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

Family, Holidays, Snow, Skiing, & Work

I wish that our life was like the title and in that order. As we all know, our priorities usually get screwed up along the way. This is not a bad thing but in reality we all work too much - but is this a bad thing when you really love what you do? We really love what we do - making Tessa Clogs and introducing them to the world one customer at a time - but I know that we do get stressed around the holidays. Wish it wasn't so but it is. So our cure for the stress - go skiing.

Wednesday was a good day this week. We got up early, shoveld out the bunker, got the kids pointed in their direction, we turned off the phone and put a sign up - WENT SKIING BACK AT 11AM - and did as the sign said. This is not something that we like to do but when you live in a ski area and you just had over 10inches of the lightest champagne powder - sometime you just got to say - lets go skiing. With the resort being open over 30 days so far, this is only our 2 day up. Did I say - It was a good day.

We took the bus in from our humble abode here in Minturn and the driver had Peter Tosh cranking on the bus. The perfect tunes for a powder day - just jamming Jamaican reggae. Our legs are weak and we were only up there for about 3 hours. We skied back home to Minturn - It was a good day.

We also need to share - we have the best employee working with us - Elisabeth. Whether you call us on the phone or stop in and say hi, there is a good chance that you will run into her. She is off the boat from Sweden living in the valley with her American husband and 2 of 3 kids. Imagine living in a foreign country, speaking a new language and working - I know that it would be impossible for most of us. We want to thank you Elisabeth for working with us and to let you know how much you are appreciated and loved.

Peace

Tessa Clogs in Houston, TX

Wow - sorry everybody for not getting in here for the past month. We know that everybody is busy so that is no excuse but we have done a little traveling selling Tessa Clogs. Has anybody ever driven from Colorado to Houston Texas - if you have not, I'll tell you it is a LONG DRIVE. We were in Houston the second week of November selling Tessa Clogs at the Nutcracker Market inside the Reliant Center. It was our first real time in Texas and you folks down there are SO NICE! A great big hug to all of you in Houston that treated us so nicely. I guess we will need to go back next year for another visit but we still think the best place to buy Tessa Clogs is at our store - Swedish Clog Cabin in Vail, Colorao.

Just to share with all of you that love Tessa Clogs - the most popular for us in Texas was by far any of our animal/cow hides. They just would not stay on the shelf. Otherwise it was pretty much a toss up with all the other styles that we brought. So if you are walking in the southern part of Texas this winter and you see a pair of clogs on some feet, they just may have been purchased at the Nutcracker. So we hope to see all of you ladies back in Houston next year!

Cheers

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.