Christmas stockings

I didn't want to buy stockings.
So I made them.
And it was easy.


Here's how:

I cut out iron-on interfacing the shape, size (including the seam allowance), and orientation I wanted them to be (toes facing left as I look at it).
I cut three more stocking shapes out of some left over golden satin, taking into account orientation again for backing and lining.
I cut out scraps of Christmas colored fabrics.
I ironed them onto the interfacing.
I trimmed off whatever extra was hanging off the edge of the interfacing.
I used embroidery thread and tightly zig-zag stitched between the patches.
I sewed two of the satin pieces together for the inside lining.
I sewed the patchwork piece and the last satin piece together for the outside.
I put the lining inside the patchwork and satin outside piece.
I sewed the lining to the outside around the top.
I sewed a loop for hanging the stocking in place at the top.
I sewed a strip of satin around the top.
I pressed then hand sewed the satin strip in place on the inside.

And voila!! 

Stockings!
Original and there is not a single one exactly like either of these in the world.
(Except maybe my mom's, who I got the idea from--but she used different fabric than I had and made hers years ago.)




And in case anyone is wondering about those tags on our stockings...

It became a tradition in my family when I was growing up for each person who served a full-time mission for church to clip their missionary name tag to their stocking (thanks to my oldest brother Russ for starting it). I want to keep that tradition going, so Bob and I put our name tags on our stockings this year. Besides, missionaries teach about Christ every day--His birth, His life, His atonement, and His resurrection. I think that in today's world, missionaries are full of the Christmas spirit year-round, so what a great time of year to keep in mind the importance of missionary work and sharing the Gospel with others as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

newly recovered throw pillows

When Bob and I got married, we moved into an unfurnished apartment. That meant we were taking any furniture anyone wanted to give to us, no matter how stylishly hideous it was. In fact, the other day I realized that we've only bought three pieces of furniture that we use on a regular basis, and we we got some wicked-good deals on them--our entertainment center, one of our dressers, and our bed. Otherwise, it's all been free.

So before we got married someone told me their apartment complex was getting new couches and just throwing out the old ones. I was all over that. I couldn't afford to care what it looked like--we just needed a place to sit when people come over and to snuggle while watching movies.

Since we've been married I'd been looking at couch covers on a regular basis. For a while I used two huge blankets--two because it's such a massive beast of furniture that one wouldn't cover it. Then some friends of ours gave us a bright red cover that they weren't using anymore (Thank you, Zach & Teresa!!). I have to say, almost any solid color is better than that navy, green, red, and tan plaid. (Although, with our green carpet it looks like Christmas year round in our living room with that red couch cover. Good thing I like that holiday!)

So for a while we've had this pretty red couch, and the plaid pillows matched it okay, but let's be honest, the pillows really were hideous regardless of what color they were paired with.

The other day while at the fabric store, I found a rockin' deal on some upholstery fabric. There I was, standing in line to get some fabric cut. Of course, the cutting counter is right next to the discount aisle. I find this nice fuzzy cross-hatched looking brown fabric and liked it. Then I looked at the price. It was originally $9 a yard, marked down to $6, and that day it was half off of that. $3 a yard later, I was all stocked up and ready to go.

Using that, I finally decided it was time to give those plaid pillows a face lift.

The process:

The outcome:

A tip: My original throw pillows were super flat and pretty worthless. I made these pillows an inch smaller so the stuffing would puff them out more and not get so flat.

Bob likes them because they're firm and fluffy. I like them because of that too, and because they're pretty.

(I also really like the holes in Bob's socks in this picture.)

home made gifts from me

I decided to try and make several Christmas presents this year, since Bob and I have thinner wallets than normal. I wanted to try and make everyone's gifts, but I think someone stole all my time sometime this month. Seriously, whoever broke in and robbed my time, I'll find you and get it back one day. So I only made a few gifts.


Lucky for me, after posting about my roll-up pencil case a while back, my sister-in-law, Lauren, mentioned wanting something like it for all of her crochet hooks and things. I know it wasn't a huge surprise what she was getting from me for Christmas, but I hope she liked getting it anyway. I love cute little ribbons and I tend to get my overall theme for a project from whatever is printed or designed on the ribbon I use for it. Just FYI, those appliqués took a ridiculously long amount of time, but they were so worth it. Merry Christmas!

