Once in a blue moon WIPocalyse check in

Well it's been a long while since I checked in to WIPocalyse, and it seems apt that I'm doing it slightly late for a blue moon! The question for this month is 

What makes you pick up a long-abandoned UFO rather than beginning a new piece? 

I don't really have too many UFOs but what makes me carry on with a piece is that it just seem so sad when something is left incomplete. I think all pieces want to be finished, just like you get children's stories where toys just want to be loved! I picked up stitching again in my twenties as I found an old piece I started in my teens (I think, could have been even younger) and was sad it had never got to be finished. It's finished now, but still not framed- now framing is not something I am good at getting around to. 

The advantage of having been AWOL from WIPocalypse for a while is that I do have a couple of finishes to show off. 

First of all, here is my first finish of the year. It is a Belle and Boo design from Cross Stitcher magazine, which I stitched as a birthday present for my sister. This was a nice easy stitch and was finished and framed back in April.

The second finish is the Joan Elliott Faces SAL. 

This was finished in June, I think. I absolutely loved stitching this over the past year or so. The parts were released one a month so the piece built up over the full year. I also loved seeing all the variations other stitchers came up with on the Facebook group. Mine is fairly close to the original with only a few colours changed to similar shades I had, and the skin stitched over 1 because I am a sucker for punishment!

Finally, my focus for the past couple of months has been on Chatelaine's Tuscany Town Mandala. I want to finish the current part or layer of this before I take a break on that. Here's the current update:

Once all four corners are done I'll do some work on the birds and then allow myself a new start. I'm thinking either Joan Elliott's Canadian Beauty or Teresa Wentzler's Egyptian Sampler next. Comment if you have a preference!