Mother and Daughter (2)

On January 31, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

It’s finally finished! It was on my board for more than 2 weeks, most of the time it sat untouched while I was hospitalized, but I finally completed it and it’s off my board. Hooray!!

I absolutely love this image and it’s companion that I previously assembled; both images remind me very much of my mother, who is just as beautiful as the woman pictured and also loves knitting and crafts. As soon as I saw these puzzles I had to get them, and I’m glad I did. They were both challenging assemblies, but it doesn’t take away from how much I love the images themselves. Love, love, love them! ❤

I’m not sure how I feel about this brand, Falcon de luxe. They are a good thickness and sturdy and the image reproduction is gorgeous. Most of the pieces are ballerinas, although there are a few other shapes to work with. The pieces can seem to fit where they do not belong, and that I am not a fan of – especially with an image that looks vintage. I find these images a challenge because although the finished puzzle doesn’t look difficult the pieces themselves seem almost blurry and indistinct; it’s the “vintage” look (just my opinion here). When you have “fuzzy” pieces to work with it’s even more difficult if pieces seem to fit in multiple places. I will have to assemble an easier image or two in order to compare; I don’t like passing judgement until I’ve given a brand a few tries.

Until I allow myself more puzzle shopping I’m holding back judgement on this brand. For the most part it’s good, they’re not a cheaply made puzzle. Although I do wish there were more variety in the piece shapes. This puzzle in particular though, made me very happy. I absolutely love it, and the beautiful lady it reminds me of. ❤❤

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Pencil Pushers

On January 18, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This apparently looks like a difficult puzzle, when I showed it to someone saying it would be my next puzzle they thought it looked very hard. I didn’t think so, but more than one person told me that. I thought it looked pretty easy actually, and it was!

I really enjoyed this puzzle, it went together pretty quickly and it’s stunningly beautiful. The random cut pieces made it interesting and the colors are bright and fun. The finished image is really lovely. I sent this puzzle to mom’s house for her to assemble, and when she’s done with it I would like to frame it. It’s such a wonderful image, I absolutely love it!

This puzzle was about average Springbok quality, the piece fit was a bit tight, and the backs of the pieces were slightly fuzzy around the edges. They were a good thickness, though, and the image reproduction is stellar. This is one of the instances where the image can overcome most quality shortcomings. There have been a few puzzles where the image was so entertaining to assemble that I didn’t really mind the quality issues that would usually annoy me. This is one of them. 🙂

Great image, fun assembly, most excellent thrift store find!

Garden Traditions

On January 13, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was a fun puzzle that went together pretty quickly. Again, it wasn’t a puzzle image that I would buy new, but it was definitely one that we’d buy at the thrift store. As usual, I enjoyed it immensely and ended up liking the image much more once it was all assembled.

A 500 piece Ravensburger is just about the perfect size puzzle for me when I haven’t been feeling well. I can only sit for a limited amount of time and a 500 piece is 4 times easier than a 1000 piece (according to conventional wisdom) and therefore doesn’t seem to require as much thought or time studying the pieces. I can pull the pieces for a section and put them together relatively quickly, giving me a sense of completion and making it easier for me to walk away for a while to take a break from sitting or standing to work on it.

I enjoy the 500 piece Ravensburger puzzles in both the smaller and larger piece sizes. The larger size seems to go together more quickly for me, but they’re both quite fun if you’ve got a good image. I’ve done a couple Jane Maday puzzles in the past month or so and find that they’re quite fun to do and just the right amount of challenge. I hope we find more of her puzzles at the thrift stores. 🙂 There’s an adorable 350 piece puzzle of hers from Cobble Hill called Christmas Train that I’ve seen on Puzzle Warehouse’s site, it looks like a great puzzle for next Christmas!

#NuzzleNoses

On January 7, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

IMG_E4088 — #NuzzleNoses by Keith Kimberlin – MasterPieces (Insta Paws) – 500 pieces

Mom and I assembled this puzzle together, and it was really fun! I’m always thrilled by a thrift store purchase that is so adorable and so much fun to assemble. We loved this one❣

This is part of the Insta Paws series from MasterPieces, collages of some of the most adorable puppies and kittens around! Taken by photographer Keith Kimberlin, the images features sweet puppies and kittens doing all kinds of activities. It’s a very cute series, and I’d love to do more; here’s hoping the thrift stores around here help us out with that.

I enjoy MasterPieces puzzles, they’re a good quality puzzle for a great value and they have an excellent and diverse catalog with some great series – Memory Lane, Town & Country, Insta Paws, Space Savers, and many more. I like the feel of their pieces and the random cut makes a more interesting and sometimes more challenging assembly. It’s not a brand I usually purchase new, but love finding them at the thrift stores. They have so many great puzzles to choose from!

I’m a dog person, so my favorite sections of this puzzle are obviously the puppies, especially the little guy sleeping under a blanket, so cute! The kittens in the boots make me smile too. This puzzle is one of those fun ones with different backgrounds that make it easy to pull a section and work on it without having to keep looking at the box, they’re some of my favorite types of puzzles to do. It’s more satisfying for me to grab a section of pieces and figure out how they fit together without any assistance from the box or a poster – it makes me happy.

If this is an image that grabs you, I would definitely recommend this #NuzzleNoses; it’s a very nice quality puzzle with a beautiful image that’s pretty darn entertaining to put together. 🐾🐾

Mother and Daughter (1)

On January 2, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This puzzle reminds me of my mother, which is why I bought it. This is the first of two 500 piece puzzles in the same box. The second puzzle is the same mother and daughter, a bit older, and mom is teaching her daughter how to knit. Both images are beautiful, the mother reminds me of my mom. ❤

This was my first Falcon puzzle and I was impressed. The pieces are thick and sturdy and fit together well, although there was a tendency for the image to lift sometimes when removing a piece placed incorrectly. The image reproduction is very good, with a matte finish to avoid glare. The majority of the pieces were ballerinas, but there were a few other shapes as well. Excellent quality all around, but I wouldn’t mind a better variety of piece shapes.

The vintage nature of the image makes the pieces themselves seem fuzzy and indistinct, but once you’ve got it assembled it’s clear as a bell, and quite lovely. It makes the assembly more challenging for me, but I really love the image and didn’t mind having to work a little harder to assemble it. I’m getting ready to assemble the second image. I have hopes that it might be a little easier, but I’m probably wrong. Doesn’t matter, I’m sure I’ll enjoy that challenge too! 😉