Tag: Thrift Store Puzzle

Jingle Bell Teddy & Friends

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments
Teddy
Jingle Bell Teddy & Friends by Charles Wysocki – Buffalo – 300 pieces

And so it is that we have come to the last of the holiday puzzles for this year – Hooray! I actually really liked this image, and found it quite entertaining to assemble. So farewell Santa, we’ll be seeing you here on My Jigsaw Journal around December of 2020!

This is another puzzle that was purchased much earlier in the year by mom at the thrift store, and I’ve kept it around to assemble closer to the holidays. Sometimes I get a little bored with the Wysocki images, to me they can all seem a little similar; but this one is quite different and that’s one of the reasons I enjoy it so much.

This puzzle shows Santa Claus in some of his many other incarnations: Father Christmas, St. Nick, Pere Noel, etc. They were fun to assemble, and I liked the look of all of them except for one, there’s an ornament, and the look of it seems a little creepy to me…

Teddy 1

I know, I’m used to the sugary sweet Coca-Cola American version and many other countries and cultures have a much different image of Santa. He’s not always a jolly old elf, in some places he’s rather stern looking. Still, there’s something about this ornament that seems odd in some way – it wasn’t my favorite for sure.

Teddy 2

The lovely looking Santa with a green suit in a boat, he makes me smile. I’m not sure if this is a version of Santa from another country or if he only lives in the mind of Charles Wysocki, but I think he’s completely adorable!

This thrift store puzzle was complete, and I told mom when she brought it over that I would be assembling it this Christmas. And so I have kept my word. It was a lovely puzzle to assemble at 2 am when I couldn’t sleep and the house was quiet.

It kept this old lady off the streets and out of trouble. 😉

Keepsake Memories

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments
Keepsake
Keepsake Memories – Springbok – 1000 pieces

What? Another Christmas puzzle? I know, but I had three of them already assembled and waiting in my queue before I purchased the Terrible, Rotten, No Good, Very Bad Advent Calendar. So you’ll just have to put up with this and two more holiday puzzles before they are all done for the year.

Although the image is fun and interesting, the fit of this puzzle was not at all to my liking. It has the super tight fit that some Springbok puzzles have, where you have to use some upper body strength to press the pieces into place. It also makes for a puzzle that doesn’t always lay completely flat, because it’s so tight that it curls up in places. I know that some people prefer this very tight fit, but it’s just not for me.

Gnarly fit aside, the assembly was still engrossing and relaxing. Each of the fabrics/textures in the background were easy to pick out and assemble, and at the end it was just a matter of filling in each ornament. Calming, absorbing, entertaining, and all together lovely.

Keepsake 1

This was my favorite of the sections; Santa after work with his honeydew list of chores. I was able to read some of them, and he certainly has his work cut out for him! Fix the landing beacon, tune the glockenspiel, insulate the attic, and several other things that I wasn’t able to read. That ought to keep him busy and out of Mrs. Claus’ hair for a little while. 🔨🎅

How adorable are these two? Mom has chocolate dipped strawberries for feet, and dad has a licorice scarf and a peanut butter cup hat! Too cute!

Even though the fit was too tight for me, this puzzle still made me happy and provided me with several hours of alone time early in the mornings – peaceful quiet and puzzling. Lovely.

This puzzle is part of a batch of puzzles I’ve brought over from mom’s house. She loved this type of puzzle, especially with the Hallmark ornaments, and grama loved them too.  Collages are my favorite type of puzzle, and these Springbok collages with the fabric backgrounds are so fun to assemble – that makes three generations of women who loved to puzzle, and loved this type of puzzle as well – and I assembled it this year in loving memory of the two women whom I deeply loved and learned my love of puzzling from. 💖

Kiss Me

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles7 Comments
Kiss Me
Kiss Me – Ceaco – 100 pieces

I wanted to start the month with a completed puzzle on the first day – so this was assembled December 1st. I’ve been saving this puzzle since very early in the year; mom bought it for 69 cents at the thrift store, and although it was cute I thought it should be saved until the holiday season.

This is my kind of holiday puzzle, I love images that aren’t the typical Christmas themes. I think that’s why I don’t care for Christmas puzzles much, they all seem to look alike to me and I prefer to assemble images that are different and interesting. Just my opinion of course. 🙂

It wasn’t the best quality, the fit was slightly loose and there quite a bit of image lift, but both of those things could be because it was purchased secondhand. It may have been well loved and assembled many times – you never can tell. Still, I don’t expect perfection from any puzzle, let alone one from the local Goodwill store.

