No word yet....

We are waiting for confirmation of the vote tally from Channel 12 and trying to say thank you and catch up on all the things we missed because they couldn't be done during 12-minute intervals last week. -wry smile--

We were thrilled Friday night to be invited over to Annette and Bill's for a delicious dinner. Many of you scrappers and artists will recognize Miz Dragon if not from her photo then from her work or from her message board presence as TichWolli (sorry if I spelled that wrong) on the Club Scrap and numerous other artists' boards.

I've been able to talk or PM several other dear and precious friends like Lynn, Kim, Jill, and Carmen over the past 36 hours too and it's so funny not to interrupt our visits with voting chimes.

Henry and I have already accepted Nancy's invitation to visit the upcoming Orlando Scrapbook Dream Vacation event this year too. I'm wondering how long it will take to hug 1000 scrappers....We'll do our best. I know one thing, I still get goosebumps at the thought of walking into a 700 seat ballroom filled with those who love what I love too.

Our families from Virginia and far reaching areas have been so grand too. Co-workers of the current and former persuasion have all contributed to this rush of giddiness. We're still working on a video or series of videos, but we want to figure out what's up with the station too. Plus between work and contests and phone calls Sir Henry and I haven't been able to have more than a few moments alone together. It will all work out.

On a sadder note, I have lost two uncles in two days and my father has lost two dear brothers. We're still reeling at how it all happened so quickly. Yes, they were older and yes they had had health problems but it is still never easy to grieve. Henry called my Daddy tonight after working all day and I got all teary again just hearing his caring concern for my family. It's a corny refrain, but still so true: No one ever truly dies if they are alive in our hearts.

Blessings and Peace to you all

Norma Anne

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. We're so honored by the massive support we've received in this contest.

Today I'm walking around (in between voting when the 12 minute timer goes off) just awed by the outpouring of love and support you're giving us.

Check out the comments under yesterday's post to see folks from all over just voting away.

I posted a photo with timely significance and a note from Henry today. The note was written on the back of his senor class portrait in fall 1974. It's just so dear and such wonderful words for a 17 year-old-boy to write.

The bathing suit photo is significant because in June of 1975 my parents took Henry with our family to annual conference of the United Methodist Church in Virginia Beach Virginia. My Daddy served as a UM minister for 40 years and these June trips to annual conference were also our family vacations for the year. Never before and never since did they allow us to bring anyone on those trips. Henry was always their favorite.

I'm getting to the significance, I promise...My 83 year old father and 80 year old mother just called me from this year's annual conference in Roanoke Virginia. Some things change, and some things stay the same. They go even though Daddy is long retired. While they didn't do an announcement to all 8000 delegates, they did drum up a lot of votes from people that know us and love our story.

On the drive home they stopped to visit family in Danville Virginia where they grew up. There they picked up more votes--I have have huge extended family and 80% of them live in Danville.
I am so grateful for the Chattin and Burnett clans. (both sides of my family are of Scottish heritage)

Henry and I will never forget the love from every corner of the world that has surfaced from this contest. I means so much to us. We wish we could go on a grand tour to every location with voters and give out great big hugs.

Oh, and the other significant parts of the bathing suit photo--My Mom made that bikini I'm wearing along with all my clothes growing up--creativity (and thrifty practices) run in my genes....Plus it is the only way you could ever see me in a bikini again! This 46 year-old bride-to-be has adopted the swim dress approach--but I'll still jump in the pool!
Love and Peace,
Norma Anne

cbs12 dream wedding contest--please vote

Oh my this is more of a roller coaster ride than I ever imagined. We pulled out to as much as a 2000 vote lead over the weekend and now we are back in second place. I stayed up until 3 am last night and watched it happen...sigh. We are not giving up--the contest isn't over until June 20th. Please take a few moments (every 12 minutes would be ideal-grin) to vote again and again. We'd also appreciate if you post links on any bulletin boards or lists that you use. If you can vote from work--we won't tell.

Thanks again for all your support. Wow, we are awed and honored to have collected over 17,000 votes by Monday morning. If you lose the link, or are in the grocery store making an announcement on the PA just direct others to www.cbs12.com or to my website where there's a link at www.nachattin.com

Our appreciation is monumental. Blessings to you!

We need your VOTE for a Dream Wedding

We're so happy and honored to be chosen as one of 12 finalist couples in the CBS-12 Dream Wedding Contest. We need online votes to win and as of today we're in third place so we need LOTS of online votes. You can vote again every 2 hours. So, VOTE NOW and VOTE often with our sincere appreciation.

Interesting tidbit, Henry, the resident computer expert, checked GOOGLE and saw that although we're currently in third place for votes, our vote page has more hits than any other contestant. I'm not sure how that happens unless we have eager folks trying to vote before the two hour limit.

HUGS and HUGE thanks to everyone that is voting now. Keep up the great work!

We've finally narrowing our location choices down to two--please let us settle on one this coming week. I'm so eager to start the "fun part" for me which is decorations, cake, and, of course, fashion.

We decided to have the cake be a traditional recipe pound cake that my Mom will make. It's been in my family for years, we call it the Burnett pound cake and Burnett is my Grandma's maiden name. Thanks to my friend Jill's contribution of a Southern Living Magazine, we now have a decoration plan for the cake. It will be iced like the photo and then we'll use either berries or chocolate shells for embellishment.

The flowers will probably be natural from our yard and the grocery store combined with paper flowers that will be featured more in an upcoming post. The two pink/red arrangements pictured are from our yard and the the other two (snap dragons and orange daisy types) were purchased at Publix for $3.33 a bunch. The orange flowers are arranged in a crystal liquor bottle and there's a white daisy in the top. Isn't that fun? I used my fibers and ribbon from the studio to embellish arrangements or containers. At this point I'm not sure whether we'll be inside or outside and that will impact the container situation. It will all work out.

I'm going through a bell phase lately. I want to have lots of bells at my wedding. I have placed two brass bells with the orange flowers as part of the "table-scape" and I bought a cool crystal bell this week too. Please send me ideas for using bells at party or wedding. Thanks!

Thanks for looking and sharing. As always, I love to hear from you....Cheers!

Invitation Decisions

Oh no, am I becoming one of those obsessed and helpless brides? Really, I don't think I'm that bad---but I just love the paper parts so much I can't decide. Please visit my web page on Sunset Invitations and click on the guest book to put in your opinon on which invitation is best for us. We're getting married at sunset on the water and it's a very casual affair.

I'll look forward to knowing what you think!

Jumping back in

I spent much of January agonizing that I haven't posted on the blog or updated the web site...

I've got to start somewhere. Today we were invited to a birthday party--tonight. It's just a neighborhood thing so it's not like we have to do a lot to prepare....But it's a great time for me to just go make a card. Here's Jack's birthday card, a 10 minute special that was really fun to do.

There are two new galleries on the web site. The Winter 2008 gallery is about freshness and the other new gallery is devoted to hybrid (digital with traditional) scrapping. They hybrid gallery is not linked to anything else on the web site yet, so blog readers are getting a first peak.

I've been agonizing over my wedding invitations for a couple weeks now. We changed the color scheme after I finalized a design, so I'm starting over. I am going to need help deciding again, so perhaps I'll post the samples.

I've been busy with work for the tutoring company, doing some moving, hauling, and sorting for my Mom and our upcoming yard sale, plus making some "upgrades" to my healthcare regime. I'm taking a Photoshop Class and doing more digital scrapping.

Life is abundant, life is grand, and I am grateful.