Tag: Lewis T. Johnson

Colorful Destinations

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Colorful Destinations by Lewis T. Johnson – Buffalo – 750 pieces

Beautiful. colorful, and quite lovely to assemble (according to my completed puzzles page from last year). Unfortunately the next several puzzle posts will most likely all say something to the effect of “I have no memory of actually assembling this puzzle”. They were all finished last year and in the queue when the puzzling stopped. Sorry.🤷‍♀️

From what little I put in my draft of this post I can tell you that this one was excellent quality – that’s always good to hear, isn’t it? Of course Buffalo puzzles are usually very good or excellent in the quality department, they were one of the brands being purchased most often last year because 1) they have a LOT of images by my favorite artist – Aimee Stewart, and 2) there have been very few issues with their puzzle quality that I have ever had to deal with. I’m glad this one was no exception.

I’m not much of a traveler, and to be honest the only country I’ve visited is Canada. We used to live in Michigan – directly West of Canada. And you didn’t need a passport back in the old days to cross the bridge and visit our neighbors to the North; sometimes we’d go over just to have dinner.

Luckily even though I’m not well-traveled there are gorgeous puzzles like this one so at least we can look at all the fabulous places there are in the world to visit.✈

I absolutely loved this section, figuring out how all those stripes went together had me in full meditation mode. Fantastic!

Another section that was fun to put together, it reminded me of the Colorforms I used to have as a kid. Anyone else remember those?

This was my favorite section, the artwork is fabulous and it really stands out. Stunning, isn’t it? Loved it!

After completing a wonderfully entertaining collage on Sunday, I may or may not have gone to the bookstore and bought myself six more big collages. My youngest son asked for a ride to the movie theater, and coincidentally it is very close to the bookstore where I sometimes shop for puzzles. That’s what happens when I’m left unattended with money in my wallet.

Perhaps the inner puzzle goddess in me was raring to get back to my board and to make up for all the time when I wasn’t shopping for puzzles. In addition to shopping in an actual brick and mortar store there are four different shipments of puzzles on their way to my house. I ordered a bunch of small puzzles that could be worked on while in bed if necessary, and lots of bigger ones too. It may be that I wanted to be sure to have lots of incentive to continue puzzling even if I’m not feeling so great after next week’s surgery, or that I just missed being at the board, or just a severe PADS flare-up. Putting together beautiful puzzles, writing about them, and sharing them with my puzzle posse really does improve my mood and help deal with all the stress of life and dealing with chronic pain.

Whatever the reason, there is NO REMORSE whatsoever. In fact, I’m working on one of my new collages right now – and having a fabulous time. Puzzles (especially collages) truly are my happy place. 🧩😍

In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Colorful Destinations by Lewis T. Johnson – Buffalo – 750 pieces

Still in my funk I’m afraid, and haven’t touched my current puzzle in a couple of days. Hopefully today will be the day I get back to it.

The border is completed, and so are the words, and a few of the sections that I picked out on the initial sort; I’m somewhere between a third and a half done. I’d take a picture, but I’m just not feeling up to going into the puzzle room at the moment.

Hope you all have a great week. Happy puzzling!

Vintage Tin Toys

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles8 Comments

Vintage Tin Toys
Vintage Tin Toys by Lewis T. Johnson – Milton Bradley – 1000 pieces

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!

Vintage Tin Toys 1
Umm…..a bartender?

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. 🧩💖

Vintage Tin Toys In Progress

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

Vintage Tin Toys IP
Vintage Tin Toys by Lewis T. Johnson – Milton Bradley – 1000 pieces

I didn’t actually start assembling this puzzle until yesterday, it was been sitting on my board waiting to be sorted for more than a day. Finally got my lazy butt in gear and started working on it!

It’s much more difficult than I thought it would be, but I find that I’m not at all frustrated with it. Finding the right shape or the right color is still relaxing and peaceful, even if the rate of assembly is a little slower than normal. My daughter chose an awesome puzzle for me, she’s the sweetest❣

My one frustration with this puzzle is that the image on the front of the box is, of course, covered in one area by a banner with information that could have been put elsewhere. There is an image of the artwork on the back of the box with no obstructions, but it’s smaller than the image on the front! So annoying! Seriously, do they think that’s something we puzzlers are looking for?

My eyesight is declining as I get older, and a smaller image isn’t what I’m looking for. If you can’t give me an unobstructed view of the artwork on the front of the box, give me a poster to work from. I realize that it may cost you a few more cents in production, but trust me, you’ll make the consumers very happy and more inclined to purchase your product. Duh! Is this really something you need to be told?!

Sorry for the rant guys, guess I just needed to get that off my chest.

Happy puzzling today! 😎🧩

Candy For All Seasons

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

Candy
Candy for All Seasons by Lewis T. Johnson – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is the day for love, and gifts of flowers, jewelry, and candy if you believe the commercials. Hubby and I don’t go in for all of that; he treats me like the queen I am all year long. 👑

Anyway, to the puzzle! I don’t have any Valentine’s Day puzzles here at the house, and I don’t like to repeat any posts, so this one was the closest I could get specific to today’s holiday.  I associate some holidays with candy – Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. This puzzle has one heart lollipop which is the only candy I could find for Valentine’s Day; it’s a little sad, one lonely lollipop.

There’s plenty of chocolate eggs and rabbits for the Easter holiday. The only thing I could find specifically for Halloween was the candied apple at the bottom. There are some Christmas chocolates in the foreground, but really not that much.

The surprise for me was the Thanksgiving candy. I don’t associate that holiday with candy at all, for Americans it’s all about the Thanksgiving dinner; but there were several things shown here that I’ve never seen at all.

Candy 1

I have never seen a chocolate turkey before, or anything like the lollipop shown here. It’s probably the least appetizing “candy” I’ve ever seen. I certainly wouldn’t want to eat it – candy corn and green chocolate – ugh. Does that sound good to anyone?

I’m familiar with most of the candies shown, but I’ve never seen or eaten Turkish Taffy or Abba Zabbas. I’ve seen and tried Lemon Heads, but never knew they make other flavors like Cherry Heads and Apple Heads too!

The quality was a little disappointing with this one, most notably the fuzzy image reproduction. I’ve seen this on several White Mountain collages, but it doesn’t stop me from buying them. It can be a bit annoying, but they have some of the best collages in the business and collages are my favorite type of puzzle to assemble – so I just deal with it. If it’s important to you though, you should be aware.

This White Mountain puzzle was a thrift store find, and I very much enjoyed putting it together, even with the four missing pieces. According to my puzzle friend Nicola, the task is to put together all the pieces you have until there are none left. The puzzle may not be complete and you may have missing pieces, but you have completed your task when you place the last piece. If you look at it that way, it’s a little less frustrating, right?

I try not to get too upset at missing pieces, most especially the ones from the thrift store. In my mind, I’m dividing the time spent by the amount paid for the puzzle. If I spent 8 hours on a thrift store puzzle that I bought for $1.99, then even if there is a missing piece or two I have gotten a fantastic deal! Where else can you get time to yourself, productive entertainment, and all the health benefits that come from assembling jigsaw puzzles for only 25 cents an hour? A bargain at 100 times the price!