The Lampshade Story

I have in my mind the tune of the Brady Bunch theme song...

"Here's a story, about a simple lampshade..."

But, I am lost with rhyming from this point on, so that's that!

When we came to France, we bought new lamps. The lamps we had in America just don't work here because of the differences in electricity between France and America. So, we bought all new lamps from IKEA.

In our living room, we bought lamps with glass lampshades.

Why?

We're not sure.

Perhaps we didn't think enough.

Perhaps we forgot for a split second that we have young children (more importantly, young boys).

Perhaps we were just picking the lamps we liked best?

We're not sure why, but we did buy lamps with glass lampshades.

You know where this story is going.

Yes, a glass lampshade was broken.

This was the pathetic condition of our lamp last spring.


Here's the matching lamp which still has it's glass lampshade.


I just couldn't throw the lampshade-less lamp away, so I stuck it in our storage cave in the basement of our building and there it has sat since Spring.

I thought perhaps we could buy a replacement at IKEA. We don't go to IKEA often, but, if you recall, we went to IKEA by train and dragged a bunch of stuff home just a few months ago.

While we were there, I checked to see if you could buy a replacement lampshade. The answer was clear: NO!

I figured I'd have to throw that lamp away.

Then something happened!

I had a friend over for tea. We were chatting about the coming year and our association (where we do knitting together), and my friend told me about a 5 day class that she had taken last year to learn how to make LAMPSHADES!!!!!

I perked up!

I thought, 'there's hope for my broken lamp in the cave'!

I went to sign up for the lampshade class, but all the spots were taken.

Then, a day before the class began, I got a note in my mailbox that a spot opened up for me in the class! Yeah!!!

There's hope for my broken lamp after all!

And, so I have spent two mornings so far learning how to make lampshades. (Let me tell you, a rather interesting experience in a foreign language!)

This past Friday, I made a lampshade that fixed my lamp!!! Yeah!!!

Here's the new lampshade.


Here's the saved lamp.


Best of all, I quietly put the lamp in the corner where it used to sit and didn't say a word to anyone. When the kids came home from school, EACH ONE (this is a miracle!) said, "Wow, Mom, you saved the lamp!" They noticed! What a day for me.

I have to admit I'm pretty proud of saving this lamp. A replacement lamp would have cost 35 euros, and I saved the lamp for about 33 euros (cost of my class plus the fabric I had to buy), but I get to make 5 lampshades before the class is done. Not bad, I'd say. Not bad at all.

So, that's my story about a lampshade.

I'll end with a photo that may surprise you. This certainly surprised me! I was walking in a park I don't often visit this past Saturday during Ryan's piano lesson. This is what I stumbled upon.


What a shock! American football in France! I had to laugh because they were in the smallest soccer field in the farthest corner of the park. Still, I'm amazed it's even taking place here.

We were invited over for a traditional Thanksgiving meal with our good friends, the Roussels, again this year. What a treat! While we were there, we met a man who runs Boy Scouts in Paris. He said they have 50 Cub Scouts this year. Wow! Another huge surprise!

Then, we went out to lunch Sunday. The place where we were eating had an upstairs eating area with a TV on the wall. An episode of Walker Texas Ranger was playing on the TV, dubbed in French. What a shock!

It's definitely been a surprise to run into these very American things in Paris. It just goes to show, the world is becoming much smaller all the time. It makes me smile.

Now we turn our focus to the Christmas party we are hosting on December 10th. I'll be busy baking millions of cookies for the next few weeks. Hope you have fun preparing for Christmas as well!

"Tis the season to be jolly...."