Lauren also mentioned an idea for something similar that I could make for one of her sons who has a lot of little toy cars. I can't take credit for the idea. It came from here. But I made my own adjustments to the pattern and idea, and I like how it turned out. I hope Grant does too. And I hope some of his cars fit in it. Sorry if they don't.

I wanted to make a few other things for Lauren's other kids, but I just ran out of time. So Lauren, I'm sorry I took the easy way out and bought some toys and dress-up stuff for the other two kids, and I had no idea what I could possibly make for Cam, so I was planning on buying him something anyway.  I hope Christmas was great for y'all regardless of how well our presents were or weren't received!


The last gift I made was for Bob. I still think it's lame, but I couldn't afford to go out and buy anything, and Bob has expensive taste so everything he'd like to get as a gift costs about two or more of his paychecks combined. So I sucked it up and made him a nice flannel robe. He only mentioned a few times this year how I have one (that I made in high school) and he wished he had one.

So I found some fabric I already had and dug out the pattern I used 6 years ago. Then I had to figure out ways to get him out of the house so I could work on it. When he had work, it was easy. But when he didn't have work it got tricky. I got him to run some errands for me one day, and what normally would take him at least an hour and a half took him 45 minutes! I saw him drive back  up to the house as I was in the middle of hemming the bottom. Really, Bob? The ONE time I NEED you to take a longtime, you take finish of everything in a ridiculously fast amount of time?! So I stopped where I was, quickly wadded up the nearly-done robe, hid it in the closet among the massive amounts of fabrics that I have, and jumped in the shower to avoid suspicion because I'm a terrible liar.

Somehow I got it all done. He claims to like it a lot, but I still think it was kind of a lame gift since it was the only thing I got him, while he got me a new Calle street soccer ball and new snow pants. Although, I did take care of all the stocking stuffers (not that I mind because I got EXACTLY what I wanted in my stocking this year), so I suppose I'm allowed to slack off a little bit on him, right?

November Holidays 2010

Life just doesn't slow down, does it?


Here I am trying to simplify and get things off my plate without taking on more, and it just doesn't seem to work! Well, I'm finally at a point where I have time to post blogs again. So before this year ends, let me catch up. 

Here's what happened in November:

Bob applied to be a snowboarding instructor at Sundance, and after multiple interviews, they invited him to take part in a skills test, after which they would let him know if he got the job or not. We were both really pumped for it. I want him to finally get a job he loves. So the skills test was coming up and we were informed that it would take place at Brighton on the Saturday before our anniversary. We decided to make a big holiday out of everything, so here's what we did.

Friday, November 19th. We cleaned the house and packed the car. We went to dinner at Tucanos, then headed up to Brighton to celebrate our anniversary early by staying the night in a cozy little cabin at the resort.

Saturday, November 20th. Bob made breakfast (and if you don't know, my husband makes the absolute BEST breakfasts), then he took off for his skills test. I tidied up and got our stuff ready to leave, then went out and hit the slopes for some sweet, sweet snowboarding.

It was snowing the whole time, making every one of my rides down incredible from all the fresh powder. Then it started to turn into a blizzard with tons of wind while the temperature dropped. By noon I was pretty shot! I finally met up with Bob, exhausted and frozen. But we wanted to get at least one run in together, so we squeezed it in before I we had to be out of our cabin.

Then we left, hastily loaded up the car, changed, and drove over to Elko, Nevada where we had dinner with my wonderful friend Monica. We stopped and bought tire chains before driving further, thinking we'd need them while in the Sierras. It started snowing on us the closer we got to the California border, and right at the state line the interstate was closed, CDOT claiming there was zero visibility. So we turned around and drove about 20 miles back to Reno  and stayed in a Motel 6 for the night. It was a fun adventure. (Really, it was something like 3am by this point and I had a terrible cold, felt drained and miserable, and was beyond ready to sleep in a bed, and there are no hotels anywhere around there but all the way back in Reno. So I got a little frustrated and whiny.)

Sunday, November 21st. We've been married for one year!! It really doesn't feel like it at all. It's weird to me how completely normal being married to Bob feels. It feels like our wedding was only a couple of weeks ago, and at the same time I can't remember what it was like not to be married to him, making it feel like it's been years and years.


