1990s – Re-marks – 1500 pieces

This puzzle was perfect for motivating me to get out of bed after my surgery. Collages are truly my happy place, and knowing this beauty was sitting on my board waiting had me up and puzzling much sooner than I thought I would be.

It was a good quality puzzle, though the loose fit sometimes was annoying to work with – moving completed sections could be quite a pain if you weren’t paying attention. Otherwise the image reproduction is lovely, though the finish is somewhat shiny. I know these things (the little problems in quality) about Re-marks puzzles, but am willing to put up with all of them because they have an excellent catalog of collage images that I want to assemble.

The image itself is great, but it isn’t going to spark a long post filled with memories of my childhood. During the 1990s I was a young wife and mother with 3 small children; by 1992 I had all of my children and spent the rest of the decade being immersed in raising them and keeping our home. Most of the things shown in this collage are things I am familiar with, but there just isn’t as much identification with any of them as is usual with these decade images. I had to really think about which smaller pictures to take so that I could talk about them.

In the end I decided that since I spent the 90s raising children I should chose one section that reminds me of each of my babies – cause I’m a mom, that’s what I do.

Our whole family enjoys the Harry Potter books and movies, but my daughter (a voracious reader her whole life) was the most taken with them. She still remembers sitting in the living room with me while I read this aloud to them. In the 2000s I was always the one who was tasked with taking her to the bookstore so she could be there at midnight when the newest book was released. I love that she’s a reader, it makes me unbelievably happy. ❤📕

Surprisingly, I had to make her stop reading many times – otherwise she would have stayed inside all day with her books. Eventually I made a bargain with her that for every hour of reading she had to go outside and play for at least 15 minutes. She hated it most of the time, but she needed fresh air and exercise too!

Ahhh, the Game Boy. My oldest son carried his Game Boy with him everywhere he went for several years. He has autism, and the lights and sounds, the tactile feeling of the buttons, and weight of the handheld game itself was always soothing for him when he became overstimulated. He is now and has always been a video game prodigy, always being better at every game than the rest of us. Patterns and repetition are comforting for many people who are neurodivergent, and video games provide both of those things – no wonder he was so exceptional at all those games – he kicked our butts whenever we played together!

It makes me smile to remember him as my cute little boy carrying his Game Boy like a security blanket everywhere he went. 😊

To infinity – and beyond! That was the rallying cry of my youngest son for quite some time, and boy were we ever sick of hearing it. He also has autism, and for quite a while only used quotes from movies to talk to us. When he was upset or angry he would say something someone from a movie said when they were upset or angry. *There was a TINY problem at school when he decided to quote The Princess Bride when he was upset. He screamed “I want my father back you son of a b*tch!” at the top of his lungs. Of course he would find the only cuss word in the whole movie. Yikes.*

We all had to be very up to date on which movies he was watching so that we could interpret what he was trying to communicate to us. Buzz Lightyear was a particular favorite of his, there were so many quotable moments. I heard a LOT of those quotes. Thank goodness he eventually starting using his own voice and thoughts to talk to us.

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This puzzle was an entertaining assembly from start to finish, if it looks like one you’d enjoy it is definitely recommended. 👍

Love Letters – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Such a bright, colorful, entertaining puzzle – where do I begin? We all know how much collage puzzles make me happy, and this one was no different. The piece shape is quite evident in the finished image, but it doesn’t take away from how much fun I had putting it together. In addition to their many images with book covers, Re-marks has quite a few of these stamp collages as well – I’ve not been disappointed with any of them. 😁

I was so glad the border had a pattern, it was easy to pick out the pieces while sorting; the cut was very random and there were many, many pieces that looked as though they would be edges that were not. It was quite helpful to be able to see at a glance whether or not the pieces were actually part of the border.

This puzzle had a very loose fit, but was otherwise good quality. The random cut made for interesting piece shapes, and the image reproduction was good, though somewhat shiny.

These were two of my favorite stamps, but they were all so interesting and beautiful – it was hard to choose just a few to show up close.

Broadway Musicals – Re-marks – 1000 pieces

Doesn’t this look like fun? If you answered yes – get yourself a cookie, you were absolutely right! Even though it’s 1000 pieces (and I hadn’t done one that big in a more than a year 😲), it didn’t seem like a larger puzzle because it felt as though I were assembling a bunch of smaller puzzles, little bits at a time.

As an added bonus it’s a panoramic puzzle, so there was much less leaning over the board to reach the top of the image than there normally is. I adore panoramic puzzles, they’re so much easier on this old body.

The quality was the usual for Re-marks. There weren’t any issues at all other than a slightly loose fit, but even that wasn’t too bad. The pieces are a good thickness, there were a good variety of piece shapes, and the image reproduction was crisp and clear (just a bit shiny). Their catalog of collage images is just too good to pass up, so whatever quality issues the brand has doesn’t matter much to me. My head gets turned by a pretty “face” on the box and before you know it the puzzle has been adopted and has come home with me.

I haven’t really seen many musicals in the theater, but I have seen the movie West Side Story many, many times. We also had a record of the soundtrack when we were little, and my sisters and I knew every word of every song. My parents love to tell the story of them taking us all to the movies to see it for a matinee; and as soon as the first song started playing there were three young girls singing along at the top of their lungs. Luckily the other people in the theater weren’t too upset with us, perhaps we were just too cute. Apparently we even got some applause after that first song! 🤩

I haven’t seen this show, but I’ve heard lots of good things about it and would love the opportunity to watch it. Music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper – yes please! It’s too bad they don’t record the show and put it on a streaming service for the rest of the world to see. A streaming service with theatrical shows would be amazing for those of us who don’t live in or near New York. In fact, a streaming service that has plays and musicals from around the world (not just Broadway) would be an excellent idea. I would definitely be a subscriber – how about you?

I don’t recall ever hearing about this show, but reading all those signs makes me think I would absolutely love it. Coming of age in the 80’s means I love all that music, all those hair bands, all that arena rock – it’s one that would most likely have me singing along at the top of my lungs, just like when I was a little girl at the movies. 😁🎶