Cancer Benefit, Yarn, A Piece of Home and LUSH-iousness

Last weekend Big A and I went up to L.A. for a very cool car event called Cruise 'n for a Cure, it's the biggest one day car show and every single cent (no money is taken for administration fees) from the entry fee ($40 a car, and there were over 3,500 cars this year), the gate fees ($12 a person), and the t-shirt sales go to the UCLA Jonsson Conprehensive Cancer Center. We had a great time there were about 50 cars from Big A's car group so it was nice to see everyone, but I wished the weather would have been dryer.

And since we were in L.A. I (successfully) tried to get Big A to take me to Wildfiber in Santa Monica. It's one of my favorite yarn shops to visit (it was my second time) here is what it looks like (click to make bigger) The next time I go I would love to stay a while and knit. Wildfiber use to be owned by Mel Clark (author of Knit2) but she has sold it and move back to New Zealand. The store was just as wonderful as I remembered, light, lovely, and I love the way that the store is laid out. I saw on their website that they were carrying Socks that Rock I wanted to see what they had and was planning on picking up a several skeins. The knitting gods did not shine upon me, they only had medium weight, and I was looking for lightweight. So in order to appease the sock yarn craving I got this.
It's Ranco Multy by Araucania, it was hand-dyed in Chile and it really reminds me of Monet's Waterlilies, you can't see the green to well in the pictures but it's very similar to the painting, I'm glad I picked it up.

When you miss Boston there are a few places around town that you can go to to get your fix and one of them is Sonny McLean's in Santa Monica. If you are an ex-pat the minute you walk in you know exactly what this place is about; it's dark, there are multiply levels to the place, there is a no-frills attitude (wires hanging all over the place), there is a good sturdy bar that runs the length from front to back, the bathroom is old and has a strange tiny useless extra room with a small mirror (at least the women's did), there are pictures and references to all Boston Sports teams, and they served DUNKIN' DONUTS coffee (swear). It was a little slice of home, and the food was great Big A had fish and chips (of course) and I had a big bowl of clam chowdah it was one of the best I ever tasted. And of course the most prized possession of the day this
it's a t-shirt that's the front and the back says could it be any better?

The other place I got Big A to take me was LUSH. I fell in love with LUSH when I lived in Boston. It is a company that makes handmade cosmetics (not make-up, but more lotion/soap/shampoo etc) with a lot of organic/and or natural ingredients. This is a blurb from their website "We hand-make our cosmetics in UK, Italy, Canada, South America and Japan, in our own production facilities, so that every product available in our shops or sent to you by mail is as fresh as it can possibly be because fresh products work better and use fewer preservatives. Our aim is to have the youngest, freshest products in the history of cosmetics." They never do any animals testing and they sell their products, both in store and web, with as little packaging as possible. I love all of their products and the company's philosophy and mission, good all around!