Play Room by Mark Gregory – Vermont Christmas Company – 100 pieces
This puzzle has beautiful artwork and exceptional quality. If you’re looking to buy a puzzle for a child, this brand is highly recommended.
Reminds me of my youngest son, he adored trains when he was little. As a child with autism, he loved lining things up – which is easy to do with the cars of a train. Then he’d lay his head on the floor and move the train to watch the wheels turn. I cannot count the number of hours he spent doing that. This brings back a lot of mommy memories. And smiles.
This is one thing that was NEVER allowed in the playroom/bedroom! No paints without momma supervising. Ever. And when they weren’t being used, they were in mom’s bedroom on a high shelf. The last thing we needed was bright colors stained into the carpeting.
I Love the 1980s by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 1000 pieces
It’s so sad that this puzzle wasn’t any fun. I mean, just look at it, a jumble of different images, no cottages or kittens, no landscape, no brush strokes, it didn’t have 200 sky-colored pieces – what a colossal disappointment…. NOT!
OF COURSE I LOVED THIS PUZZLE! It’s everything a growing girl needs; a collage with bright colors, interesting images, a fun theme, it’s all there. 🙂
This puzzle had been assembled by several people before it got to me, but was still in great shape. White Mountain puzzles can sometimes be hit or miss, but this one was very good quality. And they have some of the very best collages around, so even if they quality disappoints a little with one puzzle, I’m always willing to take the chance with another. I’m a collage junkie.
I’ve been reminiscing about the 80s quite a bit lately, and if you’re sick of hearing about it you should move on with your daily routine and stop reading this immediately, because there’s going to be a lot more reminiscing here today. This puzzle is titled I Love the 1980’s, and I did. I still do. It’s more fun for me to think about the 80s right now then spend too much time worrying about this bleeped-up world we’re living in today. JMHO of course.
I remember every single thing shown in this collage. I haven’t seen every television show or movie, didn’t own every one of the toys, or listen to all of the music – but I remember each one. The Police, for example – not my cuppa, as we say. I was a cheerleader (insert laughter and groans here) and there were some older “mean girls” on the squad who tried and very often succeeded in making my life miserable. They LOVED The Police; always listening to them and talking about them during practices and bus rides. So my teenage brain decided that if those b*tches thought they were great, that this band definitely wasn’t worth my time. Therefore – (sorry Sting) – I never purchased or listened to any of their music. I didn’t buy the album shown here, but I definitely remember it.
I remember all of it, but have chosen just three sections to show and talk about. Otherwise I’ll sit here all day with my 80s mall hair and neon pink and green earrings like, totally going on and on. Barf me out! Gag me with a spoon!
I loved Cyndi Lauper – still do. People who express themselves in their own way despite what others think of them are awesome in my book, and Cyndi is one of those people. Her music was upbeat and fun, sometimes thoughtful and haunting and beautiful, love it! Plus, I kinda had that hairdo for a while. LOL It wasn’t bright red, or quite that long, but it WAS shaved close on one side and a little wild. 😉
Pop rocks are just plain fun in my book, even now as a gray-haired old lady. I never believed the whole “if you eat pop rocks and drink Coke you’ll explode” crap, but it was hilarious to listen to, that’s for sure. My mom loved Pop Rocks too, and I remember being very selective about what candy I would buy with my allowance – Pop Rocks usually made the cut and I always shared them with mom.
I chose this section of the puzzle because even though I’ve never seen an episode of this show, it was HUGE in the 80s and the cliffhanger at the end of that one season was the topic of conversation for the entire summer. Seeing this makes me miss the cliffhangers at the season’s end of a show. Did they die? Is that character killed off? Who did that? You don’t really see that much these days. There are too many shows and no real seasons anymore.
Forty years ago at the end of the season, a gloved hand was shown shooting J.R. Ewing, the show’s main character and villain; fade to black. Who shot him? Will he live? What’s going to happen? Because at the time there were pretty much only three networks on tv, everyone knew about it and it was the topic of conversation the whole summer. It was a huge deal. HUGE. Seriously, it was in the paper, serious news shows talked about, it was on the cover of Time magazine for goodness sake!
