A World of Money

On January 12, 2024January 3, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

A World of Money by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 550 pieces

It’s been a while since a White Mountain collage was on my board, and this one was a doozy! It’s much more difficult than it looks, but was very enjoyable. It was so interesting to see some of the world’s money, some of the bills are so beautiful.

Typical White Mountain quality, the fit was good and there are a great variety of piece shapes. This being a thrift store puzzle means it’s been pre-loved, so there were quite a few pieces with image lift on the tabs. Also, the image reproduction leaves a little bit to be desired. Some parts of the image are crisp and clear and some parts seem fuzzy and indistinct. Still, I know all about White Mountain quality going in and put up with the little problems because collages are my puzzle happy place and assembling one that may not be premium quality still makes me smile.

I’m not sure why this particular dollar bill intrigues me, but it does. It’s just boats on the sea, but it draws my eye every time I look at the image. To me it’s just quietly beautiful.

Pink elephants on parade! (Give yourself old person brownie points if you got that Dumbo reference) This bill jumps out at me too, the beautiful blues and that gorgeous pink elephant – love it!

Not being a world traveler, and only really having seen American and Canadian money in real life, that’s where I started – with the American dollars. The pieces were relatively easy to pick out, as were the ones for the golden bucket and the coins. Once those were assembled I just looked over my trays of pieces and started pulling out colors or faces that struck my fancy. It went together slowly over a few days, and even though it took a while it was still very enjoyable to assemble.

The quality wasn’t the best, but it didn’t really matter. It was a thrift store puzzle that only cost a few dollars and was complete – can’t really beat that. If I worked out on the price per hours of entertainment I got more than my money’s worth.

It may not be much to some people, but having an interesting puzzle on the board to keep my hands and mind occupied is worth SO MUCH! Jigsaw puzzles are the best hobby, and having them in my life is worth more to me than a world of money! 💜

Ice Cream Bars

On July 11, 2023July 10, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Ice Cream Bars by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

Here’s another puzzle that I was very much looking forward to, but it had very disappointing quality. It’s been a while since I’ve done a White Mountain puzzle, and they can be hit or miss – this one was a miss, unfortunately. I wanted to enjoy this, and I did – just not as much as I’d hoped. Oh well.

The image reproduction on this was was quite blurry in some places, and there were quite a few pieces not cut all the way through. The fit was good, not as tight as some WM puzzles can be, but good. The chipboard was a good thickness, and the finish was a bit shiny, but not too much so; it was mainly the reproduction that caused me so much trouble.

So let’s look at some of these ice cream bars and wrappers up close…

Apparently sex sells, even ice cream bars.

I wanted to show the difference in clarity – the Dairy Queen cup is quite clear and the surrounding wrappers were quite muddled and blurry up close – I’m not sure I was able to capture it in the picture though. Perhaps the artist used actual vintage wrappers or pictures of them and they’re just what they looked like. I can’t be sure, but it was frustrating to have some of the image be so blurry in places.

Six Klondike bars for $1.49? Wow. Just wow. And you can also see in this picture that the words are quite clear and the image of the boy and the ice cream bars is fuzzy and indistinct.

The overall quality of this puzzle was quite a letdown; I was hoping for an entertaining collage with good quality that I could just relax and enjoy – this puzzle wasn’t it. ☹

Hot Cocoa

On March 20, 2022March 20, 2022 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Hot Cocoa by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

This super quick and entertaining puzzle was part of a swap with my fellow puzzle junkie Penny. To be honest I wasn’t certain I’d enjoy it, but was quite glad to be wrong about how delightful it would be.

It was a very good quality White Mountain puzzle, perhaps the best fitting of this brand that I’ve ever done – and I’ve done a lot. It wasn’t the too tight fit that leaves your thumb feeling sore from pushing pieces together with lots of pressure; and it wasn’t too loose where two pieces fall apart when you pick them up to move them. I was happy with the all-around quality, which isn’t something you normally hear me say about this brand.

I’ve chosen three sections to show close up, they’re all much older advertisements. It’s funny how something is perceived when it’s new to the market; we would never characterize hot cocoa in these ways now.

The greatest invention of the age. That’s pretty dang funny to me, as is the name. Instantaneous Chocolate – not very appetizing is it?

Breakfast cocoa sounds pretty good to me! Of course you could say that all the froofy coffee drinks people consume these days might be more chocolate than coffee so I suppose it isn’t that big of a leap. As for myself, I’m a simple gal. I enjoy a cup of coffee-flavored coffee, or a cup of hot chocolate – “never shall the twain meet.”

This is the one that really caught me by surprise. “Drink hot chocolate before…during…and after the game!” I’m not sure professional basketball players would agree that it’s a good idea. Could you imagine a basketball player sitting on the bench with a cup of cocoa before he or she gets back into the game? 🤣

Saturday Morning Cartoons

On December 28, 2021December 28, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles13 Comments

Saturday Morning Cartoons by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

I made sure to take my time with this puzzle – because frankly – I’ve been puzzling so much that I have way too many puzzles in the queue at the moment. By the time you’re reading this post it will most likely be a month or more since it was actually completed! It could have been finished two days earlier than it was, but I made myself stop working on it.

