Achilles and Wasp Stings - ouch

Hello - I know that it has been awhile. I hope that all of you readers are doing wonderful. Here at the Swedish Clog Cabin - I and Mrs. Clog are having foot / leg issues regarding stupid accidents with bicycles and wasps. I am now almost 4 weeks into an achilles tendon issue - I'm feeling better and better each day but still not 100%. My funny accident relates to a chainring (picture here) rolling accross my ankle. Doing too many things at once (carrying kids backpacks, scooters, and bicycle) I thought that I could roll my bicycle forward while also carrying everything. Well, somehow my bike started to fall but I managed to keep it rolling forward. While this happened, my foot/ankel somehow got under the chainring and I pulled the bike chainring right over my ankel. Not a big deal at the time, my mind was thinking I'll have a few puncture marks where the chainring went into the ankle but big deal. The big deal was where the chainring went over my achilles, it CUT IT. OUCH - I am just so happy that it was only about 30 to 40% that I cut. After 4 weeks I feel that I around 75 to 80% heeled.

Mrs. Clog was stung on the foot this weekend by a wasp. She was sitting on the couch and as she got up she screamed in pain. OUCH - What was that? As we looked on the floor we see a wasp laying around. Immediately we put ice on the bite and we thought all was OK until the next day. It is worrysome when you wake up and see that your foot looks and feels like a red, welted, itching like crazy football. We didn't worry too much at this time but the swelling was starting to move up into the ankle. After calling the hosipital it sounded like she was having an allergic reation but unless we see the swelling moving more up the leg we really did not need to go in. We could not believe that the nurse said it could take up to one week before the foot is normal again. What - a little wasp bite - just amazing. The bad thing is - we have a photo foot shoot tomorrow. We have called to reschedule and hope that it will not be a problem.

So that is the new news here in Lionshead.

Last weekend, if you happened to be visiting us at Swedish Clog Cabin in Lionshead you may have noticed the beautiful car parked out in front - a older Mercedes race car used in the 50's (I believe). If you love old vintage European Race Cars it was your Christmas in Vail last weekend. The Colorado Grand (http://www.coloradogrand.com/) finished their rally in Vail and parked their cars (over 70 cars on display) all over Lionshead.

I think the family favorite were some of the "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" style cars from the 30's. I think the following picture is a 1936 Delehaye 135 S Competition. Some of the cars that were on display: Alfa Romeo, Mercedes, Ferarri, Jaguar, Bentley, Osca and an Austin Heeley. If you love cars like this you need to check out the following site - http://www.autotourimages.com/galleries.htm and click on Colorado Grand 2008 to see some of the images.

Other news - Swedish Clog Cabin/Tessa Clogs will be in Kansas City at the Holiday Mart October 23-26 and we also will be in Houston at the Nutcracker Market November 13-16. Come visit us, try a pair of Tessa Clogs and then buy a few pairs for yourself and loved ones :-)!

thanks again for reading

Flowers and Inspiration

You may wonder sometimes where does Tessa get some of her great ideas. Well, she gets it from our natural surrondings every day. With the wild flowers just going off at their peak a few weeks ago, we took the family out for a short distance (but time wise around 4 hours with the little feet that joins us) hike. Along the way we took many photos of the flowers and tried to name them all. Good thing that our oldest, Axelina, had her flower book from her godfather (Hi Steve Holm!) with so we could name all the flowers we saw. The fun thing about our hike is that it is right out side our front door.

What is new here at Tessa Clogs - We just got back in a shipment of our Closed Back and Flex Clogs. They are made for us in the south of Denmark and the quality is FANTASTIC. I'm not sure how long we will have them in stock so definitly check them out and order yourself up a pair as soon as you can.

The end of July and here in the mountains we still have snow!? With our warm days here (mid 80's - I know that some of you folks are thinking mid 80's that is not hot) we have been thinking already of the coming ski season and so have some of our friends. If any family are friends are reading book your accomadations soon here in Minturn being that the house is filling up :-)! We were wonderfully suprised to hear that we have some of our closest friends from Sweden coming out to visit this winter so we are already looking forward to that.

Thanks again for reading and order your Tessa Clogs!

