Over the summer I was invited to take a trip at the end of September to Aurora New York; to visit the MacKenzie-Childs headquarters for Camp Courtly Check with 5 other home decor bloggers. MacKenzie-Childs was not new to me, my mom and grandmother had always been collectors so when I was approached to go on this trip, they were the first ones I had to call!
Check out the other bloggers that I went with here!
When I first arrived I felt like I was with a bunch of old friends meeting up for a girls trip. We stayed at the E.B Morgan House which is part of The Inns of Aurora, a group of Inns owned by Pleasant Rowland. (Fun fact: Pleasant Rowland is the founder of American Girl Dolls!) After being there, a great way to describe Aurora is that is like a real life Hallmark movie town, and who wouldn’t want to live there? Our Inn Keeper, Renee, was like our house mom during our stay and always made sure we had whatever we needed, including keeping our wine glasses full =)
My personalized MacKenzie-Childs Everything Bowl with a bunch of goodies!
This was my room, the bed matched the wallpaper!
Wasn’t my bathroom gorgeous? I love all the white!
This cute little nook in my room was perfect to check out my outfits for the day.
On our first day, we toured all the Inns and had a flower arranging class which was followed by dinner at the Aurora Inn with Larry Shaw, the Chief Marketing Officer and John J. Ling, the CEO of MacKenzie-Childs.
The views of Lake Cayuga were stunning from each Inn
The gardens and landscape were so beautiful!
Doesn’t the Flower Market print look great mixed with Courtly Check?
This wallpaper is HAND PAINTED!
My arrangement, look at those gorgeous dahlias!
I had so much fun arranging such gorgeous flowers that were all from a local farm. Since we came during the fall, we got to arrange them in a hallowed out pumpkin that had a square of floral foam inside to keep them hydrated. I always wanted to try an ombre arrangement so I did that here and loved how it came out!
How cute are our aprons?!
Every meal was set up with all MacKenzie-Childs dinnerware and glassware which made it so much fun! (Besides also having great company!) We got to each introduce a little bit about ourselves and our blogs and of course learn about MacKenzie-Childs as a company.
Lunch in the Farmhouse
This was my favorite place setting, because of the bows!
This was my favorite centerpiece!
On our first visit to the MacKenzie-Childs property, Rebecca Proctor, the creative director of MacKenzie-Childs sat down with us for a moment to introduce herself and talk about the brand. As soon as she walked into the room she had the most amazing presence about her. Rebecca was so warm and welcoming and excited about MacKenzie-Childs that it made me fall in love with the brand even more. (If thats possible) For me, MacKenzie-Childs was something that was always a family thing. Everytime a new catalog comes in the mail I get text messages or a call from my mom about new items or her favorites.
With Rebecca Proctor outside the Farmhouse
I have this MacKenzie-Childs welcome mat at may house too!
The MacKenzie-Childs Farmhouse decorated for fall.
I am obsessed with their outdoor furniture.
The front doors to the Farmhouse, I love the detail on them!
Some friends at the Farm!
Even the sheep had on some MacKenzie-Childs!
I had so much fun putting together place settings!
Selfie time before the tour!
After our meeting with Rebecca we were on to a tour of the factory. Now I don’t know about you, but when I think of factory I think of a big box warehouse with conveyor belts full of products – well that is DEFINITELY not the MacKenzie-Childs factory. While walking around all I kept thinking was that this place was reminded me of Santa’s workshop, not that there were little elves running around but there was just something so magical about it.
We first got to see the clay being made and then formed. The recipe for the type of clay that is used is one that the original owners of MacKenzie-Childs brought back from a trip to England.
Ceramic molds
One really interesting fact was that each artist has their own stamp so on each ceramic product they make they stamp their initials on it. When I got home I had to check out pieces from my own collection and sure enough they were stamped!
Painting the Courtly Check
One room we walked into had ceramic pieces outlined in red, a few of us thought maybe it was a new Christmas line because it looked really pretty! We found out it actually is Luster, which is the gold part on the ceramic pieces. Once the ceramic is fired in the kiln, certain chemicals burn off and the red disappears leaving a gorgeous gold!
All that red is going to turn gold soon!
Furniture examples for the artists to reference
Adding the gold leafing.
Look at all the detail in the furniture!
We also got the chance to make our own mugs! We had to mold the clay and then paint our own design!
Molding the clay was so much harder than it looks
All our finished mugs (image via Little Voice PR)
The amount of detail that goes into each and every product just blew me away. I had no idea how much time and effort goes into making each piece of furniture and ceramic – by hand non the less! I loved being able to get such a different view and form a relationship with such an amazing company like MacKenzie-Childs. Now when I look at each piece of my collection I think about all the time and effort that went into that one piece! This was the trip of a lifetime and I could not be more grateful for being invited to Camp Courtly Check.
Below I’ve listed some of my MacKenzie-Childs favorites.
My favorite holiday picks!
