Lasagna and a New Lampshade

This is a story about lasagna. Yes, lasagna. Bear with me on this one, chicks.

Now, since I hate cooking and want to eat out every single chance I get except on Sundays when we do easy peasy meals at home, I've let Mrs. Stouffer's do it for me when it comes to lasagna. Well, actually her meat sauce lasagna because we tried the 5 cheese lasagna with sundried tomatoes and neither of us liked that one so we won’t buy that one again. Otherwise, she does it pretty dang good in my book. Even my son thinks so and to him Mom’s cooking is fantastic—right after his wife’s, of course. ;-) I’m not stupid when it comes to my daughter-in-law. She’ll never read this but I ain’t takin’ th’ chance. Understand?

Anyway, we recently ate some lasagna at a party that just about set me retching. Actually, I pretty much stuck to the French bread and dessert that night. It had pepper jack and cheddar cheese only in it. Love Bunny said it wasn’t too bad, but we’re talking about a man who loves scrapple and if you don’t know what it is, google it. It’s a meat they eat in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania and it’s gross and I mean gross!) Plus, my hubby will eat anything and I mean anything! He is not finicky in any way. I have never in my life eaten a lasagna with those 2 cheeses in it. Lasagna is an Italian dish and only Ricotta, Mozzarella and Parmesan should be the cheeses in it.

Okay, competition reared its ugly head here as I had not made lasagna in years and I mean years. I was determined to find my old lasagna recipe. I couldn’t. I had no idea where it was.

When we were down visiting our daughter the middle of May, she said lasagna was the dish for dinner on Sunday night. Hubs and I agreed and when I went into the kitchen to see how it was coming, she showed me my old recipe card! I almost fell on the floor. This was after I’d already fallen twice before in her house the previous 2 days. Anyway, it had tomato soup as the tomato part of the dish. I cannot ever remember making that dish with tomato soup, but it was in my handwriting and looked 50+ years old with all the food stains on the card so I acquiesced to reality. Love Bunny and I didn’t particularly care for it that night and we talked about it later and neither one of us could remember making it that way. Okay, I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Anyway, after the pepper jack/cheddar lasagna, I got out my recipe cards and the one my sister-in-law gave me with her version of lasagna she got when they lived in Italy. I loved that version. Hubs? He thought it was wonderful, but he wanted a little more sauce. So, I decided to alter her recipe with a bit more sauce for hubs. Personally, I thought it was the best lasagna ever, but next time I’ll add a bit more tomato paste to it. So that episode got me to making lasagna again. Nothing like a little competition to make me start cooking, right? ;-)
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I recently bought a cheap lampshade at Wal-Mart. I had an idea for it but it wasn’t turning out like I envisioned. Luckily, I knew that early on so I didn't waste too much time on it. This is the shade.

Another blogger did this with a lampshade but she took the entire fabric off and just used the wire frame. I tried it with just Mod Podge glue and covered it with lace as there wasn’t the glorious frame this woman had. My lamp had a beautiful shade on it but it was beige and I wanted white. You can see the shade that was on the lamp in the box with the arrow pointing to it.

Using clothespins to hold it on, I went around it with 3 pieces of lace. I think the lace was a tad to thick for this kind of project though.

Seams hide pretty well though or at least blend in well enough to not be noticeable.

I even made a mistake and added a small piece to the top just to the right of the middle of those clothespins. It doesn't show much, but afterwards I wasn't too thrilled with the way it looked. I had plans to do a bit more to it but I stopped right then to think about getting another lampshade to do what I had in mind. Just not sure if I like that lace on this one.

This is what I intend to do. I’ll put ribbons around the bottom—pinned on here— and add something to the top. I wanted to do a French type decal on the base of the lamp but it would have to be a small one considering the contours of the lamp base. We’ll see. I’ve only got ribbons half way around the bottom part so far.

My next door neighbors, a young couple—he’s a teacher and she’s a psychologist—and their 2 little girls brought me over a Mother’s Day gift. That was so sweet of them. A basket full of soaps, fizzes and bath salts, made in a small town near us. My guest bathroom smells so wonderful now with all those soaps fragrancing it. The girls are Ella and Hadley. Hadley had open heart surgery just after she was born but is a typical active 5 year old now. Ella, the 7 year old? Well, she will someday run this country! ;-) Hubs calls them "his girls" since Caroline and her mummy and my daughter don't live near enough to see frequently.

Okay, continuing on with the lampshade redo. I had to take a break from the redo overnight because I was becoming frustrated. But I got to thinking. I’m dedicated to thrift for a while and will not spend more money when that lampshade will do perfectly with a little bit of fixing on my part. The vision continues. I photographed it in the early morning in the back yard. It’s so dewy, quiet and green out there with shadows dancing across the grass and I just couldn’t let the extra photos not be shown. It took about 16 photos to get the ones I wanted. I love this one of the bird bath and aspen tree shadowing it and the lamp.

Here also. Did you notice our glorious blue desert sky this morning?

Close up of the bottom. I tied on a red check ribbon around its neck just for the fun of it and have decided it’ll stay.

I have a plethora of pink roses so I didn’t have to buy much at all for this lamp.

Ta Da!! And here it is in our living room. I’m now in love with it and didn’t have to buy anything but a cheap lampshade and a few ribbons.

Just a bit of eye candy for you from here on out.
 Beautiful cabinet.

A tiny very efficient office.

What a beautiful shower curtain and shower!

Where can I find a pink polka dot spatula? Isn't this cute!

I saw those curtains in the mirror and just about lost it. I love this color combination—yellowish green.

Okay, just because I cooked lasagna doesn't mean I'm going to cook much more so this wonderful, beautiful kitchen would be lost on this old lady. ;-)

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