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!

I didn’t think I’d be able to do it but there it is – Cindy’s dress is done!! When I looked at the puzzle sections to decide which ones were most difficult I was SOOOO right to pick this as one of the sections that would be challenging. But I have to say I’m extremely proud of myself for completing it. Yay me 🙂

I even began working on the filmstrip, didn’t get a whole lot done but it’s a start. I enjoy working on the little scenes inside each frame of film, you wouldn’t think they’d be much to look at but they are very detailed and they remind me of watching the movie with my kids. I’m trying to remember the last time I actually saw Cinderella. It’s most likely been around 20 years or so, when my kids were little. My youngest is 24, so it’s been a while! I was listening to the soundtrack last week when I started the puzzle, and that brings back memories as well. It’s amazing how much useless knowledge is kept in my brain – I still remember every word to every song!

I’m excited to get the entire filmstrip put together to see all the scenes close up. The poster that comes with the puzzle is beautiful and very large, but with my aging eyes it’s difficult to see the smaller parts. Each scene in the filmstrip is around 10-15 pieces, so it’s quite detailed and much easier to see in person than on the poster. Hopefully there will be lots more progress tomorrow, with an impressive picture showing how much I was able to accomplish.

Two days and counting, and the dress is still not done. Wow. I knew it was big, but holy guacamole! It’s not this size so much as the fact that it’s all white/lavender/pale blue/iridescent and they are not always distinguishable from one another. The first day was the worst, and today was a little better. Hopefully we’ll be able to make some good progress tomorrow, but I’m not counting on being done by then as there’s still a LOT of dress yet to finish.

I was also able to finally give Cinderella her shoulders and arms which makes her look much more complete and also allowed me to connect her to the coach. Always happy to make connections!

I knew this section was going to be difficult, and I keep trying to remind myself of that. But I look at the section for Bambi or Beauty and the Beast and I’m wishing to be doing a more fun one. One with bright colors, plenty of people, animals or things to keep it a little easier to do. Of course, if it were too easy it wouldn’t be as much fun either. We always seem to want what we don’t have, don’t we? This section is just as challenging as I thought it would be, but I’m trying  to stop myself from getting frustrated when it seems very difficult to find even one piece.

I will eventually get to each section, regardless of whether I think it will be easy or challenging, and hopefully in less than a year I hope to have the entire puzzle done. What an accomplishment that will be!