Easter, Last Ski Day, Cancer and Projects

As I look for photos of what to share, I wonder what do people want to know. I sometimes think that work and life is a little like a Seinfield episode, lots of laughs living daily but trying to describe usually makes no sense or sounds boring.

Normally we would be spending the day on Easter Sunday getting out on the slopes and enjoy the last few days the moutain is open. Well, this year, Easter Sunday brought with it RAIN. If you have ever skied in rain you know that these days are not usually very fun ski days. We went up the day before in the same conditions and came down the moutain absolutely soaking wet inside and out. So, being that we did not want to deal with this again, we decided to have a relaxing Sunday spent inside eating, decortaing Easter eggs and working on our annual family Easter Egg hunt. Our hunt is a little like a scanvenger hunt being that you need to work your way around the house, finding clues that lead to more clues until you can find the actually hiding location of the BIG EGG filled with candy. So we do not go around looking for hard boiled eggs but act like a detective to find a paper mache type of egg that is loaded with candy. The kids LOVE this.

Last Ski Day - a great day. Family time spent sliding. When you look at old photos of skiing, you tend to always see families together. Skiing really is a family activity. I can not descibe in words the feeling of euphoria that one gets spending time together outside in the snow. It is life changing and Tessa & I are proof of that as we made our way to the mountains years ago and have not looked back. The last day was absolutley packed with partiers but we kept our space from them as we stayed on the other side of the mountain. Our last run of the ski year, picture this, fresh groomed snow that looks like cordoray, no one around, skiied the entire way down to Lionshead and did not see a sole. Just the 5 of us smiling and wishing that the season wasn't ending today.

We just finished working on a cancer awareness Tessa Clogs Snap Strap. We made this for a local charity event - First Descents Ball. First Descents provides whitewater kayaking and other outdoor adventure experiences to promote emotional, psychological and physical healing for young adults with cancer. What is beautiful about this organization is to bring the love of the mountains to those that are dealing with cancer. Check out there web site that I linked above. 25% of the sales of our Tessa First Descents Awareness Clogs is being donated back to First Descents.

Peace and Hugs to all

the End is Near

I'm not trying to be biblical but our ski season is near the end: last day to slide is Sunday, April 19. If you go back to past April posts - this is always a sad and happy time of year. This season brought many GREAT MEMORIES (friends visiting, some incredible power days, our kids starting to rip it up on the mountain, etc). We always hate to see the lifts stop running, but, if you are energetic there is always skiing to be found, you just now need to earn your turns (hike up with skiis to get the turns on the way down).

With Ski Season ending our Store Hours will be shortened. If you do not get ahold of us, just leave a voice mail and we will get back right away to you.

Thanks to all of you that came out to visit us at Swedish Clog Cabin in Vail this winter and all of you that made orders on line. We do appreciate it. For those of you that stopped by our store that live in Europe, you can still get more Tessa Clogs from our partners over in Sweden - Tessa & Mimmi Clogs.

We just LOVE our Kask hats and everything about the company. If you own a Kask hat you know (your in the club so to speak) what we mean. If you take a peek at our site with our Kask hats we are running out and do not plan on getting more until next ski season. So order now otherwise you are going to have to wait.

It is a little sad and I do not have the entire story, but our ULU Boots - , which we just love and WAS based in Paonia, Colorado has been bought by the Merrell Corporation. I do not think that they have any more operations in Colorado which is really too bad. With this said - we have all of our ULU Boots on sale for 30% off.

Great News- we have two new employees at Tessa Clogs - Patti and Ana. Next time you call you might be talking with these great ladies and they will be happy help with your questions. You may also want to check out our New Tessa Clogs, we have made a few Snap Strap packages. You buy one Tessa Clog and you get your choice of 3 Straps. Pretty Cool - again if you are not familar with our Tessa Snap Straps check out our high quality video (HA!) below.

Hasta

Carolina - thanks again for your wonderful help!

If you have called us here this winter there is a good possibility that you may have talked with Carolina. She just left us on Monday to head back to school in Argentina. Wow - we are really going to miss her. Besides the wonderful job in the store, on the phone, working on the computer to manage our web site she is just the nicest person one could meet and have the opportunity to know. Carolina - if you are out there reading, we miss you and hope that your path in life will bring you back to Vail next year. Cheers to all of your future endeavors!!!!! Love Chris & Tessa

We have put some new Tessa Snap Strap Clogs on our web site with a package price. Check them out - NEW Tessa Clogs. Here is a sample of the ones on our web site. It is a photo of our Brown Oil Victoria Snap Strap that includes 3 straps! Just a recommendation to those that are thinking about ordering Tessa Clogs - read our blog. The previous entry has some information about specials that we are offering on our web site. Sorry - I am not going to make it easy for those of you that have not been keeping up with the blog - heck - I can not believe that we have 2 entries in our blog within one week. What could be next - maybe we will get our Christmas cards out - I guess we can call them Easter Cards this year! Hugs to all - Carolina - again - thanks for working with us this year!

Peace!

Overwhelmed, Thank You and Free Shipping

Does anyone ever feel overwhelmed at times? Wow – I just started typing different words in to search engines and see that there are LOTS of different companies selling clogs. Overwhelming, Wow! We do understand that there are many choices where one can buy clogs, we want to personally thank all of you that have bought Tessa Clogs either here in Vail, at one of our many retail partners or on line. THANK YOU – we really do appreciate it. I’m not sure if this photo is really appropriate but I am giving a toast to all of you that have supported us over the years. Plus – you maybe have wondered what I look like – (I’m the guy on the right and my good friend Johan is on the left).

