I told you we could.

If you've been following my notes on paper from the beginning you may be familiar with this, my very first blog post in which I detailed my adventures into the unpredictable realms of Circle-Journal-Land. At that point I left you with the cliff-hanger about whether or not my long lost CJ would be returned unto me as some form of Christmas miracle. So....what do you reckon happened?

Yeah, that's right. Absolutely, precisely nothing happened. My stocking was bare. No mysterious unmarked parcel on the doorstep. Nothing. At all. It remains lost in the pit of crafting disasters ... you get the picture.

However, my team members stayed true to their intention to replace what I had missed out on and their entries into my new journal came rolling in. I've posting them here as they all sent me their work individually so, unlike when a CJ travels around the group, no one got to see any anyone else's contribution.

So, here is my Saying Yes CJ ... Take Two ....

My front cover:

My Introduction page - complete with envelope containing the whole 'stray CJ' saga:

'It's All About Saying Yes' :

This layout was created using my Gauche Alchemy Acme Kit. It includes two pockets into which I've tucked lots of tags - on the backs of which I've written lots of things I've said 'Yes' to over the last year. [These range from taking a screenwriting class and a Banana Frog workshop to entering the Best of British scrapbooking competition ... and more...].

Sarah Said Yes to 'Saying No':

Roo said Yes to 'New Skills':

Tracy said Yes to 'Climbing Mount Snowdon':

Clare said Yes to a 'Flight in a Microlight':

Margaret said Yes to a '3 Day Sponsored Walk' :

My page - 'You Decide on the What and the Universe Will See to the How':

This is an idea which I truly believe in ... and have fittingly celebrated it here with lots of glitter!!!! The vintage music sheet was from a QTea kit in 2008 and I was delighted to see that the song lyrics on it matched this idea perfectly: "Stop hiding behind a pillow, whenever the sky looks gray. Get up! Get out! And meet the sun half way." The quote on there in the pink speech bubble has a similar theme ...but is a touch more risque. It reads: "Ethel thought she'd pull it and see what happened" and is actually from a playing card sent to me by my friend Anna...who else????

I worked on my own pages for it while I was at my local crop and have shown everyones' work to the ladies who'd initially warned me about the perils of CJs before I began. They were extremely impressed by the quality of the work that has obviously gone into it and have come to their own conclusion that perhaps the best way to secure yourself a good Circle Journal is for people to pity you!!! I hope that this isn't strictly true ... but rather selfishly, I don't mind if it is right now! I now finally have my very own completed Circle Journal. At last!

My page 'Hope Blooms'

So, has my tale of good crafty folk chipping in to save the day restored your faith in human nature and left you feeling warm and fuzzy yet? Well, read on and you may get even warmer-and-fuzzier .... there were two of us whose CJs went awry and two of us who were given a second opportunity. Karen 'arranged' to have Audrey as her recipient in the UKS Secret Santa Advent Swap. She then used all her powers of subterfuge to get us to each contribute to a journal entry which she turned into a wonderful Christmas Day surprise for Audrey - a complete 'Strong Women' Circle Journal.

The Sign-In page:

It was a hard year for many on our CJ team and in between sharing news of bereavments, ill health, moving house, falling off bikes [that was me!] we sometimes found time to talk about papercrafting!! I don't mind admitting that once we knew all the CJs were in their rightful homes and that our chat thread would soon be closed some of us [yes, that'll be me again!] felt a little adrift and a touch teary.

We had ourselves a theme song to get us through [at the same time as being fully aware that we sounded like a gang of emotional drunks] ... do you remember what it was ladies??? How about one more for the road??? .......

"And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain ...."

Thank you 'CJs CJers'.
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