Let’s Play Football

On May 23, 2020May 22, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles8 Comments

This is another thrift store puzzle that mom bought (I still probably have a year or more of thrift store puzzles that she bought to get through). Even though Karmin quality isn’t great I did this one because she bought it – and I love dogs and dog puzzles!

As soon as I opened the box and felt the pieces I knew it wouldn’t be the best quality or assembly. The fit wasn’t great and the pieces were pretty thin, but it was a fantastically adorable image and at least all the pieces were there. And I just cannot resist doggy faces, they’re the best!

Let's Play Football 1

Happily playing tug-of-war with a scarf, so cute! I started with the scarf because they were the easiest pieces to pick out, other than the sky most of the pieces were different shades of brown. The scarf leads to two adorable, happy puppy faces – irresistable!

Let's Play Football 2

The smiling face of this dog, and the scarf makes me think of Lady from Lady and the Tramp. It looks a little like the same breed, even though I don’t think it is; it’s really the smiling face.

Let's Play Football 3

You know I can’t resist a sad puppy face either. It just makes me want to give belly rubs and pets and scratches everywhere to make this little guy/girl happy!

Even with less than premium quality, this puzzle was entertaining for me; they don’t all have to be perfect for me to enjoy them. The quality wasn’t the best, but I had a good time anyway; watching the faces come together, figuring out the best way to assemble the sky, finding those pieces of the football that I didn’t pick out the first time, etc. I needed quiet, meditative distraction and this puzzle provided it.

Perfect puppy profiles provided puzzle play, plus peaceful pondering. 🧩💗

If My People…

On May 21, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

This image is fabulous, but unfortunately the quality of the puzzle didn’t match. This puzzle had the thinnest pieces I’ve ever seen from Sunsout – it almost felt like a Cardinal puzzle from the dollar store. The fit wasn’t great either. In addition, a missing piece and two pieces that had been chewed by a pet or a child. Why would someone donate a puzzle like that? I don’t get it.

The image of hands repairing a battle-worn American flag is absolutely beautiful, and I truly wish it had been licensed to a company with better quality. That seems harsh, and it is; but this is my blog – about the puzzles I do and my opinions about them. That is my opinion.

Even for Sunsout this was terrible quality. Thin, bendable pieces and a bad fit made it less than pleasurable to work with. I finished it because my mom bought it, we both adored the image, and I wanted to see it through for her. If those things weren’t attached to it I’m not sure I would have kept going with such a terrible quality puzzle.

The artwork was painted after the 9-11 attacks and inspired by a Bible verse from 2 Chronicles. It contains hidden images; of the twin towers with rising smoke, of evil, of someone praying, and more. They were hard to find in the reproduced image, and even harder to photograph so that I could show you here. You can see, even without a closeup, the nail imprint on the left hand showing that it is Jesus mending the flag. If you’d like to see all of the hidden images you can check out the artist’s website which shows each hidden image and its meaning. (As a side note, the box this puzzle came in had absolutely no information about this artwork, the hidden images, or the artist).

This was a thrift store purchase, so as happens sometimes my puzzle had a couple of issues – the obvious missing piece in the flag, and the fact that someone or something used a couple of the pieces as a chew toy. Missing pieces happen, it isn’t a big deal to me. The chewed up pieces annoy me though. If you’re donating puzzles and you know a couple of pieces are chewed up – just don’t donate. Again, this is just my opinion.

If My People 1

These two pieces look relatively alright here, but they were mangled and I had to work to get them back in the right shape and fitted together. You can see the creases in the pieces to show how bent they were. Annoying.

Great image, terrible quality – it seems like I say that about Sunsout puzzles quite a bit, doesn’t it? They’ve been added to my boycott list along with Ceaco, it just isn’t worth the frustration for me. I need to be strong and resist the temptation when I see a fabulous image from a company that doesn’t have good quality. Sounds simple, but it’s not always easy for me to resist a beautiful image, I must admit. I’m a bit of a puzzle junkie.

Shocked? I know, right?! 😇

Pig House

On April 29, 2020April 29, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles14 Comments

I hemmed and hawed about assembling this puzzle, it’s probably been at my house for two years, perhaps even longer. It’s a thrift store find of mom’s that looks like a fun image, but with it’s muted colors I knew that it would be difficult. Of course you never know until you get to assembling, but it turns out I was right; the truly random cut and muted colors made it quite a challenge.

The Great American Puzzle Factory is no longer in business, but I don’t think it could have been because of their quality. I’ve done several of their puzzles, and they’ve all been very good. The pieces were very thick, with an excellent variety of shapes and an excellent fit. The image reproduction is very good as well, the muted colors seem to be true to the original artwork.