Other news – Huggalugs – these things are the coolest. Plus the owners who live in Australia are the most down to Earth people you can meet. We have only talked with them on the phone but it would be so fun to meet them and their family. Huggalugs are leg and arm warmers for kids (then even fit small adults!). With the fun colors, they are such a great compliment for boys and girls. With a skirt, with a short sleeve “T”, heck, I was even thinking these may be perfect for biking in the morning when it is cold. They are such a fun compliment for your kids wardrobe.

If your reading and thinking about ordering something, type in – pripps – (just the 5 letters – pripps) when you come to a screen that is labeled DISCOUNT CODES AND GIFT CERTIFICATES and you will get free shipping. I have set this up until the end of March. For those out there that do not know – Pripps is the name of our 12+ year old Bernese Mountain Dog and also the name of a beer in Sweden.

We want to leave you with a image that we thought was funny. One of our kids crawled into our kennel and of course the others wanted to join too. Shamus, our 4 month bernese, wanted to join in too but he could not get the door open. So - lets just try to crawl on top. Peace, Hugs and Good Times to all of you that are reading.

Friends and Vacation

Mentally - we are back to work now selling Tessa Clogs like crazy - or at least trying too. Ski season here in Vail is a little slower so hense we are not selling Tessa Clogs like we have been in the past. SO - give us a call, buy some clogs!!!!

Above I mention that we are now mentally back at work - I say this because one week ago our close friends and partners in Sweden, Fam Gullberg, had to head back to Sweden after a 2 week vacation here in Minturn, Colorado. While they were here we were on vacation also (at least it sure did feel like it - good company, good food, good times and also a few bottles of wine were had). How nice it is to feel like your on vacation when your at home. For two weeks, we balanced family, work and play so well and we already miss it. To Johan, Mimmi, Emma and Måns - we really miss you guys and had such a WONDERFUL TIME when you were visiting. We so look forward to seeing you in the summer!

What is new at the Swedish Clog Cabin / Tessa Clogs. We have some new styles for you to check out: Peace & Hope, Victoria and Carolina. I like all of them but really enjoy our new Peace & Hope design. With the stock market tanking, friends and family loosing jobs, loosing houses, bad times everywhere - it really is a time for peace and hope. Here as we look at our numbers, unfortunately we are down. There is not much that we can do about this except to keep preaching the word of clogs. Our family has been dealing with the down turn of the economy with getting out on the skis and spending quality time together: laughing loudly while the grins go ear to ear. Keep smiling and having fun. Hugs from Colorado!

Thanks For Being Patient!

Hej Allihopa (hello everybody)!


I've mentioned it before, Life and priorities - family, work, religion, free time - the way we prioritise life is probably different then most folks. Take our blog for example, it is not hard to sit down and type but I always wonder who wants to read about our normal every day life relating to work and family. With these feelings of our average lifes, I will put off blog entries thinking that other work/family/free time issue may be more pressing. Today, Sunday, January 25, I was able to spend a little free (ski) time (between getting kids back and forth to climbing) with an old friend that mentioned he reads our blog and was able to keep up with what is happening with the Manning's. After hearing that somebody is reading (and having a college buddy tell me he also reads our blog BUT we need to get a new entry in) I decided to put this to the top of my things to do.

So - if any family is reading this - well the belated Christmas Cards I was hoping to get out as Martin Luther King cards - will just have to wait for the Valentines Day Christmas Family Cards - so it is (and do not hold your breath becuase it would not suprise me if it ends up to be July 4th Family Christmas Cards).

First off, we need to let everybody know how they can help the economy out. Spend some money on Tessa Clogs :-)

If you have been thinking about buying a pair of Tessa Snap Strap Clogs - now is the time to do it. For all Snap Strap orders now and up till the end of February:

• buy one Tessa Snap Strap Clog - get a pair of extra straps for free (equal or lesser value)
• buy one pair of snap straps - get one extra pair of straps for free (equal or lesser value)
• please just write in the order notes "i read the clog blog" to receive your free straps

Other news with Tessa Clogs - we are working hard again for getting some more sandals ready for the spring and summer time. If you have some ideas of a Tessa Clog that you would like on your feet this summer, let us know, you never know, maybe we can make it up. Today, we have just added some sandals to our web site that are not available yet but we are taking pre orders on them.

Since we all talked in September - we have been on the road selling Tessa Clogs in Kansas City and in Houston. We welcomed a new addition to our store - Carolina from Argentina. She is GREAT. We also had an addition to our family - Shamus - a 3 month old Bernese Moutain Dog - what a cute handful this guy is. So it looks like the Minturn Manning's future lodging options may be limited. We do promise that we will have him trained soon but understand in the mean time we are cleaning up a lot of puddles.

Like almost everybody here in the USA, we have also had our share of challenges this winter but by no means problems just big inconviences. We know that we are in for a long winter metaphorically this year but hope that the sun will come out sooner then later. Life is short, we are going to keep are skis waxed for this long winter and just try to keep smiling.

peace and hope for 2009

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