FINALLY - A NEW ENTRY, Frustrations, Hair Cut and Magic

Hello Everybody - sorry for taking way to long to get another entry into our blog. We were hesitant to get an entry in being that we wanted to get the design of this blog similar to our new web site. Well - finally after a few days of work, we were able to make something similar to our current web site.

Speaking of new web sites - after 9 months of part time work on it, we are close to being able to say we like it and are complete. You may have noticed that we have an information side (that has wonderful designs with some slide shows playing) and also our shopping side. After getting the site up live in October/November, we recently noticed that our site visits where less then years previously. But being busy with work and family at the holidays we did not look into it too much. The middle of January after the holiday rush, we sat down and finally noticed that search engines were not finding us! Ouch! After a 12 year presence on the internet and having just about every search engine find us, we were now completely unfindable in the www world. What Happened!

Long story short - accidental decisions that we and our web designer made, changed our old shopping cart address with over 200 pages on it from a tessaclogs.com address to a new address. Makes sense, when we made the information part of our web site, this was now at the tessaclogs.com address and only having 14 pages vs. previously having 200+ pages. We are just venting - change is always difficult with us because of situations above. But if you are not changing and evolving, you will not make it in this world. So, if you are reading this, great, you found us - so thank you.

Hair Cut - probably not a big deal, but I, Christopher Manning of Swedish Clog Cabin / Tessa Clogs of Vail, have had hippie hair for around 20 years. Looking back, it was just easy. I never had to get a hair cut, when I did, usually a friend would trim it up for me. Tessa, my wife, always liked long hair so I never had any reason to cut it. If you knew me in my first 20 years of life, being a swimmer, I always had short hair. Why the change from short to long to short? Well what do all of us guys do, we try to make ourselves attractive to women. If my wife likes long hair, well, I'll just keep it long . After 20 years, I started to think maybe it was not the long hair any more. So, on a bike ride from Swedish Clog Cabin to our home in Minturn, I pulled off the bike path to a local barber. Here is the new doo -

We are headed again to the Platform Shoe Show taking place during the Magic fashion exhibit which is the foremost global gathering of fashion brands and industry insiders. This is the second time we are exhibiting at it. If you are a retail store looking for a fantastic line to bring in to you store please stop by, say hi and while we are at it, we can write up an order of Tessa Clogs for your store.

With the new look of our web site we are also trying to get with it and go social. We are now on facebook and you can find us by search for Tessa Clogs - this is all new to us so if you do not find us - we will try to help you.

thanks for reading -

Desigual, New Web Site, Friends and Family

Hello Clog World Family and Friends

We just got in a bunch of winter clothing from a company called Desigual. They are having a big push in the USA right now so you may have seen it but if not we are working on getting it on our web site. You can check out the Desigual that we are carrying here. We are using our youngest daughter to show this cute black tunic - the cost on this is $54 and SUPER CUTE as you can see. Desigual carries clothing for boys, girls, men and women - it is hip bohemian Swedish fun. We know - yes - it is from Spain - but with the look - we need to give it an honorary title of Swedish - hope that is OK with eveybody.

We are working on a new web site - take a peek here. We started this project back in May 2010 and will have it up and running in the next few weeks. It is a lot of work but will be worth it. I will ask in advance for patience being that when it does go live I'm sure that we will be having some bugs and problems that will need to be fixed. The hope is to have a more fresh and fun web site that shows the lifestyle that we have and live here in the mountains of Colorado and beaches of Sweden.

GREAT NEWS - our wonderful friends and partners from Sweden - Fam Gullberg - are coming out to stay over the Christmas Holiday. If they get a chance to read this - we need your wish list so get them sent in! In this photo, we see that Tessa and Mimmi do not always work but do take some time to have fun. We will definitely get photos up here on the Clog Blog with the future adventures of the Swedish/American MinturnHoliday 2010-11. Stay tuned


On Labor Day - our family took a couple hour hike up the mountain (round trip it was close to 4 hours) to a place called Fancy Lake. A gorgeous day with great company (besides the little complaining, scraped knees and tears) and beautiful views. This hike is in the Holy Cross Wilderness Area. All girls made it up the hill with LOTS of Jelly Beans for fuel (and bribes). We kept telling the little ones that this is just training for a future trip to Disney World. If I remember correctly - Disney World is a lot of walking so lets get them in shape now or at least for the ski season.

thanks for reading and hope to hear or see from you all soon!

Kids - they will always be little to me

Another birthday is approaching and we are celebrating it two times this year. Once a week ago with the Grandparents and another time in the very near future for the offical day. Check out this cake - the Barbie Cake - Grandma spent a few hours on this one on a rainy day here in the mountains. I remeber this cake from 30+ years ago when my little sister used to always ask for it. Now my children are asking for it as their birthdays approach. Good thing Grandma keeps those cake pans and barbie dolls.

I know that our 3 girls will continue to grow but I am always going to be thinking they are little and worry about them. It is difficult to let them grow up but the joy of the success they achieve in life is just so fun to watch and experience. AND on the other hand the feeling of their disappointments or mistakes made is sometimes hard to watch and not pull your hair out about. AAA's - you will always be little in my eyes so please understand my tears of happiness, sadness, joy and frustration is just from the love that I have for all of you. Little A - Happy Birthday with LOTS & LOTS of love and big, sloppy, moutain man hugs.

We have 2 New Tessa Clogs Open Toe Sandals in stock now for the end of the summer and the fall months -

* High Heel 2 Strap Cerise Nubuck Sandal

* New Blue Jessica Sandal

The Blue leather on our Jessica is a beautiful full grain leather and a very deep dark blue. We have made a limited supply of these so if you are interested give us a call or order on line as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading and give all those little ones out there a big hug, life is way too short so give lots of love now.

