Last Friday evening Mary was out with the Tarts so Tori and I had a dad-daughter night. We ordered pizza and wings from Pizza Hut (love those Honey BBQ wings!) and watched The Island. Had forgotten how much I enjoyed this box office bomb.
After the movie, around 9 p.m., we started work on the 550 piece puzzle I had stumbled across earlier that day at Hobby Lobby featuring the above image, Eleanor of Aquitaine, a painting by one of my favorite artists Kinuko Y. Craft. I became a fan of Ms. Craft’s work when she began painting works for book covers for Patricia A. McKillip‘s elegant fantasy novels. I was so excited as Tori and I had recently completed a Frank Frazetta puzzle and I was itching to do another one with her. Kinuko Y. Craft’s works (examples can be seen here) are so full of detail and rich color that they are marvelous illustrations for puzzles. A company called Master Pieces Inc. has four of her works made into puzzles. I loaded up a bunch of music on Rhapsody and we set to work. Around 1:30 in the morning Mary arrived home at which time Tori and I figured we better stop working on the puzzle and get to bed! We had 3/4 of it completed and finished the rest Sunday afternoon. It looks wonderful and was a great deal of fun!
As I stated above, the image from Craft’s work is of Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of two illustrations she has done on this fascinating woman. Curious to a fault I decided to find out if said Eleanor was a real person and indeed she was! From Wikipedia: “she was raised in one of Europe’s most cultured courts, the birthplace of courtly love. She was highly educated for a woman of the time, and knew how to read, how to speak Latin, was well versed in music and literature, and enjoyed riding, hawking, and hunting. She became heiress to Aquitaine, the largest and richest of the provinces that would become modern France, when her brother, William Aigret, died as a baby.” She gained notoriety during her first marriage to Louis VII when she led some of her ladies-in-waiting and vassals to the Crusades. Her second marriage to Henry II resulted in the births of Richard the Lionheart and his successor, his brother John. Henry and Eleanor’s story is featured in the play The Lion in Winter by James Goldman that was made into a film starring Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn and later remade as a TV Movie starring Glenn Close and Patrick Stewart.
So there you go, a story about how Tori and I spent Friday night and an art and history lesson about a fascinating woman from history. What more could you want?
Sounds like it was a very fun, relaxing time. I enjoyed that movie.
Lydia, Elaina and I really enjoy jigsaw puzzles, too. We’ve had to put them on hold because Anjelia keeps getting into the pieces and throwing them or biting them. Her little fingers just can’t seem to resist the temptation. Next winter will be fun. Anjelia will be three and past the ornery two year old stage. I plan on doing lots of puzzles!
Interesting history, too! .
i love father-daughter date nights! i take after my dad, & we have a lot in common.. so we still have them!
most recently we went to see King Kong.. there’s no way my mom would go!
and you mentioned a couple more of my favorite things.. Hobby Lobby.. which i love. great prices on frames, matt board, & other art supplies & furniture & other fun stuff.. if you can wait till they go half-off.
and the other.. puzzles.. i’ve loved for as long as i can remember. the harder, more challenging, and the more pieces, the better! i usually do them while i’m watching movies. since i can’t stand to sit & do nothing while i’m watching a movie (at home) anyway.. a puzzle, drawing, word puzzles, playing a game on the computer, organizing something.. i’m strange.
oops.. forgot to mention, that i love that Hobby Lobby always plays Christian music in the store.. even if it’s just instrumental. tho sometimes it stinks that they aren’t open on Sundays.. i definitely respect them & love giving them my business.
They are definitely a fun thing to do while watching football, etc. on tv. I’m on the lookout now for the other 3 puzzles that have Craft’s paintings as their subject.
Anjelia reminds me of Razz…if you’re doing a puzzle he always thinks you’re eating and it you hold out a piece he usually chomps down before realizing that it isn’t food. Its odd as he usually sniffs everything else first…guess puzzle pieces look like food.
Jules sent me an email recently to check out Hobby Lobby’s website as they have coupons that can be used for additional savings.
Beautiful puzzle art. I don’t enjoy puzzles myself but Keri and the kids love them. Funny comment about Razz, that cracked me up.
Very cool. If I liked jigsaw puzzles, those would be the kind I’d do [well, that and Thomas Kincade stuff] but I didn’t know till now that this one was based on a real person. Very cool indeed.
thumbs up on the father-daughter night out. 🙂
Finally saw The Island. I loved the first hour or so. It looked great, very neat story, and then turned all Bruckenheimer/Bay explosions. Eh?
I love doing puzzles. The last one we did was 2000 pieces of a cartoon-ish Noah’s Ark. We have a problem with pieces falling onto the floor and the dogs getting to them…
BTW – you should see “Brokeback Mountain.” It was very, very strong.
See, I didn’t see it that way. There was the first act build up, the second act explosions, then the third act was story related stuff in the doubles home and returning to the complex which was more like any typical action movie…more Bourne Identity. I thought it was great.
I’m not going to see Brokeback Mountain for the same reason I didn’t see Traffic or Leaving Lost Vegas or Crash…I go to movies to be entertained and very, very rarely like something on that level of seriousness. Sorry, won’t be doing it… 😉
oh yeah, i saw The Island for the first time on Saturday.
it was ok.. but definitely not as great as i was hoping.
i liked The 6th Day (which bombed just as bad, i’m sure) much better. the 6th Day had a little more story & fun elements to it. the Island was just one big chase scene to me.
The Island DVD was really disappointing, most likely the victim of its poor box office. The only extras are a commentary and a featurette showing how they did one of the scenes….very bare bones.
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there’s nothing like those old fashioned jigsaw puzzles, i’m an addict 🙂