Cupcake Heaven

On January 16, 2019January 16, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

My first completed 1000 piece puzzle of the year. I chose it because it’s the kind of puzzle image that makes me happy – a collage with bright colors – and I wanted the first puzzle of the year to be awesome and entertaining.

Cupcake Heaven had 7 missing pieces and a devious random cut that had me using more brain power than I’d bargained for. If the puzzle was complete and the fit were less spongy it would definitely be one I’d assemble again. It wasn’t always easy to be sure the pieces were in the correct places because the fit was odd.

Even though it had missing pieces and a wonky fit I still enjoyed myself, which was the aim all along. Everything doesn’t always have to be perfect – life certainly never is! It’s what you do with what you’re given that counts in the end.

Cupcakes for everyone! 🙂

Ocean Life

On December 27, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This was one of those thrift store puzzles that almost breaks my heart. We love finding fantastic quality kids puzzles, assembling them, and then donating them. When we find one of such excellent quality that’s missing a piece it’s so much more of a disappointment than regular missing pieces to me.

This Mudpuppy puzzle was one of the best quality kids puzzles I’ve seen in quite some time. Extremely thick pieces, beautiful colors, excellent fit – and it even had a little extra something – a search and find aspect. All the pictures around the edges are also shown in the main image and they’re not all easy to find.

What a bummer that it’s missing a piece! It makes me sad, as a lover of puzzles, that they aren’t taken care of. (But I do remember childhood too, vaguely, so I also understand.) But for some strange reason these missing pieces makes me wish that I could go back to my childhood and take MUCH better care of all of my toys and things. If I had, not only would they be worth some big time cash right now, I’d still have some of the things I loved to play with as a child. How awfully sweet and uncharacteristically sentimental of me, right? I know!

Kittens in the Kitchen

On October 22, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles7 Comments

To be honest, I didn’t even notice there were cats in this puzzle until I started assembling it! I only saw the kitchen as a whole when I looked at the box, the kittens didn’t even register – of course I didn’t see the name of the puzzle either – Kittens in the Kitchen. I guess I don’t get the Captain Observation award for the day, huh?

I love the sign, I only wish I had a dining room to put it in. The view out the window is very pretty and was lots of fun to put together. 🙂 Unfortunately there were 2 missing pieces, but that didn’t make it any less fun to put together – at least not for me.

This was a thrift store puzzle, and seems to have been well loved before it was donated. Some of the pieces were bent and the finished puzzle didn’t lay completely flat. It’s difficult to say whether this is because it was pre-owned, or whether it’s a manufacturing defect; nevertheless it was an entertaining puzzle that made for a lovely afternoon.

Bookmarks

On October 12, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Even though this puzzle was missing a piece it, it was still great fun. Each bookmark was entertaining to put together, and it made for an excellent all around puzzle.

I didn’t use the image on the box to help me with the assembly – so only shape, color, and patterns were used to solve it. I sometimes enjoy challenging myself by putting the box away and solving the puzzle with no help from the image at all. I don’t always know which puzzle is going to lead me to attempt it without the image; usually it’s the more difficult ones, but sometimes it’s fun collages like this one.

Charlie Girard puts together some amazing images that make for wonderfully fun puzzles, that’s why he’s one of my favorite puzzle artists. His collages make me so happy! I’ve done many of his collages, but there are still many more I’d love to get my hands on. 🙂

These are some of my favorite bookmarks from this puzzle…

I wonder what my choice of these 3 bookmarks says about me. Thoughts? 😉

Jungle Friends

On September 19, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Even though this puzzle had 2 missing pieces it was still fun to assemble – I had a great time with it actually. 👍

Mom has quite the knack for finding awesome puzzles like this one at the thrift stores. I’m kinda missing all those awesome finds these days, she’s in the process of moving and doesn’t have time to go thrift shopping. (Besides, if she came home with more puzzles I think my dad’s head might explode – they still haven’t finished packing all the ones we already own!)

I enjoy kids puzzles very much, I’m a “grownup” but putting together a kids puzzle makes me just as happy as any adult puzzle ever could. Sometimes it’s not the puzzle, it’s the puzzling. ☺