Balloons and Tigers and Rocks – OH MY!

Balloons and Tigers and Rocks – OH MY!

Sorry I haven’t updated the blog in a little while, but for several days every time I went down to my puzzle room in the basement, I forgot to bring my camera with me so I couldn’t take the pictures while I was there working on it, and then of course Derek would be ready to wake up or something so I just never got around to taking any pictures until this morning.  I have made some good progress and…

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Section 2 Officially Underway

Section 2 Officially Underway

Finally today, April 23, 2013, I feel like I have offiically started working on Section 2.  Prior to today I had done so little, most of which had to be redone when the borders fell off (a couple of times), that I really didn’t feel like I had made any real progress. Also, I had so many stop and go’s with starting to work on Section 2 because I was still trying to figure out what to do with Section 1…

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Yet Another Change In Strategy

Yet Another Change In Strategy

I swear, by the time I get this monstrosity of a puzzle completed and mounted, I’m going to be a jigsaw puzzle mounting master!  I have changed and revised my strategy several times, and just when I think I’ve finally found the best solution, another obstacle presents itself. As I last posted, I was getting ready to put the contact paper down on the back of Section 1 so that I could easily move it off the main puzzling board…

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Section 1 – Disassembled and Reassembled

Section 1 – Disassembled and Reassembled

As I stated yesterday, here are the pictures and a description of my process in flipping Section 1 over on my main puzzling board so that contact paper can be attached to the back. STEP 1:  Take a picture of the completed puzzle section – just in case you never see it this way again!  LOL  (Just kidding!!!) STEP 2:  Carefully decide where you are going to make your cut.  I wanted to use the repeat pattern borders as my…

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Divide and Conquer

Divide and Conquer

I know I haven’t updated this in a little while, but it is because I have been playing around with some different ideas on how best to approach doing Section 2 with Section 1 still on my main puzzling board.  I didn’t want to get too deep into Section 2 until I got this figured out.  I have changed my strategy a couple of times, but I think I have finally found what is going to work the best…thanks to…

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And So It Begins

And So It Begins

I was able to work on the puzzle for a couple of hours last night which was great.  In that time, I was able to knock out the borders (top and bottom) and start on the tiger.  The first two pieces of Section 2 are officially “married”. Here’s a picture of all the border pieces laid out and separated by whether they were a top or a bottom border piece. I was initially missing two of the top border pieces,…

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Feels Like Deja Vu

Feels Like Deja Vu

Even though it’s been almost 3 years since I last sorted 6,000 jigsaw pieces, it feels like only yesterday.  LOL  Amazingly enough, I am separating the pieces into much more detailed containers, yet it feels like it hasn’t taken me as long to sort through this section as it did the first one.  I guess because I am way more familiar with the pieces and some of the more subtle textures, I am more quickly and easily able to identify which…

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After 2 Years, 8 Months, and 10 Days

After 2 Years, 8 Months, and 10 Days

I am elated to announce that SECTION 1 IS DONE!!!! I can’t believe it took me this long to finish the first section, but I am so proud of myself for sticking to my committment of getting this puzzle put together.  I am now officially 25% done!  Doesn’t seem like much in the overall scheme of things, but for me, it’s a pretty huge accomplishment since I’ve never completed any puzzle over 1500 pieces before this. It has been an…

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100 or Less to Go!

100 or Less to Go!

I am about 100 or so pieces away from being done with Section 1!  I can hardly believe it.  I know I should be making a huge push to get those last 100 pieces finished, but boy have they been difficult.  I’m down to the pieces that are between the water line and the start of the clownfish and it all looks the same, and it’s all bluish…so there’s not even much color variation to help me out on this…

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The Clownfish Have Reluctantly Surrendered

The Clownfish Have Reluctantly Surrendered

They thought they would get the best of me, but NO, I would not let that happen.  The dreaded, but gorgeous clownfish are now finished with a couple of minor pieces still to find somewhere (still worried about the solid orange one….I am 99% sure it’s officially missing). I made a ton of progress in the last two days.  Amazingly enough, yesterday I got to work on it a bit while Derek was awake.  He kept coming in and out…

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