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...