Green Acres

On March 1, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I think my age is showing, when I see the title of this puzzle my brain immediately starts singing the theme song to the old tv show. Green Acres is the place to be, FARM living is the life for me! 🎵

This puzzle is absolutely beautiful, and at only 300 pieces was a quick, fun assembly. The cut is random and interesting and the fit was wonderful! There was never any guessing whether or not a piece fit in a certain spot. MasterPieces large piece puzzles have excellent quality, I have never had an issue with any of them. The pieces are thick and fit together well, and the images are crisp and clear and always beautiful.

Many people only do 1000 piece puzzles, and I think they’re missing out; there are wonderful puzzles to be assembled in every shape and size. But I would never tell someone what they should or shouldn’t do, so if they’re working only the larger puzzles that leaves plenty other sizes for me, right? 😎

Spice Rack

On February 28, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This thrift store purchase made me so happy! Mom brought it over to show me and I couldn’t wait to get assembling; collages with lots of words are the best!

White Mountain puzzles are good quality, but sometimes it’s hard to make judgments about puzzle quality when you buy second-hand. I have no idea how many times this puzzle has been assembled; it may have been well loved before it was donated so I can’t say for sure if image lift on the pieces is because of repeated assemblies or because of quality issues. 🤔

Still, from my experience with this brand purchased new I can say their quality is good, about mid-range. The pieces are a good thickness, they have a nice variety of piece shapes and they normally fit together well. I’ve had a few White Mountain puzzles with an extremely tight fit, but those seem to be few and far between. Every once in a while the image reproduction can be a bit fuzzy; but again that seems to be the exception, and one I normally only notice on collages with some vintage images.

This puzzle is by one of my favorite collage artists, Charlie Girard. His collages are fun to assemble and always make me smile. I had a great time putting this one together, it was especially fun to see all those vintage spice containers from companies I’ve never heard of. There are some familiar brands like McCormick and French’s, but most are companies that have long since gone; some of them had such interesting packaging. Ben-Hur Allspice? Wow.

I can’t wait to see what fun and interesting puzzles mom finds next, I hope she finds me some more collages!

Little Red Riding Hood

On February 27, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This Milton Bradley puzzle was good quality, though the pieces seemed thin to me because I’d already assembled 6 Ravensburger kid’s puzzles that day – what puzzle company could compete with that? Not many!

This puzzle had good quality pieces with bright, fun colors and an excellent variety of piece shapes. It’s a cute image that was easy enough to assemble and fit together very well. Pretty darn good quality!

I enjoy working kid’s puzzles for several reasons. First, it’s nice to put together an entire puzzle in one sitting; it gives me a little ego boost and makes me feel like the puzzle goddess I think I am in my own mind. Second, I enjoy all puzzles no matter the piece count – even if they’re geared toward children. And lastly, I think most puzzle blogs are geared towards adults and kid’s puzzles deserve to be assembled and reviewed as much as adult puzzles are. If a company makes excellent puzzles for children people should hear about it, and parents need to know what company’s puzzles have good quality. (I’m trying to do my part ☺)

Assembling jigsaw puzzles is good for your brain no matter your age, but they are especially positive for the developing brains of children. They help promote spatial awareness, problem solving, fine motor skills and much, much more. Whether you find them at a thrift store or a retail outlet, a jigsaw puzzle is a fabulous gift for a child – you could be starting them out on a lifetime of puzzling!

Vintage Signs (2)

On February 24, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Vintage Signs by Lois B. Sutton – White Mountain – 1000 pieces

I guess having this blog means I pay more attention to the names of the puzzles I do, I write about each one separately. This is the second time this month that I’ve had a duplicate name. One day when I assembled a bunch of kid’s puzzles there were two different ones with the same title; and this puzzle has the same title as a Re-marks collage I reviewed recently. I suppose with so many puzzles out there it’s bound to happen though. 🙂

I had a great time putting this one together. It seems more satisfying for me to work a collage, I think because there’s that gratifying sense of completion with each small section. Small little victories within the whole that, for me, bring smiles and satisfaction. Whatever the reason, I’m looking forward to more collages right now; mom has a bunch of them from White Mountain at her house that I’m going to borrow very soon!

White Mountain has one of the best catalogs of collages around; there’s something for everyone. Charlie Girard and Lois B. Sutton are a couple of my favorite artists in this genre, I particularly love her stamp collages – they are so pretty!

Unfortunately this thrift store puzzle is missing a piece, but it was still great fun to assemble and has me itching get my hands on more collages. I can’t wait to get to mom’s and pick out my next puzzle! 😎

Review: Sugar & Spice

On February 23, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Puzzle reviews, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Sugar & Spice by Charles Wysocki – Buffalo – 300 pieces

I’ve done several Charles Wysocki puzzles lately with single buildings, and I very much enjoy them. They’ve mostly been Buffalo puzzles, and I honestly prefer the 300 piece count in this brand.

For me, I have to be in the right frame of mind to do a larger Buffalo puzzle, it’s something about the size of the pieces, but I’m honestly not exactly sure what it is. I open a 1000 piece Buffalo puzzle that I love the image of and look at the pieces, and most of the time I put the lid back on and say “not today”. I prefer the 300 and 500 piece counts because they’re not as overwhelming to me. Of course lately I’ve been preferring those piece counts because of physical limitations on the amount of time I’m able to puzzle; it’s not a reflection on Buffalo quality, which is quite good.

This puzzle was great fun, and the assembly was relatively quick. The Wysocki puzzles with only one building are a little more unique and therefore more enjoyable for me to do. I love the look of his artwork, but his regular folk/Americana puzzles all start to look the same to me and aren’t as interesting for me to assemble. This one was great with plenty of interesting parts to find and put together and a lovely finished image.

What makes a great puzzle image is so subjective, everyone enjoys something different. That’s what’s so great about puzzling! There are so many companies and so many artists that you’re bound to find something that jumps out at you and begs to be assembled. For me this was a great image with wonderful quality and I definitely recommend it!

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