end of blog

You know what, it's been an... experience, but honestly, I haven't really taken to this blogging thing... and the people who seem to actually be interested in my blogging I know on facebook, so I'm going to discontinue this blog and use my facebook  and "The BIG jigsaw puzzle group" on flickr...

anyways, it's been interesting, tah tah!

xD Might as well update =D

It's been awhile since I've posted... I got a bit off this puzzle kick, but I'm working to get back to it...

anyways, to start out, this summer I took a good 2 week long road trip with my mom, from missouri, up to ohio, up to pennsylvania, over to michigan, and back down to missouri... we visited family and friends, it was fun, but that took up nearly a month of my summer (with trip prep and all). I then spent another two weeks going to a friends house a few times a day to take care of their dogs (3 HUGE dogs that think they're lap dogs) that took up another half to two thirds of a month. I was also playing this MMORPG I used to play, got my character up to lvl 199, then quit because of the ingame drama (I forgot what a drama-fest MMO's could be) 

meanwhile I learned how to do thread crochet from a chart =D SOOOOOOO much more fun than doing afghans (I mean, the constant double crochet's... bleh) I'll post a few pictures of what I've done...

First off, the mystery project I was mentioning, was this afghan I made for my aunt, she collects angels because of her first son who died at birth, so I made this afghan in antique rose to go with her decor =D

This was done using Tunisian crochet (also known as the afghan stitch) and believe me... this thing took FOREVER!!!! (just a single row on the angel panels took upwards of 10 minutes each)

 My cousin being an afghan ghost

 And the start of my thread crochet career =D My moms friend does a LOT of thread crochet, and it's stunning stuff... she had this magazine titled "Magic crochet" and asked me if I knew how to work using a chart, I didn't but and she didn't either, but I liked the look of the charts and said that I was sure I could easily figure it out... so she gave me the magazine, and I figured it out =) it's quite easy in all honesty (although some spots can be a little difficult to figure out)

 This is from a different pattern, and I'm going to have to make 26 of these things for the entire afghan >.<

 slightly better pic

 My first thread crochet afghan, I used the wrong size hook (used a 10 not an 8) but otherwise it came out nicely (incase anyones wondering, I'm using 10 size thread

 and the pattern that can be seen in the earlier pattern...

 the star/snowflake thing was a pain in the butt, the only full image in the pattern is of the one that goes in the middle of four of the bigger panels, which unfortunately is different from how the edge star/snowflakes are done (and that image is partially cut off)... I finished the star and realized, based off the picture of the finished item, and looking closer at the pattern, that I had done ch 6, slip stitch in 3rd, chain 3, around the entire thing, when i was supposed to just chain 11 on the outer 5 open sections... I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone... but it was annoying

So my first two pieces =D

 Edge pieces completed... You might notice that the way i've divided the section in half is identical to the way Rosen is doing this puzzle (If you're in the flickr BIG puzzle group *Caugh*Penny*Caugh*) I actually divided it this way before ever seeing Rosens update pictures of how he was handling it... wierd eh...

 The Leopard... dunno how I miss sorted some of the pieces

 Part of the big male lion done, female lions sorted into piece orientation...

 Lions done! (except for a few miss sorted pieces

 Flowers done! and parrot and water sorted out

 close up of flowers

So here's most of the colorful sections put together... As you can see I miss sorted a few pieces here and there... and I know where some of them are, and will add them, next step is all the black/white pieces (notibly the flowers middle thing (Is it called a stamen, or what?), the anteater, the baboon, the monkey thingy up top, and the great white heron (at least I think it's a heron)) (hehe, parentasees inside parentasees) 

Overall, it's really a stunning puzzle... I mean, just look at the water in this image, it's just beautuifully painted... My only gripe is with the brand... I'm soooo used to puzzles like ravensburger, where the pieces hold together better...  I'm still not used to Educa's looseness... I think this might be why I'm procrastinating soooo much, I love this puzzle, but I don't entirely know if I'll be able to get used to how loose it is...

I also can't help but feel that for some reason, this is harder than double retrospect... idk how tho...

WILDLIFE!!!!

WOO!!! Wildlife finally came!

anyways, I hadn't started on the Kinkade project, so I shelved that, and started sorting Wildlife

anyways first a pic of the insane move I made with the Kinkade puzzles...

 Yes, I mixed both 3,400 pieces sections, AND added the 2,000 pieces of disney dreams puzzles... If the 6, 750 piece kinkade puzzles were of a similar quality, I would have probibly added those, but they had black backings so I didn't

 Anyways, Obligatory puzzle box photo

 Obligatory open box photo

Aaaaand my sorting process...