Anyway, the roads had finally opened again, so we drove on to North Lake Tahoe, California. What a breath-taking drive it was! The snow was just stunning. I could definitely get used to living somewhere like that, even if that means shoveling our driveway every day. We visited Bob's Uncle Jim, who lives in a cabin in the woods (really, the whole neighborhood is in the woods, so it feels like your're more alone there than you actually are). It was small and rustic, and Bob and I got to stay in the tiny loft upstairs. When we arrived, Uncle Jim was supposed to be at work, but had gotten snowed in, so he was shoveling his driveway instead.

After taking our things inside, Bob helped shovel snow and I laid down upstairs to take what I thought would be a quick nap. I woke up almost three hours later, feeling very much rested and quite a bit better than I had for the past couple of days. We went to lunch, and while driving through town I completely fell in love with that place. The town consists of little specialty stores and shops--no big corporate giants, and everything was old cabin-style. It's the kind of place where I dream of living. Bob's cousin Tani came home that night and we got to visit with her briefly. She's quiet and really funny, and beyond artistically talented. She's far more gifted than I could ever be.

Monday, November 22nd. We woke up and shoveled the driveway again, because it had snowed during the entire day before and all through the night.

Then we took off and drove around Tahoe to visit Bob's Uncle Joe in South Lake Tahoe. Afterward we took a very long and very beautiful drive through the snowy Sierras. We passed the Kirkwood resort, where a gas station had unleaded for $4.36 a gallon. Ridiculous. But the drive was incredible!

We made it to Uncle Jeff and Aunt Sue's for the night in Clovis, CA, right outside of  Fresno. We had fun there--we ate dinner and then sat around telling stories and joking around, mostly laughing. My cousins Eric and Kimmy were constantly making references to funny books and movies, and Bob joined right in because he knew everything they were talking about. He fit right in, and I think everyone was pleasantly surprised by it, except me--I expected it. We got to take a look at Uncle Jeff's shops, look at his airplane he's been building for years now, and even a newer project he's taken on--restoring a late 40s Indian motorcycle. We had a great time, and wished we could have stayed longer.

Tuesday, November 23rd. We drove to San Luis Obispo, CA to visit Bob's Grandma Mary Alice. We made it around lunch time while she was working at the Family History Center. So Bob's Aunt Leslie (Uncle Jim's wife, who's in SLO for now taking care of her aging mother) took us out to lunch at a great little Mexican place in downtown SLO. We timed it just right and ended up having Bob's cousins Cody and Eric (who are brothers) and Eric's girlfriend Karen come to lunch with us.

That night we went to dinner in Morro Bay, to another little Mexican place, with Grandma Mary Alice, Bob's Uncle Tom and Aunt Linda, and Bob's cousin Carrie and her daughter Sierra. It was a fun time. Tom and Linda made Bob a mini-birthday cake since his birthday was the following day, and we all got to sing and celebrate together. Then we went back to Grandma's house and relaxed before going to bed.

Wednesday, November 24th. Bob turned 26!!!! We left SLO and finally made it to San Diego. We got new tires for our car (thanks to Bob's parents!), and while waiting for those we went thrift store shopping and landed some awesome buys! Bob found some nice Volcom khakis for $4and I got a pretty green dress for $3. Sweet!

Then that evening we had a birthday dinner and one of Bob's best friends Eric and his wife Lora came over for dinner. There was birthday pie and presents and everything. Bob's friend Christina also stopped by that night to visit and to wish him happy birthday.

We spent the rest of the week there in San Diego. Every day brought gorgeous weather and relaxing afternoons.

Thursday we had a fantastic Thanksgiving feast.

Friday we went to a birthday party for Bob with lots of food and even more friends.

 The rest of our time there was great. We saw a matinée showing of a movie one day, another day we went to a drive in movie, and we made sure to sleep-in every day.

Bob's other best friend, Stanly, was in Hawaii for the holiday. He has lots of pets though, so Bob's mom got to take care of his parrot, Farley while he was gone, so we got to take Farley on adventures in the back yard while we were there. It was fun!

Monday, November 29th. We finally left to drive back up to Utah. We stopped and visited Grandma Tweedie in the evening and stayed the night with her. We had a nice visit and wished we could have stayed longer. Hopefully next time we'll have more time and be able to afford a longer stay!

