Review: Vintage Baker

On January 14, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews16 Comments

I’ve been wanting this image for a while now, but I’m thinking I should have waited to find it from a company whose quality I was familiar with. Terrible fit, horrible to work with, too shiny causing lots of glare – quite disappointing. 😦

Holdson Puzzles are made in New Zealand, and although I’d heard good things about the quality I found myself pretty let down by this puzzle. The finish was very shiny, the glare was hard to work around and the fit was awful – so loose that you couldn’t even pick up two pieces together. I work on a fabric covered board so it’s a little more difficult for the pieces to slide around, but these pieces managed it well enough somehow. On the positive side the chipboard was a good thickness and the image reproduction was very good.

I love the look of this vanilla bottle; not only is it cool looking, but it also shows the detail in the artwork and the quality of the reproduction.

vintage baker 1

The handwriting in the recipe below looks like my Grama’s, although I know it isn’t. I have noticed that many older people’s writing seems almost identical. Of course schools used to teach things like penmanship and cursive writing. Sigh. I’m old.

vintage baker 2

I try not to make a final decision about new brands until I’ve worked at least 2 or 3 of their puzzles. I’d work another Holdson puzzle if we found it in a thrift store, but I’m not going to go out of my way to buy one retail. If I find one second-hand perhaps it’ll be great quality. Who knows?

Details:

Title: Vintage Baker
Artist: Aimee Stewart
Brand: Holdson Puzzles
Piece count: 1000 pieces
Size: Approx. 19 x 27 in. (49 x 69 cm)
Purchased: New

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Good
Image: Very good
Box: Average
Fit: Poor
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Grid cut
Piece shapes: Good variety
Finish: Very shiny finish, lays flat

Overall Rating: Fair, not recommended

Harry Potter Book 2

On January 12, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was my very first puzzle of 2019 – I like to do a small puzzle on New Year’s Day so that I can start and finish the whole puzzle to start the year off right. Luckily this year my beautiful daughter gave me this set of seven 100 piece puzzles. They are so much fun!

I appreciate the adult-type difficulty level in a 100 piece puzzle and I love the Harry Potter books, so these puzzles make me doubly happy – and they help me keep up with having enough puzzles to post too. 😉

Mousing Around

On January 10, 2019January 10, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

My very last puzzle of 2018 was this Mickey Mouse puzzle that was great fun even though there were basically only 4 colors to work with. It’s such an interesting look for Mr. Mouse, and it made for excellent puzzling. 🙂

*I’m not feeling very chatty this morning, perhaps it’s my PADS diagnosis*

Movie Posters

On January 8, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles4 Comments

My son and I assembled this in just about 2.5 hours on New Year’s Eve! That’s what happens when you assemble a puzzle with someone who is LASER FOCUSED on the task at hand. (If you were wondering, the laser focus wasn’t me; I kept getting distrac….. oooh! Look! Something shiny!)

This beauty is already glued and ready for framing to hang in his room. Best of all, we had a great time assembling it and when we were done he put on his copy of It Happened One Night and we watched it together. I have the best kids.💝

There were 2 different movies that each had 2 posters in the puzzle – one of them was Casablanca, and the other was It Happened One Night. I wonder why they got double billing:

Of the 38 posters (from 36 movies) astonishingly I’ve only seen 2 of them! Gone With the Wind, and It Happened One Night. I know, I know. How can I not have seen Casablanca? Honestly, not interested in seeing it. 🤨

My son’s favorite of the movies shown is North by Northwest…

Movie Posters 3

Talk about great image reproduction, you can even read those tiny little words. Wow. Fantastically fun puzzle!

Crossword Jigsaw

On January 7, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This is another Christmas present from one of my kids – they know me so well! Not only did my Grama teach me to assemble jigsaws, she taught me crosswords too; and I enjoy them both very much. This puzzle is the best of both worlds!

It’s from another new company that I’d never heard of, my research tells me that they only make these crossword jigsaw puzzles, one edition per year from the looks of it. It’s pretty darn good quality from a company whose primary focus isn’t jigsaws.

If you’re a regular reader you know how much I enjoy having text to assemble, this puzzle had me in heaven – words, words everywhere! According to the box you should begin by solving the crossword…

Crossword Jigsaw 1

It’s easier then to solve the jigsaw if you solve the crossword first, but you don’t have to be good at them, or even try if you don’t want to. You could just work the jigsaw and fill in the blanks once you’re finished. Or you could do your best on the crossword and use the jigsaw to help. I’ll admit to not getting the whole crossword done first, I needed help with a few of the answers.

The crossword puzzle is about medium difficulty, although it really all depends on your ability and familiarity with crossword puzzles. My Grama would have found this extremely easy to solve, she was a crossword expert. If you’re new to them or not very proficient, be careful! There are a few clues meant to trip you up, you think the answer is obvious, but it isn’t at all. I love the ones that keep you on your toes. 😏

My only problem is that the puzzle you solve on paper doesn’t match the jigsaw. The clues and answers are the same, but the proportions don’t match.

In the actual jigsaw directly beneath the grid is the clue for 70-down. On the paper that you use to solve the crossword the clue is 55-down. Apparently you’re only supposed to use the paper to fill in the crossword puzzle and not as a reference for anything other than the grid itself. A teeny bit annoying.

Overall though, I had great fun with this one. I was going to save it to post on National Puzzle Day later this month, but things being what they are I needed it today – besides, every day is puzzle day around here. 😎