Bears! Bears! Bears!

On May 20, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I had high hopes for this puzzle, but unfortunately the quality was lacking in my opinion. The previous cork-backed puzzle I assembled had excellent quality and was quite fun to assemble. This puzzle, while fun, was not of the same superior quality. The cork backing was coming off a large number of pieces and there was image lift on the top as well. Disappointing, I enjoyed the previous Ceaco puzzle with cork on the back and was hoping for another interesting Ceaco with exceptional quality. 😐

Ceaco has some great artists working with them and I love the images on some of their puzzles, but I wish the quality were better. Even just a little bit more thickness of the pieces would make a huge difference. Or perhaps a little more consistency would be welcome, how can the quality be so radically different between the two puzzles?

This image from Jane Wooster Scott is adorable, and the assembly was fun. You can see especially in the sky that there were whimsies in this puzzle – and there were a few where several pieces put together formed an animal or object. If you look at the lower left side of the house you can see where four pieces fit together to form a horse! Interesting to me as well was the fact that there were two different breeds of dog, you could easily tell each one; there was the distinctive silhouette of a poodle, and also a cocker spaniel which is easy to recognize.

I’ve enjoyed all the interesting puzzles mom has found at the thrift stores – there have been puzzles backed with cork or velvet, “talking” jigsaw puzzles, interesting 3D puzzles, new puzzle companies we’d never heard of before, puzzles made of foam, educational puzzles, etc. It’s always fun to try something new and see whether or not it’s enjoyable. I try to always give a new puzzle a chance, because you never know what awesome new experience could be around the next corner piece! 😉

Jungle Colors

On May 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This puzzle looked so cool that mom bought it from the thrift store knowing the quality wouldn’t be amazing. It is a stunning image and made for a challenging assembly at times, but we enjoyed it which is what matters most.

Alas, as sometimes happens with thrift store puzzles, a piece was missing. Bummer, but it was still a fun assembly even with the sameness of the pieces (they were all ballerinas) 😐 Oh well, a good time was had by all!

I’d love to find more puzzles with images from this artist. The colors she chooses are gorgeous and the fact that everything is outlined in white made for an extremely interesting assembly. They’re striking and would be good glued and framed as art, at least I think so.

Country Cupboard

On May 14, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles3 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day! This is the puzzle I chose to do for today because it reminds me of my mom. ❤

For most of my youth mom was a stay at home mom, and there was usually something fresh baked or homemade on our table. Not only because she didn’t work outside the home, but because it’s much less expensive to cook things from scratch. We lived in the country and there were plenty of fresh foods for canning and freezing that helped keep our grocery bills down. There were lots of family trips to pick apples, blackberries, cherries, strawberries, etc. And then we “got to” help mom prepare them for whatever she was going to do with them. My sisters and I were not always thrilled about it to say the least. Raspberries and cherries were the worst! Cherries especially because they had to be washed, then you had to remove the stem and then remove the seed inside – one by one. Ugh. We didn’t even like cherries or the cherry pie filling mom made from them!

When I see a jar of canned tomatoes like in this puzzle it reminds me of my mom and how much she worked at home so that she could be at home for us. I’ve turned into my mom, because my kids know how much better homemade cookies are, and that it’s almost always cheaper to cook at home then to go out for dinner. I learned what I needed to know from my mom who is the best there is!

And now as an adult mom is my best friend. A lot of people say that, but for me it’s actually true. We talk every day, go shopping together when I’m able to, work on puzzles together and just hang out whenever we can; we have our own little jokes together and can crack each other up with a single word or a look. I’m so glad she’s my mom and in my life and that I get to see her as much as I do. I love her bunches and bunches!!

This is where the comparison to my mother ends, she’s awesome and the best – this puzzle leaves a lot to be desired. 😐

The pieces of this puzzle fit together so tightly that you can see in the picture that the it doesn’t even lay flat, it’s curled up on the sides. Every piece required a lot of effort to connect, it’s one of my puzzle pet peeves. When I have to work so much to put pieces together it makes me feel as if it’s not the correct placement. This is especially difficult when you have a darker image, you feel you need to check and double check if the pieces really fit there. Also when the fit is so tight the pieces don’t all lay flat and many of them have several edges sticking up; and the piece shapes are quite prominent in the finished puzzle, even from a distance. The image was crisp and clear in some areas and very fuzzy and vague in others. On the plus side, the pieces were quite thick and the variety of piece shapes was very good.

Sometimes it’s hit or miss with Springbok in my opinion. This one was a miss. Thrift store shopping is always interesting, it could be an awesome find or a dud. But that’s alright, there are plenty more puzzles to try – maybe the next Springbok we find has amazing quality and an excellent image!

So Happy Mother’s Day to all – but especially to my thrift store shopping, puzzle hoarding bestest friend. I love you to (puzzle) pieces, but if you need help canning some cherry pie filling YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!!! 😎

Hearts of Gold

On May 11, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I’m not sure what it is about this image I love so much, but I do love it and the assembly was quick and just challenging enough. Excellent, excellent puzzle!

I really was wanting to get these new puzzles that I ordered, and as soon as it got here I stopped the puzzle I was working on to get going on this one. Started and finished it in one day, even though I had a horrible day with pain and couldn’t sit or stand for very long. I was also watching my grandpuppies that day, which is tiring, whew!

Sometimes a puzzle just grabs me and I want to keep going until it’s finished no matter what – not interested in food breaks, or puppy play time breaks or anything really; it’s almost an imposition when life breaks in and demands my attention. Most puzzles aren’t like that for me. But it’s quite fun when it does happen, because that means the puzzle is such a great image or the assembly is so entertaining that I literally don’t want to stop.

This puzzle was one of those, and it was great! Heye puzzle, so great quality, but I will say that the piece fit was quite loose on this one. If I tried to scoot some pieces over a little bit so they would fit properly I ran the risk of them all crumpling up and coming apart. I haven’t had a Heye puzzle that was quite that loose before, and I’m hoping it was just the end of a run or something. Still great image quality, piece shape and thickness. They’re not as thick as a Ravensburger or Jumbo piece, but they’re extremely sturdy.

Also you cannot tell from the picture, but the puzzle had metallic stamping on it, so there were shiny gold dots and gold framing around the heart, etc. Very cool looking! Who doesn’t love sparkles and shine? They truly are hearts of gold!

High Jinks on the High Seas!

On May 8, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This puzzle is adorable and a very cool thrift store find! Very nice quality for a Springbok puzzle from the 80’s – and all the pieces were there. Bonus!

I really love the artwork by Ulli Schneider, cartoon puzzles are up there in my favorites and I like the characters very much. I wanted to say “her characters” but realized that I don’t know if the name Ulli is male or female. I’m not sure why I assumed the artist was female. Interesting, I hope that doesn’t make me a sexist!

The piece cut is very random as you can see and it was extremely entertaining to assemble. The characters were quite fun to put together; the ship and sails were daunting at first, but as usual we worked it out. Mom and I got it done relatively quickly working together – we are an awesome puzzle team. Wonder Twin Powers………. activate! (Silly cartoon from the late 70’s – The Wonder Twins)

Springbok is a company we prefer to purchase only from thrift stores; sometimes the pieces have a LOT of hanging paper on the back and fit together way too tightly for our taste. But to each his own, everyone has their own opinions on what constitutes a good puzzle – and every single one of them is correct! The quality on this puzzle was very good, it’s from the 80’s and has held up pretty well.

How is it that the 80’s were 30 years ago? I cannot possibly be that old! Oh wait, I just quoted a tv cartoon from the 70’s, I AM that old. 😐