This was another thrift store purchase, and I really loved this one! It’s just a gorgeous street in Paris with a bridal store and it reminds me of a friend who got married just over a year ago. The whole time I was assembling it I was thinking about her wedding preparations (the fun AND the stress) and it just reminded me of her.
This was the I think only the 2nd Cobble Hill puzzle I had assembled at the time, and I liked it more than the 1st one. Some of the pieces seem quite dark, but honestly it wasn’t difficult to assemble at all, and the pieces didn’t seem dark when I was working the puzzle. I love the feel of the Cobble Hill puzzles with the linen finish, and even the boxes have a linen finish on them and feel luxurious! The pieces fit together quite well, and the piece shape isn’t overly visible in the completed image.
I love it when a thrift store purchase ends up being fun and challenging, and all the pieces are there too! This is a beautiful image and a great puzzle.
Offering of the Coral Plants to the Emperor – Springbok Puzzles – 500+ pieces
Whew! What a title! This was another amazing thrift store find, and here’s the best part – it’s a vintage puzzle from 1965 in the original and amazingly non-beat up box with no missing pieces!
I have to say I had an AWESOME time assembling this puzzle and it tested my brain power! I’ve mainly been working grid-cut puzzles for several months and having to rethink and use your brain differently on a random cut like this was a challenge and super fun! And since I assembled almost the entire thing on January 29th (National Puzzle Day), I wanted some family help – so one of my sons, my husband and my mom helped me with this one. 🙂
I’m honestly amazed at how well taken care of this puzzle was. The box is almost pristine, the puzzle has no image lift, seemingly no wear at all – and it was produced in 1965, the year my parents got married! Holy guacamole! They made some quality stuff that was built to last in the 60’s! I was made in the 60’s. 😉
Springbok is not a puzzle company I usually assemble, it’s one of those that seems hit or miss for me so I would rather see and feel the pieces before I buy. But these pieces were gorgeous, cut well and didn’t require upper body strength to fit them together. Excellent quality on this puzzle!
The image is an adaptation of a Chinese porcelain plate decoration from the early 1700’s. The finish on the puzzle looks almost porcelain as well! It’s a beautiful image, an excellent quality puzzle, and my family and I had a great time assembling it. If you’re lucky enough to find a good copy of this one, go for it!
Celebration of Women – Tea Time by Patricia Govezensky – Sure-Lox – 500 pieces
My first Sure-Lox puzzle…..eh. Didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it either. The pieces were thin, not the thinnest I’ve worked with but thin. My main problem with this puzzle was that every piece was the same shape. There were slight variations, but every piece had two prongs and two holes. Boring. Momma needs more excitement in her life! More piece shapes please! 😉
On the plus side, the pieces fit together very well, well enough that you can lift the puzzle by one of the corners and it basically stayed together. I like when a puzzle fits together well, but not so tightly that you have to work on your biceps to put the pieces together. (I mean, I know I’m a woman in her 40’s and I have bingo wings, but I’m doing the best I can! Don’t make me work out doing a jigsaw puzzle!) And you can see that the piece shapes are not glaringly obvious in the finished puzzle, especially the darker sections. The image quality was quite good as well. It took me a while to get used to the artwork in this one, but I ended up loving the artwork and I think the finished puzzle is interesting and beautiful.
I can’t say whether or not I would buy another puzzle from this company. On the one hand the pieces are thin and there is only one piece shape, on the other hand the fit is excellent and the image quality is very good. I guess it would come down to how I felt about the image itself, maybe……maybe not.
Get Your Jig On is a young puzzle company whose CEO contacted me to see if I would be interested in doing one of their puzzles. After checking out their website, and loving their message of diversity, sexual empowerment and freedom of expression – I said absolutely! I don’t actually “review” jigsaw puzzles here, I just write about puzzles I am doing or have done, but I give my honest opinion about their quality, images, and whether or not I enjoyed doing them.
I enjoyed this puzzle very much! The image isn’t overly graphic, it is tasteful and artistic and was a fun challenge to assemble. The only editing I did to the picture was to slightly blur the breast, otherwise the image is as shown. Right now the company has only 3 images to choose from, but I am told they have more shoots scheduled this month and will be adding to their catalog.
The pieces are quite thick (about the same thickness as Ravensburger) and have a slightly waxy finish. There are a good range of piece shapes and they fit together wonderfully without being too tight which is always nice. I prefer puzzles that you don’t have to force together.  There were 1 or 2 pieces where the cardboard backing was slightly split and there was a little bit of puzzle dust, but the overall quality is very good, and the puzzle is made in the USA. 🙂
The puzzle comes with a letter of authenticity, a picture of the puzzle image, a statement about why the image was chosen, and a short bio of all participants. If you’re conservative the box fits into a bookshelf and has a side that looks like a book sleeve.
It was more difficult than I expected, but a fun challenge nonetheless – and of course hubby wanted to help with this puzzle! 😉 It took me a couple of days, but I enjoyed the assembly and actually kind of fell in love with the artwork in the background as well. LOVE the skull painting on the right side of the picture!
In short I loved the image, the puzzle assembly was fun and challenging, the quality was better than I expected, and as an added bonus I really love what the company stands for!
Sunbonnet Quilt Shop by Sheila Lee – Mega Puzzles – 500 pieces
This puzzle was so much fun to put together. I love all the different fabrics on the clothing and the quilts, I love the symmetrical quality of the quilts and the shelves in the shop – it was just a treat to assemble! I don’t know if I can explain why I enjoyed it so much, but I really had a great time!
Mom and I don’t usually buy Mega Puzzles, but this was another thrift store purchase and we just loved the image. Â Sometimes we put our jigsaw snobbery aside and buy a puzzle solely for the image even if it’s made by a company we don’t usually purchase. We are puzzle snobs, unashamedly so – but not so much that we wouldn’t do a puzzle just because it isn’t our usual brand. We’re always on the lookout for fun puzzles, wherever they come from!
You can see from the picture that there is basically only one piece shape – 2 prongs 2 holes. Not the most interesting pieces to say the least, and they were also on the thin side. The image quality was quite good though, and the artwork was beautifully drawn and perfect for puzzling.
My Jigsaw Journal 