Fashion Finds

                        Studded jeans, leather necklace by ChykShop, black tank and sunglasses

Fashion Finds

Spiky sweater top, ChykShop skirt, Suede boots and aqua t-shirt scarf from UrbanChyk

Handmade Leather Necklaces

Strolling through the sidewalk arts and crafts area of Kyiv, Ukraine, we came across a number of handmade leather items. Some of our favorites included handmade leather necklaces. We decided to try and make some similar necklaces for sale in our boutique in Kyiv. Our necklaces were made to be statement pieces and were a little bolder than the ones we were seeing on the street. They sold out quickly, so it is time to make some more. Here is a look back at those we made last year. Be on the lookout for ChykShop leather necklaces in the near future!

Brimfield Antique Fair

I am constantly on the hunt for new treasures, whether they be antiques, vintage finds, art work, fashion accessories or home decor pieces. I love to antique, collect, pick and re-purpose items and have found that New England is a great place to find them. Last weekend I went to the Brimfield Antique Fair (www.brimfieldshow.com), which claims to be the biggest antique fair in the US and maybe even the world. This fair is so vast that you cannot begin to cover it all in one day and I loved it, not only for the huge selection and great prices, but because most of the dealers would let me bargain with them. It must be the Ukrainan in me that likes to haggle because I don't ever want to pay full price for anything. Even if the price is already good, I still have this desire to negotiate with the dealer, just for the fun of it.

One of my favorite items that I picked up in Brimfield was this antique trunk. I love the leather and tin details and, with a little clean up, it will be great for storage to hold my purses or blankets.


I have a bit of an addiction to purse shopping! I love all types, sizes, and brands. I especially like the old, antique, beaded purses for decoration and use the leather/crocodile/snake purses for everyday wear because they are less fragile.

I found two lovely beaded purses at the fair and framed them in a shadow box. The cute brown purse is sturdy enough to actually use and I just loved the shape of it.

I also picked up two frames that were perfect for some pictures that I bought at the Yarmouth Clam Festival earlier in the summer and have been waiting to frame and put up on the wall. The silver frame is an antique frame which I sanded and repainted with the silver color. In the frame is a piece from Dan Johnson Designs. The black frame is not an antique (the fair has a great selection of new and vintage items, too) but it frames this picture from Scott Ainsworth Photography beautifully.

I also picked up some nick-nacks for my house, one being this beautiful cloisonne box. I have already marked the dates for the Brimfield Antique Fair on my calendar for next year. If you are in the New England area, I highly recommend it!

Bead For Life

Bead For Life is a great organization that is helping the women of Uganda work their way out of poverty. The Ugandan women use recycled paper to make beads for jewlry. The motto at Beads For Life is "Eradicating Poverty One Bead at a Time". I bought a beautiful purple necklace which is perfect for a fall accessory.

I believe Bead For Life provides a great way to shop for something cute and special, while at the same time helping a great cause. These necklaces or braclets make great gifts for birthdays or the upcoming holidays, especially for the philanthropist friend or family member.

Another interesting thing the women of Uganda offer on the Bead For Life site, is Shea butter products, such as soap and cosmetics. Shea butter is said to have incredible moisturizing and healing properties so the women collect them, prepare them and crush them to extract their moisturizing goodness for use in their products. The website has an interesting video showing this process: here. I am thinking that these products will make fun stocking- stuffers this Christmas.

T-shirt Infinity Scarf

What to do with an old t-shirt? I have been making Infinity Scarves out of them! Quick and easy to make, these Infinity Scarves add a splash of color to my outfits and I like being able to do something with my old t-shirts that were near and dear to me!

Castleberry Fair

Yesterday, I attended the Castleberry Art and Crafts Fair in Topsfield, Massachusetts and came home with a handful of handmade goodies!

My first purchase of the day was pumpkin scented goat’s milk soap from Northwood Naturals. It smells wonderful and is perfect for the fall season. A few of the ingredients they use in the soap in addition to goat’s milk are olive oil and Shea butter which give it a smooth, creamy feel. I made a return trip to the fair on Sunday and purchased some more soap, including Peppermint, Maine Blueberry and Just Lemon. They all smell divine and my experience with handmade soap tells me that they will retain their fragrance for the life of the soap. I will keep these on hand and just tie a few of them up with some wire ribbon for those unexpected occasions when I need a small gift.

The next item I came across was Muddy Mary’s Bloody Mary Mud. I am a huge fan of Bloody Marys and this is a convenient way to make the perfect drink. You just add the “mud” to tomato juice and vodka. Delicious! Even better, the mud came in a box with a cute ribbon, making it a great gift for any Bloody Mary drinker!



At almost every craft fair, I pick up some sort of painting or photography. As we all know, the east coast is very picturesque and I came across a sweet lady with some prints I had to have. Her booth was called Anna Janessa Photo Art and I found her to be a very talented photographer. She offers many services including Fine Art prints, Black & White photography with selective hand painting, Portraits, Photo Restoration, Special Event photography and more. I selected 6 photos that were taken in Maine and Massachusetts of the 5x7 size because I happened to have some left over frames that size. They will make a terrific grouping on the wall.

