Road Trip USA

On August 17, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was a quick assembly that was more fun than I thought it would be, and I love these kinds of puzzles!

This was a large piece puzzle by Buffalo, though the pieces were not quite as large as most other brands with “large pieces”. By Buffalo standards they are large, compared to their normal size pieces. I have said pieces so many times in this paragraph already that the word has ceased to make sense! 😐

I’ve lived in Michigan and Florida, and neither of those plates is familiar to me, they must be quite old. But they all work together to make a really nice image for puzzling, and it’s an entertaining assembly. The background isn’t too difficult to assemble, but enough of a challenge to make it fun. Click here to see this puzzle at Puzzle Warehouse. *I don’t get anything for you clicking or buying, they’re just my favorite puzzle store.

Definitely recommended, especially for those who need puzzles with larger pieces. The bright colors and large pieces would be great for anyone with aging eyes or fine motor issues. Great puzzle from Buffalo!

Route 66

On June 11, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Here’s another one mom did the majority of, but she insisted that I take a picture of it for the blog anyway.

Mom and I had just finished a 1000 piece puzzle, and were looking for the next puzzle to start. We were both in the same kind of mood apparently because we looked at many different puzzles and we were both feeling the same way about all of them; it was sort of a blah thing where nothing looked like it would be fun that day. Mom had to take a phone call and so I continued the search and ended up on this one. I started sorting the edge pieces and putting everything on trays while she was on the phone and when she was done and came over to the puzzle table she was a bit wary and asked “What puzzle is that?” When I showed her the box she smiled and said “Nice choice!” We were definitely in the same weird mood. 😎

Buffalo puzzles are always good quality and it’s nice after working a loose fitting puzzle to work one that fits together well like Buffalo does. And it was also nice to work on a collage, I enjoy them very much! Somehow a collage puzzle, even if it’s a large piece count doesn’t feel overwhelming. You can work on just a small portion at a time and eventually connect them all together and then it seems like quite the accomplishment! When I’m in the “blah” mood where no puzzle seems to be the right one, the answer is usually a collage.

There’s something about Route 66 that lends itself well to a collage puzzle, this is actually the second one I’ve done – the previous one was a Ravensburger. The old postcards and maps give it a nostalgic feel and it’s interesting to see all the roadside attractions that used to make Route 66 a place to “get your kicks”. 🙂

Colours of Asia

On May 13, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

My first Educa puzzle! Not bad at all – I liked it very much. 👍

From what I’ve read online I was expecting a puzzle with a very loose fit, I was happy to find out that this was not the case. It was slightly loose fitting but not at all what I’d imagined. Good piece thickness and image reproduction, and the pieces lie flat in the finished puzzle. The only issue I had was with similarly shaped pieces and sometimes thinking you’d placed a piece properly when you didn’t. It didn’t cause too much problem in this puzzle, but I’d be careful if there were a puzzle with a large amount of the same color. Otherwise I have no problem with their quality and wouldn’t hesitate to order a puzzle. Note to self: No big blue skies if ordering an Educa puzzle!

It’s nice to order a brand and find out for yourself what YOU think of the quality. Everyone has different qualities that are most important to them – piece shape, thickness, how the pieces fit together, grid cut, random cut, etc. You have to find out what is important to you in a puzzle and which brands are the ones you prefer. Everyone is different and you can use other’s reviews as a guide, but only you can decide which is best for you. I’m trying when I order puzzles to find a company I haven’t tried before and see if there’s a puzzle that looks like fun for me to assemble. This is the puzzle I choose to try out Educa; cool picture, right?

This image is beautiful, and it’s always fun to have several little pictures in the bigger puzzle (well, it is for me anyway). When I was assembling this puzzle there were several extremely stressful things going on, and this puzzle was a welcome respite. I could sit, even if only for a few minutes , and pull out pieces for one small section and just be absorbed in the puzzle and fitting pieces together. Too bad there weren’t more than 1000 pieces, the stress is still here but the puzzle is done! 🙂

Fountain Pens

On May 5, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles5 Comments

This puzzle was more difficult than it looked, and we sure were proud of ourselves when it was finished! It’s a beautiful puzzle, and the pieces were quite large for a 1000 piece puzzle, it makes an impressive statement when it’s assembled.

Mom loves fountain pens, so this puzzle was her Christmas present last year. We finally got around to assembling it and it took us much longer than we anticipated. We’ve also learned that while we appreciate a semi-random cut puzzle, we prefer a grid or ribbon cut. We’re used to judging the shape of the piece we’re looking for by the shape of the piece it attaches to – not a wise move when the cut is offset! Your brain has to work differently when the cut is random or offset and you can’t prejudge the size or shape of the piece you need. It’s good to give your brain a workout by changing things up every once in a while, but when you pair that challenge with a challenging puzzle image – WOW!

I did enjoy the quality of this puzzle as well – the pieces were pleasantly thick and fit together well, there are a variety of piece shapes and the image reproduction was beautiful! This was the first 1000 piece by Vermont Christmas Company that mom and I have assembled and we enjoyed the challenge. The assembly was fun, difficult at times, but overall a very nice puzzle.

Vermont Christmas Company has more than just Christmas puzzles, there’s a lot to choose from – including this challenging but gorgeous puzzle!

Golf

On May 2, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles1 Comment

According to the box the name of this puzzle is The Mandolin Puzzle of Golf, but that’s just strange to me and doesn’t seem right. It’s like saying The Ravensburger Puzzle of Memorable Disney Moments, weird! For the purposes of this blog I’m just calling it Golf.

I don’t believe Mandolin puzzles are still being manufactured as I was unable to find a website or place to purchase from the manufacturer. There are still puzzles being sold on Amazon and eBay, which is where hubby ordered this puzzle – still sealed. The copyright on this puzzle is from 1993.

The quality of this puzzle was hit or miss. The thickness of the pieces was quite good and they fit together very well. The pieces, however, were not all cut all the way through and there were a lot of pieces that were still connected with paper hanging off of them. Also, the image reproduction was crisp and clear in some places and very fuzzy in others. As with a lot of puzzles, even if the quality is lacking some, the puzzle image itself can make the assembly enjoyable.

Despite the quality issues though, I enjoyed assembling this puzzle very much; I love me a collage! You can’t tell from the picture, but there are a lot of words to assemble which I adore – the names of each person shown, golf courses, dates, and products are all there. The inset circles were fun as well, and it was easy while I was sorting the puzzle to pull out pieces with words and parts of the circles. The grass was a bit of a challenge, but in the end there weren’t that many pieces out of 1500 that were only grass.

The whole assembly was fun and I think hubby did a surprisingly awesome job picking out the 2 golf puzzles he did. They are both going to look excellent framed and hanging in the golf room! 🙂