I can’t tell you how much better I feel now that the missing piece has been found! Thank goodness! I was very upset with myself and certain it had been vacuumed up and thrown away, or chewed to a pulp by my beloved Boston Terrier, I am so happy I was wrong 🙂 The little guy was hiding under the sheets of paper I use in the bottom of my trays. I’m not sure what made me go through all my empty trays, but I’m so glad I did!

I was hanging out with my mom today, which is our usual Friday ritual, so progress was extremely limited for the day. I was only able to add about 70 pieces; not only was I away from home most of the day, but progress has slowed greatly. I’m left with dark/solid colors, and the twinklies. There isn’t really a section of the puzzle that I can pick out and put together by color, so I am searching for pieces one at a time for the most part. It’s much more time consuming, but I know I will get there eventually. On the plus side, the inside of the puzzle is finally finished. All that is left is filling in the dark blue sections between the border and the filmstrip, and the two twinkly sides.

My mood has also improved some, which is most likely a combination of being able to get out of the house and spend time with mom, and also finding my prodigal piece. So even though the pieces added are taking more time than usual, it isn’t frustrating me as much as earlier in the week. Good news on all fronts!

Hope all is well with you and yours, and I hope you all find time in your day to play. Puzzles, board games, cards, video games, online games, etc. We all deserve a little play time!

Super frustrating day for me 😦 I have found I am missing a piece and it just took the wind out of my sails. I have separated all remaining pieces by shape, and am definitely missing one. I’m sure it’s my fault and that it is somewhere in the house. But I haven’t found it yet and I’m disheartened. It was difficult for me to concentrate and I only added about 100 pieces to the puzzle today.

I’ve been trying to keep this blog lighthearted and positive, even when I don’t have the best day in general, or find myself frustrated by lack of progress on the puzzle. But menopause is kicking my middle-aged behind, and my mood has been pretty awful all week, in addition to being ill with a cold. The ridiculous thing is I know intellectually that I’m being unreasonable, moody and slightly crazy; but I seem to have no ability to stop it. My poor, poor family has to deal with Mood Swing Momma till the hormonal surge has receded.

Hopefully the bright, shiny, positive puzzle lady will be back soon.

The filling in is coming along! It seemed every piece put into the puzzle today didn’t make much of a difference, but at the end of the day when I compare this evening’s picture to yesterday’s  – wow! I actually made quite a bit of progress. Did my best to not get frustrated but it’s much slower going with mostly dark/solid colors left. I found that breaks were needed more often so as not to get discouraged.

I had wanted to fill much of the solid colors in before beginning the twinklies (which is what I call the 2 edges with little bursts of light), but I couldn’t seem to find any piece I was looking for to fill in holes. At the end of the day every piece I tried to fit in seemed to be the wrong one. It may be that a good nights sleep and a break from the puzzle is all that’s needed.

I may try and work on my secondary puzzle tomorrow as well, I have been ignoring it because progress on the big guy was going quickly. But I feel the need to complete a puzzle. It may still be a few days before I get to the end of Snow White, so it will be nice to work on a puzzle I can finish relatively quickly. I have most of the windows completed, now it’s a matter of putting together the rest of them, reading what they’re saying and putting them where they go in relation to each other. Hopefully I will have a picture of an actual completed puzzle at the end of the day!

Made some good progress today, including finishing the border – HOORAY! That thing drove me nuts today. Too many pieces fit or seemed to fit and it was trial and error to get it done. I was so frustrated I had to leave it alone and come back to it hours later. I was out of sorts today, normally I don’t let something like that frustrate me. Usually I am able to sit, concentrate and work through it. *Doing my best Scarlett O’Hara* – Tomorrow is another day!

I had problems standing today to work on the top half of the puzzle, so I flipped the board around to be able to sit and work. Also spent an hour or so sorting what was left of the solid color pieces by shapes. Still have the “twinklies” to sort through. I plan to do that while watching tv tomorrow. Little bits at a time.

My eldest son was given the task of finding me soundtracks of all the movies represented on the puzzle, and got 9/10 in no time at all. He already had some of them, found some more, and we had to reserve the Bambi soundtrack at the library. I probably have 2 or 3 days (hopefully) left on Snow White, so I’m hoping to listen to the soundtrack nearer the end.

All of these movies have good memories for me. It’s interesting that 7 of the movies are from my childhood, and only 3 are from when my kids were young. I know all the songs to each of them, we watched a LOT of Disney at our house. I guess that’s why I really wanted to do this particular puzzle, the images hold great memories for me AND it’s a Ravensburger. Their puzzle quality is amazing, and they came up with an image that I truly am happy to be working on. I’ve wanted to do a large piece count puzzle, but hadn’t been able to find one that I really enjoyed the image. I was taken by the Keith Haring Double Retrospect, but although I enjoyed the artwork I wasn’t sure that the puzzle itself would be one that would be enjoyable to assemble. There are only 7 or 8 colors in the whole thing! Perhaps after I finish Unforgettable Moments I might be brave enough to try tackling Double Retrospect if I can still find it. Although I will most likely have to wait a while and catch up on all the puzzles I have purchased that are patiently waiting on me to start working them. Puzzle me! Don’t forget me! I’m collecting dust! 🙂

I almost feel like I’ve hit my stride – another amazing day of progress 🙂 I may need those Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs songs sooner than I thought!

Thinking of my grandmother today, it’s the 2nd anniversary of her passing. She is the one who got me started doing jigsaw puzzles. It seemed she always had a jigsaw puzzle going, and she didn’t mind little kids grabbing pieces and trying to help her out. She would become completely absorbed in them and sometimes stayed up all night working on them. I remember spending the night at her house, kissing her goodnight as she sat in her chair with a jigsaw puzzle laid out on a board on the footstool. Woke up the next morning and there she was, in the same spot, working the same puzzle! When I was little I thought it would be so great to be a grownup and stay awake all night doing a puzzle if I wanted to. It is nice!

She was only able to work 300 piece puzzles in her later years, failing eyesight and dexterity; but she was a lover of jigsaws to the end. Sometimes I think of all the choices we have now, all the different puzzle companies around the world that we have easy access to because of the internet – it makes me kind of sad that she never got to try some of those puzzles of amazing quality like Ravensburger, Jumbo, Heye, Schmidt. She wasn’t a collector, she just enjoyed doing the puzzles and bought what was available to us in our small town. Milton Bradley is one brand that comes to mind, whatever she could get at the dime store, etc.

I’m thankful to her for getting me started working puzzles when I was young. It’s a hobby that I love, especially now when I am unable to work and have lots of time to fill. I miss her, but every puzzle I do makes me think of her and smile. What would she think of my enormous puzzle? Probably she’d laugh and say “good luck sweetie!”