It is never too early to start shopping for Christmas so I stopped by the Birds, Blooms and Butterflies booth which had hundreds of hand painted ornaments. I selected one with a hand painted picture of my favorite flower, the sunflower, on it. I can’t wait to hang this up on the tree this year!

Transition Style

What do you wear at the end of summer and the beginning of fall? White pants and shoes are a definite no-no, of course, but there are so many other “too summery” looking items that just seem out of place once the months have changed. Who hasn’t been caught with the fall-ish outfit that turns out to be way too warm for those hot September days? I have been caught in that situation too many times and decided this year to make an effort to look seasonal and to also be comfortable. Here are some of my solutions to the summer-fall transition dilemma:

I have gone with combinations mostly, mixing and matching summer and fall clothes. I always love boot season and break those out as soon as I can, pairing them with shorts or short skirts. It has been a little too hot here in Maine (mid to high 70s) to wear all Fall attire so I take a few fall pieces, booties or scarves and match them with something from my summer wardrobe. I also wear scarves with short sleeve shirts and high heel sandals . Pretty soon it will be too cold to wear my strappy heels here so I try and wear them as much as possible during the fading summer days. The strappy heels shown here are from a Buckle store in Texas.. Here is a link to their website: Buckle




The boots I am wearing in this photo are vintage, belonging to my Mother. They may no longer be available, but a company that has been around forever carrying cute boots is Frye. You can always find a Frye boot to fit any occasion. Here is a link to their website: FRYE . If you are from Maine, like I am, Bliss in the Portland Old Port carries this brand: Bliss

Chykberry Syrup

As summer draws to a close and my blueberry and blackberry bushes continue to produce, I have had to find creative ways to use them. I haven’t had the time to do traditional canning but I did come up with an idea that has become popular with friends and family. Maine is the only place I know of in the USA where ice cream is only eaten during summer months. When I lived in Texas, we ate ice cream year round but here on the east coast, each season has its own personality complete with specific foods. My Chykberry syrup, as I call it, is made primarily from blueberries, with blackberries and raspberries thrown in, as they are available. It is the perfect complement to vanilla ice cream and is great on pancakes, too!

The recipe:

Turn stove to medium and in a sauce pan add:
2 T. water
3 cups of berries
1 T. cornstarch
3 T. sugar (more if you like sweeter taste)
Stir all ingredients over medium heat until liquid is bubbly and continue to stir for a minute or two. Remove pan from heat (syrup will continue to thicken as it cools). Store in refrigerator or freeze for later use.

This syrup makes a great gift and will last for a week or more in the refrigerator. It will freeze nicely in a plastic container for use weeks or months later.

Rockabilly Style

Without realizing it, I have been a fan of Rockabilly style for quite some time. I love the retro, fun accessorizing with bandannas and hair bands and actually wear them for functional purposes as well as for fashion flair.

Before harvesting my blueberries, kiwi, cucumbers and tomatoes this summer, I have often grabbed a bandanna or big hair scarf to keep my hair tied back and out of my way. I was not aware that I was rocking the Rockabilly Style that is becoming so popular.

Wikipedia defines Rockabilly as:

"...one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s. The word comes from the words "rock" (from "rock 'n' roll") and "hillbilly", the latter a reference to the country music (often called "hillbilly music" in the 1940s and 1950s) that contributed strongly to the style's development..its origins lie primarily in the Southern United States."


I have decided to create some headbands for sale in my etsy shop. Check them out here.

For the Girlie Chyk

Handmade pink bow headband can be worn with a casual outfit or a nice black dress for a fancier look. The headband is made from left over fabric used for a ChykShop hot pink mini skirt.

The bow can be paired with a set of heel hats, also made by ChykShop. Both of these pink items are fun to wear when you are feeling like a girly girl and want to add a touch of pink to your outfit.

Bring on the Heel Hats

One of the fashion trends I am looking forward to for Fall would have to be the resurgence of shoe embellishments. At ChykShop, we call ours “Heel Hats” because of the way they change the look of and personalize shoes. Ours will largely be created as one-of-a-kind or few-of-a-kind, just like our clothing, to retain that individualized feel. After all, we all like to have something that is kind of unique to us…something that feels like it is really made just for us and captures our personality and fashion flair.

I have already confiscated a few of these Heel Hats, before they could be listed for sale on the site. The more complex Heel Hats actually cover the heel and often tie up around the ankle. They make a bolder statement than the simple shoe clips shown below, but I really like the way they dress up a basic shoe.

The simpler Heel Hats are my favorite because they clip on and can be worn anywhere on the shoe…at the toe or near the heel. These heel hats change the feel of the simple red pump I am wearing.These would be great on black shoes, as well.