Chris

Tessa Clog Sandal Season

Howdy All - it is Tessa Sandal Season right now! Before the snow starts flying here again in Vail you need to check out some of our new sandals at Tessa Clog SANDALS.

We just got back into the states after a one month design working sesion in Sweden. Of course we found some time to spend with family, work and also play.

Sorry for not keeping up with the blog. It is difficult for me to sit down and type. Is anybody reading? HA - probably not when I do not update this site very often. Please get on my back if you want to hear more and I haven't posted in awhile - my email chris@tessaclogs.com and tell me to get to work.

It is the middle of summer now and I think like most Americans - I'm a little bit worried what is going to happen with our economy. Besides everything that is happening what troubles me the most it that our dollar is just not worth what it was years ago. Tessa Clogs are all manufactured in Sweden, and the cost for us to make and ship them to our warehouse here in Coloardo has gone up more then double! We are going to try and hold out a little bit longer keeping our prices steady but it is getting difficult. So if you have been on the fense about purchasing some Tessa Clogs - I would recommend buying them sooner then later.

Besides our Tessa Clogs, we also carry some CUTE clothes from Me Too and Mimi & Maggie. Please email or call us if we can help pick out some clogs with an outfit to go with it. I have to say - my models above did a great job! Thanks again for reading

the Empty Chair Lift in our Yard of Snow

463 inches = 1176 centimeters = 38.5 feet = 11.7 meters = snowfall in Vail to date – this is BIG TIME snow for us – not sure where it ranks but it must be somewhere in the top of biggest snow years for us

April 11 = 25 degrees = 13 inches fresh = the best powder days ever in April – this is 13” + 6” from Thursday, April 10th + 6” from Wednesday, April 9th + 10” from Tuesday, April 8th – we had a big cold snowy week! After skiing just a few runs on this unsuspecting Friday, I walked into the office with the biggest grin, Tessa was headed out the door with skis almost immediately after seeing the “grin”. She came back with the same ear to ear grin – a good day.

April 12 & 13 – the Best weekend ever skiing with the family – Tessa and I skied down to Minturn 2 times on Saturday, the first time, just us, skiing some of the best powder ever through evenly spaced Aspen trees, the second time was with our two oldest kids (8 & 6) – smiles all around – skiing to Minturn is nothing “extreme” but it is a demanding back country run (meaning if you get hurt, tough luck you better take responsibility for your own actions – nobody to sue for all of you litigious folks) that leads from Vail Mountain almost to our house. Now for you folks that are saying we shouldn’t be taking our kids down something like this, get a life and take the training wheels off. They skied great and were asking to ski it again!

Sidenote
It takes lots of time and patience to get your kids to ski. Many folks that we know have thrown their kids in some type of ski school or club. We haven’t really ever put them in any of the ski clubs being that they: one – do not want to be and two – they enjoy skiing with us and we are taking the time to go with them. If you love to ski and have the love and respect for the mountains, spend the time with your kids, bite your tongue on the slow learning curve and enjoy the time. We all know that time just flies and I am just so happy to have spent this time teaching our kids and watching their love for the mountains grow.

April 13 = 45+ degrees = closing day = sunny, best closing day ever – We skied with the entire family including our 3 year old all the way down the mountain from the very top! At the bottom of the mountain, we enjoyed one of my best beers (a homebrew Swedish Lager) while the kids ate ice cream and we all sat in the sun watching the closing days activities. This moment was such a nice, kick back, relaxing time going over old memories of past closing days.

Closing day is literally a holiday / funeral here at ski resorts. I do not know how to fully convey the idea but it is a little bit like Christmas and maybe the funeral that your best friend would want you to have for them – a celebration for life. Everybody is happy and sad at the same time and are all partying in our own way and sharing time together. The talk of all the locals is of the closing days we have witnessed and will hope to witness. . The happiness of a beautiful day changing to sadness knowing that the season is finished BUT changing back to hope with the fact that we will be riding the lifts in less then 7 months.

