The Story of Heidi in the Alps

On February 7, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

I got a bee in my bonnet about getting all the children’s puzzles in my house assembled so I could donate them and get them out of here; so I spent some time in front of the tv catching up on my shows while assembling 9 puzzles one after another. It also helped me build my stockpile of posts back up, so I have a little cushion now in case I need it again. 😁

These two puzzles were only 12 pieces each and went together extremely quickly, but they’re beautifully made puzzles of excellent quality. Almost every puzzle I assembled this day (7 out of 9) were Ravensburger puzzles and every one of them was wonderful quality. I appreciate companies that put effort into their puzzles for kids, and the best that I’ve found are Ravensburger, Cobble Hill, and Eurographics.

When I assembled the second puzzle in the box I struggled to remember the name of the boy in the story. I know I read it as a child, and I remember the movie Heidi with Shirley Temple, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the boy’s name. (I’m sure I just dated myself with the Shirley Temple reference, but that’s mostly how I remember the story of Heidi) I had to give up on my memory and look it up online, his name is Peter.

Jigsaw puzzles are great for helping children develop problem solving skills, fine motor coordination, spatial awareness, pattern recognition and many other essential skills. I highly recommend puzzles as gifts for children, they’re fun and educational and might even start someone off on the road to enjoying jigsaw puzzles for the rest of their life!

Rainbow Beach Huts

On February 6, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

IMG_E4193 — Rainbow Beach Huts by Peter Adderley – Cardinal – 500 pieces

This puzzle with it’s bright blocks of color was a fun assembly, and three generations of women in my family completed it together. If you’re a daily reader of this blog you have already seen part of this puzzle, I took a picture of our 3 hands putting in the last pieces of this puzzle for my National Puzzle Day post. 😉

The pieces were a bit thin, the finish was very shiny, and the fit was such that if you accidentally bumped the puzzle you’d upset many pieces. Not the best quality, but not the worst I’ve had either. On the positive side, the image reproduction was very nice and there were a good variety of piece shapes to work with. Cardinal puzzles seem to be a bit hit or miss with their quality in my opinion. I’ve worked some very nice quality Cardinal puzzles, and had some that are not good at all. Brands like this we only buy from thrift stores; when the quality is an unknown we prefer not to pay retail, even if we really like the image.

I’ve mostly been working with smaller piece counts since I’ve been recuperating; it’s been difficult for me to sit and puzzle for any length of time. Mom and I have mostly been doing puzzles between 200 and 500 pieces when I’m visiting at her house. It goes much faster with more than one person, and it’s helping me get back into the swing of things.

We only got halfway through this puzzle the first day (we completed 2 others first), and so we finished it the next day with the help of my daughter before we went on a field trip to buy puzzles (I bought 6 😇). I enjoy images with bright colors that are easy to sort, and this one was an excellent image to puzzle – good fun was had by all!

Wild Babies, Baby Orangutan

On February 4, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

This is a cute puzzle, sort of. I guess it depends on if you think orangutans are cute. LOL It was only 250 pieces, so I thought it would be a quick one to work on. It wasn’t, because I wasn’t feeling well, and I didn’t get it finished until mom came back from her overseas trip. Once she was there to work with me it got done much faster! (We cheer each other on, and help out when one of us is having a tough time with a puzzle)

The pieces were pretty thin and the finish was a bit shiny, but all in all it wasn’t too bad. The fit was nice and there were a good variety of shapes to work with. I don’t know that I’d purchase this brand again unless it was an image that I really wanted.

This was an unopened thrift store purchase, so for 69 cents you can’t beat it, even if it wasn’t a premium quality puzzle. It was all there, and provided some much need relaxation and stress relief; not to mention some puzzle time with mom! ☺

White Duck Inn

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

Another small piece count puzzle to get me back into the groove after being stuck at the hospital doing small puzzles to fit on my bedside table. This one was fun and fast and the image makes me smile, doesn’t that look like a lovely place to spend the weekend?

I love the extremely random cut of MasterPieces puzzles, it makes for a fun and interesting assembly. Their EZ Grip 300 piece puzzles have large, easy to handle pieces that are great for hands with dexterity problems, or just someone who enjoys large pieces from time to time. Like me!

The finish was a little bit shiny, but not too terrible to work with under artificial lights. I was able to assemble it resting in bed on my white board without too much difficulty from the overhead lights; and it was easy, which was what I was looking for. I’d love to able to get back to 500 and 1000 piece puzzles soon. Hopefully by the time I get this posted I’ll have a larger piece count on my board and be back to puzzling sitting up. Fingers crossed! 🤞

The Seabuglers

On January 30, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

This was the first puzzle I did when I got home from “vacation”. There was a partially assembled 500 piece puzzle that had been on my board the whole time, but I wasn’t feeling as though I could sit at the board for any length of time and work on it. So I got out my white board and grabbed the easiest looking 300 piece puzzle I could find, here it is!

For some reason in my head it seems that a puzzle by Hasbro wouldn’t be good quality. They’re the company that made games when I was young (many, many moons ago) and I don’t remember them being overly sturdy or well-made. Luckily, all that nonsense is just in my head because the Hasbro puzzles I’ve done have all been exceptionally well made; they’re sturdy, wonderfully thick, and fit together amazingly well. I’ve only ever done 300 piece Hasbro puzzles so I have no frame of reference for any other piece count, but the their EZ Grip puzzles are wonderful!

As I’ve said before, I very much enjoy the Wysocki puzzles that aren’t the norm, like this one. Most of his puzzles are lovely Americana/folk art images of towns with many buildings; while they are all beautiful images, for me they can seem too similar. I’m a bit of a rebel and enjoy things that are different from the usual, so my favorite Wysockis are the ones that really stand out. Although this image itself isn’t really odd, it’s different from most of his other works which makes it more special to me.

Although it took longer than usual for me to assemble this puzzle, I was pretty darn proud when I got it finished. It was mostly assembled while I was in bed, but I was able to take it in the puzzle room and put the white board on my puzzle table and work on it there for little bits of time. I guess I have to get my butt back into puzzling shape! 😉