After four months and hundreds of hours, the puzzle has finally come to an end. It’s a bittersweet ending for me because although I love to the see the puzzle finished, its hard to see the project come to an end. I have enjoyed every minute of this experience and I hope you did as well! Autism is something that has effected friends, family, and members of my community, so choosing to raise awareness for Autism made the most sense to me.

I cannot express how thankful I am for all of the support that I received in the last four months. The contributions have come in many different forms: many of you have shared the link to my website with friends and family, some have printed off fliers and placed them around town and at work, and others have donated towards the cause, even if it was just $1. All of the contributions have motivated me to challenge myself and to complete the puzzle.

Also, please help us find a home for the puzzle! Send any ideas to evrypiececounts@gmail.com

Enjoy the video (and be sure to share it with your friends, family, and on Facebook)! Thanks again for everything! And remember Every Piece Counts!

The “Eye Spy” Puzzle Contest has come to an end and the results are in…that mysterious eye was the eye of the White Seahorse! Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to the 4 people who guessed correctly:Kelly Edwards,Theo Davis, Debbie Kingsbury, and Ella Ettinger!

Now, after putting all the names in a hat and drawing one, the winner of the 3,000 piece version of “Life” is:

**Kelly Edwards**

Congratulations Kelly!

Please email evrypiececounts@gmail.com with your mailing address and we will be sending the puzzle to you

Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest! I know it was tricky, but you all had great guesses!

Hope you all had fun

I can finally see the bottom of the box! It’s hard to believe that this exact box was once overflowing with pieces. When I started this project, the plan was to put the pieces down as donations came in. started out doing that, but my love for working on the puzzle hooked me, and I ended up getting ahead of myself! So, as you can see, I am nearing the end of the puzzle and need some help. I still have not found a home for the puzzle yet – do you have any ideas where it should go? Should it be auctioned off and have the proceeds go directly back into the project? Should it be donated to an organization? Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions! Feel free to leave it in the comment area or e-mail evrypiececounts@gmail.com. Thank you to everyone who has supported my project and my efforts thus far!

The “Eye Spy” Puzzle Contest is running until August 1^st, so make sure you put in your guess! Even if you are not interested in the prize, you can still donate it to your local school, library, or somewhere else. All the guesses are looking good keep on guessing!

I have been out of school for the last two weeks and have been very busy working on the puzzle. Lately, I have been working on the sky, space, sailboats, and the clownfish. So far, the puzzle is about 60% complete. With all that said, I am having some trouble and maybe you can help!

Take a look at the image above – it’s of an ‘eye’. I have no clue where the eye belongs…oh no!  So, I definitely need some help. If you choose to accept the challenge and correctly identify who this eye belongs to, you could win a 3,000-piece puzzle of “Life”! Here’s how it works:

• Go to our Facebook page
• If you haven’t already, “Like” us
• Comment on this update on the FB page with your answer

Check out the interactive image of the puzzle to help you figure out which animal the photo belongs to!

Everyone with the correct answer will be included in a drawing and one person will be the winner.

The contest ends on 08/01/11.

Good luck and guess away!

Showing off a BeBop Clothing dress I received from them!

I love this BeBop Clothing summer romper! So cute!

When I first started Every Piece Counts, I really had no idea it would have taken off as much as it has! After a few weeks of puzzling, I started to ‘Google’ my name to see if any articles would come up. It took a bit of time, and then some of the local and tri-state newspapers began posting articles about my project. In my searches, I came across one company, BeBop Clothing, who featured me in a blog post and did a whole write up about my project. My project had made its way to the West Coast, California in particular, and I couldn’t have been happier. But wait, the only thing better than that news was the fact that they are a retailer of fashionable and fun clothing for women! I immediately got in touch with the writer of the blog at BeBop Clothing. The California company was very interested in getting involved with the project and working out some sort of sponsorship. BeBop Clothing (parent company: Second Generation) donated $500 towards my project as well a variety of different outfits to wear while working on the puzzle. You can see me working on the puzzle with some of my BeBop clothes in the pictures attached to this blog post. All the clothes are so cute and really comfortable! If you have not heard of BeBop Clothing, definitely go check them out! Thank you so much BeBop Clothing (Second Generation) for your donation, support, and for just believing in me and my project!

The puzzle is approximately a quarter of the way done..

It is finally SUMMER!!! Although the school year went pretty fast, I am glad it is over. Now it is time to puzzle! I know I have been really busy lately with sponsorships, concerts, and puzzle parties, but I do want to update you on the puzzle, so here is a picture where you can really see the entire thing.

I would also like to give a quick shout out and thank you to Northern Highlands Regional High School for holding a Dodgeball Tournament where the proceeds went to my project. Thank you so much Northern Highlands! A huge thanks to everyone who has supported me and my project all along the way!

The children were determined to complete one of the puzzles!

The puzzle party was so much fun and full of puzzling activities. There were several different stations set up. One station gave the children an opportunity to design their own small puzzles; another required the children to complete everything from 48 piece floor puzzles to 200 piece puzzles. There was a coloring station where kids could color pictures of the animals, hot air balloons, and sailboats from the puzzle, “Life”. The biggest activity of the day was a puzzle scavenger hunt. The kids divided into three teams of about seven kids, each team had to find a puzzle piece that had their team’s color on it.

