Amazing African Wildlife

On July 18, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

A very nice kid’s puzzle from another new-to-me company, Dalmatian Press. I liked it very much, it’s nice to have a shaped kid’s puzzle now and then. Seems like we’ve found quite a few of them lately. 🙂

Dalmatian Press – pretty good quality. The pieces are on the thin side, but relatively sturdy and they fit together very well. The image reproduction was sharp with beautiful colors – nice quality for a kid’s puzzle.

It doesn’t look like it, but this puzzle was more difficult than it looks. Either that or these bleeping hot flashes are continuing to boil my brain cells. 😐 It took a little longer than normal for me to assemble this one, but in the end I finally got there – even though I felt like an idiot having a hard time with a 101 piece puzzle!

What Word is That?

On July 15, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

This puzzle was SO MUCH FUN! It’s an older puzzle from Buffalo Games that mom found in a thrift store. And even though someone’s child or pet chewed on one of the pieces it was still an excellent find!

This puzzle has you join words or letters with their definitions. Some could be tricky – the letters especially. Which letter is the most used in written English? What is the 3rd most used word in spoken English? It was a blast and we loved every minute of it! The best part was that you could also assemble the puzzle using just the pictures, so even if you aren’t the most loquacious raconteur you could still put the puzzle together while learning some new vocabulary. 😉

I’ve looked it up and they also made What Movie is That?, What TV Show is That?, Who Said That? and others. I bet they’d be just as fun. Here’s hoping we make another thrift store discovery like this one!

This puzzle had the typical Buffalo quality, nice thick pieces that fit together well and feel good in your hand. The background picture of what I’m assuming is the Library of Congress makes for a gorgeous puzzle that brightened our afternoon. 🙂

An awesome puzzle and a very entertaining assembly – if you can find one of these puzzles, go for it!

Winnie the Pooh

On July 14, 2017July 14, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

A puzzle from Bogota, Columbia. 😮 I’m telling you, you never know what interesting things you can find at thrift stores! My mom is a black belt thrift store explorer! 🛒

This is the first foam puzzle for kids that I’ve seen, and it’s quite large at 16.5 x 27 inches (68 x 42 cm). The pieces feel soft in your hands and they can also be cleaned easily, which is nice for a puzzle made for young children. There is no age range shown on the box, but this is a nice puzzle for younger children – non toxic, easy to handle, and large pieces.

The puzzle of Pooh Bear himself is adorable, and the little additional items around him are fun as well, most of them are only 2 pieces. Excellent thrift store find, and I can’t wait to give it to my grandson, he’s going to love this one!

Winnie the Pooh was one of my favorites as a child, we had a soundtrack to Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree that mom used to play for us in the car. The voice of Sterling Holloway as Pooh, all the silly songs, the “wise” owl and poor nervous Piglet – I loved it! Pooh’s sweet, naive face and the jars of “hunny” in this puzzle make me smile. Silly old bear. Ah, nostalgia!

Shells of the South Atlantic Coast

On July 12, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another interesting thrift store find, and a very nice puzzle! There’s something unusual and fun about this image, for me at least, and I wanted to do it right away when I saw it!

Another new company for me to try, Heritage Puzzles. They specialize in coastal and nature puzzles, it’s a very interesting catalog! The pieces of this puzzle were very nice and I was impressed with their overall quality. I’d love to do more of their puzzles, here’s hoping we find more at the thrift stores. 🙂

The pieces were thick and sturdy and feel good in your hand, there were a nice variety of piece shapes, and they fit together quite well. The finish was matte and didn’t cause glare, and the image reproduction was sharp and detailed. All in all, an excellent quality puzzle.

If you read this blog regularly you know I love having words to assemble, I have no explanation for why this is; all I know is I love it when there are a bunch of words to put together, and I almost always start with them. There were PLENTY of words here and that’s part of the reason this puzzle was so much fun for me, plus I got to learn the names of many, many shells. King Helmet, Finger Sponge, Leafy Jewelbox, Minor Jackknife and lots more. The most challenging part of this puzzle was the edge, almost every piece was entirely white. 😮

Great puzzle that I enjoyed very much, if you find a Heritage Puzzle with an image you like I definitely recommend giving it a try!

Polar Bear Plunge

On July 11, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store PuzzlesLeave a comment

Another fun kid’s puzzle, and the first I’ve done from Sunsout. I thought it was very good quality! With the temperatures around here lately it was nice to think about a brisk plunge into chilly water to escape this oppressive heat. 🙂

The pieces were extremely sturdy and a good size for kids and they fit together very well. For some reason it looks like the puzzle didn’t lay flat in the picture, but it did. I’m not a photographer, I just do the best I can. The image reproduction was nice and crisp, with beautiful colors. The box is very large for only a 63 piece puzzle, though it’s been my experience that most Sunsout boxes are larger than the norm. All around a very nice kid’s puzzle!

I’m enjoying assembling all these thrift store kid’s puzzles. It’s fun to put one together in only a few minutes, and I’m enjoying checking out the quality of so many different brands. I think all kids should do jigsaw puzzles, it’s a great activity for your brain! Mom finds so many amazing puzzles at the thrift stores, it’s a cost-effective way of trying out different brands – or for keeping up with the demands of a child who loves puzzles!