Tuesday, November 30th. We left and began the very last part of our trip. We stopped in Cedar City to have lunch with Aunt Judith, and she took us to Cafe Rio. We visited for a few hours and just talked, then had to be on our way. We finally made it back home in the early evening.


There were a few things that I learned from this trip. 
1. Bob and I are happy and have a fantastic relationship. All of Bob's relatives said something about it. Every aunt and uncle and even some of his cousins brought it up at some point, and commented on how lucky we are. It sure feels great to know that other people notice it, even if we don't.

2. I'm really glad we cleaned the house really well before we left. I enjoyed coming home to clean house. It made me want to keep it clean, so I put away everything I brought home from the trip right away (except my clothes... I'm still working on that...).

3. A well planned vacation, no matter how far you drive, when spent with as much family as possible can make it seem twice as long while also being way more fun and relaxing. We needed a break, and this road trip was the perfect therapy for feeling overworked, overstressed, and under-rested.

I can't wait to take another road trip with my best friend and husband!

There's something special about road trips to us. 

After all, that is how and why we met in the first place.

House = Home

Since Bob and I have been married, I've wanted a nice bed frame, or at least a headboard. When we were still living in that crummy basement apartment we started building a simple one together, and then it got put on hold.... And six months later I finished it with a little bit of Bob's help.

I was at Jo-Ann's yesterday and got inspired by their Veteran's Day sale. Tons of things were 50% off. So we went back tonight and bought some upholstery foam and canvas. And then I found some other fabric that was already discounted to $6 a yard in the red-tag section (from $9+), and it was all half off as well. $3 a yard?! I think so! I love good sales.

Even though we spent quite a chunk of money, we saved the same amount that we paid because of how great of a sale everything was. Maybe we should have waited to buy all of that, but then it would have cost full price and we would have had to save up even more for even longer. Oh well. I think it was worth it.

So it started out as a bunch of stuff...

 ...and it turned into a simple upholstered headboard.

 Bob documented my progress. 

He also blatantly spoke of my attractiveness since I know how to handle tools.

There's even extra fabric left over that I can use to make some small wall-hangings and/or re-cover some throw pillows.

Now I want to find a deal on some pillow cases, because all the different shades of orange and the random blue one just make it all way too busy. I'm thinking dark brown. It would tie everything together so much better.


We also bought a curtain rod for the living room and now we have curtains up around that huge front window. And we found some baskets for our shoe shelf next to the front door.

I liked our house when we moved in back in August, but I'm loving this place more every day!

Lastly, here's my latest creation of custom-made clothing for a client of mine:

Pretty retro, huh? He loves it. I can't wait to get it done and see him wearing it. I really hope he wears it during concerts and shows that he and his band put on. It's so appropriate for him and his personality. 

And now that these projects are just about done, I'm going to work on Christmas gifts. 

The list never ends, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Life is good when I have fabric, beads, wire, glue, scissors, and pliers covering my hobby table.

Stress and Success (part III) + Halloween

And in the last week, I've been a sewing maniac. I made three Halloween costumes, altered two other costumes, finished a skirt for my sewing class, started and made a lot of progress on a nice collared shirt for one of my customers.

The costumes I made were fantastic. Jennie Ray was Daphne for Halloween, and she and I made a perfect purple dress and ascot for it. Rebecca Flake was the Little Mermaid during the "Kiss the Girl" song in the movie, so she and I made a pretty blue corset and a light blue skirt and altered a white blouse to go under the corset. I also made a zombie cheerleader costume for Alyssa who is 11 years old. (She's a girl I recently began mentoring, which I'll write a whole blog about later.) Her outfit was black with glittery skulls and white accents, including a big letter A on the front of her top. I also made her a black and white striped turtleneck and leggings to go underneath. Lastly I made two bows with the left over black and white striped ribbon for her hair. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of her in her costume, and I'm really bummed about that. :(

Jennie & Becca's costumes.

