Winter is around the corner!

As I sit here listening to the radio about the horrible wild fires in CA, it is difficult to believe that we had about 10+ inches of snow in our yard on Sunday. Now - I love living here and would not want to live anywhere else, but sunny southern CA always sounds wonderful around April when we get our late snowstorms and all you really want is Spring to come when you have had 6+ months of snow on the ground. So our hearts go out to those in CA where the wild fires are burning.

Our weekend consisted of play and work. Saturday started out beautiful and we headed a half an hour south to spend some time rock climbing. Two of the four ladies (Mamma and the littlest where close by "thing finding") in my life, harnessed up and made it up the 5.7 checker board rock. As a father, it is wonderful to show the love that I have for the outdoors, pass this on to our girls and see the love that they also have in their eyes. Cheker Board is such an appropriate name for this 70+ foot climb - climbing is not a muscle bound activity, but one of delicate balance looking at each move to make it further up the rock. As our day progressed, our shorts and t-shirts were a bad choice for this day. We should have know better and brought more clothes - but we knew the car was close by. Saturday night the snow moved in and Sunday was spent cleaning the house and playing in the snow.

A few photos of the tribe while we were out on Sunday having fun in the snow.

Vail Valley Charitable Fund

Do you want to feel like a local? Do you want to be able to walk into our local pub and feel like the bar stool has your name on it? Do you want to know the feeling of skiing the first line and tracking up the powder here on one of those incredible blue sky 15" powder days? As we all know, wearing your Tessa Clogs around already makes you an honorary local but maybe you want to do more.

Well how about donating to one of the best causes here in the Vail Valley - the Vail Valley Charitable Fund. The Vail Valley Charitable Fund (VVCF) helps people who live and work in Eagle County who have overwhelming financial needs due to medical crisis. To date, the organization has assisted six hundred individuals and families in Eagle County, and has raised and dispersed more than $5 million dollars. For 7 years, the Vail Valley Charitable Fund has published the Vail Undressed Calendar, which features locals amidst the beautiful settings of the Vail Valley. This years theme is "Made in Vail". And - well - we were asked to participate this year - and - well - yes - we had to "undress". Now, as you can see, we are not showing the original photo for the month of April 2008 - BUT - if you want to see it - you are going to need to purchase the calendar. The calendars are for sale at the store for $14.95 plus tax - if you want us to ship it - $20 includes shipping and you can get an autograped copy. Besides seeing Mr. & Mrs. Clog - you can see some other local's - you may have heard of the folks that are Mr., Mrs. & family January - Ryan, Trista and Max Sutter. Yes - Ryan is the one that showed the world that us men in Vail are keepers. It is so great that we have 13 months of volunters for this great cause. Please, give us a call, purchase a calendar and be a TRUE LOCAL.

To order - you can call us at 800-476-7410 - we will have it available on our web site soon

thanks for your support

Climbing Clogs & Marimekko

I wanted to show everybody our new Tessa Climbing Clogs! We do not think that they will get you up Everest but they will let you have fun on the local crag.

The marimekko clothes that are in the photo are getting low on supply. If the outfit interest you, please call or email us as soon as possible.

We just had the folks out from Omaha - Grandma and Grandpa - thanks so much for all the help, hugs and love. We actually got them on bikes riding from Minturn to Vail. A great time was had by all.

Ciao

Sorry - you need to get on our case

Hello Tessa Clog Readers

Come on - get on our case if it is over a week and you are looking for more gossip or plain old information about our little moutain valley. Please give us an email or phone call and tell us - write in your Blog!

We wish we could give you all some great reason for not typing in awhile but the biggest is that we are working on some new Tessa Clogs. We will keep you posted but we need to keep our mouths currently shut being that our ideas continually get copied.

The leaves are changing here and I would say that are peaking right now. We also had our first little snowfall for the coming winter. Golly, it is such a gorgeous area that we live and every now and then I need to remind ourselves how blessed we are to be here.

We have been also working on new adds for upcoming publications. Here is an out take between shots that we have included here. I guess it is a picture of the Clog Dude with one of his bosses - Little Clog Dudette #3. Besides Tessa Clogs, at Swedish Clog Cabin we also carry clothes, food, books and gifts. Little Clog Dudette is wearing a line called Me Too from Denmark. It really is SO CUTE! In the background on our garage, is a bag from Marimekko. This garage in the background is over 100+ years old! There are very few places in our valley that can boast this - heck - the town of Vail started in 1962 and Lionshead (the section of Vail where Swedish Clog Cabin is located) was built in 1972. So when you do come to visit the Vail Valley - you need to come also to our small town of Minturn to see the real history.

We are also trying to get some last bike rides in before the snow is here for good. If you are the cut off wearing, waving at all cyclist, love for life rider - then you are the type of bike riders we enjoy. We need to metion to our fellow casual bike riders - clogs are some of the best footwear to have on for riding. If you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry, then you really are probably not our fellow casual bike rider, but if your ride is about the journey, then you need to put a pair of clogs on for your next bike ride. The rigid platform helps so much with the pedalling (a bike geek of ours refered it to something like the power transfer not being lost - blah blah blah).

Oh - we are headed to Houston in early November for the Nutcracker Holiday Market. So if you are in the Houston area, please stop by and say HI.

Cheers till next time