Humility

On May 6, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles12 Comments

IMG_E4514 — Humility by Richard Welker – Ceaco – 550 pieces

So I have to eat my words, this puzzle is from Ceaco and not only was it really good quality, the image is amazing and was fantastic to assemble.

Ceaco isn’t a favorite brand, but they do have an interesting and varied catalog and very reasonable prices. We usually only buy them from the thrift stores and only when it’s an image that really strikes us. I actually bought this one new! Can you believe it? I loved the image so much and was on the hunt for puzzles with smaller piece counts so I decided to give it a try. The quality was quite good and we loved putting it together. So here I am, chomping on my puzzle snobby words. 🍴

The pieces were thicker than many other Ceaco puzzles I’ve assembled, and the fit was excellent. You can barely see the piece shapes in the image above, and that’s only because of the light color in the bottom corner. When it was photographed and ready to be disassembled we were able to lift the entire puzzle and nothing came apart!

The image is amazing and I’ve already found and purchased another one by the same artist; I’m ready to assemble it with mom when she gets home. Get your little old lady butt home soon momma, we’ve got puzzles to do!

Americana

On May 5, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

I don’t have a lot to say about this puzzle to be honest. It’s not the most exciting image (only my opinion), and wasn’t the most fun to assemble. Sometimes they’re just not your cup of tea, and that’s ok.

I’ve never heard of or seen a Bob’s Your Uncle puzzle before; the quality was good, but nothing overly impressive for me. The pieces were a good thickness and the fit was fair. Photographic puzzles aren’t our usual choice, so the image reproduction is hard to judge – a puzzle that uses an older photo won’t be as crisp and clear as a newer photo taken with more sophisticated equipment. This image seems like an older photograph, so a little fuzziness is to be expected.

They can’t all be exactly what you’re looking for, but no matter – I got to work on this puzzle with mom and that’s the best part. ❤

Loose Change

On March 19, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

This was one of the more challenging puzzles mom and I have done lately. It’s also the first 550 piece White Mountain that I’ve assembled. Looking at it now, I’m completely surprised at myself for suggesting that we do it – it was really difficult!

Luckily the border was relatively easy to assemble, although it took about an hour to assemble it wasn’t that bad. If it hadn’t been for the border we probably wouldn’t have kept going; but we’d already invested some time and didn’t want to lose all that work.

The majority of the coins were pennies, but there were some gold and silver coins mixed in there that helped get things going. First we separated out the bright gold coins, put them together and placed them approximately where they belonged; we did the same with the silver coins. Then we had many places to work off of, it made it a little less daunting with all those pennies!

The quality was really good, sometimes White Mountain quality can be hit or miss but this puzzle was very good. All pieces were separated, with no fuzziness or hanging bits of paper. The pieces were thick and fit together well, although there were a few pieces with some image lift. Overall it was very good quality. I’m looking forward to finding another 550 piece White Mountain puzzle to compare the quality.

I’m proud of us for sticking with it and getting it done, but it’s definitely not an image I would pick for myself. It sure was fun putting in those last few pieces though!

Apple Calendar

On August 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

It was a New Perspectives puzzle that got us started back up puzzling a couple of years ago. Thanksgiving Day my boys were sitting on the front porch of my parent’s house waiting for dinner to be ready and they both started helping us assemble a puzzle. This was a minor miracle in itself because they are both autistic and don’t have much to do with each other, so having them work together on something was amazing! We all had a great time assembling that puzzle together and from that point on mom and I have been back into puzzles, and we’re still going strong. 🙂

This was a quick assembly with mom and I working together, we managed to get 3 puzzles assembled in one day!

Ceaco isn’t a favorite brand, the pieces are too thin for my liking and sometimes the fit is odd. But they do have an excellent catalog and very reasonable prices. If you’re not a collector and just someone who likes to put together puzzles that don’t always have to be premium quality then Ceaco could be a good way to go.

If the image is something we really love, we sometimes purchase a Ceaco at the thrift stores. We do not, however, purchase them new. That’s just how we roll, but if Ceaco is a brand you like, you should definitely go for it – they really do have some excellent images! 😎

Chocolate Memorabilia

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

This puzzle was as nice to assemble as chocolate is to eat! Great thrift store find from the Great American Puzzle Factory, all pieces present and accounted for. 🙂

Another new-to-us company and we were impressed! The pieces are on the thin side, but are sturdy and feel good in your hand. The fit was very nice with random cut pieces, and the image reproduction was good with a shiny finish that can cause glare. Very nice puzzle that has found a new home with us. Hopefully we find more puzzles from this company at the thrift stores so we can compare the quality and see if it holds up.

Mom and I started the puzzle together and got about 50-60% done before I had to go home. We worked primarily on the words, there are so many! By the time all the words were complete the puzzle itself was about 50% complete. She finished it on her own the same evening, it was too much fun to leave it alone! I love puzzles like that. ❤

I enjoy trying out new companies, and seeing all the cool puzzles mom finds at the thrift stores. Perhaps there will come a day when we stop finding new companies to try out, but with so many countries in the world and so many manufacturers, I doubt it! 😁