Tag: Springbok

Orphaned Puzzles!

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments
Transit Graphics – Galison – 1000 pieces

After I finished reading through the entire blog recently, I decided to also read through all the completed puzzle pages for each year – just to see my shortened comments about each of the puzzles – it was very interesting for me. While I was there I found three orphaned puzzles that were shown on a completed page for a certain year but for whatever reason they never made it to a blog post of their own. Oh dear! They won’t each get their own post, but I’ve decided to show them here all together.

The first puzzle, shown above, was completed in August of 2016. As you can tell by the awful picture this was a puzzle that was assembled before this blog even started. My mother and I used to text each other pictures of our finished puzzles, and this was a quick picture just to send over text to show her it was complete; and I’ve rounded it off so you don’t see as much of my bed. Even though it’s been almost 10 years, I still remember this one if you can believe it. It was quite easy for me, and according to my little blurb it was started one day after my husband had left for work and was finished before he got home that night. Not bad for a 1000 pieces!

Krispy Kreme – Gibsons – 500 pieces

This puzzle was completed in December of 2017. The blog was well established by then, so I’m not certain why a full post was never done. Thankfully it’s a much better picture than the previous puzzle; by this time my puzzle boards had been made for me by my sweet hubby and I had figured out how to take a picture that doesn’t look like I was in the process of falling down when the photo was shot.

Unlike the Transit Graphics puzzle, I have no memory of this one. At all. According to the completed puzzles page this one made me hungry, but I was a bit disappointed in the quality. Apparently I had higher hopes for this brand but it didn’t measure up. Thankfully it was still entertaining, and that’s what it’s all about (and I do love a Krispy Kreme donut 🍩).

Victorian Letters – Springbok – 500 pieces

Victorian Letters was also completed in December of 2017. It must have been a crazy month for me to somehow forget to give these puzzles each a post of their own. Oh well, it’s being rectified now – better late than never, right?

It won’t surprise you to hear that I don’t remember this puzzle assembly either. It’s a very pretty image though, and it makes me wish I had typed up a full post. Apparently this was one of Springbok’s very tight fitting puzzles, and at the end my thumb was hurting from smashing together pieces that fit together much too snugly.

I enjoyed reading through all the pages to see all the puzzles completed and how I described them – it was a very entertaining exercise. I’ve read through the blog before, but never through all the completed puzzles pages. I enjoyed myself more than I though I would. 😎

*ps* It also made my OCD a little crazy, so I went back through and edited all the pages so that they should all have the right size images and there is a now a running total of puzzles completed, pieces assembled, and brands worked with for each month. It needed to be done so the part of my brain that craves order would calm the $@!% down!

Going to the Movies

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles8 Comments

Going to the Movies – Springbok – 1000 pieces

This thrift store puzzle had a HORRIBLE loose and floppy fit, and was so bleeping frustrating that I wanted to set the bleeping thing on fire and chuck it in the bleeping garbage! Bleep! 😡🤬

You couldn’t move two pieces without them falling apart and it was unbelievably frustrating to work with.

Normally Springbok puzzles aren’t loose, many times I’ve had Springbok puzzles with a fit that was too tight and you had to really work at getting the pieces together; neither is fun to work with in my opinion. This one was so frustrating that at times I was almost enraged by how the pieces would crumble apart when you tried to adjust them even just a tiny bit. Grrrr!

The collage image was one I was very excited to put together, you know how I love an interesting collage – it’s my puzzle happy place. Unfortunately the puzzle that this image was attached to made me very, very sad. Very sad indeed. 😭

Regardless, the image was fun to assemble and the family and I all took turns saying how many of the movies we hadn’t seen. Usually with a book cover collage we say how many of the books we’ve read, but with this one most of us have seen almost all the of movies. There are only five movies in this image that I haven’t seen; Weird Science, The Blues Brothers, A Clockwork Orange, Scarface, and Blade Runner.

*Please don’t say, “Oh, but you have to see ______, it’s such an iconic/funny/wonderful, interesting movie”. While I appreciate your opinions, truly, I am very particular about movies and have to be in just the right mood to watch certain genres. And as I get older I find I have much less taste for deep, insightful, upsetting, or thought-provoking movies; entertainment, not introspection is what I’m looking for.*

I’ve chosen three to highlight here because they’re movies that I love and have seen multiple times and can quote from. Ready for some reminiscing?

The Princess Bride is a family favorite, and my entire family can quote extensively from this one. It’s a fabulous movie that I highly recommend if comedy, drama, romance and fun are what you’re looking for. Princess Buttercup, Wesley, Fezzik, Inigo Montoya, Vizzini, Miracle Max, Prince Humperdinck – all amazing characters in a wonderful movie that the whole family can enjoy. There’s only one swear word in the entire movie, and I’ve already told the story of my youngest son yelling out the movie quote at his teacher when he was upset at school. “I want my father back you son of a b*tch!” Oh dear.

