Is that not an adorable little elephant?? I can’t get over how cute he is! This puzzle really hasn’t been as difficult as I thought it might be, although it isn’t easy either. But it’s going quickly and I’m really having a great time.

Once I finished his skin, I had no idea where to go next. I was stumped for a while, made a decision, then I was having quite a rough time focusing because I wasn’t sure I had made the right choice. I know, I know – I’m over thinking it. I realize that now!

I decided to work on the water next, but even within the blue and white there are so many shades and also more grey reflected onto the water. There are a LOT of pieces, but at the end of the evening I decided I should just start grabbing certain shades and assemble them. I don’t have to follow any set pattern or keep going underneath the pieces already put together. Whatever is working for me is what I’ll do. 🙂

It seems to be going really quickly 🙂 I am not complaining though, I’m really proud!

I have learned in my assembly of this giant puzzle so far that every piece has a twin, and the twin is on the same line. The puzzle is 72 pieces by 56 pieces. There are 2 rows of twinkly edge pieces on each side. That leaves 68 pieces. So you can start counting on piece number 3 and once you have assembled 34 pieces (not including outside 2 pieces), the pattern repeats. So piece number 37 will be the exact same shape as piece number 3. When there is a lot of sameness in color, this can be a huge help!

I learned in the first section that every piece has a twin. The second section taught me that every twin occupies the same line. For some reason, this morning when I was going to begin working on Dumbo’s skin it clicked in my brain. If they repeat in the same line, and I have most of the rest of the line, I can use it to find out what shape I’m looking for!

Having 10 trays of grey pieces, I can use every bit of help I can get. So even though I didn’t have much time this morning, I was able to put in about 130 pieces before I went over to visit at mom’s. I’m estimating that just this morning I probably saved about 2 hours! The first piece I was looking for, all I had to go on was that it was all grey and would have at least 1 male end. Could have been 1,2,3 or 4 for all I knew, there weren’t any surrounding pieces to help in identifying shape. Using the twin method, I knew I was looking for a piece with 2 male and 2 female ends. What a time saver! Instead of having to go through 9 trays for that piece, I only had to check the trays with that shape.  2.5 trays to go through instead of almost all of them. I’m so happy my brain finally made the connection, cause this will really help me.

Hoping to get lots more accomplished tomorrow, and be able to condense my trays down from 10 to an easier to manager number. Here’s hoping!

Finished the little guy’s ears (except for the bubbles), and most of the straw. I’ve sorted the grey pieces by shape and will start tomorrow the long slow process of filling in Dumbo’s skin. He’s starting to look like that cute little elephant that learns how to fly!

Won’t be as much progress tomorrow, cause it’s Friday. But as always I’ll work a little in the morning, and then again in the evening once I get home. But I’m looking forward to spending the day at mom’s to have adult conversation and just hang out together. And my dog will be thrilled to spend time with mom’s little guy running around the yard and barking at strangers (a.k.a. everyone).

Still having a good time, even though some colors/patterns seem tedious occasionally. But when I look at the day’s progress in pictures or even just by piece count, I’m always proud of myself for sticking with it. And there hasn’t been a day yet where I didn’t want to work on the puzzle. If anything, I’m always upset with myself for not being physically able to work on it more.

Hope you’re enjoying my journal, cause I’ve really been enjoying blogging about the puzzle every day, and also about other puzzles I’ve done. It’s quite motivating to have others “watching” to see if I’ve gotten anything accomplished that day. Makes me want to always have something to show at the end of the day. I don’t know how many people are actually reading this other than my mom and daughter, but it doesn’t really matter. I’m having fun with the blog too! 🙂

Lots of good stuff done today. Unbelievably I did the dark blue and edge pieces, even though I usually do that near the end. It was easy and convenient, so there ya go. I finished the pale color in the background above the straw and was able to connect Timothy to it, and even got a large portion of one of Dumbo’s ears finished.

I knew from the picture that Dumbo was a huge part of the image, but seeing the size of just a part of his ear really lets you know just how big he will be. Wow!

This section is different in that I don’t have several different characters to assemble and place approximately where they go. Timothy went first, and the only other character is Dumbo, and he’s HUGE. I don’t normally start at one side and work my way to the other, but it’s looking like that’s mostly how this one is going to go.

Hopefully things keep going as quickly as they have been so far. But the easy stuff is kinda over, so that’s most likely going to slow me down some. Still enjoying myself, and that’s what really matters!

Finally was able to finish sorting and start the actual assembly of the 3rd section, Dumbo. While sorting, it was clear that this puzzle isn’t going to be a cakewalk, although I’m hoping it won’t be as challenging as Cinderella was. The number of grey and pink pieces for Dumbo himself is a bit overwhelming, not to mention the various shades of brown, blue and white. But I’ll get through it like always, and will be extremely proud when it’s finished 🙂

Timothy Q. Mouse is completed already, as his pieces were the easiest to pull out – he’s basically the smallest thing in the puzzle. He is about the size of my hand, so not tiny, but you can see in the picture he is a very small part of the whole image.

I started with the burgundy color in the background behind Dumbo, and as the filmstrip is connected to that I decided to go ahead and do that early in this puzzle. It’s not a corner section so there is only one side that has filmstrip instead of two. Not difficult to work, and actually boosted my piece count for the day so I’m already about 1/8 done! I also put together Dumbo’s eyes and mouth, and the little 4 piece Disney logo. That was where I called it quits for the day.

It doesn’t look overly impressive, but I’m happy with the amount I got done today, especially having had to go out and run errands twice! Hopefully tomorrow will be less hectic and there will be more time to work on the puzzle. Now that I’ve started I’m anxious to make lots of progress!