I Love the 1980’s

I Love the 1980s
I Love the 1980s by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

It’s so sad that this puzzle wasn’t any fun. I mean, just look at it, a jumble of different images, no cottages or kittens, no landscape, no brush strokes, it didn’t have 200 sky-colored pieces – what a colossal disappointment…. NOT!

OF COURSE I LOVED THIS PUZZLE! It’s everything a growing girl needs; a collage with bright colors, interesting images, a fun theme, it’s all there. 🙂

This puzzle had been assembled by several people before it got to me, but was still in great shape. White Mountain puzzles can sometimes be hit or miss, but this one was very good quality. And they have some of the very best collages around, so even if they quality disappoints a little with one puzzle, I’m always willing to take the chance with another. I’m a collage junkie.

I’ve been reminiscing about the 80s quite a bit lately, and if you’re sick of hearing about it you should move on with your daily routine and stop reading this immediately, because there’s going to be a lot more reminiscing here today. This puzzle is titled I Love the 1980’s, and I did. I still do. It’s more fun for me to think about the 80s right now then spend too much time worrying about this bleeped-up world we’re living in today. JMHO of course.

I remember every single thing shown in this collage. I haven’t seen every television show or movie, didn’t own every one of the toys, or listen to all of the music – but I remember each one. The Police, for example – not my cuppa, as we say. I was a cheerleader (insert laughter and groans here) and there were some older “mean girls” on the squad who tried and very often succeeded in making my life miserable. They LOVED The Police; always listening to them and talking about them during practices and bus rides. So my teenage brain decided that if those b*tches thought they were great, that this band definitely wasn’t worth my time. Therefore – (sorry Sting) – I never purchased or listened to any of their music. I didn’t buy the album shown here, but I definitely remember it.

I remember all of it, but have chosen just three sections to show and talk about. Otherwise I’ll sit here all day with my 80s mall hair and neon pink and green earrings like, totally going on and on. Barf me out! Gag me with a spoon!

I Love the 1980s 1

I loved Cyndi Lauper – still do. People who express themselves in their own way despite what others think of them are awesome in my book, and Cyndi is one of those people. Her music was upbeat and fun, sometimes thoughtful and haunting and beautiful, love it! Plus, I kinda had that hairdo for a while. LOL It wasn’t bright red, or quite that long, but it WAS shaved close on one side and a little wild. 😉

I Love the 1980s 2

Pop rocks are just plain fun in my book, even now as a gray-haired old lady. I never believed the whole “if you eat pop rocks and drink Coke you’ll explode” crap, but it was hilarious to listen to, that’s for sure. My mom loved Pop Rocks too, and I remember being very selective about what candy I would buy with my allowance – Pop Rocks usually made the cut and I always shared them with mom.

I Love the 1980s 3

I chose this section of the puzzle because even though I’ve never seen an episode of this show, it was HUGE in the 80s and the cliffhanger at the end of that one season was the topic of conversation for the entire summer. Seeing this makes me miss the cliffhangers at the season’s end of a show. Did they die? Is that character killed off? Who did that? You don’t really see that much these days. There are too many shows and no real seasons anymore.

Forty years ago at the end of the season, a gloved hand was shown shooting J.R. Ewing, the show’s main character and villain; fade to black. Who shot him? Will he live? What’s going to happen? Because at the time there were pretty much only three networks on tv, everyone knew about it and it was the topic of conversation the whole summer. It was a huge deal. HUGE. Seriously, it was in the paper, serious news shows talked about, it was on the cover of Time magazine for goodness sake!

Can you think of a show on now that would garner the same sort of attention? I can’t. Our viewing options number in the hundreds, perhaps thousands every day. Too many shows, no real seasons anymore, too much going on. I remember being thrilled to watch the last episode of the season for my shows, because most of the time there was a cliffhanger – so exciting! And then we had to wait all summer until the new season started again to find out what happened. I miss that shared experience and excitement.


I could talk about, at length, pretty much everything shown on this collage. However, that would make for a ridiculously long post and you would all get bored eventually. Feel free to discuss or ask me anything in the comments if you’d like, perhaps we can continue our 80s discussions there. 😉

I Love the 80s…Finally in Progress

80s IP
I Love the 80s by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

FINALLY! It took me until just this morning to, at last, get going on this puzzle. As of nine o’clock this morning the Selfies puzzles were still on the board, un-photographed.

