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! 🙂

Stamp Collector’s Dream

On April 21, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Oh my goodness was this puzzle ever awesome! If you read this blog regularly (although not very many do) you know I love collage puzzles. I’ve been wanting this puzzle for a long time now, and mom found it at the thrift store. YESSSS!!!!

Unfortunately it is missing an edge piece in the lower left corner; but although a bummer, it did not diminish my enjoyment of this puzzle – love love loved it! This is like the matchbook collage, it’s like having a hundred little mini puzzles to assemble and connect. So fun, and so hard to walk away from! Charlie Girard does an awesome job with his collages, they’re always entertaining. 🙂

White Mountain isn’t currently selling this puzzle, but it is still available from some online retailers like Amazon and eBay – or you can see if it’s hanging around at a thrift store near you.

I finished this one in a day 😮 Good thing I can bring my small puzzle board into my bedroom so I can work on it while resting. I just can’t resist a collage, they’re so difficult to leave alone. One piece always leads to another and then you know you need to take a break, but the last piece you put in has a weird color or shape and you know exactly what piece goes there and you just have to remember where you saw it, and then, oh cool, this section connects over here and……………and then, uh, where did the day go?

Beer Caps

On March 17, 2017May 19, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Mom and I finished this in an afternoon while visiting. She didn’t think she was going to like it, but once we got going she was enjoying it. After a while we were doing the same stuff we always do when we’re working on a puzzle together and cracking each other up. Fun puzzle (although neither of us are beer drinkers) – and perfect for St. Patrick’s Day! 🙂

This was the first 550 piece White Mountain puzzle I’ve done, and I was surprised that the pieces were random cut instead of grid cut. I don’t have anything to compare it to so I’m not sure if that is usual for the smaller piece count puzzles or not. It made the puzzle a little more of a challenge, but it was still very entertaining.

My only problem with this puzzle was that the image on the box wasn’t correct. It was just a small deviation, but one that confused us at first. The second beer cap in the bottom row is red in the actual puzzle, but black on the box. It was baffling for a minute before we figured out what was wrong.

Otherwise the quality of the puzzle was quite good, I’ve never had a problem with a White Mountain product. This one was no exception, and was great fun – White Mountain has the best collage puzzles!

Telephones

On February 26, 2017December 28, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another new manufacturer – Galison. I liked it! Not love, but not bad at all. 🙂

I love this image, because I love collages and also my dad used to work for the phone company back when everyone had actual land line phones in their houses. We had plenty of phones to play with when we were kids, old phones that would have been thrown away we got to play with. Doesn’t seem that fun in this world of computers and tablets and smart phone apps but children used to play with things that required their imagination. Wow!

I tried assembling this puzzle once before, put together the edge pieces and then put it away – I just wasn’t in the right mood for it. Second time was the charm and I really enjoyed it. I love how a picture like this is so easy to get sucked in to. You pull the pieces for one of the squares, and that leads to the square next to it and so on and so on. So much fun!

The piece shapes were not bad, there were very few pieces that were 2 prong 2 hole. Lots more different shapes! The pieces were on the thin side, but sturdy. The coating was matte and I had no problems with glare at all, and the image reproduction was very good – the colors were crisp and bright. Very good quality overall in my opinion. I love trying new companies!

Couples

On February 15, 2017December 28, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another collage – of course. (And another cockeyed picture where you get to see my bedspread 🙂 ) I really enjoy collages, and White Mountain always does them so well. Couples and Valentine’s Day, how sweet! Almost as sweet as the day after when all the candy is 50% off!!!

This was really fun artwork, there weren’t only human couples there were plenty of fun things that make a great pair – chips and dip, cookies and milk, ebony and ivory piano keys, apple pie and ice cream, etc. Also there were a lot of non-human couples like Bert and Ernie, Buzz and Woody, Raggedy Ann and Andy, Yogi and Boo Boo and so many more.

This is another one that is fun to do with others with lots of laughing and talking about the couples and figuring out who or what things are. And as always, if you’re not sure who or what things are you can check it on the White Mountain website where they have an answer key.

So many great finds at thrift stores! 2 or 3 days worth of puzzle for 99 cents, you just can’t beat that! For mom and I it also leads to buying puzzles online. She finds a cool puzzle at the thrift store, we assemble it and love the quality or artwork and then we end up looking up other puzzles by that manufacturer or artist and buying a bunch online. Yes, we have gone slightly insane, but on the other hand we are adorable and puzzles isn’t too terrible an obsession/addiction, right?