I must have been under a rock…

to miss the fact that the Craft Brewers Conference and Brew Expo was in Austin in April of this year. I should get out more.

Top 10: Crafting Essentials Lists – stuff you didn’t know you needed

I run across lists all the time of things that help me in crafting, whether it’s raw materials, essentials lists, tips for bloggers, or whatever. Here’s a random sampling of ones I’ve used.

10. Here’s a list of essential cross stitch tools from About.com. Make sure to read the comments, too!

9. Here’s an unusual list – how to make your own common supplies, like sidewalk chalk, finger paint and cinnamon clay. Much of this is great for kids, or grown-up kids!

8. Here’s a list that tells you where to buy all kinds of chemicals, both organic and inorganic. Aren’t you just curious what you can get?

7. Since many crafters are bloggers, I’m including a couple of lists of resources for bloggers. There’s the 101 Essential Blogging Resources and because I’m a Mac nerd, Problogger’s 5 Essential OSX Blogging Tools.

6. As it happens, Ebay has a pretty good basic guide for choosing beading supplies and tips. Gives information about it that you might not otherwise realize, like how many beads per string.

5. When I was looking around for stuff to read when I started crocheting, I tried some of the books on this forum that asks readers for good crochet resources at Crochetville.

4. Lists of craft fairs – for going to see or sell – including an events listing from Etsy, one list for the west and California, one for New England, one for all over from Sunshine Artist magazine, and one for Texas from the Texas Commission on the Arts. There are many for individual states if you search for “list craft fairs” + your state.

3. A list of stuff you’ve got to have for soap-making. And just because I’m nice, a list of suppliers and resources for the professional soapmaker as well.

2. Lisa Lam at U-Handbag has a list of tools she can’t live without when making bags. It’s a great list, and she must have the right stuff because she makes great bags. Scroll down – the list is on the left in the sidebar called “My bag-making essentials.”

1. Cameo Rose has a great basic sewing kit – and everything in it is easily packed away in a little box for taking with you or neat storage. This great, painstaking list includes pictures of everything so you can figure out what she means or take it to the store and show someone. If you want to get crazy, make your own essentials sewing box out of old magazines by following this technique I’ve been seeing all over lately.

Oh, no! I forgot the beer!

Haha – remember the beer I was supposed to tell you about? Well, I forgot to say how the beer turned out after it had fermented for a week.

The beer was, in fact, bad. My dad and I are going to have to make another batch! He and I figure that the beer-making-equipment needs sanitizing in a major way.

I thought it tasted like vinegar, but Jeff thought he detected a hint of ammonia. Not precisely like what we were hoping for!! Ah, well, if at first you don’t succeed, make more, right?