Then Bob and I had been debating all week about our costumes. Someone in one of my classes mentioned Barbie and Ken the other day, and I thought that would be hilarious. Bob and I just watched Toy Story 3 last weekend, so I wanted to dress up like the Barbie and Ken from that movie. We'd found some wigs earlier in the week at a Halloween store. Then on Friday, the day before our Halloween party, we went to the DI searching for anything really. We lucked out with Bob and found some awesome pleated shorts, a horrible blue-patterned shirt, a belt, and even some sweet loafers. I looked and looked, and finally found what I thought might just work. It was an ugly light bluish-teal leisure suit kind of thing. I tried it on and it was kinda big and fit me weirdly, but I could alter it just fine and make it work. I found a perfect pink belt to go with it too, and borrowed some pink leg warmers, hot pink heels, and a pink head band from Jennie Ray.  I altered everything that night, and when Bob put his costume on he really wasn't sure if he could go as Ken. I think he was just embarrassed to be wearing the light blue ascot that I made him.

So Saturday rolled around and we had breakfast Jennie and Rebecca's apartment. I gave Chelsie a hair cut. We all carved pumpkins. And then we got ready for the night. I have to say, Bob and I looked so good!

Bob carved the cat, I carved the face with the stem as a nose.

We made it to our Halloween party a few minutes late. When we showed up everyone was seated at tables and the people in charge were giving instructions for how the evening would go. Bob and I walked in a door towards the front of the room and just stood next to the wall, looking for a place to sit. Then I noticed everyone looking at us and giggling. At one point the people up in front had to stop talking because everyone was laughing about our costumes instead of listening to instructions. Then I noticed that Bob had walked in stiff-armed and legged, smiling and waving like a Ken doll. I honestly loved all the attention.

We got so many compliments on our outfits. Everyone loved them I think, and everyone knew exactly who we were supposed to be. That was my favorite part, aside from the fact that nobody recognized us at first. They knew who we were dressed up as, but all the hair in the wigs really threw everybody off. It was great!

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head were even there!

Bob as Ken.

Me as Barbie.

We ended up winning the Best Overall Costume award, a $10 gift certificate to Spoon It Up. I love frozen yogurt, and I love winning contests. It was so worth all the makeup and fake eyelashes and alterations and headaches of the week. Halloween has been great this year.

Stress and Success (part II)

After my whole presentation Friday morning, myself and three of my co-workers had a very important meeting with the CEO, David Clark, and a Supervising Lab Manager, Anna White, of Intermountain Health Care. We were to present a prototype for a new product we're working on and get any feedback and insight we could from them.

We'd been preparing for it for a week, well, I had been anyway. I was taking this meeting really seriously, probably more-so than anyone else. We decided who would present what part and we each came up with questions that needed to be answered. I made some business cards with our contact information on it, and printed out copies of the meeting's outline for each of us. I'd made the most up-to-date prototype and brought it and some older ones with me. I told everyone what to wear, because mechanical and chemical engineers can be pretty clueless about that (which they admitted to me a few days prior).

Around lunch time we all met up and took a BYU car over to the CEO's office. All of us were dressed professionally and we all looked pretty awesome. I called shotgun as we walked out to the car, and as we were driving, I couldn't help but feel tickled about how great of an experience all of that was. I felt like somebody important that belonged to an important company going to some big important executive meeting. Not only did I feel like that, but it was all true!

We made it over there and waited in a lobby outside of the conference room where the meeting would take place. All of us were giddy and excited, especially since we're only college students and things like this usually only happen to professionals.

The meeting itself went well. Our prototype and idea were received well. We got the feedback we needed to help us know in what direction we need to go. Both the CEO and lab manager agreed that if we can get our product finished with the appropriate standards met, they would immediately begin using it to replace their currently ineffective products.

Then Anna took us around part of their facility and discussed some additional problems they have there. She was so excited for our innovative ideas. She really wants our product to work out and is willing to help is as much as she is able to.

Everything went better than any of us expected! We all have a new energy about this project now. I think we all really want to see it exceed now more than ever. So now it's time to get to work!

Stress and Success (part I)

The past two weeks have been absurd.

I was selected among many other students to give a brief presentation to a bunch of people who donate lots of money to BYU's School of Technology each year. Since my major is in that school, and some of the donors funded a lot of money for me to go to Singapore, and the professor in charge of the trip to Singapore adores me for some reason (I really don't know why he thinks so highly of me--I didn't suck up or try to be teacher's pet at all; I was just myself and he and his wife somehow love me... not that I mind...), the Dean of the school asked if I would be willing to share with these donors what I learned from that trip, how it's helped me, and express my gratitude to them. Of course I accepted. I love speaking to people and large groups. I know, I'm crazy, but I really enjoy it.

