This last Tuesday I went thrifting for puzzles for the first time. It was a fun solo outing; my husband despises browsing stores in general, so thrift stores are definitely out of the question!
I was a bit short on time, and a lot short on funds, but I found some lovelies regardless!
‘The Flintstones’ 60 piece by MB Puzzle
I sat down that afternoon and assembled this fun Flintstones puzzle. It’s clearly been well loved over time; it’s from 1991, nearly as old as I am. I’m so sad about the missing pieces, though I knew the risk buying second hand!
I may try and make some replacement pieces for it, and see what I can do about flattening everything out a bit… Give this little slice of history some love!
After that I decided to give this MB photographic puzzle a try! Photos I’ve tended to avoid so far, as they seem particularly difficult to me. But this one’s been a blast so far. And it’s from 1985, three years older than I am!
Alas, I’ve not made it much farther than this as I’ve been taken down by the flu. It’s the first time I’ve ever had it. It really sucks! Haven’t been this sick in a long time.
If anybody needs me, you’ll find me clutching a cell phone in a heap of tissues, blankets, and cats, binging on Star Trek and whimpering.
‘Vintage Bicycle Posters’ 2000 Piece by MB Puzzles Big Ben
This lovely puzzle was two different firsts for me- My first 2000 piece, and also my first collage!
It was both easier and harder than I was expecting. I’ve actually avoided collages for the most part because I thought they’d be way easy, like, unenjoyably so. And while I wouldn’t say this was particularly hard, it was more that it was challenging in a different sort of way. The edges were particularly tough compared to everything else, all the colors and textures being all over the place!
It wasn’t exactly the best quality though. I think they just downscaled the size of their cut, and a lot of pieces ended up with nubblies with very thin necks, and some of the nubblies had fallen off completely. While sorting, I just took my time and separated out the few pieces that were in danger. I saved all the nubs that had escaped, and the puzzle was 100% complete; I was able to tuck the nubblies into their holes when the pieces around them were assembled. Not ideal, but no biggy either!
Never having done a collage, I decided for this one that the text would be a good starting point. Easy to find all the text pieces, and once assembled gave lots of goo starting points for branching out!
After that, I decided to pull out and assemble all the edges between the posters, which got most of the puzzle locked into place, and from there it was just down to building it all out!
It went surprisingly fast, but was an absolute blast! I wouldn’t say collages are my favorite; kind of like assembling a bunch of small puzzles that are mixed together. It would probably not have been so easy either were each of the posters in the image not so distinct from one another. All around though, for my first collage and 2000 piece, I’m really pleased! I can’t wait to tackle another, more difficult 2000 piece!
Just finished this one up! 1000 piece ‘Watching From the Wood’ by Linda Ravenscroft, MB Puzzle. Absolutely stunning, and wonderful quality as usual. A pleasure to assemble!
I have happily spent the afternoon and evening puzzling this beautiful fairy puzzle by Linda Ravenscroft. Making good progress so far I feel, it’s got a few areas that will be very challenging when I’m left with them.
This lovely lady has really started to come together. I took a wee break to pop a batch of popcorn in my popcorn machine! A delicious bowl of fresh, hot popcorn goes great with a puzzle!
Just don’t get so distracted with your puzzling that pick up a puzzle piece and absently toss it into your mouth. Like I just did. *facepalm*
My puzzling has been very varied the last week or so since my last post! I made some small amount of progress on my custom birthday puzzle, which is unfortunately, kind of a nightmare…
I love it, but man, is it ever hard. Like, really hard. Like, barely make any progress hard. Disappointing for sure! So I’ve been taking a break for some smaller, more enjoyable puzzles!
‘Canned Veggies’ 500 piece Springbok
I started and finished this lovely Springbok. I’ve done it once before and had it for years; I’d intended to glue it the first time I completed it to hang in my kitchen at the apartment, which I never got around too. I eventually broke it back up and reboxed it.
It was just as much fun the second time around! I’m really, really starting to love Springboks. At first the random cut was a major turnoff for me, but the more I do them, the more I find it to be a lot of fun! Also helps that Springbok’s are fantastic quality, nice and thick, not much puzzle dust, and the images are always bright and clear.
And this time, I got it glued and hung in my kitchen! Even better, since its now in my very own house, and not in that crummy apartment! I also hung up the two Cardinal puzzles I completed for the kitchen, though I did give up trying to find another copy of the corn puzzle for the missing piece, and opted to glue it as is. I decided I kind of actually like that little missing piece- gives it character!
After gluing all those, I noticed something neat- the ghost of the Springbok puzzle, left behind on the wax paper after gluing! I thought it was sort of cute, so I snapped a picture!
