It was so hard to make myself stop working on the puzzle this evening! Every piece I put it seemed easier to find and it was going faster than it had during the day. But I know how long it takes to get the blog post for the day done, and I didn’t want it to be after midnight when I got it finished and posted.

I got a lot more finished than I expected to, which is always a good thing. I filled in almost all the holes in the lower part of the puzzle, except for those two darn pieces in the stagecoach. I know they’re hiding in the container with the twinklies, but I’m not rifling through the whole thing looking for 2 pieces. When I get there I will find them I’m sure.

I was also able to fill in inside the blotchy magic swirls, which was more difficult than I thought. There’s a repeating pattern and there were several times where the piece fit perfectly but on closer inspection it was just a little bit off in color or design. Have to be more careful with the darker pieces where it isn’t as easy to tell the difference in shades of the same color. Still, not tedious or frustrating for me.

I’m going out tomorrow morning to shop for discounted Halloween candy (thrifty, frugal, cheap, tightwad – any of these names are fine with me) 🙂 Once I get stocked up on bad for me snacks that I don’t really need, I’ll be back home for the day and ready to get back to work on Miss Cinderella. I’m hoping to get a big chunk of it done since it’s going faster as I go along.

Also, in addition to tomorrow’s update I’ve decided to add short posts about puzzles I’ve done this year. I do have them on pages on the site, but thought it would be good to break up the monotony of only updates about the big puzzle, since I’m not doing the extra puzzles fast enough. I think an additional post every other day is how I’ll start. We’ll see how it goes.

The blotchies were not as difficult as I thought they would be, except for the swirl that goes from the end of the magic wand around to her shoulder. That part took the most time because I had almost nothing to let me know what piece shape I should be looking for, usually just a male or female end. For the most part they all look they same – kinda blotchy – so there wasn’t much you could tell from looking at the image. It took a while to do that stretch, but I am not complaining and here’s why; when I start the darkness and trees at the top I will have an easier time because there will be a lot of pieces to work off of! Silver lining!

According to my count I have approximately 1400 pieces left to go – not too shabby! In other good news, my husband has gotten me a better light to go above my puzzle table and will be installing it after I complete this section. He doesn’t want to worry about anything falling on the puzzle while he works in there. It will be so nice to have better light to work by, and maybe the pictures I take won’t have so much glare from the light that is in there now. Here’s hoping!

There is no more putting it off, tomorrow begins the dark pieces. I think though, that it won’t be too bad. There are a lot of trees in the background and although you can’t really see it in the picture they are actually highlighted in shades of blue. That will break up the black nicely and make for a speedier assembly. There are still probably between 700-900 of the darker pieces so it won’t be done in a day, but I don’t think it will be as monotonous as I feared (fingers crossed)

I’ve barely touched the other puzzle I’m working on, I get so obsessed with the Disney. I thought before I started that I would want other puzzles to work on in addition to the big one to keep from getting bored or even just to be able to finish something sooner than once a month. But as of right now the Disney is not boring me and I have little to no interest in working on any additional puzzles. I’m trying to make sure I do though, even if it’s only a few pieces here and there while I’m watching tv or laying in bed. That way it breaks up the monotony of this blog too, so I have something to talk about here that isn’t the same old same old. New puzzle finishing soon, I promise something more exciting!

There was a lot of stopping and starting today, I wasn’t always sure what part/color I wanted to work on, and there was quite a bit of break time when I had to change positions and go do something else. Also, my dog decided that whenever I sat down to work on the puzzle he needed to go outside, or was in desperate need of some play time or just to have me sit next to him on the couch. Despite all that I made a good bit of progress!

The footman is almost completely finished, and I was also able to get the majority of the ground done. It seemed like it took a long time to place any pieces in a section, but once I got a few inserted it seemed to go much faster. There’s still a bit of the ground to do, and then there’s nothing left to do but jump into the darker/blotchy pieces and hope it doesn’t become tedious or take too long.

I’m hoping to send my husband to the grocery store tomorrow after his round of golf, so I won’t have to go anywhere. That way I can catch up on a little tv watching, and work a few pieces at a time during commercials. Sometimes when I’m working on a difficult section it helps me to walk away for a bit; when I come back it seems easier to find the pieces I’m looking for. I’m hoping though that the darker sections won’t be as difficult as I thought they would be. After looking at most of the remaining pieces I think that although it will be time consuming, it may not be too terribly difficult. Time will tell.

