The Story of Heidi in the Alps

On February 7, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I got a bee in my bonnet about getting all the children’s puzzles in my house assembled so I could donate them and get them out of here; so I spent some time in front of the tv catching up on my shows while assembling 9 puzzles one after another. It also helped me build my stockpile of posts back up, so I have a little cushion now in case I need it again. 😁

These two puzzles were only 12 pieces each and went together extremely quickly, but they’re beautifully made puzzles of excellent quality. Almost every puzzle I assembled this day (7 out of 9) were Ravensburger puzzles and every one of them was wonderful quality. I appreciate companies that put effort into their puzzles for kids, and the best that I’ve found are Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, and Eurographics.

When I assembled the second puzzle in the box I struggled to remember the name of the boy in the story. I know I read it as a child, and I remember the movie Heidi with Shirley Temple, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the boy’s name. (I’m sure I just dated myself with the Shirley Temple reference, but that’s mostly how I remember the story of Heidi) I had to give up on my memory and look it up online, his name is Peter.

Jigsaw puzzles are great for helping children develop problem solving skills, fine motor coordination, spatial awareness, pattern recognition and many other essential skills. I highly recommend puzzles as gifts for children, they’re fun and educational and might even start someone off on the road to enjoying jigsaw puzzles for the rest of their life!

Rainbow Beach Huts

On February 6, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

IMG_E4193 — Rainbow Beach Huts by Peter Adderley – Cardinal – 500 pieces

This puzzle with it’s bright blocks of color was a fun assembly, and three generations of women in my family completed it together. If you’re a daily reader of this blog you have already seen part of this puzzle, I took a picture of our 3 hands putting in the last pieces of this puzzle for my National Puzzle Day post. 😉

The pieces were a bit thin, the finish was very shiny, and the fit was such that if you accidentally bumped the puzzle you’d upset many pieces. Not the best quality, but not the worst I’ve had either. On the positive side, the image reproduction was very nice and there were a good variety of piece shapes to work with. Cardinal puzzles seem to be a bit hit or miss with their quality in my opinion. I’ve worked some very nice quality Cardinal puzzles, and had some that are not good at all. Brands like this we only buy from thrift stores; when the quality is an unknown we prefer not to pay retail, even if we really like the image.

I’ve mostly been working with smaller piece counts since I’ve been recuperating; it’s been difficult for me to sit and puzzle for any length of time. Mom and I have mostly been doing puzzles between 200 and 500 pieces when I’m visiting at her house. It goes much faster with more than one person, and it’s helping me get back into the swing of things.

We only got halfway through this puzzle the first day (we completed 2 others first), and so we finished it the next day with the help of my daughter before we went on a field trip to buy puzzles (I bought 6 😇). I enjoy images with bright colors that are easy to sort, and this one was an excellent image to puzzle – good fun was had by all!

Flower Still Life

On February 5, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles7 Comments

This was a very dark, very challenging wooden puzzle. I bought this for mom for Christmas last year and we finally got around to assembling it. Isn’t it gorgeous? She picked it out herself.

The background color was a little too dark for my taste, but it was still a fun puzzle to assemble, especially since mom and I worked it together. 🙂 They were pretty tricky not to include a picture on the box of the irregular edge, so we had to figure that out for ourselves. It was quite the brain teaser, but we older ladies still have our wits about us (most of the time) and we were able to get it done.

Artifact Puzzles are excellent quality with a wonderfully diverse catalog to choose from. They have many different puzzle designers who come up with amazingly intricate and complex piece cuts. I love that you’re able to see pictures of the cuts for each puzzle, so you have that information before you buy. The puzzles are made from plywood and are laser cut; they are beautifully made!

There were almost no whimsies but the cut was excellent and you can see the pieces formed a beautiful symmetrical pattern….

Mom and I really enjoyed this assembly; it was quite a challenge and we even said that it was “deviously cut” a couple of times. Still, it helps keep the brain cells firing and even if it takes more time than we’d planned on we enjoy the extra time spent together.

I’ve done several Wentworths and a couple of Artifact puzzles in the past couple of months, so I’m hoping to get my hands on a new Liberty puzzle soon. If I don’t, no worries – I can spend an afternoon re-assembling the Dr. Suess puzzle I bought myself last year. 🙂

Wild Babies, Baby Orangutan

On February 4, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

This is a cute puzzle, sort of. I guess it depends on if you think orangutans are cute. LOL It was only 250 pieces, so I thought it would be a quick one to work on. It wasn’t, because I wasn’t feeling well, and I didn’t get it finished until mom came back from her overseas trip. Once she was there to work with me it got done much faster! (We cheer each other on, and help out when one of us is having a tough time with a puzzle)

The pieces were pretty thin and the finish was a bit shiny, but all in all it wasn’t too bad. The fit was nice and there were a good variety of shapes to work with. I don’t know that I’d purchase this brand again unless it was an image that I really wanted.

This was an unopened thrift store purchase, so for 69 cents you can’t beat it, even if it wasn’t a premium quality puzzle. It was all there, and provided some much need relaxation and stress relief; not to mention some puzzle time with mom! ☺

Britain & Ireland

On February 3, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

This is the first kids puzzle I’ve purchased new; I don’t have an explanation why I wanted it so much, I just did. I love the idea of Mike Jupp’s artwork and humor added to a geography lesson in a high quality puzzle. I wasn’t disappointed!

This puzzle is a “Jig-Map” and has a “place name quiz”. There are 32 identically shaped pieces with the names of cities and towns in Britain and Ireland. Luckily you don’t have to know the geography to be able to complete the puzzle; the image behind each name will help you find it’s correct position. And as an added bonus it’s a lot of fun! Here are all the names…

The fun part was the different images by each name. The Beatles were next to Liverpool, there were sheep and a sweater in Cardigan, Robin Hood and Friar Tuck were in Nottingham, etc. What a great tool for teaching geography, it’s a lot of fun. 🙂

The quality was excellent with thick pieces, wonderfully crisp image reproduction, an excellent variety of shapes, and a very nice fit. I do love when a puzzle manufacturer puts effort into their children’s puzzles; kids need good quality puzzles that will stand up to being assembled many times and rougher than normal handling. Also, how cool is it that they got such a great image from such a great artist?

I looked up Jig-Maps, and they were a series of shaped geography puzzles that also had a place name quiz produced by Waddington’s in the 60’s. They were basically exactly the same as this Gibsons Jig Map, and a very cool idea in my opinion. I plan on donating this puzzle to my adopted grandson, I’m pretty sure he’ll love it as much as I did!