling rocks! 🤘
Got my hands on another old wooden puzzle, are you surprised? It’s a lovely image, but there were so many missing pieces! I went into this knowing there were only 499 pieces, but I mistakenly assumed that meant there was only one missing piece. I was wrong of course. This puzzle apparently started out with 510 pieces, not 500. Still, mom and I had a good time putting it together and that’s what counts.
There is such beautiful detail in the artwork, the hands seem almost photo quality. It was a beautiful puzzle and mom and I enjoyed it even with the many missing pieces.
EBL 1920 – I wish I knew if that was in reference to the date the puzzle was cut or if it’s when the image was painted. It could be both, actually.
I’ve got one more old puzzle yet to assemble and one more in the queue, but unless I find something amazing I’m done with the vintage/antique puzzles. Not because this one had lots of missing pieces, but because either fortunately or unfortunately (I’m not sure which), the municipal building puzzle was so amazing, and such fantastic quality that I feel that everything else is a bit of a letdown. Even if it’s great quality it still isn’t as good. I was so lucky to find that puzzle; it’s a one of a kind, exceptionally well made, and mom and I enjoyed the journey of putting it together so much – it just can’t be matched or duplicated. Nothing even really comes close.
I’ve told hubby to stop sneakily buying these old puzzles on eBay. He purchased a few for me as a surprise, it’s very sweet but I’d prefer it if he didn’t do that anymore. I think I’d rather be happy we had the experience and fun of assembling a very rare and wonderful antique than be let down by the not up to snuff quality of lesser (but still lovely) puzzles.
Many Travel Bags by A. Keattikorn – Milton Bradley – 500 pieces
My apologies for the cockeyed photo – I can usually do better than that. 😐 I like the alternative title for this puzzle shown on the box, “Valises a Gogo”. Sounds much more fun, doesn’t it?
The 300 piece Milton Bradley puzzle I posted yesterday was much better quality than this one, unfortunately. This 500 piece puzzle from the same brand had a very loose fit that was a difficult to work with early on in the assembly. The edges barely stayed together, and it wasn’t until quite a bit of the interior was done before I could trust that the pieces would stay connected if accidentally bumped. On the plus side it had very nice image reproduction, even if it was a tiny bit darker than the box showed.
I don’t know that I would have picked this puzzle out for myself, but it was more fun to put together than it looked. If you come across “Valises a Gogo” or “Many Travel Bags” it’s a fun picture to assemble, but I would recommend it from perhaps a different company if you’re not a fan of an extremely loose fit.
Americana Town by Joseph Burgess – Sunsout – 500 pieces
It certainly wasn’t my plan to do two puzzles by the same artist one right after the other, but that’s just how it worked out. This one was very busy and fun to do.
It must be a very old scene, the sign that says “and soon the telegraph” tells us that the technology is out there somewhere, it just just hasn’t made it to this small town yet. And for some reason I love the look of the tin peddler’s tent.
My Jigsaw Journal 