Ethel The Gourmet

On December 26, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I enjoy Charles Wysocki’s puzzles and this one was no different. He has such a great sense of humor with the cat puzzles! I enjoy his Americana puzzles as well, there’s something about the symmetry and lines and colors that is just calming and beautiful.

The Buffalo puzzles fit together really well, and I always enjoy their special zig zag pieces. It’s nice to have interesting piece shapes every now and then. Buffalo as usually comes with a poster, which is quite nice when there are two people working – one can use the box and the other gets the poster.

I’m not sure why but hubby helped with almost all of this puzzle, he really seemed to enjoy it. Odd, because he is definitely NOT a cat person and he usually only helps near the end of puzzles. But he and I enjoyed working on this one, and it was a pleasure to put together!

Bold Spirit

On December 13, 2016January 30, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is one of the Vivid Collection puzzles by Buffalo. I don’t normally do 300 piece puzzles, but it was nice to start and finish a puzzle in such a short period of time!

This one was quite fun to do. It wasn’t a puzzle that you could look at a piece and see where it fit into the picture. This was just color matching for the most part. Of course that’s basically what you do with every puzzle anyway. The colors were bright and the finished image is really striking. It didn’t take much time at all with both my mother and I working on it.

Mom always finds the coolest puzzles at the thrift stores, and sometimes buys ones that we might not usually purchase – because they’re around 99 cents or so. It’s nice to work a puzzle that you aren’t sure whether you’ll enjoy it or not and then be pleasantly surprised. If I saw this puzzle in a catalog or online it wouldn’t be one that would catch my eye; or if it did, I doubt I would have purchased it. But to my surprise I enjoyed putting this one together very much!

Songbird Garden

On November 20, 2016June 7, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles3 Comments

Started and finished this puzzle today. I love the colors, and it’s been a while since I’ve done a 500 piece puzzle. It seemed unbelievably easy compared to the puzzle I’m currently working on 😉

I enjoy Buffalo Games puzzles, the fit is always very good, and there’s no guesswork as to whether a piece fits or not. They also have the unique zig zag shape that I haven’t seen in any other puzzles. It was very nice to be able to pull a bunch of pieces for a small section and be able to finish it quickly without having to look at the box or picture for assistance.

I apologize for the picture, the photo editor on my computer got upgraded, and the crop feature isn’t working properly (or more likely I don’t know how to work it properly) I wanted to crop and straighten it, but it keeps cutting off the top of the puzzle. Grrrr!

Very nice puzzle, with lovely artwork. I haven’t come across this artist before, and I enjoyed the image and colors. Fun, easy puzzle – it’s nice to do something quick and easy for a change. I’ve been kinda snobby about 500 piece puzzles, I prefer 1000 or more pieces. But I’ve changed my tune. It’s nice to work on a smaller puzzle that you can just enjoy and put together leisurely. I’ve already started my next 500 piece puzzle, a shaped Wizard of Oz puzzle. Hope to have a completed picture for it soon!

The Talking Jigsaw Puzzle

On October 13, 2016May 19, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles14 Comments

I’ve finally completed The Office Building! I’ve been ignoring it since my progress on the big kahuna was going so well, but I finally put this one to bed! They’re really quite fun, it’s too bad they’ve been out of print for so long. We were very lucky to find both this one and The Fitness Center at thrift stores. I’ve purposely taken a not so great picture so that if someone does have this puzzle I’m not giving away the solution.

Each window or section is four pieces, you assemble each section and once they are all assembled you have to figure out where they belong in the puzzle by clues – what the people are saying, room numbers in the background, where each person is looking or pointing, etc. Here’s a close up of a few sections to show how the clues help you with positioning.

Be careful, each window actually fits next to every other window!

You can check to be sure you’re placing each window in the correct place by checking the back of the pieces. On the back of the puzzle is the word “congratulations” in many different fonts, you can see immediately if you’ve placed a section in the right place. I enjoyed this puzzle very much, the extra challenge of having no picture to use as a guide and putting together each little section. I hope we are able to eventually find some more of the talking jigsaws at thrift stores, it’s a enjoyable challenge!