Can you think of a show on now that would garner the same sort of attention? I can’t. Our viewing options number in the hundreds, perhaps thousands every day. Too many shows, no real seasons anymore, too much going on. I remember being thrilled to watch the last episode of the season for my shows, because most of the time there was a cliffhanger – so exciting! And then we had to wait all summer until the new season started again to find out what happened. I miss that shared experience and excitement.
I could talk about, at length, pretty much everything shown on this collage. However, that would make for a ridiculously long post and you would all get bored eventually. Feel free to discuss or ask me anything in the comments if you’d like, perhaps we can continue our 80s discussions there. 😉
Selfies by Howard Robinson – Cra-Z-Art – 125/500 pieces
Sadly, we have come to the end of our series. These sets are so entertaining for me to assemble, and in addition there’s the fun of coming up with silly names and backstories for each one. I hope you all have enjoyed reading my nonsensical ramblings as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them. 😎
These sets by Cra-Z-Art have truly been the most fun I’ve had this summer (where I live though, it’s basically summer all year round). They are the quickest 500 piece puzzles I’ve ever assembled, because I cannot stop working on them – they’re too much fun!
Thurston, meet my readers; readers, meet Thurston. He comes from one of the hoity toity areas of the ocean – near Palm Beach, Florida. Thurston has never worked a day in his life, and his only responsibility is deciding how to spend his inheritance. He has no ambition, no actual life skills, and no discernible intelligence. He thinks he’s pretty darn amazing though, of course he does. Wait until he finds out that male seahorses are the ones that get pregnant and have to carry the babies!
This almost completely black and white puzzle was a little challenging, and took pretty much all of my concentration. It’s the largest of all twelve puzzles, and although it was difficult, the finished result is completely worth it.
Tracy is an Orca -what some call a killer whale. Tracy doesn’t like the “killer whale” nametag though, she doesn’t consider herself a killer at all; unless you’re talking about her killer moves on the dance floor! She’s a postal carrier by day, and after work she loves to dance the night away at her favorite club – The Barrier Reef. Tracy and her fiance, Oswaldo, met on the dance floor. It was love at first cha-cha.
The expression on this shark is too funny, and it reminds me of an excited puppy. Therefore I have given him one of the most popular pet names – Max. He’s just a little guy in a great big ocean, and he doesn’t mind at all. Max is a toll booth attendant, and although some would find it an extremely boring job he loves it and enjoys meeting so many new creatures every day. In his spare time he enjoys needlepoint, making his own homemade pickles, and binge-watching 80’s tv shows on Tuna-Netflix.
I’ve got four more of these sets that I haven’t assembled yet, and I’m trying not to do them even though I REALLY want to. I need to get myself back in the habit of working on my puzzles more often, as July was the worst month of puzzling for me in a long time. I barely assembled any puzzles and spent most of the month in bed. Perhaps part of the reason is a vicious cycle that self-perpetuates. I’m depressed and hurting and don’t even have the energy to get out of bed, I stay there and don’t work on my puzzles which would help to elevate my mood. No puzzles, no boost to my mood. No boost to my mood, no puzzles. Lather, rinse, repeat.
So, I’m saving them as a reward for when I get myself out of bed and back to the puzzle board every day; it’ll be good to get back into my routine. And once I do, I can give myself the reward of putting together another one of these fantastic sets. 😎
Day three of these adorable, silly, ocean selfies – and honestly I think these may be three with the cutest expressions on their faces. I mean, they just make me smile. Even this morning when I was in a bad mood for no reason whatsoever, I opened up this post to finish writing and saw the faces and now I have a big, goofy smile on my face. Puzzles are so awesome!
