Classic Games

On March 22, 2020March 22, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles6 Comments

Classic Game was a lot of fun to assemble, and therefore it went together pretty quickly. When I’m having a good time I find it hard to stop. We addicts are like that sometimes. 😉

Collages like this are easier for me to assemble quickly because sorting into sections is easy, and I am able to take my containers and trays into bed and work on them there when sitting up is difficult. White Mountain has so many beautiful, interesting, colorful, and educational collages that I can always find one (or twelve) that I would like to assemble.

Classic Games 1

This made me laugh, Samuel Clemens is a scary/creepy looking dude (in my opinion), and Authors doesn’t sound like a game many children would want to play. I wonder how popular this was.

Classic Games 2

I remember having this game as a child, but I’m trying to remember how to play it – because I don’t recall it being educational. Maybe it was one of those games that was so much fun to play that you don’t notice you’re learning anything. I can’t say for sure, because all I can remember is that we had this game, there is no memory of anything else. (Gee, I hope it wasn’t a memory game!)

Classic Games 3

Mom taught me how to play Chinese Checkers when I was young, and she told me how her mother taught her how to play when she was young. There are such good memories of playing this with her and trying to figure out how she was so much better at it than I was; it was probably because grownups are a little better at strategy than young children are. We had fun being together and talking while we played Chinese Checkers, and this game will always be special to me. 💗

As usual I loved this puzzle – a bright, colorful collage of games – what’s not to like? It was a very good quality puzzle that I found to be a joy both to look at and to put together. If you’re a fan of games, collages, or White Mountain puzzles in general I would absolutely recommend giving this one a try.

Cocoa Puffs

On March 17, 2020March 17, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw PuzzlesLeave a comment

So much fun! There’s something about cereal that brings out the kid in you, and this 100 piece puzzle of a cereal box was no different. Like most small piece count puzzles it was over very quickly, but sometimes that’s perfect. I’m cuckoo for this Cocoa Puffs puzzle! 🤪

I put the box away and just worked it by colors and shapes; which is my way of thoroughly enjoying the image and only paying attention to the puzzle itself. It’s also a way to help a smaller piece count puzzle last just a little bit longer. This is my least favorite cereal out of the six in the pack, and I’ll be working them in reverse order – ending with my favorite of the six. Which one will that be? I guess you’ll have to stay tuned to find out!

My absolute favorite cereal is Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch, but it isn’t a General Mills cereal so unfortunately it’s not in this multipack. The General Mills cereals in this pack are: Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, Cheerios, Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Honey Nut Cheerios. Which one is your favorite?

I don’t believe I’ve ever worked a 100 piece White Mountain puzzle before, and the quality was about the same as their 1000 piecers. Thick pieces, very good fit, excellent image reproduction. These are a bit pricey for only a total of 600 pieces, but they’re great for working with young ones, or even by yourself if you’re a kid at heart like me. 👵=👧

These were very good quality mini puzzles, much better than my last 100 piece puzzle set! I had a great time putting this one together, and I’m looking forward to finishing them all. At the moment two of these cereal puzzles have been assembled, and the third one is on my board this morning. Yum.

☘ Happy St. Patrick’s Day! ☘

Game Pieces

On February 18, 2020February 18, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

My last puzzle completed in January was a thrift store find that was lots of fun and went very quickly; I started at 4 am and finished just after noon (that includes some running errands too). I’m no puzzle dynamo though, collages go together much more quickly than a single image, and when an image draws me in like this one did I find it terribly difficult to stop. It’s an affliction!

It’s easier puzzling in the wee hours of the morning; there are no distractions and no interruptions – just a peaceful, quiet house and the only thing I have to think about is does this blue look the same as the blue I’m trying to match? And do I need a piece with 3 tabs or 4?

Better than typical White Mountain quality made it very nice to work with; the pieces fit together extremely well and the fantastic collage image was completely engrossing. There was no image lift at all which is surprising for a secondhand puzzle, and the image reproduction was bright and colorful with no fuzzy or blurry areas. Very good quality all around!

Anybody know what game that butterfly card is for? I don’t ever remember seeing it before. How about the Pig card, anyone know what game that is from? There were a lot of games I didn’t know, ever heard of Flinch? If you have heard of or played any of these games, please let me know. I could probably look these things up online, but to be honest I’d rather have a conversation in the comments with a fellow member of the PADS posse. 😉

Game Pieces 2

Oh my! Did I love the dice bubble from the Trouble game when I was young! I would sit and just pop it/roll the die over and over – it just felt really cool! (Can you tell I am from the pre-internet generation? LOL) Just looking at it makes me smile. Was it just me, or did anyone else love to play with it too?

