The Day Zero Project - Do a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle

I love doing jigsaws. When I was little we always had one on the go somewhere in the house, and in particular I remember long Christmas holidays hunched over the table sorting pieces. I once read an Enid Blyton book in which the young heroine spent the night staying awake keeping watch over some mysterious building which she could conveniently see from her bedroom window. She passed the time doing a jigsaw. I was always making up adventure stories in my head, and doing a jigsaw let me live inside my head for a bit and imagine.

As part of my degree I spent a year in Germany. I didn't always have a lot to do in my little room with no electrical entertainment, but I did have a nice big desk and a jigsaw on the go. That is probably the last time that I completed a real jigsaw with more than 12 pieces - they aren't the best hobby when you have young children and need to leave piles of tempting tiny bits of cardboard lying about precariously for days on end.

When I was putting together my Day Zero Project list I browsed other lists for inspiration and this one caught my eye - "Do a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle" - so I added it eagerly. We now have a dining table that can be appropriated for periods of time, children that can understand (to a certain extent) things that they are not allowed to touch, and I have a Mum with a vast jigsaw collection. I borrowed one - Cadbury's chocolate adverts - got on with it, and to my immense surprise finished it in two days! (Admittedly that did co-incide with my technology free day, which certainly speeded the process up).

Maybe the design that I picked was too easy. Anyway the bug is back and I've already tentatively chosen the next one which is one of my own - a much more difficult photomosaic of the Mona Lisa. Soon to be a permanent feature in our dining room!