MacKenzie-Childs

I'm conflicted about this interesting, yet somehow too charming of a place. MacKenzie-Childs has grown into a major business over the years. If I'm not mistaken, its big first break was when Saks decided to buy the line, which was years ago, in the late 1980s or early 1990s, when the MacKenzie-Childs brand was still actually owned and produced by the MacKenzie-Childs family. When the handcrafted ceramics were still being made in their home studio to the south of Aurora (their home studio that my brother, in fact, spent a summer helping to build).

After the Saks break, things got bigger rather quickly, and the Mackenzie-Childs relocated their studio to the beautiful property where it remains now, just to the north of Aurora. I'm fuzzy on the details after this, but basically they found themselves overextended at some point, and they got an offer from Pleasant Rowland, the creator of the American Girl corporation and alumna of Aurora's Wells College, who was reinventing all manner of Aurora-area businesses and buildings to the great delight or horror of the locals, depending on who it is you're speaking to.

The MacKenzie-Childs accepted her offer. They sold to Pleasant Rowland, and as Pleasant does, she turned the place around. She grew it, and grew it, and changed it. That's what happens, I realize, but somehow when I visit now, it's not quite the same. The quirky restaurant is gone, and the 'Farmhouse' is now available to tour, showcasing, "MacKenzie-Childs designs in a variety of traditional interiors... each one a design inspiration."

This bothers me. I used to date a boy who lived here. It was a big old beautiful farmhouse, it's true, but it was a normal house. It was lived in, it got messy. It was not some idyllic, staged, museum for goodness sake.

But I digress. Or do I? I guess that's what bothers me about the whole kit and kaboodle. It is just too perfect and too dramatized. The setting is too faultlessly bucolic. "It's just not real, people, do not believe!" I wanted to yell out to the shoppers in the showroom.

But yet it is real, is it not? It is located, "On a tranquil Victorian farm overlooking Cayuga Lake" and the 65-acre farm does have a "winding brick driveway" and "a duck pond" and "a meadow where a herd of Scottish Highland cattle graze."

But it is also an illusion. A clever way to justify those absurd prices. Or so it seems to me.

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Don't get me wrong. Their pieces are all handmade, and this, of course, does drive up the cost of anything and everything. And I certainly do think that all the artisans working at MacKenzie-Childs should be making a decent wage. Plus the products are whimsical and unique, but I just feel that the marketing ploy is somehow, oh, I don't know, such fluff. Yes, yes, that's what marketing is. I know this. I guess my problem is that I'm having a hard time with the fact that my hometown is being marketed. I'm not expressing my self well here, I realize. I did warn you, didn't I, that I'm conflicted?

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Let me show you just how conflicted.

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I love this sink

almost as much as I love this bathroom floor

But this bench/loveseat? Not so much. I mean it does look like you're in Aurora, but do I really want to sit my ass down on it?

But she is lovely, and my girls just could not get enough of her and her project. In fact, my 6 year old declared that she would get a job here doing just this when she was old enough. (Hope you have room, Nonnie).

And this?

Well it's a little too much for me, both in style and financially. (You should really check out the prices on the website).

But I guess that about sums it up....Mackenzie-Childs? It's a little too much for me.