Even though there was a missing piece I wasn’t disappointed at all, it was still tons of fun. It was just what I needed after a puzzle that was pretty much all one color and all kinds of YAWN – I wanted bright colors and fun, and this puzzle definitely delivered. If you come across a copy I highly recommend it. Loved it! 🎲 👍😍

Candy For All Seasons

On February 14, 2020February 14, 2020 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today is the day for love, and gifts of flowers, jewelry, and candy if you believe the commercials. Hubby and I don’t go in for all of that; he treats me like the queen I am all year long. 👑

Anyway, to the puzzle! I don’t have any Valentine’s Day puzzles here at the house, and I don’t like to repeat any posts, so this one was the closest I could get specific to today’s holiday. I associate some holidays with candy – Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. This puzzle has one heart lollipop which is the only candy I could find for Valentine’s Day; it’s a little sad, one lonely lollipop.

There’s plenty of chocolate eggs and rabbits for the Easter holiday. The only thing I could find specifically for Halloween was the candied apple at the bottom. There are some Christmas chocolates in the foreground, but really not that much.

The surprise for me was the Thanksgiving candy. I don’t associate that holiday with candy at all, for Americans it’s all about the Thanksgiving dinner; but there were several things shown here that I’ve never seen at all.

Candy 1

I have never seen a chocolate turkey before, or anything like the lollipop shown here. It’s probably the least appetizing “candy” I’ve ever seen. I certainly wouldn’t want to eat it – candy corn and green chocolate – ugh. Does that sound good to anyone?

I’m familiar with most of the candies shown, but I’ve never seen or eaten Turkish Taffy or Abba Zabbas. I’ve seen and tried Lemon Heads, but never knew they make other flavors like Cherry Heads and Apple Heads too!

The quality was a little disappointing with this one, most notably the fuzzy image reproduction. I’ve seen this on several White Mountain collages, but it doesn’t stop me from buying them. It can be a bit annoying, but they have some of the best collages in the business and collages are my favorite type of puzzle to assemble – so I just deal with it. If it’s important to you though, you should be aware.

This White Mountain puzzle was a thrift store find, and I very much enjoyed putting it together, even with the four missing pieces. According to my puzzle friend Nicola, the task is to put together all the pieces you have until there are none left. The puzzle may not be complete and you may have missing pieces, but you have completed your task when you place the last piece. If you look at it that way, it’s a little less frustrating, right?

I try not to get too upset at missing pieces, most especially the ones from the thrift store. In my mind, I’m dividing the time spent by the amount paid for the puzzle. If I spent 8 hours on a thrift store puzzle that I bought for $1.99, then even if there is a missing piece or two I have gotten a fantastic deal! Where else can you get time to yourself, productive entertainment, and all the health benefits that come from assembling jigsaw puzzles for only 25 cents an hour? A bargain at 100 times the price!

Ready for a Drive

On August 20, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles2 Comments

Despite this being a thrift store puzzle with slightly poor quality that had obviously been assembled several times, I still had a good time putting it together. 🙂

There were a lot of bent tabs with image lift, and the image was more challenging than I’d assumed. Those are the chances you take with used puzzle, but most of time even with a poorer quality puzzle I still enjoy the assembly. White Mountain puzzles can be hit or miss; and even though this puzzle seemed slightly the worse for wear, it wasn’t too bad to work with.

Mom and I both really liked the image when we first got this puzzle (quite some time ago), but I’m not sure why it took me so long to get to assembling it. Sometimes I have to be in the right mood for a particular puzzle; but I’m glad I finally got to it.

It took longer than expected to complete, but I kept at it and eventually got it finished. It could be in part that this puzzle makes me think of mom. Perhaps I didn’t want to be done with it, because when I look at it I think of her. Not because anything in the image reminds me of her, but because of the image as a whole and how much we both loved it and thought it would be an entertaining puzzle. It was, and I’m sad that we didn’t get to work on it together.

Ready for a Drive 1

I think the little girl in the blue dress is my favorite person in this image – she reminds me of myself – a little cranky, in an adorable way. Mom called me cute all the time, but she was probably a bit biased.