finish a 5000 piece puzzle

coming… time to break out another puzzle.

I bought a puzzle off of ebay that I thought was 5000 pieces, but its only 500! Bull shit. This will have to be put on hold a tad longer until I can find one. Any ideas friends? Stores near me do not have on this big.

Yay!

I started this puzzle about 8 years ago and didn’t get too far, then packed it up “for later.” I got busy with life. One day I thought “You know, I need to either do this puzzle or give it away. There’s no point in keeping it if I’m not going to do it. The box just takes up space.” The puzzle survived 5 moves, most cross-country, and two cats, including a notorious thiever who showed early interest in the pieces as toys. I am so happy (and surprised) that not a single piece is missing.

Wrapping up: This puzzle is 63” by 42” (the box says it is 62 by 42 but I measured and it is actually just barely under 63). It is an F.X. Schmid. My husband bought it for me as a present from a games store at Mall of America. The picture is of a painting called “Gothic Garden” by Egidio Antonnacio.

I’m going to glue it, frame it, and hang it on a wall.

I’ve been working on the puzzle off and on over the last few days and I think if I keep at it, I can get this done by the end of this weekend.

I’ve filled in the top right corner a lot since the last entry and made some progress on the upper left.

I took the pic at an angle this time so the flash wouldn’t cause so much reflection and dimming of the puzzle image as it has in previous pictures.

Pictured above: Puzzle progress as of 6-09-07. The top part needs a lot of work still. The bottom corners have some blank spots.

The pic shows up really small; you can click on it for a bigger image.

Well, I gave myself a deadline to get this done.

I’m not really any closer to being done than I was when I posted the last picture. I’m on the difficult part—all the pieces look the same!

If I don’t get this done by the end of the challenge time, I’ve given myself the consequence of eating squid.

The good news: I’m about 1/2-way done with the puzzle!

The bad news: I’ve done all the easier (but not easy) parts. I’ve got almost entirely dark green and black pieces left, so the 2nd half will take a lot longer to do than the 1st half.

The angle of the picture and the loose pieces in the empty spaces makes it look like it’s more done than it is.

Foo, my gray and white kitty, went to sleep on the puzzle. She chose the section I was working on, of course—so she can be where the center of my attention was being focused, therefore she becomes the center of attention.

Monet (my white kitty with a black tail and a black dot on her head) has spent many hours sleeping in the puzzle box’s lid. She loves it!

This picture is from the phase when I had the pieces separated by color. I used the bottom box to hold the many black or almost-black pieces. Those pieces will be hard to place.