Jiuzhaigou Park

On April 17, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

That’s a name and a half, but also a gorgeous image and a enjoyable puzzle! I finished this one in an afternoon of watching Netflix and resting in bed. It was a bit of a challenge, but it worked out great and I think it’s a beautiful puzzle. 🙂

I haven’t done a Big Ben puzzle since I was little, I remember my grandmother having a Big Ben puzzle or two and working on them with her. I don’t really recall anything about the quality of the puzzles I did with my grandma, I just remember enjoying helping her. Big Ben puzzles have been around for a long time!

This is of course a newer Big Ben puzzle and the quality is excellent! I was surprised at how nice the pieces are, I saw the name Milton Bradley and assumed (incorrectly) that the quality would be lacking. The pieces are thick and sturdy with a beautiful image reproduction and matte finish. There are a variety of piece shapes and the fit was nice and tight without being difficult. I enjoyed the quality almost as much as I enjoyed the picture.

I assembled this puzzle from the middle out, which isn’t the way I normally do a puzzle. But for this picture I started from the sun behind the mountain and worked outward from there. The flowers in the foreground were the last thing I assembled – I usually leave the more plain sections for the end but for this puzzle I did most everything backward! It doesn’t really matter how I got there though, because I enjoyed the assembly and that’s what really counts. 🙂

Keep On Dancing

On April 15, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

So I finally broke down and ordered myself some new puzzles – I haven’t bought any new ones for myself since I bought the giant Disney puzzle. They arrived a few days ago and I was so excited! It was like Christmas morning!

Something about this image made me happy, and it was the puzzle I wanted to assemble first. It was an excellent assembly! It was fun to pull out pieces for a specific dress and assemble them, and before I knew it all the beautiful dresses were done and the dance floor was full! This is one of those puzzles you can’t seem to walk away from and it’s done in no time at all. I love puzzles like that!

I’ve only ever done one Gibsons puzzle before, and it was a 1000 piece. I love the feel of the pieces; they’re thick and sturdy and make the puzzling a tactile experience that I can’t properly put into words. The quality is exceptional! I wasn’t aware when I ordered it that it was a 500 piece with the extra large pieces, so the finished puzzle was 27 x 19. A nice big puzzle that feels like quite an accomplishment. 🙂

There’s something about a large piece puzzle for me, I’m not sure what it is, but it seems like the assembly always goes much faster. Perhaps it’s a perception thing? “These pieces are really big, it shouldn’t take any time at all to finish this entire puzzle.” And then I prove myself right by staying with it until the assembly is complete. I’m not sure if that’s it, but I enjoy the large piece puzzles whatever the reason.

I had a great time with this assembly, the only downside is that it’s over already!

Also, I wanted to wish my puzzle “dealer” a very happy birthday! Thanks for all the thrift store shopping for great puzzles and great puzzle deals. Who else would have found a 4000 piece puzzle for $1.99? But most of all, thanks for working on puzzles with me and being the only person who actually wants to hear me talk about jigsaw puzzles as much as I do, and in general just being your awesome self. Love you mom! 😉

Catch of the Day

On April 5, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another new puzzle company, who knew that there were so many? Puzzle Makers International – not too shabby. 🙂

The pieces were mostly what mom and I call “ballerina” pieces. Two prongs and two holes = two/two = tutu = ballerina! See how my “interesting” mind works? Anyway, even though almost all the pieces were ballerinas it was still a fun puzzle to assemble. The pieces were quite thick which is always a good sign, they fit together very well and the image quality was very nice!

The artwork by Roseanne Kaloustian is an adorable image of a boy fishing with his trusty dog by his side. I can’t define what it is, but something about this picture made me want to do the puzzle right away. I have no idea why – or I can’t verbalize it properly. Needless to say, we got going on this one immediately!

It was quite an enjoyable assembly and mom and I got it done in one afternoon. Those Friday visits are excellent for puzzling. We were both impressed with the quality of the puzzle and look forward to finding more new puzzle companies to try. Especially when we find them at the thrift store! 😎

Follow Your Nose

On April 3, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This puzzle is adorable and was quite fun to do even though the quality wasn’t stellar. I’ve found that sometimes if the puzzle image is something that you really like or connect with that even a poorer quality puzzle is a fun assembly. The pieces of this puzzle were very thin and they were easily upset if you accidentally bumped up against them.

Although the quality left something to be desired, mom and I still had lots of fun working on this puzzle together. It was well worth the 69 cents we paid for it at the thrift store!

Eastern Bluebird II

On March 14, 2017May 19, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another thrift store puzzle, it was only 500 pieces so I thought mom and I should work on it one day while we were visiting. We got it done in no time, but alas, 2 missing pieces. 😦 I can’t get too upset though, we’ve been quite lucky lately with our thrift store puzzles. So if every once in a while we get one with missing pieces, it’s just par for the course AND we just saved someone else from buying a puzzle with missing pieces. 🙂

We still had a good time with this puzzle, excellent Buffalo quality and the colors were absolutely gorgeous. The pieces fit together really well, even more than usual for a Buffalo puzzle.

It’s so nice to be able to sit and talk and work on a puzzle with someone. I forget sometimes as I’ve been mostly working alone on the giant Disney puzzle. I told mom that she has to come over at least once a week and sit and work on puzzles with me, I need a little chit chat sometimes!