April 29, 2008

(posted by eve)

It's finally happened. One of us spilled a drink on a puzzle. I thought for SURE it'd be Jen, but alas, no. It was I. Thankfully it was a clear Sierra Mist drink, so no staning occurred. But honestly. What a Klutz I am!!! Here was the spill:



This session yielded more than a spill, it yielded the understanding of how important organization truly is for this project. Jen got a lot of progress done with the sky and I managed to finish up the buildings and the bridge. Rather than have both of us working on the sky, I decided to go ahead and get the water started. Oh water. How we HATE water in a puzzle after the last puzzle we did of Tahiti. Agony. But I figured if I go ahead and try to organize the pieces as best as I can by hue, it might make things easier. We've also decided that the next quadrant will be completely sorted and bagged from the beginning, as it really makes the puzzle go so much faster! Here was our progress at the end of the night, bringing our total working hours to exactly 30!!

April 28, 2008

(posted by eve)

I'm not exactly sure how much time we spent on this session, but probably close to 1.5 hours.

April 26, 2008

Another great round of progress! Here's where we were when we finished on Saturday evening at midnight:



As you can see, we made some noticeable progress! Now that most of the sky is done and I've started on the buildings, we'll soon be starting the painful process of putting all the water together at the bottom. Neither of us are looking forward to that part, but it must be done. The speed that we've put the beginning part of the puzzle together with will catch up to us because the water part will really slow things down.

April 25, 2008

(posted by eve)

WOW, was this an awesome session! We started out by working for just a short time before we left with our husbands for dinner. Here was our progress after that session:



Then we came back and worked for several hours and made SERIOUS progress. There was a bit of frustration, anxiety, and anticipation as we realized that the big firework I'd been working on was not lined up correctly and we couldn't figure out why. Jen was working on a firework closer to the top of the puzzle, and when we looked at the picture of what the puzzle will end up looking like, she realized that her firework was too far up on the table and should be lower than mine, but how? We thought at first that the portion Jen was working on was somehow put together wrong, but everything looked like it fit. Then, just as we were ending our session around midnight, Jen realized what was happening: The puzzle was just a bit misaligned. Unfortunately, we'd already written down our time and couldn't completely fix it. Therefore, the next time we sit down at the puzzle we're going to have to figure out how to get the really big firework I was working on moved up toward the top part of the puzzle. This means that we've gotten far enough to connect the big firework to the top of the puzzle. This sounds easy enough, but the felt pad we're assembling the puzzle on to transport it to the basement doesn't allow the pieces to be moved easily. We'll have to get pieces of paper and move the puzzle in small sections at a time. This is very exciting! Here was how we ended the night:

April 18, 2008

(posted by eve)

On Friday we finally got together for another session of puzzling before being drawn away to watch a DVD Jen got of the first season of Coupling. During this session Jen decided that she HAD to sort ALL of the pieces into their seperate sections. She doesn't like to work on a section unless she has ALL the pieces, so I let her. While she did that, I worked on the same firework I've been working on for what seems like forever. Here's a picture of her sorting:



Here's where our progress ended when we were done:

April 14, 2008

(posted by eve)

We managed to squeeze in another 2.5 hour session, bringing our total working hours to 15. Here is a picture of our progress when we were done:

April 10, 2008

We actually managed to squeeze in a 3 hour session on Thursday night. Here was our progress at the end of the night:



This session puts us at 12.5 total working hours.

April 6, 2008

(posted by eve)

On Sunday, April 6 we only got in about 3 hours of good puzzle time. However, the progress we made, we felt, was amazing. Here's what it looked like when we were finished:

April 5, 2008

(posted by eve)

What a great day of puzzling! We started at 8:45am on Saturday, April 5.



This is what the puzzle table looked like when we started. As you can see, the border pieces are all layed out and ready to be put together. The pile of pieces in the middle of the table are the ones that Jen had to sort through to find the edge pieces.



After at least an hour, and several set backs, we realized that the border was not the place to start for this puzzle. All the border pieces are the same color of bluish purple and VERY difficult to determine whether or not the pieces are put together correctly. Rather than become more frustrated and possibly incorrect, we put what border pieces we had together aside and will look at them again when we have more of the puzzle put together. Besides, the way this puzzle will work there will only be a border on 2 sides anyway.



Once the border saga was set aside Jen decided to dive back into the puzzle lid and start pulling out all of the purplish blue pieces that will border the entire puzzle. If you look back at the picture of the puzzle you'll see that the whole puzzle is outlined in a purplish blue color. This means the actual edge pieces are bluish purple, the next layer of pieces are bluish purple, then finally pieces that are about half bluish purple and half puzzle picture. So three layers of pieces that are the same color! Jen, in her ever need for organization, decided to tackle the ENTIRE box once again to pull out all of the pieces that were that bluish purple as well as all of the pices that are half bluish purple and half puzzle picture. The pieces that were entirely one color were placed in a zip lock bag, as neither of us are excited about tackling those after dealing with the few edge pieces we had. Instead, she laid out all of the 1/2 & 1/2 pieces. In the process, she managed to find 4 additional edge pieces she'd missed the first time she went through the entire box. She was put in the corner as punishment :o) I, on the other hand, decided to work on the fireworks and opera house. I needed puzzle pieces that weren't bluish purple. Bleh.



We took a break so I snapped a picture of our progress.



A picture of our first "big block" of pieces.



This is where we were after working for 4 hours.



We took a break after 4 hours of working and came back to the puzzle for a while. This is a picture of where we were at the end of the day. All told, we worked for 6.5 hours on Saturday, bringing our grand total thus far to 7.5 hours.

It Has Begun

(Posted by Eve)

We have started the puzzle!! So our official countdown begins on April 03, 2008. We have pictures from last night when we started:


The box, unopened.


Jen with the box so you can see how big the box truly is.


The serial number of this puzzle.


Jen making the first incision to open the box.


The box lid being removed for the first time.


ZOMG look at all those pieces!!!


The poster that shows all 4 different puzzle pictures. Our road map of sorts!


*sigh* Of course Jen has to check if these are "instructions."


We had to figure out a way to decide which bag would be opened first. So we numbered each bag, then drew numbers from the box lid. This way it was random and more fun.


Jen opening the first bag.


The very first pile of pieces!

We sat down and began the puzzle at 8:30 last night and could only work and hour. During that hour we had a few exciting things happen!


For instance, at 8:33 I matched together our first two pieces!


Then at 8:34 Jen found what we believe is the only corner piece for this quadrant of the puzzle.

This weekend we plan on spending several hours on the puzzle now that is has begun. It was an exciting night to begin, especially since we've been looking forward to this for months and haven't been able to due to my relocation. So we decided last night would be a great night to do it. Also, it's Jen's mother's birthday. So it was on a special day. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAY!!

Oh, and I almost forgot. Jen gets a special shout out because she figured out which of the four puzzles we were doing last night after picking up her first piece. We're doing the Sydney, Australia puzzle first.

Check back again soon! I will be posting more pictures (although not as many next time) of our progress and how things are going.

We are almost ready!

Hi loyal viewers.

With Eve now moved in and settled, the day is rapidly approaching for us to begin the puzzle. Stay tuned over the next few days for exciting updates!