Pig House 1

La Pension Porcinee – the pig boarding house. I love the whimsy of the artwork and the simple and silly things all the pigs are doing. One is out walking the poodle, and there is a piglet blowing bubbles on the front steps while two old timers are in rocking chairs on the porch.

Pig House 2

Bath time – cleaning up with a big bottle of Hogwash – love it!

Pig House 3

Two honeymooners, expressing their love for one another while a cat hides under the bed. It’s not something you think pigs would be doing – traveling from Cincinnati! 😉

Pig House 4

Here we see the deliveryman bringing “food” into the kitchen. I’m certainly glad I don’t live close to this boarding house!

This puzzle is 34 years old – from 1986. It seems odd to me that the year I graduated from high school is that many years ago. That can’t possibly be. My math must be wrong. Right?

What’s the Temperature?

On April 25, 2020April 25, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

It will be no surprise to anyone that I had a fantastic time with this puzzle. I love collages, but the downside of them is that they are over too quickly because I can’t seem to walk away. Even if I sit in the chair at my puzzle table until the pain makes me stop, I end up resting for only a little while because I just have to get back to it!

This thrift store puzzle was complete, which isn’t something I can say about every puzzle bought second-hand. It was well loved, and it looks as though it’s been assembled several times; many of the tabs had the image lifting off from repeated assembly and disassembly. Otherwise, it was still in relatively good condition.

What's the Temperature 1

This made me smile, you almost need a magnifying glass to read it, but between the degrees of temperature it tells you why you should go fishing. At the colder end it says “Oh yay! Pre-frozen fish”, “Frozen worms aren’t slimy”, and “Wouldn’t sweat if we fished today”. At the warmer end it says “We fish, we get a tan, what d’ya say?”, “Too hot for anything but fishing”, and something like “Get the fish pre-baked today”. I’m not one for fishing, but I think this may be the cutest thermometer I’ve ever seen.

What's the Temperature 2

Looks to me like this is some sort of “snake oil” medication, but it makes for a cool looking thermometer. My son says “Dr.” Ramon looks like the Monopoly Man. 😄

What's the Temperature 3

You can see above many of the tabs with the image sticking up. It’s a thrift store puzzle that has been assembled before – you can’t say how many times – and there’s quite a bit of image lift on this puzzle. It makes the end of puzzle “massage” a little less satisfying; you can feel them sticking up and you have to try not to rip any of the image off while it’s getting it’s rubdown.

And when’s the last time anyone heard of Ken-L Ration dog food? Looooong time!

I started this one in the morning and finished before bedtime. Perhaps I need to see if I can find some 2000 piece collages – are there any of those out there? I’m sure there aren’t right now, but once we’re able to find puzzles again I’d love to get my hands on two or three — or twenty-seven of them. 😇

Crystal Cove II

On April 23, 2020April 23, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

This is not an image I would normally go for, but after assembling the Stained Glass Songbirds I wanted to see if this image – also from the Amazing Nature Series – would be as striking. It’s very pretty, but as it wasn’t the same artist it didn’t have the same stunning color usage, and this had such a large amount of blue that it seemed to overpower all other colors.

I think I was spoiled by Stained Glass Songbirds. The artwork of Ciro Marchetti and his color usage was so unbelievably beautiful that all others pale in comparison. It was my hope that being in the same series the artwork would be comparable. It isn’t. But it isn’t fair to the artist of this image, Christian Riese Lassen, to compare his work; it’s comparing apples to oranges. This image is beautiful on it’s own.

Crystal Cove 2

The top of the water wasn’t easy, but was much easier to assemble than below the water.

Crystal Cove 1

The fish weren’t too difficult, but the water and the dolphins took much more time and brain cell usage than the top half of the image.

It makes me happy to have found such good quality puzzles from the thrift stores. At the moment, when the world seems to be on pause, venturing out to the thrift stores for a little bit of puzzle shopping isn’t an option. I am hoping that when we’re all allowed out again that there will be MANY puzzles to choose from at all the thrift stores. All those puzzles that have been sold out at all our favorite online and retail shops have to go somewhere, right?

My hope is that many of those people who have taken up assembling jigsaw puzzles during this time will donate their used puzzles when we’re allowed out again. Spread the Puzzle Love ❣

Perhaps I should be saving my pennies; not for a rainy day, but for the shower of used puzzles that will hopefully be falling on my local thrift stores once things return to some sense of normalcy. ⛱