The way I do it is as follows, I grab 2-3 handfuls of pieces from the back box, put them on top of the tray, and  flip them over. I then go through the pile sorting by, lion/leopard pieces, Pieces with black/white and pieces with the baboon texture (I'm including shadows in this section), all other colors that don't fit in groups 1 and 2 are in the 3rd grouping, then edge pieces, and finally any green piece that doesn't fit in the other sections...

This is going to be challenging, but fun... Once I have sorted into these 5 categories, i will spread the pieces out, and pick out the different colors, sorting as I puzzle...

Side Note, I am sorting pieces into the round cups, but then dumping my overflow into the square containers in the back.

My first Educa Puzzle!!

So I decided to try a 1,000 piece educa puzzle for my first educa puzzle... as we all know im in the process of waiting for wildlife... so I wanted to get the feel for an educa puzzle...

anyways... pics....

 my edge piece method... I start with a corner... and just work to the left...

 edges done

 At this point I received the foam mats that I had bought... I replaced my wood-like surface, and cut them to size... I think the area turned out very nicely... and it solves the issue of my cat playing with the pieces as the friction of the foam rubber keeps the puzzle in place... unless I want to move it... it's a little hard to move, but the tradeoff of not having to cover the puzzle everytime im done working is nice...

 deer and flowers

 birds and part of the owl

 Leaves

 Little girl

 And DONE!!

this was a fun puzzle to be honest, and I like how it looks when done, it's a nice finished project to look at... however, the puzzle pieces were looser than the amsterdam red light district... it's almost impossible to move around without it crumpling... I have many MANY fears about storing and moving wildlife and life now that i've actually done one of these...

anyways... since it looks like it might be awhile before wildlife comes... I was thinking I might do one of these mixed beauties... 3,400 mixed pieces in each... OR i'm actually contemplating mixing them for 6,800 pieces total LOL... so the question is... WHO WANTS TO SEE THAT!!!!

Everything is Awesome!!!!

So I graduated today, got home, and took a nap, then went outside to find my foam puzzle mats on the doorstep... I then went to see the lego movie on a whim (CAN'T GET THAT DANG SONG OUTTA MY HEAD) and got home and assembled and cut them to fit the space I have... I now have an approximately 32 square foot puzzling area to work on (that I'll probably be allergic to... at least till the smell gets better)

anyways, here are a few pics of my puzzle area, and the puzzle I am working on =)

 the puzzle on the old puzzle board...

 The new puzzle mats set up...

Close up of the puzzle on the mats =)

The one problem will be moving sections  during a larger puzzle as the friction is high enough that I really had to work to move the puzzle back onto the mats, although, I don't think it'll be quite that bad once I have the entire puzzle finished...

Woodland Fairy Mk. 2

So I finished my 1,500 sunsout puzzle and honestly, it wasn't my favorite... The pieces were really easy to misplace, the fit is loose, and the puzzle is just soooo shiny it's hard to work with it... that said, I liked the artwork, i'd definately do more puzzles from this brand.

I was attracted to this artwork because of the fairy, one of my pet peeves, is the bastardization of the fairy (or faerie) in our culture... people think of fairies as tiny little creatures that carry wands and fly around from flower to flower, the problem with that is the image most people have, is of the Pixie, NOT the fairy... The fairy is a human sized winged human like creature that brings magic to people and places not once imbued with magic...

I like to think that the fairy seen in this image as the fairy queen titania, william shakesphere really hadthe right idea =)

anyways, pics now...

 I started with the greenery

 More Greenery

 Then the mushrooms

 Then Titania, scarf, wings, and hair/face, this was a LOT more difficult than I thought it would be...

 The golden parts of the floor leaves

 and a Random picture of Lucy sleeping on my arm =)

 I then did the dress, and started the dead leaves on the forest floor...

At this point I discovered the pattern, alternating rows of thin long then square pieces, and big thin then big fat pieces

 Finished work on the floor

 Did all of the background blue... Using the alternating pattern

 Started doing horizontal rows on the left side, using pattern

 Finished left side

 Did the bottom right, and middle right, then removed the top to work without having to stretch...

 And finally finished, I think it's a gorgeous puzzle if I do say so myself

 Another pic from a different angle

Now what's next? I'm thinking I might do this 1,000 piece Educa puzzle I bought a little while back... I'm sure it'll be a bit easier, and it'll prime me for the 33,600 piece Wildlife puzzle that I'm getting on Wednesday!! (hopefully)