Super frustrating day working on the puzzle, there are so many pieces that are the same shape and color with only minute differences and I kept finding pieces I had placed incorrectly. Grrrr!

It’s getting close, I may be able to finish this by the end of this weekend. We’ll have to see. I’ve been pushing myself to get it done, perhaps working when I should be resting, and it’s catching up with me. I have to take it a little more slowly. There are still PLENTY of pieces left in this puzzle, maybe about 33,000!!

It’s looking really good, but man is this puzzle even harder than it looks! Of course if it were too easy it wouldn’t be as much fun. I may be able to finish the dark blue and the edge tomorrow. Have to wait and see how I’m feeling, I might need to take it easy and not do as much as I have been doing. Hopefully all the dark will be finished at least, that stuff is kicking my butt!

Hubby installed the new light above my workspace and I can really tell the difference, especially in the picture I was able to take. Barely any glare at all and it looks like a much nicer image to me. It is extremely nice to have a bright enough light to work by that isn’t too much. He tried an LED light, but holy guacamole was it too bright! I didn’t want to seem ungrateful but it gave me a headache, and the glare off of Cinderella’s dress was intense. He was unfazed by it and stopped after work today to get another light to try. Success!

It doesn’t feel like I got much accomplished today, but when I look at yesterday’s picture compared to today’s I actually got quite a bit done. By the end of the day it was frustrating me that I couldn’t seem to find any pieces I was looking for. I did, however, find several pieces that I had placed incorrectly. Got those all relocated to their correct positions, eventually achieved today’s goal of 200 pieces and was able to stop without tearing my hair out and having a tantrum.

I’m gonna do my best Scarlett O’Hara impression …. ahem …. “Tomorrow is another day!”

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!