What can you do in 900 days!? ...

You can finished an 18,000+ puzzle!!

Yes!  At 12:45 pm today, Crystal placed the LAST piece!

Placement of the last piece - Yay Crystal!

The traditional hugging of the puzzle!

A few thoughts:

• This puzzle was actually easier then the last large puzzle I did (9000 piece - Wedding of Cano) - this puzzle was very colourful!
• The puzzle was started on February 9th, 2012 - 11:00 pm*
• The puzzle was completed July 28, 2014 - 12:45 pm.
• Total elapsed time: 899 days, 13 hours, 45 minutes
• There was a puzzle sabbatical from June 2012 to January 2014 - wow ... long time.

The puzzle is complete!  There are no missing pieces ... there was a scary moment where I couldn't find one of the pieces but it was sitting on the Risk box!

Now, what do to?  Maybe I'll go and have an Apple or something ...

---

* After the New England Patriots lost the Super Bowl.  I feel I have been a curse to the Patriots since I have yet to finish the task.  Now its up to you Tom Brady. I'm no longer holding you back!

Long overdue puzzle update ...

Wow ... its been since May since I updated!  Oops!

Well, there is some fantastic news ... I'm actually almost done.  SERIOUSLY! All of the pieces can fit on the dining room table!  There are ~2000 pieces left ... maybe less?  I'm not really sure.  So, here are a BUNCH of pictures of the progress since the last update.  I really should have been updating throughout May/June/July ... sorry.  My bad.

The big elephant still is not complete; however, over the past week, I have been working on finishing the 'big gaps'.  Ie. the little elephant - complete, rhino - complete, alligator/crocodile - complete.  When I say complete, I mean there are few pieces missing.  So pretty much all that is left is the big elephant.

Here is the state of the entire puzzle on May 30th, 2014

July 9, 2014 - Started the big elephant ... its leg.

July 11, 2014 - Full puzzle picture

So now I realize that I've done a really poor job updating ... because even now the puzzle looks WAY more complete!

July 24, 2014 - Full puzzle picture

3 Days ...

After my vacation to Jenn & Lee's Wedding!  I came home to work on my puzzle. I was going to get grey done!  Yes, I was committed ... until I actually started it.

It sucks.  I lasted a whole 3 days!  But look at what I accomplished (which wasn't much) ...

Just a little bit of the elephant

So, I have changed gears ... I'm going green!!  Leafy green, not grassy green. I have been making a lot of really good headway!  I forgot to do an update during the week (Wednesday or Thursday-ish?)  So here are the pictures from there

Around the big giraffe's head

Beside the lions

So, now here is the update to the update.  Since, I'm only missing a handful of the pieces, I'm pretty much done with the areas I have been working on.

Left side of the puzzle, I got lazy and didn't bother looking for the last 2 pieces in the middle

Part I of II

Part II of II

For the most part the trees and the greenery are now complete!

Right side of the puzzle

Just a note: I did end up working on some of the elephants, when I was working on the grey, I started to separate out some of the pieces (turns out it was the elephants on the right side).

Up next? The top corners!  Hopefully, those will be completed in a few days ... after that, I'll tackle the grassy green (bottom right hand corner) and then the 'box of miscellaneous dark pieces'.  I believe once those 3 items are completed ... then the large elephant will be worked on.  I hope it does not take 8-weeks like the blue did for the 9000 piece puzzle I did.

Giraffes ... completed!

Another puzzle update!  I had taken a break from the puzzle a couple of weeks ago because my sister-in-law visited from Vancouver and then just got lazy.  But this week I got back at it!  I have completed the giraffes as promised.

There are various pieces missing in various areas. Sorting through all of the pieces are starting to get tiring - I think I am about half done the puzzle ... so, there are still about 9000 other pieces to go.  I have not decided what to do next.  I may start with the 'trees' and other greenery. Stay tuned.

Oh! Zebras are more complete too!

Finished off the other zebra

Puzzle Update 2014!

