First blog

Hi all! So this is my first attempt at blogging. I probibly should have done it sooner while I was doing the papercraft of howls moving castle I put together a few years ago...

A little history about me as a puzzler, I was born in south africa and traveled all around the world for the first four years of my life. Because of this I tend to have different interests and tastes than other people, one of them is puzzling (because of course, if you mention anything larger than 1,000 piece to most people they nearly wet themselves). My mom hates doing puzzles, she'd be happy if they didn't exist, my dad however shared my enthusiasm for the hobby somewhat.

My mom says that when I was around four years of age I was doing puzzles at a level that most children twice my age couldn't do. I remember throughout my childhood getting a puzzle and doing it over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and, well you get the picture. finally I got to the point where everything was either too big, or not challenging enough, and I kind of stopped.

fast forward to about two years ago when the largest jigsaw puzzle store in the USA opened about 20 minutes away, I loved the store, yet still didn't have the space.

fast forward to about a month ago again, when I had finally had enough. On a whim I cleaned a path from my room to a desk that had been gathering dust in a corner for years, I moved my piano keyboard out of my room alone, and swapped it for the desk, by the time I was done I was panting, and almost sick, but I had done it, I now had space...

So then I started with 1,000 piece puzzles, graduated to 2,000 piece puzzles, and then I saw it, the worlds largest jigsaw puzzle, a whopping 32,000 pieces.

I couldn't help but think, if only I had enough room, I mean, I'm the type of person who will start with elementary size projects and then jump to expert level, skipping all the middle steps. I put together that giant papercraft (pictured above) with only the pieces, and directions and charts entirely in japanese (which I cannot read), there's no reason why I couldn't pull this off... and that's when I saw videos on youtube of people actually putting together the puzzle with very little space, because what I hadn't realized, was that it came in 8 sections made up of 4,000 pieces each.

So the second I got my birthday money, along with some returning financial aid, I invested not only i double retrospect, but also in life: the greatest challenge (24,000 pieces) I figure the financial aid it to assist me through college, and I need the stress relief and therapy I get from doing puzzles...

So now I've cleared out half my room, placed a large board on the floor to hold sections of these large puzzles, and at the urging of penny, another vet puzzle blogger, I've now started this. I don't know how fast I'll do the puzzle, how long it will take, how often i'll update this blog, or even if I'll be interesting enough to keep peoples attention, but i'm sure going to try =D

So a couple puzzles I've put together in past weeks...

                                            Thomas Kincade Disney Dreams 750 piece BatB puzzle

                                                 Down the Rabbit Hole, 1,000 piece masterpieces puzzle

                                         900 piece sunsout puzzle, missing two pieces since I bought it

                                 2,000 piece Heye puzzle... 4 seasons, love heye's puzzles, hate the price...

                                                   Twelve days of christmas 1,000 piece Purrrfect puzzle

                                          ecological seasons, 1,000 pieces by Pomegranite puzzles