The Retrievers

On March 21, 2020March 21, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

My goodness was this puzzle adorably entertaining! The Retriever family’s wall of family photos made for such a fun and slightly challenging puzzle. If you find this one out there I would definitely recommend it; not only did I have a great time, but it was an excellent quality puzzle too.

I loved the size and fit of the 750 piece Buffalo, there have only been a couple other Buffalo puzzles of this piece count that I’ve assembled before. I enjoyed it very much and found the quality to be excellent. The chipboard was a good thickness, the fit and image reproduction were both exceptional. It makes me want to find some more 750 piece Buffalo puzzles with great images. 🙂

The Retrievers 1

How adorable is this face? No wonder Golden Retrievers are such a popular breed! All the different frames made sorting a bit easier, and once they were put together there weren’t as many pieces that were just the background wallpaper.

The Retrievers 2

The cuteness of this entire image made it really entertaining for me. This was a moderately easy assembly, but it did have enough difficulty to make it fun. Barking fun!

It gets four paws way up and is highly recommended. 🐾🐾

Common Quilt Blocks

On March 19, 2020March 19, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles10 Comments

I ADORED this puzzle – it was so much fun! Cobble Hill quality is excellent, and I enjoyed the random cut of the pieces and the beautiful colors. The fabrics were so interesting too, a lot of them would make ugly clothes but they do make lovely quilt blocks. 😉

Cobble Hill has such a great catalog of puzzle images, after assembling this one the PADS is flaring up and I want to get a whole bunch more of their puzzles. I love the feel of the pieces and the way they fit together – just a great quality puzzle all around. Someone needs to take my credit cards for a day or two, I’m feeling the need for some new puzzles!

Quilt Blocks 1

Great name to go with a great fabric pattern. I loved that all the quilt block patterns have names, and I found that it helped quite a bit with the assembly.

And of course I loved these two patterns because they had the word puzzle in their names! Old Maid’s Puzzle and Dutchman’s Puzzle, obviously they are my favorites. 😁

And now I have this burning desire to find and assemble every single quilt block puzzle there is – and I know there are quite a few. I enjoyed this one so much that it leaves me wanting more. Quilts and quilt blocks make for highly entertaining puzzles, at least they do for me. Perhaps it’s the neat, orderly rows and the fact that they’re put in some kind of order; it may be soothing for my OCD.

Whatever the reason, I’d love to get my hands on some more quilt block puzzles. I highly recommend you give this one a try, it was too much fun! 💝

Cocoa Puffs

On March 17, 2020March 17, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

So much fun! There’s something about cereal that brings out the kid in you, and this 100 piece puzzle of a cereal box was no different. Like most small piece count puzzles it was over very quickly, but sometimes that’s perfect. I’m cuckoo for this Cocoa Puffs puzzle! 🤪

I put the box away and just worked it by colors and shapes; which is my way of thoroughly enjoying the image and only paying attention to the puzzle itself. It’s also a way to help a smaller piece count puzzle last just a little bit longer. This is my least favorite cereal out of the six in the pack, and I’ll be working them in reverse order – ending with my favorite of the six. Which one will that be? I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to find out!

My absolute favorite cereal is Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch, but it isn’t a General Mills cereal so unfortunately it’s not in this multipack. The General Mills cereals in this pack are: Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, Cheerios, Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Honey Nut Cheerios. Which one is your favorite?

I don’t believe I’ve ever worked a 100 piece White Mountain puzzle before, and the quality was about the same as their 1000 piecers. Thick pieces, very good fit, excellent image reproduction. These are a bit pricey for only a total of 600 pieces, but they’re great for working with young ones, or even by yourself if you’re a kid at heart like me. 👵=👧

These were very good quality mini puzzles, much better than my last 100 piece puzzle set! I had a great time putting this one together, and I’m looking forward to finishing them all. At the moment two of these cereal puzzles have been assembled, and the third one is on my board this morning. Yum.

☘ Happy St. Patrick’s Day! ☘

Butterfly Garden

On March 16, 2020March 16, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Butterfly Garden is my free puzzle from Ceaco that I received as a “we’re sorry for our terrible quality 1200 piece puzzle you bought”. I’d like to say I was completely impartial while I assembled this and judged it’s quality, but that would be a lie. I had an attitude when I was putting this puzzle together; about the brand, the image, the quality – everything. Sorry, I’m human.

I was going to review this puzzle, but as I previously stated I found that I wasn’t going into the assembly with anything resembling a fair-minded attitude. I may not be happy with Ceaco presently, but it wouldn’t be proper for me to review this knowing I wasn’t pleased with the puzzle before I had even started the assembly.

This was way easier than I thought it would be, and I didn’t have a particularly good time with it. I’m not a fan of the artwork, it’s very dark and not as pretty as one would hope a butterfly garden would be. It’s nothing against the artist really, it just isn’t my taste. I wasn’t given a choice as to which puzzle I would be getting, and I was unhappy with both the piece count and the image, obviously.

Butterfly Garden 1

This was the hardest part of the puzzle for me, and it was only around 10-12 pieces. Didn’t take me long.

This whole fiasco with the 12 days of Christmas puzzles was an eye-opener for me, and to be honest I’m still a bit perturbed about it. There is still a Ceaco ban in place for me, I will not be buying any of their puzzles. My daughter and I were puzzle shopping after the holidays to spend a gift card, and she found a really cute Charlie Brown family puzzle that I actually loved the look of. Unfortunately it was a Ceaco and I made her put it back on the shelf. They will not be getting any of my money any time soon.

I realize one person’s boycott is a drop in the bucket, and they obviously couldn’t care less about whether or not I’m buying their puzzles; but it makes me feel better to spend my puzzle budget on companies that care about the quality of their product and the satisfaction of their customers. Unfortunately in my experience Ceaco is definitely NOT one of those companies.

Vintage Tin Toys

On March 14, 2020March 13, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

My beautiful daughter bought me this puzzle for no reason other than she saw it at the store and thought I would love it. She was right – and sweeter than sugar!

It was a pretty challenging assembly, but I absolutely adored it. Such bright colors and interesting toys, not to mention an excellent quality puzzle. The fit was a bit loose, but otherwise the pieces were thick with varied shapes, and the image reproduction was beautiful! I haven’t done many 1000 piece Milton Bradley puzzles, but I was happily surprised at the quality of this one. If we find more amazing images like this one, I hope to be doing more of them very soon!

Wow, they certainly didn’t mind unconventional toys back in the day, huh? A bartender toy for a child? This actually made me laugh out loud! I wonder what the mechanism made the little tin bartender do? A toy that pours and serves little drinks? Wow. Just, wow.

Vintage Tin Toys 2

This is silly, a tin chicken – but I suppose who am I to judge right? I didn’t even realize this was in the puzzle because the stupid people who designed the puzzle box decided to put a banner over this portion of it. When I realized what the pieces were and set them aside, I couldn’t wait to see what it looked like all put together. A silly chicken!

Vintage Tin Toys 3

Ventriloquist dummies must have been all the rage, I love how fun and silly these toys are! Perhaps a young boy or girl wouldn’t care what it said on the side of it, they would most likely be happy with any toy car. Still, this one gave me a chuckle.

Sometimes it amazes me that a box full of hundreds of pieces of cut up cardboard or wood pictures could bring me so much joy – but they absolutely do. But it isn’t only joy – serenity, smiles, laughs, concentration, fixation, obsession, happiness, sadness, exhilaration, peace, victory, pride, and too many more to name. Puzzles are a gift to ourselves and our minds, and I, for one, intend to keep on giving. 🧩💖