Review: Sugar & Spice

On February 23, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Sugar & Spice by Charles Wysocki – Buffalo – 300 pieces

I’ve done several Charles Wysocki puzzles lately with single buildings, and I very much enjoy them. They’ve mostly been Buffalo puzzles, and I honestly prefer the 300 piece count in this brand.

For me, I have to be in the right frame of mind to do a larger Buffalo puzzle, it’s something about the size of the pieces, but I’m honestly not exactly sure what it is. I open a 1000 piece Buffalo puzzle that I love the image of and look at the pieces, and most of the time I put the lid back on and say “not today”. I prefer the 300 and 500 piece counts because they’re not as overwhelming to me. Of course lately I’ve been preferring those piece counts because of physical limitations on the amount of time I’m able to puzzle; it’s not a reflection on Buffalo quality, which is quite good.

This puzzle was great fun, and the assembly was relatively quick. The Wysocki puzzles with only one building are a little more unique and therefore more enjoyable for me to do. I love the look of his artwork, but his regular folk/Americana puzzles all start to look the same to me and aren’t as interesting for me to assemble. This one was great with plenty of interesting parts to find and put together and a lovely finished image.

What makes a great puzzle image is so subjective, everyone enjoys something different. That’s what’s so great about puzzling! There are so many companies and so many artists that you’re bound to find something that jumps out at you and begs to be assembled. For me this was a great image with wonderful quality and I definitely recommend it!

Details:

Title: Sugar & Spice
Artist: Charles Wysocki
Brand: Buffalo Games
Piece count: 300 pieces
Size: Approx. 21 x 15 in. (54 x 38 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Very good
Box: Average
Fit: Very good
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Cardinals and Birch

On January 14, 2018January 14, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Mom and I assembled this puzzle together just before Christmas. It was relatively quick and fun, and an excellent quality puzzle. It makes me smile when I look at it, because Mrs. Cardinal up there looks a little cranky to me! I wonder if hubby did something to tick her off. 🙂

I enjoy the Buffalo puzzles, especially the 300 piece ones. The size of the pieces is nice, makes for a good size finished puzzle and they fit together extremely well. They’re thick and sturdy and the image reproduction is really lovely. The tree bark made this puzzle a little bit of a challenge, but it’s nothing for me and my puzzle buddy – we made short work of it. We enjoy the challenge as long as it’s not too frustrating, and work together really well.

Cardinals seem to be a very popular subject for jigsaw puzzles, a quick search at Puzzle Warehouse brings up 43 puzzles with cardinals, and an additional 31 cardinal puzzles that are out of stock at the moment. Holy Songbird Batman! That’s a lot of cardinals! 🐦

They’re a beautiful bird, and it’s fitting that they’re in so many puzzles. If you’re a fan of cardinals and you come across this puzzle I highly recommend it – we had a great time assembling it.

Trick or Treat Hotel

On October 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

I absolutely loved this puzzle from beginning to end. I love Halloween, and mom finding this puzzle at the thrift store just a few days before the holiday was excellent!

This image was not as difficult as I assumed it would be, and it turned out to be one of my favorite Buffalo puzzles I’ve ever done. Wonderful image by Charles Wysocki with so many creatures and critters to find! The fit was perfection, not too loose or too tight and the end result is almost seamless.

I found that as I assembled more and more pieces I was slowing myself down to make the puzzle last a little while longer. It was coming together too quickly! It was too much fun to speed through, so I had to take it easy and enjoy the journey.

This is one puzzle I’m not going to want to donate, it’ll be fun to assemble next year when Halloween comes around again. I highly recommend this puzzle, two thumbs and two pumpkins up! 👍🎃👍🎃

Songbird Menagerie

On October 29, 2017October 29, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another quick 300 piece puzzle mom and I did when I was visiting. We work together pretty well, and there’s lots of great conversation, teasing, laughing, and high fives – it’s the best!🤗

This puzzle was fun, quick, beautiful, and wonderful quality to boot! The fit was excellent, the image is lovely and calm and the pieces felt thick and sturdy. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for the larger piece count Buffalo puzzles (1000 and 2000), although I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because all the pieces are squarish and they all look so similar, or maybe it’s because I can be unreasonably picky. Who can tell? I find that I don’t feel the same way about the 300 and 500 piece counts of Buffalo puzzles. My brain is so weird sometimes!

This is a great puzzle to work on with someone else, I know I loved working on it with my puzzle buddy. 😎

What TV Show Is That?

On October 14, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles3 Comments

This puzzle was even more fun than What Word is That? that mom and I did earlier this year. We knew almost all of the answers about tv shows; oh dear, what does that say about our intelligence? 🙂

Not only did we know most of the tv show answers, the background of the puzzle itself was also a little bit easier to see and use for help in placing each question and answer. It works almost like the Talking Jigsaw puzzles in that you can put together each question and answer, and then use the background to place them in their correct position in the puzzle. Buffalo Games makes both series, which is nice because the quality for both is very good.

We really had a good time with this puzzle, I would still love to find the rest of them. There is What Movie is That? and Who Said That? and more. Here’s hoping they’re coming to a thrift store near us!

I think the show on the tv set is Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, but it’s a bit before my time – mom wasn’t sure either. We also weren’t sure about the Gunsmoke answer, but apparently Burt Reynolds was in 50 episodes of the show! (He played Quint, for those of you old enough to have watched it)