It’s also meant that I’ve been having to type up the post immediately when I finish a puzzle. Otherwise, my old lady brain doesn’t remember much when it comes up in the rotation. A month and 30 puzzles ago is too long ago for me to recall specifics about the assembly. That’s why I’m trying to slow down a bit and stop adding a new puzzle to the queue every day or every other day.

On to this specific puzzle!

My husband picked this out for me the first time I went puzzle shopping after my year-long absence. He seemed very excited about the image and thought I should buy it, he’s so sweet. Many of these cartoons we both watched as kids, and since he was so excited about finding it for me, of course we had to get it.

The quality of this one was only fair. The most important reason was a very loose fit – very odd for a White Mountain puzzle in my opinion. I’ve done many of their puzzles, and the fit is usually either quite tight or just about right. This one though was extremely loose – even picking up two connected pieces could be a problem. The image reproduction was slightly fuzzy in some places. Which is not uncommon for a WM collage in my experience, but I normally expect issues like that from this brand so it wasn’t much of a problem for me.

So many memories! Up at the top on the left is Atom Ant, and I remember the character but don’t have any memories of watching the actual show. At first I thought the name was Adam Ant, but then said to myself that I was getting him confused with the 80s rocker. Hubby and I had to look him up to be sure of the name – getting old ain’t for sissies, memories really do start to go.

Next to Mr. Ant is Quick Draw McGraw, and I actually do remember watching his show. I remember that his voice sounded very much like Yogi Bear to me, and came to learn later that both characters were voiced by the same man – no wonder they sounded alike. I enjoyed Quick Draw because he was always so polite, and for some reason that made an impression on me.

Like Atom Ant, I remember the character on the right – Magilla Gorilla – but don’t have any specific memories of the show. He was fun to assemble though, that’s why he’s here. A big orange rectangle doesn’t seem as though it would be very entertaining, but it actually was. 😉

Scooby Doo was definitely a favorite for me as a child, and I remember many episodes of the shows. My kids liked it too, and used to watch the reruns. Those meddlin’ kids and the grumpy old man that was usually the “ghost” trying to scare people – I remember them very clearly.

And the name Fractured Fairy Tales is something my brain remembers, but unfortunately I have no specifics. I know that most likely I watched the show, but it’s the name I remember – the character isn’t familiar nor is the image shown above. It was easy to pick out the pieces though, and easy to assemble too.

Quality problems aside, this was a fun puzzle to assemble, and even though it took longer than normal I had a great time. It brought back many memories – even if some of them were as fuzzy as the image reproduction.

Just Add Water

On November 21, 2021November 21, 2021 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

Just Add Water by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

I was pretty disappointed in the quality of this puzzle, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t also satisfying to assemble. There was fuzzy image reproduction, the fit was too tight, so much puzzle dust and lots of hanging chads. The thing is….I knew that was a possibility when this puzzle was purchased.

White Mountain puzzles, for me, aren’t a premium quality puzzle. There have been issues with fit, image reproduction, and delamination. BUT – as far as My Jigsaw Journal is concerned – they have one of the best catalogs of collages around. Collages make me extremely happy, so I put up with the less than outstanding quality. It’s just how it is. For me. You may not think it’s worth it, and that’s fine too.

When the bag was opened, I thought at first that there wasn’t much puzzle dust, but I was wrong. Much of it was still attached (barely) to the pieces, moving them around to sort brought about the dust storm. There were long thin pieces of backing, small bits, and plenty of it stayed on the pieces creating what I call hanging chads. Disappointing.

Within a few moments of starting to assemble the edge the tightness of the fit showed up – 10 pieces put together and the straight edge was curling up because of it. I expected the fuzzy image, so that wasn’t a surprise. Even with all these problems, because it was a collage with an image that was pleasing I still enjoyed myself and finished this puzzle pretty quickly.

So, who’s ready to reminisce/talk about drink mixes?

Ok, never heard of this one. And for the record…..EW! You probably can’t read it because the wording in the image is fuzzy, but it says “fortified corn starch beverage mix”. I’m gagging a little bit. Ick.

Any root beer drinkers out there? I don’t care for it myself, but if I did, one has to wonder how it would taste being made from a mix. It’s a “soft drink” right? It would be like getting a package of powder and adding water to make Pepsi or Coke with no carbonation. I acknowledge that as far as fussy eaters go, I’m one of the best – but this sounds horrible to me. Thoughts from anyone who enjoys root beer?

This one brings back memories. We mostly had kool-aid or flavor-aid on those occasions when we were allowed to drink sweet stuff; but when there was a really good sale (and mom could add a coupon) every once in a while – we got to have Country Time lemonade. My sisters and I loved it, probably because it was rare that we were allowed to have it. And what is it about pink lemonade that makes it so much cooler than regular lemonade? Whatever it is, we loved this. Though if I had it now, it would probably seem awful and way too sweet.