For a Cause

Do you want to try and win a Methane or a set of Water? AND get a chance to contribute to science education?

Please donate to Biochem Belle's Donor's Choose page and try to win a Methane or Water Set:

Donor's Choose Donation Page

It's such a great way to help kids get involved with science!

Deadline is this Wednesday, November 10 to have a chance to win molecules.

Check here for contest info,

Prim and Plush’s Holiday Shopping Guide

It’s time for the holidays (or that's what I was told anyway...it's only nearly Halloween really), which means it’s time to prepare for those Christmas/Hannakuh/Birthday (if you’re like me) presents.

Here are some guidelines for shopping at Prim and Plush this Holiday Season:

1. If you like are considering an item to purchase for yourself or as a gift during the holiday season, it is best to order it sooner rather than later. We will try our best to be restocking items as fast as our little fingers can crochet, but we cannot guarantee that it will be listed at a later time.

2. Please try to order at least 2 weeks before Christmas to ensure that packages will arrive on time. While we do ship USPS Priority Mail and they do say it should arrive within 2-3 days, the holidays are a slow time for the Post Office and sometimes it can take up to a week for packages to arrive.

3. We will be offering Gift Wrapping services which will start to show up in the next few weeks (once our boxes and wrapping paper arrive). We can place individual molecules in their own boxes and have it wrapped and ready to be placed under the tree. We can even attach your very own personalized note. Extra charges will apply.

4. We cannot, during the months of November or December accept any new custom orders, due to the urgency to fill Christmas orders. If you are interested in a custom molecule, we will be able to start working on them in January 2011. Please still send us a convo via Etsy to discuss custom orders.

5. Please ask us if you would like multiple quantities of a single item. We may have more in stock, but are not listed. We generally like to list items one-at-a-time and relist items once they are sold.

6. Feel free to convo us via Etsy for any questions or comments!

Edit:

7. Please order all items by December 15. Prim and Plush will be going on Christmas vacation till January 1 and will close early on December 16.

Breast Cancer Awareness Water

Happy October!

In Chicago, the skyline is pink all month long to acknowledge Breast Cancer Awareness Month.



(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/40142450@N00/3985640601/)

I happen to love how pink the city is and I get to see the pink Willis Tower and 311 South Wacker Building from the comfort of my living room window.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month has held a special meaning for me since it has been 6 years, this month, that my mom had first been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. This month, she is also 6 years in remission and cancer free!

This one's for my mom:





The special Pink Ribbon rack at Michaels had some nice pink yarn from Bernat, dedicated to donating $10,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure through proceeds.

With every purchase of a special Breast Cancer Awareness Water molecule, $7 will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure!

It's a Craft Fair

Pictures!

Still preparing the night before...late -



@ Rockford -



The Setup. Unfortunately it was raining and the tables got wet, which made all the tablecloths wet, which made me put ugly looking plastic bags on the table to prevent the molecules from getting wet -
















The After Party @ Five Guys -

Craft Fair is Tomorrow...Really?

It's almost here!!

We're almost ready...almost....

We got some really great support with the C&EN folks! Thanks for the love and all the orders. Unfortunately, I had to close up shop a few days earlier to keep up with the inventory, but we have been crocheting away and are restocked and ready to sell at our booth!

Today is the last day to crochet and fingers are hurting, but we'll be headed out to Rockford today and ready to set up EARLY tomorrow morning (6am, how crazy!).

Come out to see us!

Credit cards and cash accepted =)

We'll be back up and running on Etsy by Sunday.

Prim and Plush's First Magazine Publication!

This is super exciting. We got featured in Newscripts from C&EN (Chemical and Engineering News, by the American Chemical Society):



Click here to read the full article.

Our Christmas Methane was featured in this magazine previously last Christmas in the Holiday Shopping Guide. Which got a picture in the print copy of the magazine!

As a chemist, ACS journals are a staple and we're glad we can get an article in their news mag!

Thanks ACS!

More Molecules and an Attempt to Tablescape

In two more weeks, I will be sitting at a table and selling my molecules at a craft fair. It really feels like this is coming up so fast! I'm excited, scared and nervous all at the same time.

I figured I needed a centerpiece, or several centerpieces, to make the table pretty and eye-catching (as if molecules staring at you are not very eye-catching). So, by popular demand, the #1 most requested molecule is Caffeine, made from chocolate/coffee colors, which I thought would seem appropriate:



So I had a very hard time thinking of how to display my very flat molecules, since they are quite difficult to stand up. I searched and scoured the internet and it finally came to me....Banana Hanger.

Off I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond with my trusty 20% off coupon (which happens to be expired, because the internet coupons expire, even when the mailed ones don't, fyi) in search for the perfect molecule display:



$9.99 - a great price for a molecule display!