It was NOT a good weekend.

But, I got them photographed and got the 80s puzzle sorted and started. All the progress you see here was done this morning. I had to get myself back to the board no matter what, I was going crazy without my puzzles to help me with my depression, pain, stress and anxiety.

15,300 cases of Covid in my state yesterday. Just my state. Not a whole country. Just. My. State. What the hell is going on? BLEEPING BLEEP! With all this going on I should be puzzling 16 hours a day to keep myself calm. *insert a giant sigh here*


Anyway, I’m back at the board. I’ve written today’s post and tomorrow’s too. Hopefully by Wednesday I will be feeling a little better. Even the teensiest bit better would be a relief. Thank God for puzzles! 💗🧩💗

I Love the 80’s..Almost in Progress

I Love the 80’s by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

It’s almost in progress because although I know it’s next, I still haven’t photographed the Selfies puzzles that I finished last night. But my son chose this next puzzle; and though I’m a little intimidated by it, I’m still looking forward to it.

So I’m gonna scrunch my socks down over top of my pegged pants, throw some pop rocks in my mouth, turn on some Cyndi Lauper, and, like totally get into this bitchin’, tubular puzzle!

Game Pieces

Game Pieces
Game Pieces by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

My last puzzle completed in January was a thrift store find that was lots of fun and went very quickly; I started at 4 am and finished just after noon (that includes some running errands too). I’m no puzzle dynamo though, collages go together much more quickly than a single image, and when an image draws me in like this one did I find it terribly difficult to stop. It’s an affliction!

It’s easier puzzling in the wee hours of the morning; there are no distractions and no interruptions – just a peaceful, quiet house and the only thing I have to think about is does this blue look the same as the blue I’m trying to match? And do I need a piece with 3 tabs or 4?

Better than typical White Mountain quality made it very nice to work with; the pieces fit together extremely well and the fantastic collage image was completely engrossing. There was no image lift at all which is surprising for a secondhand puzzle, and the image reproduction was bright and colorful with no fuzzy or blurry areas. Very good quality all around!

Anybody know what game that butterfly card is for? I don’t ever remember seeing it before. How about the Pig card, anyone know what game that is from? There were a lot of games I didn’t know, ever heard of Flinch? If you have heard of or played any of these games, please let me know. I could probably look these things up online, but to be honest I’d rather have a conversation in the comments with a fellow member of the PADS posse. 😉

Game Pieces 2

Oh my! Did I love the dice bubble from the Trouble game when I was young! I would sit and just pop it/roll the die over and over – it just felt really cool! (Can you tell I am from the pre-internet generation? LOL) Just looking at it makes me smile. Was it just me, or did anyone else love to play with it too?

Even though there was a missing piece I wasn’t disappointed at all, it was still tons of fun. It was just what I needed after a puzzle that was pretty much all one color and all kinds of YAWN – I wanted bright colors and fun, and this puzzle definitely delivered. If you come across a copy I highly recommend it. Loved it! 🎲 👍😍

Pop Culture

Pop Culture
Pop Culture by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

Ah…collages. I love them so much. I’ve said many many times why I like them, but reasoning aside they just make me happy when I assemble them. End of story.

White Mountain has the best catalog of collage puzzles around in my opinion. They have so many that it’s difficult for me to whittle down which ones I want. They’re not always the best quality – I’ve had problems with before with twinsy pieces still connected, too tight fit, and fuzzy images. Most of the time though, there aren’t major problems with the puzzles and I enjoy working with them.

Pop Culture 1

Any NCIS fans out there? It’s Ducky! I’m a little young to have watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E. on television, but I know that the actor who plays Ducky on NCIS (David McCallum) was a heart-throb back in the day because of that show. That makes me laugh for some reason. 😉

Pop Culture 2

MAD Magazine and Gumby – love them! I had a subscription back in ye olden times when people actually got magazines in the mail and read them. (It’s sort of like a papery kind of blog – if you’re a young’un and not clear on what magazines were) I’ve always been a fan of satire, improv, and standup comedy, even when I was younger. I think I had more comedy albums than musical ones; which might be a clue why this part of the puzzle made the smile. 😀