So on October 22nd, I woke up early and got ready for the day. Bob really wanted to come and hear me speak, even though it was only going to be for 2 minutes, so he came with me. We were both all dressed up and professional-looking. We arrived and quietly sat in the back until my turn to speak.

There were only two of us students who were selected to present. A guy who went to China for a study abroad went before me. The poor guy was nervous and shaking and tripped over his words a few times. I wanted to just hug him and tell him to relax. He finished, and it was my turn.

I felt a little nervous too, but I did my best to hide it. I had a few PowerPoint slides with pictures from the trip. The first picture was of the whole group of students who were a part of the class. We were all dressed professionally in it and had our projects displayed. My small group was gathered around the wheelchair we designed and prototyped, and I was sitting in it. As I was standing there, I briefly explained that I was not actually confined to a wheelchair, which several people chuckled at. I discussed our project idea and the basics of how it worked. The next slide had several pictures on it. One was of me eating some weird food with chopsticks. I told them of some things I learned, especially that I don't like fried oysters as I pointed to that specific image, at which everyone laughed.

'Okay,' I thought, 'I got them all to laugh, so now they have some connection with me.' I was able to relax and opened up more about my experience in learning how to work with engineers, design products, listen to various viewpoints from different people, etc. As I started wrapping up my short speech, I gave some small background on me, that I lived on a farm in Tennessee, and I never really thought that I would have a chance to travel to such an incredible country to further my education. I meant every word of it, and I unexpectedly got choked up and teary-eyed. I finished by thanking them all for helping me to have such an amazing experience, because I never could have gone without their help.

I ended and as I walked back to my seat, I thought, 'Holy cow. Where did those tears come from?' I sat back down next to Bob, beaming because I felt so good about how I spoke. He leaned over and hugged me, then whispered in my ear, "Good job!"

I really felt like I nailed that presentation. I know, it was only a couple of minutes long, but it was partially up to me to show these donors that the money they donate is really going to a good cause and being used well, and we even hope they'll consider donating more. If I hadn't have given a great speech, it could have affected the donations they give in a negative way.

After it was over, I went out into the hall/lobby to stand and see if anyone wanted to say hello to me or anything. On my way out I was stopped by several people who complimented me on my presentation. As we were talking I glanced over at the other student who spoke. He had all of two people talking to him, while I had about eight talking to me. I felt kind of bad for the other guy. I'm such a spot-light stealer sometimes. And yet, as much as I felt bad, I also felt like I had to do that to some extent, because his speech wasn't very good. He had some good pictures and made some good points, but I felt like I had to be really good to make up for anything that his was lacking.

Man, I am so analytic. Is that a bad thing? I'm not sure if the way I think sometimes is right or wrong. It's just how I think.

Either way, the presentation was successful and everyone appreciated my words and insights. I felt great about myself, and met a lot of important people. I can't remember all of their names, but I sure home they'll remember me.

My Wishlist

I've been thinking about Christmas lately, and what to give others for the holiday. Along with that, I've been doing some thinking about what I want, and I've been coming up with a handy list. Unfortunately, most of what I want seems to be some-what expensive...

I'll keep adding to it regularly as other items I want come up and there will be a link to this in the margin with some of my favorite blog entries so you can find it easily if you need to.

So if anyone needs to know what I'd like and I can't remember when asked directly, here are some ideas.


Snow boots. No Uggs, please. They're ugly and not very waterproof. I'd prefer something like these:

Better pots/pans. No Teflon. I'm tired of it scraping and peeling off and not being able to use any metal utensils in them. I want some real steel or copper-bottomed ones if at all possible. Heck, even just one nice frying pan would be great.


A Kitchen Aid mixer. As much as I would love to have a floor-standing industrial sized one, I know it wouldn't be very logical at this point. Any color will really do, but of course I'd like an orange one if such a color exists among Kitchen Aid, but I really like the silver one too. Red is also nice. Or black.

Cheese slicer. You know, the one with the wire that sometimes makes a really cool "bing!" sound... Like this one:

                            This:

It's a ribbon organizer.
(You can find it here as well.)

A DSLR Camera. Probably a basic Canon, like one of the Rebel models; nothing with too many bells and whistles yet. I'm still doing research, but any suggestion or recommendation from experienced photographers is welcome.