Loyal Customers and our Blog

One of my best friends (and smartest), Steve H, has reminded me that it is good to stay current and up to date on our Clog Blog.

• I know that you have the on-line store but if you can also have elements on your site that change (i.e. clog blog) thats the key for your loyal customers. They will keep coming back. You can even keep the changing elements not so much store bases as to news/activitity in Vail.

Steve - thanks for that reminder and you have been awarded the picture of the day. A little background about our friendship and photo. We have been friends for over 20 years first meeting at St. John's, then being room mates in 1988 & 89 and is the god father of our oldest daughter. We have stayed in touch over the years (Steve - thanks for being the driving force with your emails and calls) and usually get the families together once a year. This photo is from the boys night out celebrating our 20 year reunion up at SJU. Everytime I see it I break out laughing! This photo taken from behind the pine curtain will always remind us of SJU and the H1N1 epidemic of 09. Steve - thanks for the great memories and friendship - we hope to see the family again soon!

For those that read our blog - also a big thank you. I'll keep the camera handy and let you know about the happenings around our Happy Valey here in Colorado.

Back in the USA

Sitting down to get another entry in our world of "Clog Blog". We just got back from Sweden after spending a few weeks there working and playing. Of course, we get all the way to Sweden and our camera dies within the first few days. Being that it always takes some time for us to get a posting on our blog I thought that I would get some info on here and post some photos later. We did get a photo of our "Sofa Cykel" - it was our main mode of transportation for our kids around town. AND - when ever we needed something hauled or picked up, the sofa came off the flat bed and we then had the perfect trailer. If you are interested in information about the trailer check out the web site - http://www.bikesatwork.com/

While in Sweden - our sister company - Tessa & Mimmi Clogs of Sweden - http://www.tessamimmiclogs.se/ - participated in the 80th annual Falsterbo Horse Show. Tessa and Mimmi were working and having so much fun - long days but lots of fun meeting all the folks that love our clogs. If you have any interest in Horse Show - the Falsterbo Horse Show in the south of Sweden is one to definitly check out. As soon as I get some photos from Mimmi, I will get them posted here.

We are in full summer here in the moutains - almost 80 degrees everyday - hot for us moutain folks but probably a cool comfort for most of you around the world. The weather makes it a perfect time to wear our Tessa Sandal Clogs. Comfort and style what else can you ask for - how about value! When you google Sandal Clogs and compare, Tessa Clogs are quite a bit more affordable then some of the other "designer" clogs.

Thanks for reading and support. We will get photos up from Sweden and more Tessa Clogs as soon as we can! Peace

Tessa High Heel Kate's in stock and Skiing the Bird

Our High Heel Kate Clog's are back in stock again but flying out the door. This Spring 2010, we have the Kates available in Natural (pictured), Red, Brown Oil, Black Oil, White and Bronze. With the contacts made at the Las Vegas Magic show, we now have more retailers then ever carrying Tessa Clogs. Do call or email us if you are wanting to try a pair of these on and hopefully there will be somewhere fairly close that you can stop by.

It makes me laugh talking about High Heel Sandals in the blog being that as I look out the window it is cold and raining. Just last week, we received another 10+ inches of snow. Spring in the Colorado Rockies is always interesting - snow, sun, rain, wind and anything else you can think of.

Going back to an earlier blog - my Valentines present to my wife and partner here at Tessa Clogs was a gift of 3 days skiing at Snowbird, Utah with no kids. This could not have been pulled off without the help of my Mom and Dad for watching our three princesses. Thanks Mom and Dad! Besides a Valentines gift it was also our 15th year wedding anniversary. We had a fabulous time and I do believe that Tessa was surprised. thanks for reading

Magic - working with your spouse and Valentines Day

Check out the new logo - pretty cool!

I'm finally sitting down to get something in the blog - maybe because I'm trying to procrastinate something else on my list of things to do. Writing for me is a little hard, I need to be in the mood for it which is not often. Heck - we finally got our Christmas cards out this year after missing folks for the past 3 years.

Coming up - Magic - the foremost global gathering of fashion brands and industry insiders - Tessa Clogs will be an exhibitor here. So things around Tessa HQ have been hetic to say the least. It has actually been so crazy that when I went in for a physical (1st one in 10+ years) our doctor said that I had high blood pressure. Our doctor asked if maybe I have been stressed lately and I said well - we got a big show coming up and I'm a little wound up about that. Long story short - my bp is normal, doctor is happy but it has been a little high this month because of stress.

Getting back to Magic - we are not sure what to expect but are hoping to shoot the stars. Clogs are super hot in Europe this Spring so for those that love Tessa Clogs - we are thinking that buyers accross the country should be taking a look at us and checking out all that we have to offer - Snap Straps, High Heel Kates, Hand Painted Clogs from Vail, Colorado, and on and on. If you will be in Las Vegas attending the Magic show, please stop by and say hi. Even more, how about writing up and order with us!

Working with your spouse with Valentines Day approaching. How do I suprise the wife with flowers and a special gift (more on the gift in a later blog) after just having a rip roaring disagreement about work. Not really sure but I guess that I'll have to flip the switch to husband mode and get out of the stubborn employer my way or highway atitude. So if anybody may be reading this, say another owner/wife of Tessa Clogs - Happy Valentines Day - Jag Alskar Dig!

Also speaking of Valentines Day - don't forget about our Silver Heart Clogs. Yeah, it is already to late to order them for Valentines Day but being late with another gift is always OK.

I want to leave you all with a photo of the family - peace