Hummingbirds and Fuschia

On June 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I have to be honest, I was a little scared of this one. There’s so much green! Even the hummingbirds are green! But it seems I should have given myself more credit, I didn’t find it as difficult as I’d assumed it would be, and the finished image is beautiful. 😍

Buffalo 300 and 500 piece puzzles are my favorite size, I find their cut on 1000 piece puzzles to be too much the same size and I just prefer the smaller piece counts from this brand. (I’m not even sure if it’s the size, there’s just something about them I’m not a huge fan of.) This 300 piece puzzle was excellent quality; piece thickness, shape variety, fit, and image reproduction were wonderful.

Obviously I started with all of the not green colors; pink, red, and white. There weren’t as many of those pieces as I’d hoped and they went together very quickly. All that was left was green. Many shades of green. Luckily there were many things within the green to work with – blades of grass, hanging stems, feathers, etc. There weren’t many plain colored pieces, and even the ones that had only color usually had shades or fading to assist in the assembly. It went together more easily than I thought it would and it was quite an enjoyable puzzle – much more than I’d hoped.

This was a thrift store puzzle and doesn’t look like it’s being produced anymore. It’s a pity; it really was great fun and I highly recommend it if you can find it for a reasonable price. 🌺

Sunset Glory

On June 29, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

This is a beautiful puzzle, but not one I would normally choose. I don’t usually gravitate towards sea life puzzles, I’m not sure why, they’re just not images I normally go for. Luckily I disregarded my prejudice and assembled this puzzle anyway; it was almost a meditative experience for me and I enjoyed it very much.

It’s a Ravensburger, and the quality was top notch. The pieces fit together beautifully, and the image reproduction was stellar. I think it was the colors that attracted to me to this puzzle, especially the colors in the sky. They’re just gorgeous!

Other than the sky, the fish were the most fun for me to assemble. They aren’t very big, but the bright colors and the number of small fish made them very entertaining. I zoned out when I was assembling this puzzle, I just let my brain do all the work. It was almost like meditating (or what I think meditating must be like). I enjoyed this puzzle even more than I thought I would – I love it when that happens. 🙂

You’d think I’d learn after putting together so many different puzzles that you never really know how entertaining an image will be until you actually assemble it. I still have my preferences, but I’m trying to do better about giving certain puzzles and images a chance. I’m usually wrong about how much fun a puzzle will or will not be – so I should give all of them a chance, right? Of course right!

Review: Seams Likely

On June 28, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

When mom first showed me this puzzle I was very excited, doesn’t it look like fun? It was! The bright colors and big numbers made this an excellent assembly; I enjoyed it very much. 🙂

This was a very good quality Springbok puzzle, although the fit was somewhat tight. You know I’m not a fan of the super tight fit; this one wasn’t too bad, but it was tight. The pieces are thick, the image reproduction is bright and beautiful, and the random cut gives a very good variety of piece shapes. Overall the quality was very good, and I enjoyed the assembly.

I started with the red thread, and then moved on to the yellow spool. Unfortunately, as sometimes happens with a thrift store puzzle, one of the pieces was damaged…

Someone’s child, pet, or maybe even a vacuum cleaner got hold of one of the pieces. I’m glad they included it in the puzzle and didn’t throw it away; technically all the pieces were there.

The rest of the puzzle wasn’t too difficult to assemble, all the measuring tapes weren’t as difficult as I thought they might be. It was just as much fun as I’d hoped and I really enjoyed the assembly. Mom has a knack for finding awesome puzzles at the thrift stores, and I’m the beneficiary of her amazing talent.

This is a discontinued puzzle and no longer available from puzzle sellers, but if you find a copy somewhere I highly recommend it – it’s a quick, fun puzzle and the end result would be great framed in a sewing or craft room. 👍

Details:

Title: Seams Likely
Artist: Allied Products
Brand: Springbok
Piece count: 350 pieces
Size: Approx. 18 x 24 in. (46 x 61 cm)
Purchased: Used, thrift store

Quality:

Board: Very good
Cutting: Very good
Image: Excellent
Box: Average
Fit: Good, somewhat tight
Puzzle Dust: Moderate amount
Piece cut: Random cut
Piece shapes: Very good variety
Finish: Slightly shiny finish, lays mostly flat

Overall Rating: Very good, recommended

Cute Bunny

On June 26, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

This puzzle has been in my house for a long time, I found it the other day and thought it was the perfect time to assemble it. It’s a quick, fun puzzle that’s pretty darn cute!

The quality was good, but not great. The pieces were a medium thickness, but not overly sturdy and easily bent. There were a nice variety of shapes and the fit was very good. The image reproduction was slightly fuzzy in some areas too. It’s interesting to me the diversity in quality within the same brand. I’ve had some Hasbro puzzles that have been excellent quality and some not so much. I wonder why it isn’t more consistent.

There was no title of the puzzle anywhere on the box, so I’ve named it “Cute Bunny” because that’s what I think of when I see the picture. It was a cute image and a nice diversion for a little while.

Kids puzzles are pretty fun, especially when I’m trying to decide which larger piece puzzle I’m going to assemble next. It’s nice to have a small puzzle lying around that I can pick up and put together pretty quickly; it feeds my puzzle addiction and makes me very happy!

Bookshelf

On June 25, 2018June 25, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

At the end of a day that contained no puzzling I grabbed a micro puzzle to feed my addiction. This beauty was just what I needed!

Wentworth puzzles are beautifully made wooden puzzles produced in Wiltshire, England. They are made from a specially developed wooden board taken from sustainable sources. The pieces have an excellent feel in your hands, and there’s nothing like the satisfying “plunk” when they fall into place. The whimsy pieces are intricate and interesting, and usually match the nature of the image. It’s so enjoyable for me to just open one of their puzzles and look at all the pieces; even if I don’t start working on it right away I still find it satisfying to just handle the pieces and see all the detailed whimsies.

This 40 piece micro puzzle was pretty challenging, but still entertaining to assemble. I love Colin Thompson’s artwork, and I even have this particular image in a larger piece count from a different puzzle company. I haven’t assembled it yet, but I’m looking forward to having a larger image to work with and reading the spines of all the books.

I love jigsaw puzzles of all kinds and sizes, and even a 40 piece puzzle is entertaining and satisfying for me. I’m enjoying more smaller piece count puzzles these days, and it’s the puzzling itself that makes me happy – no matter how many pieces there are.