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

Catchin’ Bugs

On February 2, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

I tried a 1000 piece puzzle just before this one. It was on my board for the entire week, I barely made any progress at all, and ended up putting it back in the box. I said out loud “This isn’t fun for me at all”, but to be honest I think I was more upset that I couldn’t work on it much. Normally it takes me 2 or 3 days to complete a 1000 piece puzzle, and I’ve been known to do an entire one in just one day if I’m really enjoying it. It’s a little depressing for me at the moment to have been working on one for more than 5 days and barely have more than 200 pieces of it together. So I decided to go back to the smaller ones and hope to try again on a 500 or 1000 piece soon.

Hubby helped me work on this one. We spent most of the day in bed and he helped me finish this; it was nice to work on a puzzle with him again, it’s been a while since he’s had the time. 💕

I really had a good time with this puzzle. I enjoy the Wysocki’s that are a little bit different; especially ones that have only one building. I find them a little more interesting and entertaining; sometimes the “regular” ones all seem to blend together and look the same. Just my opinion of course.

The color palette here is a little muted, but it still made for a pretty picture and an enjoyable assembly. The quality of the puzzle was very good as well, with thick pieces and interesting shapes – really nice all around puzzle. This is one of the batch we got from a friend, and she does her puzzles many, many times before she gets rid of them. The masking tape with dates on the box tells me she and her husband assembled this puzzle at least once every year since 2010; and there was not one piece with image lift or any damage at all! This is an exceptionally well made puzzle, and if you come across one I would definitely recommend giving it a go. 🙂

The Seabuglers

On January 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was the first puzzle I did when I got home from “vacation”. There was a partially assembled 500 piece puzzle that had been on my board the whole time, but I wasn’t feeling as though I could sit at the board for any length of time and work on it. So I got out my white board and grabbed the easiest looking 300 piece puzzle I could find, here it is!

For some reason in my head it seems that a puzzle by Hasbro wouldn’t be good quality. They’re the company that made games when I was young (many, many moons ago) and I don’t remember them being overly sturdy or well-made. Luckily, all that nonsense is just in my head because the Hasbro puzzles I’ve done have all been exceptionally well made; they’re sturdy, wonderfully thick, and fit together amazingly well. I’ve only ever done 300 piece Hasbro puzzles so I have no frame of reference for any other piece count, but the their EZ Grip puzzles are wonderful!

As I’ve said before, I very much enjoy the Wysocki puzzles that aren’t the norm, like this one. Most of his puzzles are lovely Americana/folk art images of towns with many buildings; while they are all beautiful images, for me they can seem too similar. I’m a bit of a rebel and enjoy things that are different from the usual, so my favorite Wysockis are the ones that really stand out. Although this image itself isn’t really odd, it’s different from most of his other works which makes it more special to me.

Although it took longer than usual for me to assemble this puzzle, I was pretty darn proud when I got it finished. It was mostly assembled while I was in bed, but I was able to take it in the puzzle room and put the white board on my puzzle table and work on it there for little bits of time. I guess I have to get my butt back into puzzling shape! 😉

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! 👍🎃👍🎃

Root Beer Break at the Butterfield’s

On June 19, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles1 Comment

This isn’t the typical Wysocki artwork in that there is only one building, but it’s still beautiful and has his wonderfully straight and symmetrical style in the beach house itself.

This was one of the few 300 piece Buffalo puzzles that I’ve assembled, and I love them. They fit together so nicely and the pieces are large enough for younger hands to work with or older eyes to see better. They are extremely sturdy as well, and there are a nice variety of piece shapes. They do not contain any zig zag pieces that a 1000 or 2000 piece Buffalo puzzle usually has, but still a good variety. Buffalo also includes a poster with all their puzzles which is nice, especially when working on the puzzle with more than one person so you don’t have to share the box for reference.

This puzzle was a lovely afternoon distraction for me when I was having a stressful day and needed a break from the world. I was able to sit for a bit and concentrate only on which piece went next. I wasn’t able to sit long enough to complete the entire puzzle at once, but it was completed in one day. 🙂

There are so many reasons that puzzling is an excellent activity – good for hand/eye coordination, memory, stress relief, spatial awareness, pattern recognition, fun, and too many more reasons to name. Buffalo has so many wonderful Wysocki images to choose from and many others as well, there’s something for everyone. The quality is excellent and the images are lovely – there’s no reason not to pick one up!