Tag: 550 pieces

Haunted Mansion

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Haunted Mansion by David Maclean – Vermont Christmas Co. – 550 pieces

Are you starting to feel the Halloween holiday spirit? Or spirits? I am! This puzzle was finished waaaay back in August, but it’s finally time to show it off. Isn’t it a good one? It was a great quality puzzle, and a nice image for puzzling, but was more difficult than it looks.

I’m not sure how I feel about the image honestly, with so much of it obviously digital manipulation it just doesn’t float my boat as much as I’d hoped. That’s ok though, we can’t fall in love with every single puzzle can we? And thank goodness we all have different ideas of what’s good, or at least what’s good for us – otherwise this world would be a very boring place indeed and it would be overrun by sameness and no surprises. B.O.R.I.N.G.

It’s been almost 5 years exactly since I’ve worked a VCC puzzle, and I forgot how much I admire their quality and their catalog. Great variety of piece shapes made of thick chipboard, a great fit, excellent image reproduction, and a slightly shiny finish that doesn’t bother me too much. I’m sure there will be more Vermont Christmas Co. puzzles on my board before you know it.

While appropriately spooky, the graves and ghosts were harder to put together than you might think. The purple ghosts weren’t much of a problem as their color stuck out, but the rest of them gave me a run for my money!

This is my favorite part of the whole puzzle, I just love how the witch looks against the moon, how the moon looks against the sky, how the sky looks behind the trees…….great image that was entertaining to puzzle – and about as difficult as you think it would be.

Couldn’t help myself. It’s a great puzzle, with a fit so good that it’s proud enough to stand up and tell you itself!

Haunted Mansion In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling4 Comments

Haunted Mansion by David Maclean – Vermont Christmas Co. – 550 pieces

I’m working on this one today, I promise – but didn’t put in even one piece yesterday, spent the whole day in bed sleeping. But today will be better, I just know it!

It’s been quite a while since a Vermont Christmas Co. puzzle has been on my board, and I forgot how much I like their ribbon cut and the way the pieces fit together. Plus, they have so many great holiday puzzles to choose from – not just Christmas. It’s been enjoyable so far and I’m sure it will continue to be.

What is shown here is only one corner of the puzzle, but it looks great doesn’t it?

Happy puzzling today my friends!

A World of Money

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

A World of Money by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 550 pieces

It’s been a while since a White Mountain collage was on my board, and this one was a doozy! It’s much more difficult than it looks, but was very enjoyable. It was so interesting to see some of the world’s money, some of the bills are so beautiful.

Typical White Mountain quality, the fit was good and there are a great variety of piece shapes. This being a thrift store puzzle means it’s been pre-loved, so there were quite a few pieces with image lift on the tabs. Also, the image reproduction leaves a little bit to be desired. Some parts of the image are crisp and clear and some parts seem fuzzy and indistinct. Still, I know all about White Mountain quality going in and put up with the little problems because collages are my puzzle happy place and assembling one that may not be premium quality still makes me smile.

I’m not sure why this particular dollar bill intrigues me, but it does. It’s just boats on the sea, but it draws my eye every time I look at the image. To me it’s just quietly beautiful.

Pink elephants on parade! (Give yourself old person brownie points if you got that Dumbo reference) This bill jumps out at me too, the beautiful blues and that gorgeous pink elephant – love it!

Not being a world traveler, and only really having seen American and Canadian money in real life, that’s where I started – with the American dollars. The pieces were relatively easy to pick out, as were the ones for the golden bucket and the coins. Once those were assembled I just looked over my trays of pieces and started pulling out colors or faces that struck my fancy. It went together slowly over a few days, and even though it took a while it was still very enjoyable to assemble.

The quality wasn’t the best, but it didn’t really matter. It was a thrift store puzzle that only cost a few dollars and was complete – can’t really beat that. If I worked out on the price per hours of entertainment I got more than my money’s worth.

It may not be much to some people, but having an interesting puzzle on the board to keep my hands and mind occupied is worth SO MUCH! Jigsaw puzzles are the best hobby, and having them in my life is worth more to me than a world of money! 💜

Livingroom Rompers

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Livingroom Rompers (Paws Gone Wild) by Giordano – Ceaco – 550 pieces

I love the image, but there really was too much fur and darker areas for my taste. It’s a great “picture”, but the assembly wasn’t as much fun as the doggies look like they’re having. Oh well. 🤷‍♀️

It wasn’t the greatest quality, it had a spongy fit (that’s the best way I can think to describe it) that sometimes made it seem as though you didn’t place the piece correctly. But what else can you expect from a Ceaco? I have them on my naughty list and DO NOT EVER spend any of my precious puzzle budget on this brand; but this was a puzzle sent to me from my friend, so of course I was going to assemble it.

French Bulldogs are my dream dog, look at the adorable face – it’s way too cute! Both of my sons say that our next dog (still not ready for that yet) should be a Corgi but I’ve always wanted a Frenchie. I have a feeling the boys will probably get their way, but that’s ok. All dogs are awesome if you ask me. 😊💗

Perhaps I have a type? This little bulldog with a sweet pink bow is definitely my type, look at that bulldoggy face!

This knocked over coffee cup that says “Love My Doxies” really sets the scene. The puppies everywhere were cute and all, but it’s the mayhem that makes it for me – Puppy Pandemonium!

Retro

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

Retro by Lois B. Sutton – White Mountain – 550 pieces

So much fun! As with most collages this one went together quickly and I enjoyed each and every section. There’s just something about these images (and collages in general) that ticks the box for me; assembling them makes me happy.

This was a pretty good quality White Mountain puzzle, with my only concern being a little bit of a loose fit. The reproduction was the best I’ve seen from this brand for a while, I was impressed.

Ah, 8 track tapes. Boy do I have plenty of memories of these! If you’re a young’un you may not know about these – they were like cassette tapes that you cannot rewind. We had an 8 track player in our vehicle when I was young, and listening to Disney movies or songs on them is a treasured childhood memory for me.

8 tracks also remind me of a toy I received for Christmas one year, a 2XL “robot”. It was basically an 8 track player dressed up like a robot that asked you trivia questions and you answered by choosing which “track” was the correct answer. It was sort of like those make your own stories books, you choose where to go with your answers. I know my explanation doesn’t make much sense, but that was the toy and I remember it fondly.

Here’s another thing you may not know about if you’re younger – the test pattern that would come on television at the end of the broadcast day. Where I lived they used to play the national anthem and then a test pattern like this (or others) would be the only thing you could find on tv. Round-the-clock programming was not a thing; and after the late night shows there was literally nothing on tv.

Hi-yo Silver – away! I cannot think about The Lone Ranger without thinking of my dad and watching this show with him on Sunday mornings. It always seemed so stupid to me that the mask over his eyes made it so that no one recognized him; his voice never changed nor did the bottom half of his face. It was a thrilling show at the time, but my memories are mostly enjoying watching tv with my dad. 💗

About the title – it’s funny to me that “retro” means different things to different people. What’s retro to me is NOT the same for another generation. The 80s may seem retro to some, but to me it’s the time when I was coming of age – not retro.

Retro is relative, you might say.