A group of kids pose for a quick photo before continuing to work on one of the puzzles

Just a couple more days of finals and then I am free to work on the puzzle all summer long! Stay tuned for more updates, blog posts, tweets, etc.

Fly By Wire opened the show!

The Battle of the Bands for Autism Awareness concert at Moe’s Southwest Grill last night was a huge success! The music was absolutely incredible, the food was great, as always, and the support was unparalleled.I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for supporting all of the bands that played and also for supporting my project! Every Piece Counts is a labor of love and I am so thankful for the support and kind words I have been receiving.

Emma Munro joined Raised Platform to sing a Grace Potter & The Nocturnals cover!

For those of you that are new to my project, last night I organized a Battle of the Bands that was held at  Moe’s Southwestern Grill in Mahwah, NJ. The concert featured young musical talent from all over Northern New Jersey. Moe’s not only supported the concert efforts, also will be donating a portion of the day’s proceeds to Autism Speaks! In an effort to create some friendly competition between the bands playing, we asked that each band advertise the performance heavily, and day of, we would be keeping tally of who was coming to support which band. At the end of the evening, we tallied up the attendees and awarded The Escape Directors with a $100 Gift Certificate to Sam Ash. For the runner-ups, we awarded additional Sam Ash Gift Cards so all of the bands can go to Sam Ash and pick up some necessary band supplies. In addition,Guitar Center of Paramus donated the PA System that we used for the evening, and we are incredibly grateful that we had their support.

Raised Platform played some great Black Keys covers!

We are still waiting to hear back from Moe’s regarding how much money was raised, but we are pretty sure that the crowd that showed up definitely took advantage of all of the great food! I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank the bands that came and rocked out with us, the staff at Moe’s for being such a big help, my family for supporting my project and my idea for having a benefit concert, my friends, Emily, Keimya and Melissa for being there for me all night, and to everyone that showed up, thank you!

Read more about the bands that played:

The Escape Directors

The Escape Directors – an alternative- rock and indie inspired quartet based in the heart of Bergen County.  Within the last year, the band has been extremely busy making their music heard and putting their stamp on the music industry. After a successful debut album “Ladders” the band decided to go back in the recording studio, this time in Cleveland, Ohio with multiplatinum recording producer Jim Wirt to record, “The Crowded Room EP” due out July 15th^th!

Raised Platform – a blues- rock jam band that plays mostly covers by The Black Keys and Grace Porter and the Nocturnals.  The three-member band is in its early stages, only being together for 2 months, but nonetheless excited to get out and make their sound heard.

FlyByWire – an alternative acoustic rock band that plays mostly original songs, or what they would say “chill and jam band stuff.” The three-member band is not new to the music scene, having been together for over year and playing various events.

In addition, this Saturday, June 11^th, Moe’s Southwestern Grill in Mahwah, NJ will be teaming up with Every Piece Counts to host a benefit concert. The concert will feature some incredible young talent from all over Northern New Jersey. Moe’s is not only supporting the concert efforts, but will also be donating a portion of the day’s proceeds to Autism Speaks! To create some friendly competition between the bands playing, we are asking that all that attend to let us know which band you are coming to see upon arrival. At the end of the evening, we will tally up the amount of fans that showed up for each band and will be awarding a very special prize. Paul Ash, owner of Sam Ash, has donated some great prizes to award to the winners! In addition, Guitar Center of Paramus will be donating a PA system to use for the night!

If you plan on attending…come and tell the girls at the door the band you are coming to see and then that band is one step closer to the grand prize! So, if you are in the Mahwah area, during the day or night on Saturday, stop by Moe’s Southwestern Grill and enjoy some very tasty Mexican food and live music!

Here are the bands:

The Escape Directors – an alternative- rock and indie inspired quartet based in the heart of Bergen County.  Within the last year, the band has been extremely busy making their music heard and putting their stamp on the music industry. After a successful debut album “Ladders” the band decided to go back in the recording studio, this time in Cleveland, Ohio with multiplatinum recording producer Jim Wirt to record, “The Crowded Room EP” due out June 13^th!

Raised Platform – a blues- rock jam band that plays mostly covers by The Black Keys and Grace Porter and the Nocturnals.  The three-member band is in its early stages, only being together for 2 months, but nonetheless excited to get out and make their sound heard.

FlyByWire – an alternative acoustic rock band that plays mostly original songs, or what they would say “chill and jam band stuff.” The three-member band is not new to the music scene, having been together for over year and playing various events.

Today, I have a very special blog post, dedicated to an adorable three-year-old boy named Gavin from Pennsylvania. Last fall, Gavin was diagnosed on the Autism spectrum. His family and friends have joined together to create a team, called Gavin’s Gang, to support him, raise awareness, and walk in the Autism Speaks Benefit Walk . I am truly inspired and touched by Gavin and his family. One of Gavin’s favorite animals is an elephant, so I would like to dedicate this elephant in the puzzle of “LIFE” to you Gavin!   xo Kate