That’s a name and a half, but also a gorgeous image and a enjoyable puzzle! I finished this one in an afternoon of watching Netflix and resting in bed. It was a bit of a challenge, but it worked out great and I think it’s a beautiful puzzle. 🙂
I haven’t done a Big Ben puzzle since I was little, I remember my grandmother having a Big Ben puzzle or two and working on them with her. I don’t really recall anything about the quality of the puzzles I did with my grandma, I just remember enjoying helping her. Big Ben puzzles have been around for a long time!
This is of course a newer Big Ben puzzle and the quality is excellent! I was surprised at how nice the pieces are, I saw the name Milton Bradley and assumed (incorrectly) that the quality would be lacking. The pieces are thick and sturdy with a beautiful image reproduction and matte finish. There are a variety of piece shapes and the fit was nice and tight without being difficult. I enjoyed the quality almost as much as I enjoyed the picture.
I assembled this puzzle from the middle out, which isn’t the way I normally do a puzzle. But for this picture I started from the sun behind the mountain and worked outward from there. The flowers in the foreground were the last thing I assembled – I usually leave the more plain sections for the end but for this puzzle I did most everything backward! It doesn’t really matter how I got there though, because I enjoyed the assembly and that’s what really counts. 🙂
My Jigsaw Journal 
Hi Stacey!!
Love your blog!! I love the big count puzzles and have done Ravensbugers Underwater Paradise (9000) and Astrology (9000) already. I’m one panel into their 18000 Ancient World Maps, with their 18000 Magical Bookcase on deck..
I too love the Disney and have decided to pause the maps to do it. I thought 2 weeks per section might be feasible, but I work some crazy hours, so I wasn’t sure.
I’m so excited by your blog!! I am going to document my go too, going to try to remember to take pics about every 20 mins to track time and have an awesome time lapse. Can’t wait to see what else you work on!
My lifetime hobby goal is to do every puzzle over 9000 pieces that is commercially available. 🙂 This 40k will be a good addition!
Cheers,
Kristen
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Hi Kristen! I’m glad you like the blog, I’m having fun with it and it was a great incentive for me to put pieces into that giant puzzle every day, cause I knew people were “watching”.
I love the look of the 9000 Astrology! Was it fun? I’m toying with getting that one myself, but I still haven’t figured out what to do with the Disney! I love the ancient maps as well, I think they’re stunning looking!
I hope to keep up with your progress on Memorable Moments if you have something online, it really was tons of fun for me. And the biggest puzzle I’d done before this was a 2000 piece Ravensburger, I didn’t mess around and jumped right into the 40,000! 😮
Happy puzzling!,
Stacey
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I’m so excited to meet someone as enthusiastic about puzzles as I am. Did you know there’s a whole google group devoted to puzzles? It’s awesome too. The guy that runs it is into old puzzles, before they were standard cuts. His collection is really cool.
The Astrology was awesome fun, except for the purple. Ugh. That purple doesn’t give at all and it’s nearly half the puzzle. The constellations were also not easy, its a lot of hunt and peck for teeny little slivers of gold on pieces to link them together. Still totally worth it and it is very vibrant!
I’d recommend the Underwater Paradise 9000 if you’re looking for a warm up round for Astrology. It was also very colorful and every day was fun. Nothing particularly confusing or grinding. Even the water changes shades enough to place easily.
As far as where to put them or what to do with them? Astrology is custom framed (There’s a piece of wall decorative moulding that looks great as a huge frame, so I built one myself.) It’s on a basement wall. Underwater Paradise is assembled in chunks awaiting gluing. No idea where to put it, so it has stayed put for a year now. No idea what to do with Disney either, but assembled in chunks somewhere safe is very likely. Won’t stop me from enjoying the assembly!!
Anyway, Disney arrived last night – well 12:33 per FedEx tracking, but it came in the door around 6 when I got home from work. I wasted no time digging into Beauty and the Beast after the obligatory “omg look at this box!” pictures. I got Belle’s dress done last night. I don’t really sort how most people do, I just sift until I think I’m close to retrieving most of what I’m hunting. I do keep some bowls, but they’re for stuff as I find it – unique colors I’ll do next, border pieces or holder for background I won’t use for a while, just lets me access the rest easier.
Today I came home and dug in again. Finished the movie scenes, the yellow of beasts jacket, some of the stairs and some fill. Going to see if I can do the big middle window and start on the wrought iron banisters tomorrow.
Well, this was longer than expected!! Inspired by you, I signed up for a Tumblr blog. Its Over9000pieces. Which, I made a gmail account to go with it, so I can store pictures. I’ll add some Astrology pictures from its assembly too.
Anyway, Over9000pieces@gmail.com is the new email if you’d like to keep in touch that way too. 🙂
Cheers,
Kristen
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You’re gonna be great at your blog! I’ll definitely be keeping up with your progress, I’m super excited to “meet” someone who loves puzzling as much as I do too!
I’m holding off on doing another big puzzle for now. Just enjoying doing little 500 and 1000 piece puzzles at the moment. I do love the look of the astrology puzzle though, I thought it might be difficult, but man it’s gorgeous! It’s one of the few large piece puzzles that I really like the image. I think that’s why I was so excited by the Disney puzzle, because it was the first puzzle besides the Keith Haring that I was excited by the image. For me, if I’m going to spend a bunch of money and a bunch of time on a puzzle I want to love how it looks. I’m waiting to see if Educa comes out with a larger than 40,000 piece puzzle and what it looks like. LOL
Enjoy Memorable Moments!
Happy Puzzling,
Stacey
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