Happy National Puzzle Day!

On January 29, 2017April 11, 2018 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles2 Comments

Of course I’m most partial to jigsaw puzzles, but enjoy National Puzzle Day however you like. Crosswords, sudoku, video games (man I loved Tetris!), word searches, anacrostics, whatever puzzles make you happy! If you’re not in the US, we’ll share our day – enjoy puzzles anyway!

I have my grandmother to thank for my love of jigsaw puzzles. She was always working on puzzles, for as long as I can remember. I will never forget her sitting in her chair in the living room with a big board across the ottoman/footstool working on a puzzle. When I would spend the night at her house sometimes she’d be working on a jigsaw puzzle in her chair and I would kiss her goodnight, then I would wake up in the morning and there she was still sitting there working on the puzzle! It was much more complete than the night before because she’d been up ALL NIGHT working on it! 😮 I remember thinking “I can’t wait till I’m a grownup and can work on a puzzle all night if I want to!” Wouldn’t it be great if adulthood was like we thought it would be as kids? Staying up late, eating ice cream for dinner, buying candy whenever we wanted, controlling the tv – no phone bill, boring job, people to take care of, house to clean – being an adult is gonna be AWESOME! 😐

I always loved working on puzzles with her and not just jigsaws, she loved crosswords and logic problems and all sorts of puzzles. I always got to do the easy crosswords in her puzzle magazines because she was so good she was able to do the expert ones and even the expert crossword puzzles that were diagramless (you have to figure out where the words go – no numbers or shaded boxes to help you!) She always helped me with the answers I didn’t know and even taught me how to work the diagramless ones, although I can usually only do the easy or medium ones. My love of puzzles of all kinds came from her and I always think of her when I buy a puzzle magazine or spend too much time working on a jigsaw late into the night. How cool that National Puzzle Day is exactly one week before her birthday – she would have loved that!

img_0794-3 — Me and Grama on a sleepover night – check out those awesome 70’s pajamas I’m rockin!

So enjoy national puzzle day everyone, maybe do a simple crossword with a child or help them with an easy jigsaw puzzle. You might instill a love of puzzles in a child that will be with them forever. Perhaps carve out a little “me time” and work on a jigsaw puzzle or a brain teaser all by yourself, or ask a loved one to help you and spend some time together. You might just create a wonderful memory. 🙂

Saturday 01-28-17 70% Done!

On January 28, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn Jigsaw Puzzles, World's Largest Puzzle Progress4 Comments

70% complete! Woooooo hooooooo!! This was the section I was dreading the most and it’s all done! Of course I’m posting this before it’s been taken off the board and put away for safekeeping. Yikes. Think good thoughts for the transfer on Monday!

Having said that I was dreading this section the most, I must admit that it wasn’t as difficult as I had assumed it would be. To be perfectly honest, Peter Pan was more difficult for me. It had many more dark pieces with nothing else on them to show where they would go. In Fantasia almost every piece has something else on it to help with placement – foam, water spray, bubbles, etc. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I believed, I’m just no judge of these things apparently. It only took 15 days to complete, not too shabby!

Ravensburger got the replacement section to me with perfect timing, right when I finished the The Little Mermaid! When I started sorting the Fantasia section that came in the box back in October, I found a mangled piece with part of the front (picture) missing. Just one piece, and to be honest in a 40,000 piece puzzle who really would have seen it? I would have! Ravensburger was great about sending me a replacement section, although I did have to wait until it was actually available for sale in the United States. (I bought the puzzle last September from Germany, and it wasn’t technically available for sale in the US until after the first of the year). So it arrived precisely when needed – Thanks again Ravensburger! That’s why you’re my favorite puzzle company. 🙂

So now there are only 3 sections left to complete, and the next one up is The Lion King. Doesn’t it look like fun?

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In this image the blue around the edges seems almost purple, that’s not the actual color. Otherwise, it looks great! I’m looking forward to the 2 sides with filmstrip, and only 2 sides with twinklies. I’m hoping the animals aren’t too difficult to distinguish from one another and are fun to assemble as well.

I’m excited to get going on it, but it won’t be until Tuesday at the earliest. I plan on having it sorted by Monday evening though, so I will be ready as soon as Fantasia comes off the board!

Friday 01-27-17

On January 27, 2017March 22, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn World's Largest Puzzle ProgressLeave a comment

Only 190 pieces left – tomorrow is definitely the last day for this section! Although, unless hubby brought some more giant pieces of cardboard home from work it’s going to have to stay on the board all weekend until we have a piece of cardboard to cover it with and tape it up. That’s ok though, I can sort the pieces of the next section this weekend. If he brings some cardboard Monday after work we can take it off the board that night, then I can start The Lion King on Tuesday. I guess that will give me lots of time to work on a smaller puzzle this weekend, mom found an awesome 500+ piece puzzle this week at the thrift store!

It’s going quite well and very quickly, there aren’t many pieces to look through to find what I need and it gets more fun with each piece I find! My mom better get her butt over here and put a piece in tomorrow or she will be out of luck. 😮

I really have enjoyed this section even though it was the one I was dreading the most. And now tomorrow it’ll be in the books! I’m so excited!! 🙂

Thursday 01-26-17

On January 26, 2017March 22, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn World's Largest Puzzle Progress2 Comments

Mickey is finally finished! His hat is complete, and it only took me about 3500 pieces to find all of it!

According to my count there are 507 pieces left to go, so depending on how I’m feeling and how much time I am able to spend on it it should be done in the next 2 days, 3 if things aren’t going well. The end is in sight!

There is a little bit of black left on the rock that Mickey is standing on, and the rest of the pieces are all blues, greys and white. The fun part about coming to the end of the section is that with each piece you find things go faster and faster. It gets exciting!

Wednesday 01-25-17

On January 25, 2017March 22, 2017 By Stacey at myjigsawjournalIn World's Largest Puzzle ProgressLeave a comment

I was only able to put around 100 pieces in the puzzle today. I feel awful, felt awful all day but I did make some progress.

The top of the section is complete, not quite the top half but I’m getting close. Going to try to keep going with the filling in before I flip it around on the table and start working on the bottom half. It’s starting to look quite good in the pictures, which I don’t always see when I’m working on it. I see only close up on the pieces and it usually surprises me when I see the picture how much different it looks. You really can’t tell the size in the picture, but each section is 4 1/2 feet across so the details get lost and you don’t always see it when you’re working close to it. Then you take a picture and can see the puzzle as a whole and it looks completely different.

Hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow and will be able to work on the puzzle a little bit more.