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Category: Section 1

A Completed Life

A Completed Life

It’s been close to nine months since I put the last piece into place on the 24,000 piece Life: The Great Challenge puzzle, and tonight I FINALLY moved it off the table and took pictures of it mostly assembled. I have not connected the sections yet as the final section is very weak from a bad puzzle sheets experience I had. The kids and I had to re-work about 25 pieces tonight that had come loose from the backing. I…

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Happy Anniversary, Puzzle!

Happy Anniversary, Puzzle!

Opening the box! Four years ago today, the UPS man delivered my 28-pound package of puzzling joy, and yesterday marked the four-year anniversary of starting this blog!  Wow, it’s hard to believe that I have been doing this for so long.  Click here and here to see those historic posts once again.  ðŸ™‚ This puzzle entitled, Life: The Great Challenge, has certainly been a metaphor in my journey with this big, beautiful beast.  Here are some of the many Life…

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Yet Another Change In Strategy

Yet Another Change In Strategy

I swear, by the time I get this monstrosity of a puzzle completed and mounted, I’m going to be a jigsaw puzzle mounting master!  I have changed and revised my strategy several times, and just when I think I’ve finally found the best solution, another obstacle presents itself. As I last posted, I was getting ready to put the contact paper down on the back of Section 1 so that I could easily move it off the main puzzling board…

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Section 1 – Disassembled and Reassembled

Section 1 – Disassembled and Reassembled

As I stated yesterday, here are the pictures and a description of my process in flipping Section 1 over on my main puzzling board so that contact paper can be attached to the back. STEP 1:  Take a picture of the completed puzzle section – just in case you never see it this way again!  LOL  (Just kidding!!!) STEP 2:  Carefully decide where you are going to make your cut.  I wanted to use the repeat pattern borders as my…

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Divide and Conquer

Divide and Conquer

I know I haven’t updated this in a little while, but it is because I have been playing around with some different ideas on how best to approach doing Section 2 with Section 1 still on my main puzzling board.  I didn’t want to get too deep into Section 2 until I got this figured out.  I have changed my strategy a couple of times, but I think I have finally found what is going to work the best…thanks to…

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After 2 Years, 8 Months, and 10 Days

After 2 Years, 8 Months, and 10 Days

I am elated to announce that SECTION 1 IS DONE!!!! I can’t believe it took me this long to finish the first section, but I am so proud of myself for sticking to my committment of getting this puzzle put together.  I am now officially 25% done!  Doesn’t seem like much in the overall scheme of things, but for me, it’s a pretty huge accomplishment since I’ve never completed any puzzle over 1500 pieces before this. It has been an…

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The Clownfish Have Reluctantly Surrendered

The Clownfish Have Reluctantly Surrendered

They thought they would get the best of me, but NO, I would not let that happen.  The dreaded, but gorgeous clownfish are now finished with a couple of minor pieces still to find somewhere (still worried about the solid orange one….I am 99% sure it’s officially missing). I made a ton of progress in the last two days.  Amazingly enough, yesterday I got to work on it a bit while Derek was awake.  He kept coming in and out…

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Apparently Not All “Life” is Created Equal

Apparently Not All “Life” is Created Equal

Okay, now before you go thinking that I’m getting all philosophical and religious, let me explain… As I posted in my previous entry, I believe I have run into my first official “missing” piece.  It’s the solid orange piece going into the tail fin of one of the orange clownfish.  I have searched and searched through all my remaining pieces and cannot find it.  Then, a couple of days ago I discovered the blog of a fellow “Life” puzzle enthusiast,…

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If Only…

If Only…

If only I could have about 1 to 2 days of uninterrupted puzzling time (at least 6 to 8 hours in a day), I think I could have this baby finished!  It’s getting a lot easier to find the pieces now that I don’t have nearly as many of the same color to look through.  The clownfish are becoming much easier to complete; although, I am fairly certain I may have officially run across my first missing piece.  :o( It’s…

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Clownfish, You Aren’t So Scary Anymore!

Clownfish, You Aren’t So Scary Anymore!

I’m happy to report that I am finally making some good headway with the clownfish.  It was really SLOW going there for a while, but I have made some really great progress in the last couple of days and I’m pleased with the results.  I don’t know how many pieces I have left, but I am definitely confident that I have less than 1,000 pieces left now….just not sure how much less.