Yes! The long awaited puzzle update!  How is it going? Well, I can tell you that I'm avoiding the very large elephant.  I'm going to probably try to do the entire rest of the puzzle before tackling that crazy thing! Since I've been unemployed, I've had plenty of time to work on it.  I got the lion's family pretty much completed ... as well as the *most* of the crocodile/alligator. I did some work on the 'smaller' elephant earlier before I was "Arnolded". There are just random pieces I find that I can place. I'm currently finding that this one is not as bad as the 9000 piece puzzle I did - less of the same colour. Its a very colourful puzzle and there are a lot of distinct looking 'areas'.  I say this now before I even attempt to tackle the large (similarly coloured) elephant.  By my estimates right now - I think I'm just over 50% completed. I'm not really sure though.

Next steps? Complete the giraffes. Zebras and then the rest of the 'green'.

Oh yah! You want pictures! So, I couldn't get the entire thing in with one picture (right now). So its in 2-parts.

Right, don't use those little foamy play mats.  They suck as puzzle place holders on the floor.

(I think I'm going to get some plywood to put the puzzle on soon)

Lion family - check!

Main body of the little elephant - legs not done (too much black)

Alligator/Crocodile - last 4 days of work!

Two Week Update

I missed last week because ... I was I up really late before taking my pictures.  For the most part the hippos are more complete.  I've also started with the rainbows. And the upper left corner.

The smaller hippo

Big Hippo!

Splashy elephant leg

Rainbows!!!

Week two brings a more complete rainbow.  Plus some official products of Keizo's Puzzling Time (tm)! I've also found that I'm looking through the pieces to location the 'random' pieces that are missing, like for the hippo.  I feel like I want to complete something ... errr, completely.

The upper left hand corner.  The rainbow is *mostly complete*

And LOOK Charleston Chew!  The official chew of Keizo's Puzzling Time (tm)!

And a BlackBerry!  The official smartphone of Keizo's Puzzling Time (tm)!

The smaller giraffe's head (since there was rainbow close by)

This is complete!  Except for around his ear! YAY!!

The other hippo!

Its the "Day After Tomorrow"!  The official movie of Keizo's Puzzling Time (tm)!! Since its been on every weekend for the last 4 weeks. Next weekend its on FX Canada!  Yay!

Hippos!

Finished most of the hippos.  It seems I need to pick through lots of pieces!  I think I've placed almost all of the purplish pieces.  I've needed to take separate pictures because its gotten too wide.

Alligator!

Big Hippo!

Elephant's leg with some splashy water!

Smaller hippo!

Backs, Tusks, Black-and-White!

I continued my progress on the rhino's back and managed to connect them together. That rhino is going to be big!

Crystal started to work on "something" and we didn't know what. It took me about 2 days of puzzle work to determine what it was ... it turns out to be the big crocodile. I stopped working on it because the zebras were going to be easy and Crystal wanted me to start working on them ...

Gah! So I thought the zebras were going to be easy. I figure all of the black and white strips were going to go the same general direction, thus identifying and placing them would be a breeze. Boy was I wrong. I spent the entire weekend (and a few work nights) working on them. Apparently there are more then 3. There are like 13 of them scattered throughout. But the main 3 were (are) freaking difficult. I still have a bunch of do. I'm not sure where all of the pieces are (if they are a bunch of them buried in the extremely large black pile).

I had the elephant tusks done for a week or so, I just forgot to take a picture. They were easy (took like 20 minutes to find and put together).

So, my progress has slowed. I guess slow and steady will eventually win the race. *sigh* another week has passed, and it looks like I haven't done much (except for the sky).

Pieces Everywhere!

This week's update features less things getting done and a larger mess all over the 'living room'. There are pieces everywhere! We've started to use those some takeout containers to put different types of pieces. Like greens, animals and fur.

I've split out the zebra pieces from the other 'animal pieces.' Crystal has started working on the zebras. Apparently there was a lot more then I originally thought!

I've gotten started on the rhino! It hasn't been as difficult as I had originally thought. Its a pretty distinct "bluish-grey" colour.

We've also been able to finish up a lot of the little plants like things. I'm not sure what they are called and have attached them to the edge. The edge is most complete and I've been finding random edge pieces in the piles as I've been sorting.

I've also got other people into puzzling .. well, one guy, Dave. Its his 30th birthday today. Happy Birthday Dave. And since its on the Internet, it must be true.