I’m enjoying listen to music on my phone while I work, right now I’m listening to lots of 80’s songs. Keeps my mind focused on the puzzle, while also taking my mind off the picture as a whole, how many pieces I’m putting in, or having to try every piece of the certain shape to find the correct one. And best of all, it’s fun listening to songs that I enjoy and singing along!

Was only able to work on the puzzle a little bit this morning, but the filmstrip is finished! And as an added bonus for the day I am now at the halfway point of this puzzle, having placed 2026 pieces. Woo hoo!!! I fear the next half will not go as quickly, but I’ll be working on it every day and there is no set schedule – when I get done is when it’ll be done!

It doesn’t seem as though I should only be halfway done, but the numbers don’t lie. Admittedly I’m feeling slightly apprehensive about the amount of dark background above all the figures, although there’s nothing to do but to just jump in. Of course I may just hold off on the jumping until after I’ve finished the rest of the footman and the lighter colored ground. Not that I’m procrastinating, I would never! 😉 (Lying about procrastinating, however, seems to be something I WOULD do)

So after a month’s worth of work, how am I enjoying the world’s largest puzzle? I’m enjoying it very much, perhaps even more than I thought I would. I’m looking forward to working on each section (although I must admit that Peter Pan and Fantasia look to be just as difficult if not more so than Cinderella). I almost wish I had another board so I could be working on two sections at once. That way if I got stuck or was feeling overwhelmed by one of them I could take a break by working on the other. Not a great idea for me though, because I may neglect the more difficult one in favor of one that isn’t so taxing, then I would be at the end and only be left with the tougher ones. I definitely want to avoid that!

I am still having a great time and determined to enjoy myself, even when I’m not particularly thrilled with the section. Hobbies are supposed to be fun, but being challenged doesn’t mean it isn’t fun, it just means I have to exercise my gray matter a little more which is it’s own kind of fun. I may need to be reminded of that every so often while I’m working on a rough spot – HEY! CHALLENGING DOESN’T MEAN IT’S NOT FUN! QUIT YOUR WHINING GRAMA! YOU ASKED FOR THIS! YOU PAID GOOD MONEY FOR THIS!

Not the best angle for the picture – got quite a bit of glare – but you can see the progress made on the filmstrip. I’m already in bed and too tired and lazy to take another picture.

After struggling through 3 days of the dress the little scenes seemed ridiculously easy by comparison and went very quickly. Perhaps I learned from the first section how to better assemble the scenes, or perhaps after working on the gown for so long and teaching my eyes to distinguish the subtle color changes I am now a master puzzler. NOT 🙂

I wasn’t able to work for too long today, just couldn’t get comfortable sitting or standing. But I was able to get quite a bit done. Although placing everything approximately where it will be in the puzzle made me realize there will be quite a bit of darkness/trees above all the figures. I know you can see it in the poster of the puzzle, but it’s something else altogether to see it in front of you and realize how much of it there will be. Just because I got through the assembly of the dress does not mean there isn’t plenty of challenging stuff left in this puzzle. There are “blotchy pieces” (what I call the balls of light coming from the godmother’s wand and wrapping around the figures in the foreground), the ground around everyone’s feet, and the twinklies on two sides.

Having gotten through the dress, though, I’m confident I can get through just about anything. So I may whine and moan about slow progress when I get to those parts, but just ignore me. I’ll get through it eventually and will be super proud when it’s done!

Tomorrow is visiting day at mom’s, so I won’t get much done except for in the morning while I’m having coffee and waking up. But as long as there is progress made, even just a few pieces I’ll be happy. My goal is to work on it every single day  once the section has been started. I was able to stick to that with the first section, although a couple of days I was only able to put in a few pieces because of preparations for hurricane Matthew. But even if it was only 5 pieces there was progress made every single day.

It really isn’t difficult to work on it daily as I’m constantly changing positions/activities throughout the day. I can always take a detour into the golf/puzzle room and find a couple of pieces to insert into the puzzle. I’m hoping there will be enough pieces added tomorrow to make a visible difference so that I can update with a new post and picture.

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!