If you look closely, you’ll see that all the snowflakes are made up of Minions, how adorable is that?

Kiss Me 1

This puzzle makes me think of mom, knowing she bought it specifically for my “adopted” grandson who loves puzzles more than anything. Whenever she found a kids puzzle she would always buy it for him, especially if they were boy-themed or something a young boy would enjoy. She always brought them to me to assemble first because 1) we needed to be sure whether or not it was complete before it was passed on to the kiddo, and 2) because I love putting together kids puzzles perhaps more than the kids do. 😎

I’ll be giving this to my “grandson” soon, so he’ll be able to enjoy it for this holiday season. It’s the last puzzle mom was able to buy for him; he’s too young to appreciate the significance of that, but I’m not. Miss you momma. 💝

Sketches

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments
Sketches
Sketches – Ravensburger – 1000 pieces

This adorable puzzle went together amazingly quickly, and it was exactly the right amount of challenge. I absolutely adored it! Unfortunately a piece was missing, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment at all.

The quality was excellent; and the piece shapes aren’t quite as obvious as they were in the last Ravensburger I assembled. I really adore cartoon puzzles, and this image had enough cartoon elements that it ticked all the boxes for me. Ravensburger puzzles are such great quality that I never hesitate buying them secondhand from the thrift stores. Even if they’ve been assembled several times they hold up quite well. This was a thrift store puzzle that mom bought for us, she always found such wonderful puzzles at the best prices. 💖

Each of the sketches correspond with the pictures from the finished film beside it, except for Sully from Monsters, Inc.

Sketches 1

Sully’s sketch was mean and scary looking, but the image from the film is him being frightened (not frightening at all) and offering a teddy bear to Boo – so cute!

All of the Pixar movies shown are ones that I’ve seen and watched with my children; I think that’s another reason I enjoyed the assembly so much, it brought back wonderful memories of spending time with my kids when they were younger.

We would all pile into the car and get ourselves to the store when the VHS or DVDs of the movies were released. With three young children at home we didn’t bother with renting them from Blockbuster or a local video store, we always bought them.* And the rule was that we always watched them for the first time together, I loved watching the kids be enchanted by the story and images; the time we spent together when they were young was time well spent and provides me with wonderful memories to this day.

 

*For all you young’uns, people used to have to go to the store to rent or buy movies if they wanted to watch them at home. There was no Netflix, Hulu, or any other streaming service. You couldn’t watch movies on your smart phone either – there were no such things!

Who Said That?

On By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments
Who Said That
Who Said That? by Colin Bodie – Crystal Lines – 504 pieces

What a fascinating and fun jigsaw puzzle! It was almost as much fun sorting this one as it was assembling it. I loved reading all the quotes – many I knew, and many I’d never heard before. If you can find one of these puzzles I would highly recommend giving it a try; it’s not easy, but the challenge is oh so much fun.

In my previous in progress post regarding this puzzle I mistakenly said that this was a Buffalo puzzle, in fact it’s by Crystal Lines. It was made in Australia, a great product sent to us from Down Under. This particular puzzle is 25 years old, produced in 1994. I highly doubt it’s still being manufactured, but you might be able to find it in your local thrift store if you’re very lucky.

There were 240 portraits and 240 quotes to match up. Every portrait piece fits with every quote piece, you have to be careful. The portraits all overlapped with the pieces above or below them (or both), and they were helpful in making sure you matched them up properly. You don’t need to know them all to assemble this puzzle, but knowing some of them helps to get you started. There were quite a few quotes from movies that were easy to match up with the actors who said them: “Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn” can only be one person, find the portrait of Clark Gable and you’re on your way.

There were philosophers, artists, entertainers, businessmen and women, writers, poets, and public figures just to name a few. From Socrates to Robin Williams the quotes were thought provoking, funny, a little shocking, and hilarious. Reading through them all was so entertaining! 😎

I knew more than I thought I would, and there also were a few that I thought I knew for sure and was completely wrong. Oh well, I don’t usually get a perfect score on anything.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes – mostly silly and very true….

Who 1Who 2Who 3Who 4

The quality of this puzzle was stellar, and the pieces were quite large. At 504 pieces this puzzle measured approximately 38 x 24 inches, about the size of the average 2000 piece puzzle! The pieces are very thick and fit together quite tightly. The portraits were very well done and I could tell who most of them were without reading the names (the ones I was familiar with, anyway).

If you are lucky enough to come across this puzzle, I suggest you give it a try. It isn’t easy, but boy howdy is it fun! 🙂