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.

Pretending to be Normal

On August 6, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, Thrift Store Puzzles6 Comments

I’ve been putting off writing up this post because sadly this is the last puzzle my mother and I assembled together; happily though, I love Suzy Toronto and this puzzle was a joy to put together – I have wonderful memories. I’m planning to reassemble it and hang it on the wall in my puzzle room.

Good quality, lots of words, great fit, fun colors – but it really doesn’t matter, because it was our last puzzle together I will cherish it forever.

In Progress

We started with all the little words, of course – we both enjoyed assembling words in a puzzle – like mother, like daughter. 🙂 Everything was put approximately where it goes and then the harder part began.

These were our two favorite quotes; mine was the hissy fit and mom’s was the sofa. And they both describe each of us perfectly. 😇

Thank you so much Penny for swapping puzzles with me and sending this one. I loved it when mom and I put it together – not knowing it was our last. Now that I do know, I love it even more and it will always have a special place in my heart (and in my puzzle room too). 💖

I miss you mom.

Pop Culture

On May 4, 2019 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Ah…collages. I love them so much. I’ve said many many times why I like them, but reasoning aside they just make me happy when I assemble them. End of story.

White Mountain has the best catalog of collage puzzles around in my opinion. They have so many that it’s difficult for me to whittle down which ones I want. They’re not always the best quality – I’ve had problems with before with twinsy pieces still connected, too tight fit, and fuzzy images. Most of the time though, there aren’t major problems with the puzzles and I enjoy working with them.

Pop Culture 1

Any NCIS fans out there? It’s Ducky! I’m a little young to have watched The Man From U.N.C.L.E. on television, but I know that the actor who plays Ducky on NCIS (David McCallum) was a heart-throb back in the day because of that show. That makes me laugh for some reason. 😉

Pop Culture 2

MAD Magazine and Gumby – love them! I had a subscription back in ye olden times when people actually got magazines in the mail and read them. (It’s sort of like a papery kind of blog – if you’re a young’un and not clear on what magazines were) I’ve always been a fan of satire, improv, and standup comedy, even when I was younger. I think I had more comedy albums than musical ones; which might be a clue why this part of the puzzle made the smile. 😀