‘Watching From the Wood’ 1000 piece MB Blue Board,art by Linda Ravenscroft
I started this lovely Fairy puzzle after finishing the canned veggies. I just adore these blue board puzzles, wonderful quality, and the images on them are great. Plus, I can find them inexpensively at Tuesday Morning! This one will be hung in the hallway with another Ravenscroft fairy image once it’ completed and glued.
‘Art Supplies’ 1000 piece Cardinal
I’ve really been enjoying doing these small dollar store puzzles on the end of my desk. This one is going to be hung over said desk; I’m a digital artist, so I don’t often use traditional tools, but it’ll still look great!
I couldn’t resist this puzzle pack I saw at Walgreens when I went in for chapstick and prescriptions! Mostly because of those umbrellas, they are so cute! But also, it was very cheap. I expected pretty lousy quality from this random brand, but I wasn’t concerned of the low price. Worth it for those adorable umbrellas!
The quality was both worse than and better than I expected. The 6 puzzles are all bagged individually, and barely fit in the box. A lot of the bags are folded over, and I guess this piece got caught in the bend! Surprisingly though, these Sure-Lox puzzles sure do lock together! That’s a darn tight fit for a cheapo puzzle!
‘Seaside Fishing Boats’ 200 piece Sure-Lox
This one was super quick and fun to put together. Great little image! I’m looking forward to assembling the rest of the pack, weird bent pieces included!
First puzzle of 2019 complete! Although, I did start it last year, so maybe that’s cheating… 🤔
“Florabundance” by Linda Ravenscroft, a 1000 piece by MB Puzzles and Cardinal Games. Another nice quality puzzle, as I expected after the last ‘Premium Blue Board’ puzzle I did by this brand. Low dust, nice fitting pieces, smooth finish that’s not too glossy, and a good thickness board. Lovely.
This one was a bit tougher than I expected, but an absolute joy to put together. Such a sassy little pixie! A nice contrast too the wintery weather we’re having as well!
Next up is “Peter Pan”, 1000 pieces by MasterPieces–it came in a funky book shaped box, so I’ve du ped it into my last puzzles box for sorting. I’m excited to get this one put together–I’ll be hanging it over my husband’s night stand, and the “Jack and the Beanstalk” I completed last year will be going over mine! I’m only hoping that Peter is the same size as Jack… This one sure seems smaller to me. I’ll have to oull them out and compare!
Also, look at all these ‘not edge pieces’! D: And there were so many more in the box I had to painstakingly rule out. @_@;
Hello, hello! I’m Puzzled Pickle, and this is my jigsaw puzzle blog! Well, my second blog… I’ve decided to give WordPress a try, as I haven’t been able to find many other puzzlers on Blogger. Maybe I’ll have better luck here! I’ve imported my posts (for some reason it only grabbed the latest 3, very odd), and will be continuing here!
My current project: MB Puzzles and Cardinal Games ‘Florabundance’ by Linda Ravenscroft, 1000 pieces. It’s proving to be a bit more challenging than I’d anticipated, but very, very fun. I adore the quality of this brand, the ‘premium quality blue board’ is certainly nothing to sneeze at!
We were a bit puzzled to get a mysterious shipping notice in our email a few days ago, and I was very excited to find it was from Master Pieces! Way back in October, I’d put in for a replacement for this puzzle:
All the pieces were badly cut, some completely inseparable from their neighbors. Doable, yes, but as I purchased it new, I expect decent quality! They had me cut off the box flap containing the puzzle’s details and mail it in with a description of the problem. And I waited… and waited… Finally two weeks ago I emailed them again, asking if they’d yet received my letter. Turns out they had, back in November, but my replacement was a delayed due to heavy holiday orders.
My package arrived, and I sliced it open to reveal-
Well, that’s not the same…
I’m both a tad annoyed and also very excited? The other puzzle is completely workable, so now I have two puzzles for the price of one, but I’m also glad I didn’t have my heart set on receiving the exact same puzzle I’d requested a new copy of… It’s just odd they didn’t send the same one, or at least a note explaining! Oh well, this new one will be fun to work regardless; I quite like the art!
And here’s a snap of my modest Christmas gifts to myself. Our holidays were rather glum, as no one feels particularly like celebrating in the wake of my grandmother’s passing. We had a simple get together for snacks and chatting, rather than the big holiday meal we usually have. It was nice, even if there was an undertone of sadness.
My husband and I got a bit of money as gifts, and while the majority of it is destined for bills, he let me spend a bit beforehand! I snagged these two puzzles and a cute lil’ ratata plush from Gamestop. I’ve been eyeing the Power Ranger puzzle for months, and Magic The Gathering puzzle and plush were on clearance, buy one and get one free! Hard to pass that up!
Wishing everyone a Happy Holidays and a splendid New Year! I’ll leave you with a quick snap of my cats ‘assisting’ me in gluing a puzzle!
Puzzled Pickle 