Monday’s Child

On May 28, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Springbok octagonal puzzle from 1973! Cool, right? Precious Moments characters for each day of the week with the nursery rhyme Monday’s Child. It’s very cute, but also very pale and made for a moderately difficult assembly!

This puzzle was pretty difficult with the paleness of everything as well as a random cut. In addition, I believe the puzzle must have been stored for many years; there was discoloration on many of the pieces which helped in making the assembly a bit more challenging.

The image was adorably cute, and was for the most part a fun assembly. I will say that after all the words and kids finding the right piece became quite a task! Everything is so pale, there are small flowers here and there but otherwise the pieces were white/cream colored. With a random cut it’s difficult to know what shape piece you’re looking for if you don’t have color or pattern to guide you. With everything mostly white I didn’t know if I was looking for a large piece, or 2 smaller pieces. And when I thought I was looking for a small piece it would turn out to be the end of a great big piece! Random cut isn’t bad when there is something to guide you, but when the pieces are all the same color – it blows!

The Springbok quality wasn’t bad. Good piece thickness and they fit together well. I can’t speak to the image reproduction because of the discoloration and age of the puzzle. My only issue with this puzzle is that the piece shape is extremely obvious in the finished puzzle and you can’t see the artwork very well at all. Otherwise I didn’t have any problems with it.

I don’t usually take more than one picture, but I wanted to show a closeup of one of the kids, they’re so cute!

Country Cupboard

On May 14, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles3 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day! This is the puzzle I chose to do for today because it reminds me of my mom. ❤

For most of my youth mom was a stay at home mom, and there was usually something fresh baked or homemade on our table. Not only because she didn’t work outside the home, but because it’s much less expensive to cook things from scratch. We lived in the country and there were plenty of fresh foods for canning and freezing that helped keep our grocery bills down. There were lots of family trips to pick apples, blackberries, cherries, strawberries, etc. And then we “got to” help mom prepare them for whatever she was going to do with them. My sisters and I were not always thrilled about it to say the least. Raspberries and cherries were the worst! Cherries especially because they had to be washed, then you had to remove the stem and then remove the seed inside – one by one. Ugh. We didn’t even like cherries or the cherry pie filling mom made from them!

When I see a jar of canned tomatoes like in this puzzle it reminds me of my mom and how much she worked at home so that she could be at home for us. I’ve turned into my mom, because my kids know how much better homemade cookies are, and that it’s almost always cheaper to cook at home then to go out for dinner. I learned what I needed to know from my mom who is the best there is!

And now as an adult mom is my best friend. A lot of people say that, but for me it’s actually true. We talk every day, go shopping together when I’m able to, work on puzzles together and just hang out whenever we can; we have our own little jokes together and can crack each other up with a single word or a look. I’m so glad she’s my mom and in my life and that I get to see her as much as I do. I love her bunches and bunches!!

This is where the comparison to my mother ends, she’s awesome and the best – this puzzle leaves a lot to be desired. 😐

The pieces of this puzzle fit together so tightly that you can see in the picture that the it doesn’t even lay flat, it’s curled up on the sides. Every piece required a lot of effort to connect, it’s one of my puzzle pet peeves. When I have to work so much to put pieces together it makes me feel as if it’s not the correct placement. This is especially difficult when you have a darker image, you feel you need to check and double check if the pieces really fit there. Also when the fit is so tight the pieces don’t all lay flat and many of them have several edges sticking up; and the piece shapes are quite prominent in the finished puzzle, even from a distance. The image was crisp and clear in some areas and very fuzzy and vague in others. On the plus side, the pieces were quite thick and the variety of piece shapes was very good.

Sometimes it’s hit or miss with Springbok in my opinion. This one was a miss. Thrift store shopping is always interesting, it could be an awesome find or a dud. But that’s alright, there are plenty more puzzles to try – maybe the next Springbok we find has amazing quality and an excellent image!

So Happy Mother’s Day to all – but especially to my thrift store shopping, puzzle hoarding bestest friend. I love you to (puzzle) pieces, but if you need help canning some cherry pie filling YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN!!! 😎

High Jinks on the High Seas!

On May 8, 2017May 18, 2023 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This puzzle is adorable and a very cool thrift store find! Very nice quality for a Springbok puzzle from the 80’s – and all the pieces were there. Bonus!

I really love the artwork by Ulli Schneider, cartoon puzzles are up there in my favorites and I like the characters very much. I wanted to say “her characters” but realized that I don’t know if the name Ulli is male or female. I’m not sure why I assumed the artist was female. Interesting, I hope that doesn’t make me a sexist!

The piece cut is very random as you can see and it was extremely entertaining to assemble. The characters were quite fun to put together; the ship and sails were daunting at first, but as usual we worked it out. Mom and I got it done relatively quickly working together – we are an awesome puzzle team. Wonder Twin Powers………. activate! (Silly cartoon from the late 70’s – The Wonder Twins)

Springbok is a company we prefer to purchase only from thrift stores; sometimes the pieces have a LOT of hanging paper on the back and fit together way too tightly for our taste. But to each his own, everyone has their own opinions on what constitutes a good puzzle – and every single one of them is correct! The quality on this puzzle was very good, it’s from the 80’s and has held up pretty well.

How is it that the 80’s were 30 years ago? I cannot possibly be that old! Oh wait, I just quoted a tv cartoon from the 70’s, I AM that old. 😐

Offering of the Coral Plants to the Emperor

On January 30, 2017February 25, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Whew! What a title! This was another amazing thrift store find, and here’s the best part – it’s a vintage puzzle from 1965 in the original and amazingly non-beat up box with no missing pieces!

I have to say I had an AWESOME time assembling this puzzle and it tested my brain power! I’ve mainly been working grid-cut puzzles for several months and having to rethink and use your brain differently on a random cut like this was a challenge and super fun! And since I assembled almost the entire thing on January 29th (National Puzzle Day), I wanted some family help – so one of my sons, my husband and my mom helped me with this one. 🙂

I’m honestly amazed at how well taken care of this puzzle was. The box is almost pristine, the puzzle has no image lift, seemingly no wear at all – and it was produced in 1965, the year my parents got married! Holy guacamole! They made some quality stuff that was built to last in the 60’s! I was made in the 60’s. 😉

Springbok is not a puzzle company I usually assemble, it’s one of those that seems hit or miss for me so I would rather see and feel the pieces before I buy. But these pieces were gorgeous, cut well and didn’t require upper body strength to fit them together. Excellent quality on this puzzle!

The image is an adaptation of a Chinese porcelain plate decoration from the early 1700’s. The finish on the puzzle looks almost porcelain as well! It’s a beautiful image, an excellent quality puzzle, and my family and I had a great time assembling it. If you’re lucky enough to find a good copy of this one, go for it!