Before

Summer is just not my season. Heat. Suntans. Shorts. I just don't do them. Summer produce is all well and good, but to tell you the truth, I love roasting and braising more than the juicy rawness of summer meals. I love wearing sweaters and curling up under wooly blankets and taking warm baths. By coincidence perhaps, the first day of Autumn frequently falls on my birthday.

Last week the heat broke here and since then, the weather has taken a definite turn towards the autumnal. I'm loving it. Gone is the lethargy that's been plaguing me since May when heat and morning sickness conspired to turn me into a slug for much of the spring and early summer. As soon as the morning sickness abated, I was hit with the busy one-two punch that was July and August. Finally now things are calming down. I'm taking time to knit and read blogs.

I'm also finally 1. starting to show and 2. starting to prepare for The Kid. The boy kid, as a matter of fact. Beginning with the room. I think I know that there really isn't any big race to get a room ready for the kid. He probably won't start out sleeping in a crib and doesn't need a room painted just the right color with just the right furniture, decorated just so. The thing is, I think Mr. Beagle and I need a room that looks like a baby's room with a crib and the whole shebang to make it real for us. And if the room gets painted just right color and decorated just so, well that would just be nifty.



For now, I just have a room that's mostly empty, clean, and has since been prepped for painting.



Right now it's a pale shade of pea soup and contains the fugliest ceiling fan known to man. The ceiling fan will be replaced (with another fan- we have radiant heat and no air conditioning- fans are a must).



But first: painting. Cross your fingers that Benjamin Moore's* Arctic Blue is just the right color.

*We've been using Benjamin Moore Aura low VOC paint in our house, and we could not be more pleased with it. It is virtually odor-free, has great color choices, and truly is self-priming. We've only had to do one coat, even when changing colors dramatically. It's kind of spendy, but I feel like it's worth it.