Ten years of jigsaw puzzles, I almost can’t believe it! And all from wanting to do a GIANT jigsaw puzzle and document it online for my friends and family. Just….wow.

So when I realized that this year would be the 10th anniversary of the blog, I mentioned it in passing to my bestest puzzle pal, Penny. We talked about how we’ve been friends for over nine years because we met right here at My Jigsaw Journal and ended up trading emails, then phone numbers, then we started trading and gifting puzzles to each other – but we’d never met. We live in the same state, just under two hours away from each other, but it never worked out for us to get together.

Until now, of course! 😎

Penny and I talked about how I started the blog because I was working on the world’s largest (at the time) commercially available puzzle and I wanted to keep family and friends updated on my progress. By starting the blog I could update every day, and whoever was interested could read when and if they wanted to – that way I wouldn’t bore people or become completely annoying talking to them about something they weren’t really interested in. Penny then earned her title of The Vice-President of Enabling by telling me that Trefl has some new very large piece count puzzles, including ones with Disney images; and wouldn’t it be great for the 10th anniversary of the blog to start another great big Disney puzzle just like I did ten years ago?

Wouldn’t it be great? Hmmm….

This of course led to checking out the puzzles online and of course they were adorable, and before you know it there were a couple of very BIG puzzles on their way to my house. Penny and I decided that we were both going to start working on this new puzzle at the same time, and that when we got together we’d each have our puzzles to show off and take pictures with. So before you see any of those pictures, here’s the new puzzle we’re starting today…

Golden Age of Disney – Trefl – 13,500 pieces

Ain’t she a beauty?? It reminds me of Disney’s Memorable Moments, mostly because of the separate sections with different movies or characters shown, and the fact that there are even twinklies in the background! (If you were here at the beginning you’ll know what that means 😉)

Just because I can, I’m going to brag a little…here’s me on top of my giant puzzle from 2016. It took me six months to complete it all, but I’m immensely proud of the accomplishment; and it’s the whole reason I started My Jigsaw Journal – so my friends and family could watch me put it together online.

Memorable Disney Moments – Ravensburger – 40,320 pieces

The new puzzle is not nearly as big as that giant one that had me going “temporarily” bonkers ten years ago🥴, but it’s still pretty darn big and I’m almost as excited to start this one as I was the enormous Disney from a decade ago. This new puzzle is in more easily digestible chunks – 1,500 pieces per section as opposed to 4,032 pieces on the larger one. That’s a huge difference for me, and the sections are small enough that each one would even fit on my white board if that’s where I wanted to work on it. With the previous puzzle I had to work each section on my BIG board (5 ft x 4 ft,) because they were colossal sections. Mostly though, I’m very happy to only have to sort through only 1,500 pieces for each section, that’s the best part of all! (Sorting really helps me with the way I puzzle, but it also needs a big straw, which is to say…it sucks.)

I love the images, I love everything about this new puzzle except for one thing. The little booklet that comes with this puzzle tells you that if you want to connect everything together you have to remove rows of pieces from each section so that they all connect into one puzzle. Uh….no thank you. What’s going to happen is I am just going to put each completed section where it goes and take a picture of it that way. I already know what a chore it is to assemble and connect an extremely large piece puzzle, there’s no way in hell I’ll be disassembling part of it just to take a damn picture. The way it’s described in the booklet says the puzzle has 13,500 pieces, but if you’ll be assembling and connecting it their way the finished puzzle would be 12,556 pieces. Nope. No thanks. Not going to happen.

I can’t speak to how Penny will be connecting or photographing hers, but my pictures will just be sections set next to each other. And since I’m not technically connecting them they could be put in any order or shape I’d like; it doesn’t have to be a three by three square/rectangle, it could be one long row, etc.

So when Penny and I were finally able to meet for the very first time I brought my new giant puzzle and we took a few pictures. If you’ve been here long enough you know I’m not a fan of me being in any photos, especially online, but I made an exception here for the anniversary post…

We’re both going to be starting this big puzzle at the same time, but since she has younger kids, a job, and a life I have a feeling that I might be the one who finishes first. Doesn’t matter though, it’s still going to be fun!

It took nine years of emails, texts, and talking in the comments of the blog before we finally met and I’m so very glad that we did. It was a whole big deal for me involving several days away from home, my daughter had to take the day off work in order to drive me, etc. I normally don’t do much that’s just for me, but this time it was important. So all the arrangements were made several months in advance and we were finally able to get together. Our visit was only for a few hours, but completely worth all the fuss!

Ten years of this blog – it’s brought me many things. Best of all is friends from all around the world, and this one specifically that is so close to home. She’s my bestest puzzle pal and the only one in my life, really, who is always down to talk about puzzles (or anything, honestly). Everything and anything puzzle related she’s ready to listen, talk, share pictures – whatever we feel like doing. I’m so glad we found each other here. 💚🧩

There have been hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of puzzles here (about 1,451 actually, with a grand total of 735,306 pieces assembled so far) and many, many comments and conversations about all things puzzle and beyond. Yep. I checked that too. Of course I did – 7,972 comments!

I’ve found fellow puzzle bloggers from Finland and Germany and Russia that I’ve traded many emails and puzzles with, and fellow puzzlers and PADS sufferers from around the globe who love to talk puzzles with me. I’m so glad to be in this community of people who are so kind, considerate, compassionate, and giving. We puzzle nerds are the best, even if I do say so myself! I am most definitely a proud puzzle geek. 🧩🤓

So Happy Anniversary to My Jigsaw Journal! I never thought I’d be doing this for so long, but here we are. We’ve puzzled and shared and laughed and cried together, all of us. And it means to world to me, you have no idea. 💕💖💕