A beautiful moment that I witnessed on closing day – a Grandpa, a Grandma, kids and grandkids on top of the mountain at closing time. It just happened to be that this family grew up in Vail and one of the kids used to race with the U.S. ski team. This is what I’m talking about, sharing time with the family and celebration of life. It is a moment that I will be looking forward to in the future – sharing a last run of the season with our grandkids (it makes my eyes water as I’m listening to Jack Johnson playing the guitar on my speakers in the background).

Sidenote 2
Funny thing here living in the mountains – you better like snow because we have snow this year from November and I don’t think we will see our yard here at 8,000 feet until May this year

I love my wife and kids and especially happy that they enjoy the lifestyle that I crave. Living in the mountain is by no means a picnic but I wouldn’t give it up for anything. Picture this, today, Monday, April 14, the thermometer is creeping up from 20 degrees this morning with the full on sun just creeping over the mountains to our little valley. Not a cloud in our blue sky (blue really is not the right word – it is such a deep blue that it almost has a “purplish” hint to it) – it will be just an incredible day. I am working today but I can guarantee that around lunch time will be spent outside playing somewhere.

Ps – sorry to everybody, we got a little bit behind on work this past week – again it was a holiday week here in Vail :-) we are hoping to get caught up on everything this week

Peace

Tessa Snap Strap™

We have been working long and hard on our new Tessa Snap Straps™.

Sorry for not posting for such a long time.

Life is revolving right now around family and work. We at Tessa Clogs have been spending A LOT of time working on our new Tessa Snap Straps™ (developing, producing and marketing). It is such a COOL IDEA - you can have one pair of clogs and a few diffent straps. By being able to change the straps on your clogs, you are able to change the look. It is just SO MUCH FUN!!!

Click on the video above to get an idea of the concept and please feel free to call and/or email to ask us more about our Tessa Snap Straps™.

We hope to in the next few days to get many more strap options up for everybody to see. What is difficult to show on line with our Tessa Snap Straps is all the options possilbe. We can make just about any Tessa Clog® into a snap strap. If you have any idea of a clog that you want and some straps that you want and do not see it on line, please let us know. We can make it.

We would love to get a pair of Snap Straps on your feet and would hope that we can get our Tessa Clogs available for you locally. The best way for Tessa Clogs to keep growing is for you folks to keep spreading the word. Let your local stores know about our brand and to ask them to bring us in. That way you can try your Tessa Clogs on locally and support these vendors.

Thanks again for listening and we do apologize for being late with the blog this month, oopps - it looks like we missed February 08 entry so we will need to do a double entry this month - stay posted

Life is short, HAVE FUN NOW

Carpe Diem - Sieze the Day - Make Your Lives Fun -
Being here in the mountains of Colorado, sure does not mean that we are not in the rat race just like everybody else in the world. We are just like you - waking, eating, getting kids ready, working, stressing, paying bills, trying to save money (for the car that just broke down, for the kids, for ?), thinking what are we going to do for supper, clean (well don't stop by our house being that this is not at the top of our priorities) getting kids to sleep and starting the whole process over again. BUT - in that mess of priorities we are finding time to play and smile.

Yes - that is what I'm talking about - smiling and making sure that we are having fun becase life is short.

Why am I ranting on about the above - well a lady from New Jersey was in the store the other day and we got to talking. Just like us, they are busy with the same stresses above but with the added pressures of communting to THE CITY - 1.5 hours each way. Ouch. Sorry, I do not think that I could do that but I know many folks that do. The reason for bringing this whole subject up of HAVING FUN is that this lady thought that our grass was looking a little greener here in Colorado. Maybe it is, Maybe it is not. All I could say was - HELL YES - I love living here but I would be trying to have just as much fun where ever I was living.

So next time we are all bumming out on our lives, take a minute and do something that a kid would do. Put your arms out and fly like an airplane, make a funny face, take a trip out to see us in Vail, get some personalized Tessa Clog service and maybe even some face shots on the mountain.

Now - it has been a cold and snowy January, it is one of the biggest snowy January's that I remember (Tessa and I have been in Vail since 91). The photos here are some FUN TIME skiing back to Minturn. Click on the photos, I think that you will see some smiles in those faces. If you get a message when your trying to give us a call, we may be out getting some SMILE TIME.

Cheers