lighting

So now that I've got this fancy (well, not so fancy, just working) camera I'm faced with the issue of teaching myself how to take decent pictures again. I say again because I did take a photography course or two in high school and I have somewhat of an idea what I'm doing, but they focused less on composition and more on film development (which is super fun, by the way).

My mom's house sucks for lighting. There's all these big ugly overhead lights in the main rooms, and the only main floor windows are around the back of the house and don't get brilliant light. I'm pretty sure it might be impossible to get decent lighting in the kitchen. Also, perhaps no one wants to see the banged up unicorn dishes. I tried to do brownie pictures and it was pretty darn disappointing. I made up for it by eating half the batch.

There's plenty of pictures I can take decently - like pathetic puppy dog pictures, and pictures of the quilt (though again, it was damn hard finding a decent lighting source there) and of course if I'm ever interested in just candid life pictures for my own enjoyment, that's easily done.

I'm trying to figure it out, it's just taking some time. Don't suppose anyone has good suggestions on resources for managing overhead lighting?