Molecular Love

My sister and I are both a bit geeky.  For those of you who know either one of us, this is probably not much of a surprise.  To be honest, we came by it naturally.  Our dad is an engineer, our brother is an engineer, I have a BS in chemistry, my sister teaches high school chemistry, biology and physics.  Geekiness (geekyness? geeky-ness?) is in our blood.  Needless to say, I was totally tickled when my sister asked me to make two stuffed molecule rattles for a friend of hers who is expecting this summer!  She requested methane (CH4) and water (H2O).

We went with traditional colors for the methane C-black and H-yellow, but for the water we went with pink and white since we just found out the baby is a girl.

I will admit I totally looked up the relative atomic radii of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, and their respective bond lengths and made these molecules accordingly!  I just couldn't help myself :)  I didn't have to look up the bond angles (I still remembered those from my pre-children days).

On a side note, craftiness also runs strongly in our family's veins.  My mom ran a craft consignment store when we were little out of the detached garage behind our house.  She made pottery and sold all kinds of crafts.  I have very vivid memories of my preschool winter days, stirring the hot apple cider on the antique gas stove that was her grandmothers while customers roamed through "Nana's Cupboard" looking at all the locally made treasures!  I know that my love for crafting comes straight from my mom.   My sister has recently discovered her own crafty passion: jewelry and soapmaking.  She opened an Etsy store this winter where she sells handmade jewelry, stitch markers, and soaps.  Check out Endless Forms to see what she's got!