Being the comedy nerd that I am, of course I loved Airplane! All the slapstick, the little jokes that you have to pay attention to hear, it’s a fantastically funny movie in my opinion. Barbara Billingsley (Beaver Cleaver’s mom) talking jive, the “drinking problem” of the hero, the little guy visiting the cockpit and talking to the pilot – thinking of all the stupid, ridiculous, naughty, silly jokes really does make me smile.

As a teenager in the 1980s, of course John Hughes movies are on my list of great movies to watch. My whole family loved this movie, and we can quote from this one too. Anthony Michael Hall and Molly Ringwald were fabulous in this one (and who can forget Gedde Watanabe as Long Duk Dong?), and the comedy and one liners are still funny to me today. Sweet, silly, touching – John Hughes knew how to make a great movie.

I wish I’d enjoyed this puzzle more, but the quality left a bit to be desired. 😐

Oh well, at least talking about some of my favorite movies has made me happy.

…Movies In Progress…

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling2 Comments

Going To The Movies – Springbok – 1000 pieces

I finally got this one sorted and started assembling the edges, but the border is more difficult than anticipated. I admit that I gave up on it for a bit yesterday and had plans to come back and at least get the border done, but life got in the way. As usual.

Then there were plans to get up early this morning and finish the edge before I had to type up today’s post, but sleep got in the way of that one. 💤💤

Hopefully once the border is complete it’ll be a little bit easier!

Button, Button

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Button, Button – Springbok (Hallmark) – 500+ pieces

This puzzle scared me a bit, it seemed as though it would be super difficult; it wasn’t easy, that’s true, but it was really fun too! This is an old Springbok, from back when they were a division of Hallmark Cards. From what I can find this is from about the mid 1970s.

The very random cut of the pieces adds to the challenge, but the fit was excellent. I can lift the whole thing up with one hand and nothing comes apart. Unfortunately because it’s octagonal it isn’t conducive to getting the traditional Stacey-loves-standing-them-up picture. Bummer.

There is a bunch of information on the back of the box about buttons. Which, I know, doesn’t sound all that interesting – but it really was! I took my normal amount of pictures of the puzzle, then I read all the information and had to take different pictures to show you the cool buttons I learned about. All off the buttons in this image are from the collection of Marie Bertholet Smith, who was an interior designer, art director, antique store owner, and who also worked at Hallmark for a number of years.

Wanna see some really awesome buttons?

This is an example of a “stud button”, which were sometimes large, hand-painted, and porcelain. They were called studs because of their post-like fasteners and were made to fasten cuffs, to button men’s vests and ladies shirtwaists, and to insert into the lapel. Look at the detail!

When I was putting this particular button together it made me think of how much time and care must have gone into making this one single button. Back in the day everything was constructed with such care; these days we melt blobs of plastic and pour them into molds for cheap, crappy things that constantly break.

See those spherical buttons in the center of the picture? Those are called “paperweight buttons” because of their resemblance to glass desk paperweights. They were most often made by glassblowers forming a mold of glass over a small ceramic object. Imagine the time it must have taken!

This is called a “garter button”, and they were used on fancy garters in the 1920s. They were faces painted on stretched silk or cotton. I love these! There were several examples of them in the image, but I chose this one because it had the ribbon headband.

It’s such a bummer there were two missing pieces, but for a 45 year old puzzle, that’s to be expected I suppose. It was still so much fun to put together, and learning about so many different kinds of buttons was almost as entertaining as the puzzle!

This old Springbok really makes me think of my Grama. In the days before the internet our only source of good quality puzzles was the Hallmark store. It was about 18 miles away from where we lived, and they only had one or two small shelves at the back of the store that had puzzles. I can remember exactly where in the store they were, all these years later. We had such fun walking to the back and wondering what kinds of puzzles would be there; and then finding just the right one or two to take home with us. Springbok puzzles will always remind me of her. 💖

Christmas Cookies

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Christmas Cookies by Allied Products – Majestic Puzzles (Springbok) – 500 pieces

Another puzzle sent by a puzzling friend, you can never have too many of those! I always appreciate it when someone thinks I’ll enjoy a puzzle and sends it along, it’s just so thoughtful and I love that. 💙 Christmas puzzles aren’t my favorite, as you all know, because they all seem so alike and the images are just not my pile of pieces. When there’s a different one though, it usually finds it’s way to me – just like this one has.

This puzzle had great quality, the pieces feel like a Springbok but without the super tight fit. That would probably be because they’re part of the Springbok line (which I did not know until writing up this post). Looking at the pieces it seemed as though it might be a difficult assembly, but it turned out it was more fun than I thought it would be. It was a great puzzle that went together quickly.

I started with the yellow, blue, and the sugary red mitten; then filled in all the green. I don’t usually have in process pictures, but for some reason I felt like documenting part of the assembly for this one.

This puzzle was so much fun to put together, and is a beautiful finished image – I love cookie puzzles!