I also had to finish some extra craft fair shopping at Ikea, because I saw these kitchen cabinet shelves that are perfect for a craft table:



I also found a nice rack to use as a vertical display that can hang off of my pavillion:



Looks nice to hang some water and methane molecules!

And after installing all the shelves, we played with a tablescape:



Still lots of work to do, but I like the look!

Going a Little Crazy

Craft Fair stuff has been finalized.

We are attending the Alley Walk Craft Fair in Rockford, IL:

September 11, 2010
2100 block East State Street, Rockford, IL
8:30am - 4:00pm

An outdoor craft fair sponsored by a nice church. See website for more details: http://www.bethesdacovenant.com/Alley_Walk.html

Prim and Plush will be @ booth #4 and we're sharing with The Leaf Studio. It's getting very busy at the house!! I can tell you that we made a coffee/chocolate colored caffeine molecule! I really like how it turned out and it will be displayed at the fair!

Here are some special stuff we will also be selling:

Super large Methane:



and a super large Water:



I hope we have some fans out in Rockford! Come out and see us!

So Many Things To Do

I've just gotten back from Mexico last Saturday, which means returning to work life has been a nightmare. It's definitely been difficult to do experiments when you're constantly thinking of laying on the beach or going to the pool. At least it still feels like Mexico, since Chicago can't get a break from the heat waves! Methane with a sombrero anyone?

SC2 is out, which means, I've also been slacking in the home matters and anything that has to do with crochet. This is not good behavior for someone with a craft fair in one month.

So...we are swearing off the SC2 (well, maybe not swearing off...but maybe I can just reduce my SC2 playing to 1 game a day...maybe 3 or 4 on the weekend. Ugh, this plan is already not working...).

But as long as I get through my to-do list, we should be good for Sept 11:

1. Crochet, crochet, crochet - I have like a billion methanes in stock, but somehow all the other molecules had failed to produce. I'll be posting spoiler pictures on the weekend.

2. Buy beaker set for tablescape. I am a chemist...I should have these already in my house. Even Alton Brown cooks with beakers!

3. Sticker Labels for FB and Twitter accounts to put on Business Cards. Buying 1000 business cards from overnightprints.com was a good idea 5 months ago, especially since they were free (only paid for shipping costs). However, starting facebook and twitter only 3 weeks ago and NOT putting them on cards = fail.

4. Cookie/candy tray. Freebies at craft fair = more foot traffic into the booth

5. Paper crafting. I dread it. It's time consuming, I'd rather crochet...but the methanes need price tags!

6. Finish sewing tablecloths. I bought fabric in hopes that it would be a much cheaper, simpler addition to a booth. It's definitely cheaper...but not so much simpler. I can't find myself being able to sit down and pin a hem for a 9ft piece of cloth.

7. Tablescape, tablescape, tablescape...I'm so bad at it. It will be rough.

Hopefully there will be progression!

New Things!

Today:

1. My hubby started a FB fan page for me: http://tinyurl.com/25hlhxk
For some reason the link is an incredibly long link, which I decided to make into a tiny URL and figure it out later. Laziness wins!

2. I started a twitter account for Prim and Plush as well: http://twitter.com/PrimandPlush
I feel like I'm so out of touch from technology that I didn't have one in the first place.

3. I found out my cytosine post made it onto Craft Gossip through a friend that subscribes to their daily emails. How awesome! *waves at craft gossip traffic*

Posts on FB and Twitter will take some time for me to learn to update more frequently...hopefully I will be much better at this than the blog =(

Front Page of Etsy

That would be me:



Thanks to Squeakydingo for the Treasury Listing!!

I never thought it would happen, and it was completely exciting!

Craft Fair on September 11 in Rockford, IL = massive molecular invasion in my house right now. This is my excuse for the lack of posting on Etsy and Blogger (Sorry!!). Special craft show only molecules will be on sale, but I'll get them on Etsy if they don't get bought up. 2 more months!!

Patriotic Methane

I really can't believe it's the end of May already!! It's really starting to feel like summer here in Chicago, which means we jumped from 40 degrees to 90 in like one day...but it's great to be outside again.

Memorial Day is just around the corner so here's a patriotic methane:



Can't wait for barbecue and fireworks!

I'm terribly bad at the updating...so here's cytosine

I had a goal in mind at the start of the month that I'm going to post something once a week. And unfortunately that did not pan out. Doing research has its perks, but having the time to manage a blog doesn't seem to fit into that schedule. So here's to a new month and new goals of posting once a week!

In my graduate school days at good old Urbana-Champaign I had worked on tRNA hypermodifications and so I knew I had to put some nucleobases into crochet. Here's a start with cytosine:



I hung this on my wall using one of those super handy 3M hooks! No messy nails and holes in the wall...if only the previous owners of my house had used those...



