A World of Money

On January 12, 2024January 3, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

A World of Money by Charlie Girard – White Mountain – 550 pieces

It’s been a while since a White Mountain collage was on my board, and this one was a doozy! It’s much more difficult than it looks, but was very enjoyable. It was so interesting to see some of the world’s money, some of the bills are so beautiful.

Typical White Mountain quality, the fit was good and there are a great variety of piece shapes. This being a thrift store puzzle means it’s been pre-loved, so there were quite a few pieces with image lift on the tabs. Also, the image reproduction leaves a little bit to be desired. Some parts of the image are crisp and clear and some parts seem fuzzy and indistinct. Still, I know all about White Mountain quality going in and put up with the little problems because collages are my puzzle happy place and assembling one that may not be premium quality still makes me smile.

I’m not sure why this particular dollar bill intrigues me, but it does. It’s just boats on the sea, but it draws my eye every time I look at the image. To me it’s just quietly beautiful.

Pink elephants on parade! (Give yourself old person brownie points if you got that Dumbo reference) This bill jumps out at me too, the beautiful blues and that gorgeous pink elephant – love it!

Not being a world traveler, and only really having seen American and Canadian money in real life, that’s where I started – with the American dollars. The pieces were relatively easy to pick out, as were the ones for the golden bucket and the coins. Once those were assembled I just looked over my trays of pieces and started pulling out colors or faces that struck my fancy. It went together slowly over a few days, and even though it took a while it was still very enjoyable to assemble.

The quality wasn’t the best, but it didn’t really matter. It was a thrift store puzzle that only cost a few dollars and was complete – can’t really beat that. If I worked out on the price per hours of entertainment I got more than my money’s worth.

It may not be much to some people, but having an interesting puzzle on the board to keep my hands and mind occupied is worth SO MUCH! Jigsaw puzzles are the best hobby, and having them in my life is worth more to me than a world of money! 💜

Down on the Boardwalk

On January 11, 2024January 3, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

Down on the Boardwalk by Charles Fazzino – TCG – 300 pieces

The riotous color in this image was very enjoyable and went quite quickly once it was started. I’ve done a few Charles Fazzino images and they’ve always been interesting and entertaining to put together. Normally artwork with so many things packed tightly together isn’t quite my cup of tea (think Jan van Haasteren), but this one has enough breaks with the ocean and sky that it wasn’t too difficult.

The quality was much better than expected for a TCG puzzle; they are hit and miss in the quality department for me – usually more misses than hits unfortunately. But this puzzle had great reproduction, good cut, and an excellent fit.

Everything was bright and fun with lots of people, places, and things to see. Love the Rainforest Cafe!

The whole puzzle was just all around fun. I’ve never been to Atlantic City, but this boardwalk puzzle makes it look like fun.

Flower Deer

On January 8, 2024January 3, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles4 Comments

Flower Deer by Coco de Paris – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

This image is just beautiful, and adorable at the same time. Loved it! This is the third of these puzzles with images by Coco de Paris that I’ve done, and they’ve all been great fun, but not too easy at the same time. So entertaining!

The quality was pretty good for this thrift store puzzle. A good variety of piece shapes, good fit, nice image reproduction, and a not too shiny finish. Overall, I would say good/very good in the quality department for this one.

If you look at the back of the box there are so many different brand names it was difficult at first to decide which one to credit. Listed on the box were Milton Bradley, Cardinal, Hasbro, and Spin Master. I decided that the name shown on the front as well would be the name I went with, so Milton Bradley is credited here.

Fun little puzzle that didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it might, it was difficult to walk away from once I got into the assembly of the center. The border was assembled first, and then the puzzle sat unloved and alone on the board for more than 24 hours before I actually started working on the inside of the puzzle; but once I started I didn’t want to leave.

Lots of fun!

Ice Cream Social In Progress…

On January 4, 2024January 3, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzling, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

Ice Cream Social by Lars Stewart – Milton Bradley – 300 pieces

It took me forever to decide which puzzle to do next; my last puzzle of 2023 was a 1000 piece puzzle that was a bleeping nightmare to work with and my first puzzle of 2024 was a little 101 piece puzzle that my son got me for Christmas. I wanted the next one to be entertaining and relatively good quality and seeing this Lars Stewart image made my decision for me – bright colors, lots of words, and lots of yummy, colorful ice cream!

This is a thrift store purchase, and there are a lot of pieces with bent tabs, but otherwise the quality has been good so far. The fit is nice, the finish is matte and has a good hand feel, there are a good variety of pieces and the image reproduction is gorgeous.

Here’s hoping it’s a complete puzzle and it remains fun to assemble!

Bed of Clouds

On January 2, 2024January 1, 2024 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

Bed of Clouds by Schim Schimmel – Ceaco – 100 pieces

Quick little kids puzzle that didn’t take long at all to assemble. It was a thrift store purchase, taped up with another 100 piece GITD puzzle – both were new and unopened. To me, there’s no problem buying it there because Ceaco isn’t actually getting any of my money.

It’s sometimes sad for me when I see a beautiful image on a Ceaco puzzle, the quality and their customer service is just not up to snuff – but some of their puzzle images are just stunning! Oh well, I’d rather work a puzzle with better quality from a company that I know will take care of things if there’s a problem.

The quality on this one wasn’t great, you can see along the border where the pieces are bent at the corners and sticking up, and the fit wasn’t great either. Still for about 99 cents it was a good purchase and my youngest son and my hubby enjoyed the GITD aspect of it. They took it outside to “charge” in the sunlight and had a good ole’ time finding the darkest spot in the house to check out how much it actually glowed. Love💖my boys!