I am 14 weeks pregnant.

The last time I blogged I was getting all excited about having more energy and was thinking "It can only go up from here!" Wrong. That whole week was just a repeat of the previous weeks. But it ended and week 13 brought some energy with it, that I used entirely on cake making. John's and my friends got married last Saturday and it was a simple affair, so I offered to make her cake quite awhile ago, not even dreaming that I would be pregnant. So that's how I ended up spending the end of my first trimester making this cake:

They wanted a cake that was fun and included things about them. So there are basset hounds, a bike, an organic fruit (the bride certifies organics for a living) and sour patch kids (the groom's favorite candy). And the entire cake is a suitcase since they both travel A LOT for work and pleasure.

I made these little basset hounds out of fondant. I was pretty happy with how they turned out.

Why, yes, I did add stitching to the dark "leather" pieces.

Now, don't be too impressed. I found an online tutorial (here) that walked me through how to do all of it. And I had a lot of help during the day with the boys (thanks Gail, and Dad and Gayle!) so I could get some prime time working on this bad boy. However, I still had to pull a few late nights to get it all done. It was all worth it though since the bride and groom were STOKED and the rest of the wedding guests were majorly impressed. Plus it tasted awesome. (I used homemade chocolate marshmallow fondant [recipe here], in case you ever want to try it. It is easy to work with, cheaper than commercial fondant and tastes delicious.)

And then on Sunday, it was my brother's graduation party, so I made another cake for his party. That one... was not so impressive though.

Womp, womp...

So, the beakers and graduated cylinders (that are fondant formed around shot glasses) were sabotaged by Hank (hence his presence in the picture) when he threw a toy on the counter, which knocked over a cup that splashed liquid all over the fondant pieces. And then the markings I had so carefully painted on them melted and the fondant got all sticky. Then the fondant wasn't dry enough to write on in food pen, so the words "Congrats Dylan!" look like Johnny tried to write them. Then the buttercream melted on the drive to my mom's house, which is why the cake is leaning in weird directions. Let it be known that I'm not infallible. :) The only thing that saved that cake was putting the dry ice in the fondant covered beakers giving it the smoking appearance above. It was pretty cool.

Note: CONGRATULATIONS, DYLAN!!!! We love you!!!

Anyway! That was my entire week last week and now I'm just trying to catch up on sleep and blogging and hoping that my energy will come back soon. Oh, and look, I took a belly picture.

This was taken in the evening, which means this belly is about twice as big as it is when I wake up. Weird.