Cytidine has been in shop for a bit now. Take a look at my Etsy page!



I'm pretty sure the craft fair is on for September in Rockford, IL, but more details later once I get that finalized. There's so much work to be done!!

Glycine, The Amino Acid

This is totally unrelated, but I watched Zombieland yesterday, for the second time, and it's still as awesome as ever. I just had to say that...I also watched Twilight and New Moon again and still want to watch them again. Even though I hate the casting job as Robert Pattinson as Edward, it still amuses me. I still have this desire to create vampire methanes or some crazy stuff like that. Perhaps zombie methanes at some point.

But anyway, on to today's picture takings. We have Glycine, two ways:

Mr. Glycine



Baby Glycine



That's right, two ways. I had first made Mr. Glycine (a couple months ago), and thought he looked a little weird with his amino antennae balancing on his head, so I created a smaller version, Baby Glycine to play with the conformation and face placing. I did, however, just realized my mistake in creating the amino group for Baby Glycine, and that the atoms are placed in a planar fashion, as opposed to its actual bent fashion. My Orgo teacher would be reprimanding me right now. But as it is, I think it still looks cute and is optimal for helping the molecule stand upright. So you get the idea. Of course an Etsy convo will make me fix this up real quick, but for now, I think I'll keep it.

I am starting to fear that adding more atoms to a molecule makes it less cute and less susceptible to appropriate face placing. We might have to forgo the face placing with larger stuff.

Any opinions on which form of Glycine you prefer? Or do you think a zwitterion is more appropriate?

I also have better pics of Cyclohexane, one of which contains a bunny ear photo. My husband has a thing for bunny ears and would refuse to put down his hand until i took the picture. I felt like it belonged in the Etsy shop as well and at least it gives an idea of proportions!





The colors come out much nicer when theres actual sunlight to take pictures. Sorry for the shoddy first-attempt photography. I still haven't gotten any better, and I'm just bad at taking pictures...its a skill i never acquired.

It's a Chair!

I've been busy:





I do think it's awesome. Unfortunately I'm back to really bad picture taking...at least until spring and daylight savings kicks in and I can get make it back home for some real sunlight. Last weekend was too cloudy! The yarn is actually brighter than it seems. Hopefully we'll have a good amount of sunlight this weekend to retake some pictures! He comes at a pretty high price, however, I don't think I'll be making too many, AND it did take me forever to put together.

I'm looking forward to setting up a craft fair. More info later, but I'll be sharing a booth with The Leaf Studio who does awesome papercrafts!! Check out her Etsy store and buy some one-of-a-kind cards!

The Water Set is Complete!

and here's the final addition to the water set, a jumbo steam molecule:

It was difficult to think of a way to incorporate steam, but I had an epiphany one day and figured to slap some wings on the water molecule! And now he's ready to fly up in the air! I'll be getting it ready to add to a set of water molecules that include one of each phase to Etsy. But for now, he's ready to ship out by himself!

On a side note, Prim and Plush is getting a new Logo! We're almost ready to do some redecorating. woot!

Carbon Dioxide

I think my computer blew up. The one that I use for all my blogging and store upkeep. I'm slowly trying to transfer everything on my more dependable MacBook.

In an attempt to be more diverse and not totally focus on methanes, I tried to make carbon dioxde. Which I think is super cute:

On another note, I've been loading up on the yarn and will be trying to make more inventory! Hopefully we'll be prepared to do some craft fairs in the future!

I Love My Husband

He put together this animoto trailer thing for my website. It's really cute and awesome =)

Animoto.com

Weekend Project: Ice...because it's cold out there

So this wasn't really my idea. It was my Dad's...who also happens to be a chemist at heart. I guess that's where I get it from. So thanks Dad! Here's the ice molecule:



He's braving the cold weather in a cute removable scarf! I seriously love the idea and thought it would be a really cute addition to the molecule family.

Check it out on Etsy!

Happy Valentine's Day! (Already?)

Maybe I'm jumping the gun a little bit, but we there really aren't too many holidays that are methane friendly, so Valentine's day it is!

I'm back from vacation and got to do some crocheting after 10 days of relaxation in sunny and WARM california/vegas! woot! Coming back to frigid temperatures and 8 inches of snow really doesn't make the return so pleasant, but it does make sitting indoors much easier to do.

So here's the female version:



And the male version:


I do think they look cute holding hearts, but I do love crocheting some hearts. I never really liked using heart patterns and prefer to do them freehand, so each heart usually comes out different. They're suitable for more than just Valentine's Day and hopefully will grow into charity work.

More cuteness to come!