Remember the two clownfish from day one – Bernard and Helen? This is their daughter, Lena. She is a soft-spoken, kind-hearted, sweet gal who is always determined to be happy. Lena works in the business office at Ebb Tide University, and is always thoughtful and supportive of all her students. In her spare time she enjoys working on home renovations with her husband Todd; right now they’re building a small playground in the backyard for their grandchildren. 🐠🐠
This was one of the most difficult puzzles in this set for me, it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. I always put the box away and put these puzzles together without the help of the image, so this one had me working a bit harder than I thought I would have to. It was worth it though, look at that smile!
This guy reminds me of the surfer dude turtle in the movie Finding Nemo, and so I have named him Keanu. He’s currently “in between jobs” and spends most of his time hanging out with his friends and having deep philosophical discussions – or perhaps I should say they have what they think are philosophical discussions. Keanu is a kind, well-meaning dude, but he doesn’t always make the best decisions. Just ask his former boss.
I went and did some research to find out what species this fish was, because I wanted to see if the artist took some license with those lips. He didn’t! Best I can tell, this is a Longhorn Cowfish, and this is definitely what they look like – kissy lips and all. When I first saw it, I laughed out loud at the “ducklips”. Well, the artist didn’t do that, Mother Nature did!
This is Cheryl, and she’s an Instagram model. She thinks she’s gorgeous, and every new follower she gets just reinforces that belief. She’s not fun to be around, as most of the time she’s mentally arranging her next post so that others will tell her how pretty she is – and she will definitely believe them. Cheryl is petty and self-involved, and every “hobby” she has revolves around making herself look good. Cheryl is an idiot.
Selfies by Howard Robinson – Cra-Z-Art – 125/500 pieces
I mean, just look at this picture. You have to be an excellent artist to get the anatomy of a great white shark correct and still make it look friendly! Howard Robinson did an excellent job with each of these underwater animals, and the expressions on some of them are absolute perfection.
Full confession here, both hubby and my youngest son helped me name a few of these selfies. I was making myself laugh while I was getting these posts written up, and they came in to see what was funny. Once I explained that I was giving each little puzzle a name and a backstory they couldn’t help but blurt out name suggestions. I took the good ones. All the rest of the info came from me, but I need to give credit where credit is due. 🙂
This is Winifred, she’s a white shark -and she’s great! She loves travel and meeting new species – she is definitely NOT a homebody. Winifred knows she can be a bit terrifying when you meet her for the first time, so she’s gotten herself some contact lenses that add a bit of white to her normally jet black eyes. It makes a world of difference! She’s also taught herself to smile so that she only shows her bottom row of teeth which is much less frightening. She’s a sweet, gentle soul who wishes she wasn’t so scary to others, because she would love to have more friends.
I have no idea what species of fish this is, so again I’m going with what the face looks like to me. This is Lorenzo, and he’s angry. He can’t really decide what he’s angry about today, but he’ll figure something out. If you gave Lorenzo a million dollars he’d complain about the denomination of the bills. If you gifted him a year’s supply of his favorite food, he’d complain about not having a place to store it. He’s rarely happy, and not much fun to be around at all. He likes (enjoys might be going too far) woodworking, refurbishing old furniture, and lip syncing to Lady Gaga songs in the living room. He’s a complicated guy.
This little beauty is one of my favorites; the colors are lovely, but if I’m being honest – the four human-looking teeth are kinda creepy. And forgive me for saying so, but that smile makes him look like he’s not quite all there. That is why I have christened him Dweezil. Those of you who remember the 80s should get the joke. 😉
Dweezil enjoys pretty much everything. He has a full-time job as a dental floss tester, and in his spare time he builds sand castles. Unfortunately he lives near the North Atlantic Current, and his castles rarely stay up for more than a few seconds. Still, he has fun with it, and isn’t that what really matters? His older sister Moon Unit lives nearby and the whole family gets together for dinner at least once a week.
Intrigued yet? Checking puzzle sites to see if any of these puzzles are currently available? I certainly hope so! 🧩💗
My Jigsaw Journal 