Shells of the South Atlantic Coast

On July 12, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another interesting thrift store find, and a very nice puzzle! There’s something unusual and fun about this image, for me at least, and I wanted to do it right away when I saw it!

Another new company for me to try, Heritage Puzzles. They specialize in coastal and nature puzzles, it’s a very interesting catalog! The pieces of this puzzle were very nice and I was impressed with their overall quality. I’d love to do more of their puzzles, here’s hoping we find more at the thrift stores. 🙂

The pieces were thick and sturdy and feel good in your hand, there were a nice variety of piece shapes, and they fit together quite well. The finish was matte and didn’t cause glare, and the image reproduction was sharp and detailed. All in all, an excellent quality puzzle.

If you read this blog regularly you know I love having words to assemble, I have no explanation for why this is; all I know is I love it when there are a bunch of words to put together, and I almost always start with them. There were PLENTY of words here and that’s part of the reason this puzzle was so much fun for me, plus I got to learn the names of many, many shells. King Helmet, Finger Sponge, Leafy Jewelbox, Minor Jackknife and lots more. The most challenging part of this puzzle was the edge, almost every piece was entirely white. 😮

Great puzzle that I enjoyed very much, if you find a Heritage Puzzle with an image you like I definitely recommend giving it a try!

Super Mario Bros. Wii

On July 5, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Here’s an adorable puzzle for all the video game lovers out there. Mom and I had a great time assembling it with the help of my oldest son (who LOVES video games). Another new puzzle company to try too, which I always love. Who knew there were so many different companies out there producing jigsaw puzzles? I sure didn’t!

So, USAopoly, not bad! The pieces were thinner than premium puzzles but extremely sturdy, they fit together well and there was a nice variety of piece shapes. The image reproduction was very good with bright colors and no fuzziness, and there was no image lift on any of the pieces. Pretty darn good all the way around if you ask me.

We worked this puzzle from the bottom up, which is not how we usually do it but the layers of the image just made it so easy. It was a quick assembly with 3 people working on it, and we all enjoyed ourselves very much. My son, who doesn’t usually get involved with my puzzling just had to sit down and work on this one – he just can’t walk past Super Mario Bros. and not stop and see what’s going on. 🙂 When we were finished he wanted to take the puzzle to do again at home and have me glue when he’s assembled it all by himself.

This puzzle reminded my mother and me of playing Super Mario Bros. when I was pregnant with my daughter (over a quarter of a century ago 😮 ). Mom and I would sit and play it together a lot. When my daughter was born and very colicky, she was soothed by the music of the game. She heard it so often when she was in my belly that it was familiar and calming for her! I no longer had much time to sit and play Super Mario Bros., but I could turn the game on and let the background music play to keep her relaxed. This puzzle reminded me of that time so long ago.

All in all an excellent thrift store purchase and a good quality, entertaining puzzle – for 3 generations of my family!

Love To Sew

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

Another missing piece puzzle, but it was still fun to do! I was hoping all the pieces would be in this one because mom likes and collects buttons. I was wanting to glue and frame this one for her, but I guess I’ll just have to wait till we find another one that’s worthy.

I was surprised at the pieces of this puzzle, my previous experiences with Andrews + Blaine puzzles was that all the pieces were ballerinas, which doesn’t always make for the most fun assembly. But the previous puzzles worked were 1000 pieces and this one was 550. There were a very nice variety of piece shapes in this 550 piece, and they were slightly oversized which made for a nice large finished puzzle. They fit together quite well and the piece shape isn’t overly obvious in the finished image. The image reproduction seemed a bit fuzzy on this one, not as crisp and clean as I’ve seen with other A + B puzzles. Perhaps it was in the photograph itself, but it did seem a bit blurred in places.

I did this one over several days as I was having a tough time with sitting and standing, and it took me much longer than a 550 piece would normally take – partly because it was a bit challenging and partly because I wasn’t able to work on it as much as I would have liked. Then my daughter came to visit one day near the end and finished it up while I was on a phone call. I turned around and it was done!

This was a fun assembly that was about moderate difficulty and it looks great finished except for that darned missing piece. I enjoy the Andrews + Blaine puzzles, but for me with this brand the image is everything – especially when there is a 1000 piece puzzle and all the pieces are the same shape. You’ve got to have an image that doesn’t have a lot of sameness, with plenty of color changes/shades and textures to help find pieces. 😉

Halloween Town

On April 7, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

My first puzzle from Vermont Christmas Company – thumbs up! I bought this for Christmas last year because I needed to buy enough puzzles to get free shipping on the Christmas present I bought for mom. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 😎

I like the quality of this company very much. The pieces are thick, and the cut is super interesting! I’m not sure you can call it a grid cut, but it isn’t completely random either. Whatever it’s called, I like it! The fit is quite nice and the pieces lie flat; the image quality is bright and colorful and I enjoyed the whole puzzle from start to finish. The coating on the pieces is somewhat shiny and can cause glare on the darker pieces when working under lights, but I don’t consider that too much of a problem at all.

I’m not sure why I decided that spring is the time to assemble this puzzle, but there ya go. I just follow my weird mind and do whatever puzzle I’m feeling at the moment. Halloween is my favorite holiday so this puzzle makes me happy no matter what time of year it is! It’s cute without being overly childish and all the spooky favorites are there – kids trick or treating, ghosts, pumpkins, spider and bats, etc. This was a great puzzle and I’m looking forward to working more!

Beer Caps

On March 17, 2017May 19, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Mom and I finished this in an afternoon while visiting. She didn’t think she was going to like it, but once we got going she was enjoying it. After a while we were doing the same stuff we always do when we’re working on a puzzle together and cracking each other up. Fun puzzle (although neither of us are beer drinkers) – and perfect for St. Patrick’s Day! 🙂

This was the first 550 piece White Mountain puzzle I’ve done, and I was surprised that the pieces were random cut instead of grid cut. I don’t have anything to compare it to so I’m not sure if that is usual for the smaller piece count puzzles or not. It made the puzzle a little more of a challenge, but it was still very entertaining.

My only problem with this puzzle was that the image on the box wasn’t correct. It was just a small deviation, but one that confused us at first. The second beer cap in the bottom row is red in the actual puzzle, but black on the box. It was baffling for a minute before we figured out what was wrong.

Otherwise the quality of the puzzle was quite good, I’ve never had a problem with a White Mountain product. This one was no exception, and was great fun – White Mountain has the best collage puzzles!