2011 Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, Sept 10-11

We had the wonderful opportunity to show at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago this past weekend. There were over 300 vendors and it seemed like there were more booths and people than all the previous years!

It took a lot of planning and crocheting, but we finally made it to the Fair.  There's almost no end to the booths:

We were at booth #187, geeking it up with some crocheted molecules and science art:

We had lots of new items, like postcards, T-shirts and keychains. The fair favorites were the T-shirts and postcards of our Science Kitty:

 Ideal Gas Law dog T-shirt, PV = nRT:

Our most popular molecule sale was, of course, Ice:

No Prim and Plush craft fair would be complete without Caffeine being the centerpiece:

And finally, he sun setting over Wicker Park in Chicago:

We had a blast selling our crafts in our home town of Chicago.   We'll have more follow-ups on the interesting things we bought and saw at the Fair!  Thank You Chicago!

I'm Busy

New Smaller Caffeine Molecule

Ever since my caffeine molecule got sold, I've kinda been pining away for it. So I decided it was time to create another one, but smaller. The smaller version measures 11x10 inches:


While the original measures 15x13:

I think I prefer the smaller one. It's more portable and much easier to put together. It will be our centerpieces at craft fairs this year!

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.

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!

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!!

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!!

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!