If you're looking for a romantic weekend in the country or for a chance to learn about gourmet cooking, gardening, quilting or a score of other topics, you can find them at the Blue Belle Inn in St. Ansgar.

Owner Sherrie Hansen says she opened the Victorian-style bed and breakfast and dining room after moving to St. Ansgar from Colorado Springs, Colo. to be closer to her family. She didn't have any jobs lined up after she moved so she says she "started bouncing around ideas of what would work in a small town to support myself." She settled on the idea of an inn after listening to her friends tell her how much they liked to go someplace quiet and rural on the weekends where they also could sleep in comfortable beds.

So she bought "an old, dilapidated house" and turned into a beautiful, romantic getaway for couples. Hansen turned six rooms into bedrooms with children's storybook themes, reflecting her love of reading and English literature major in college.

On the second floor of the inn, guests will find the "Never Neverland" room, the "Sherwood Forest" room, the "Secret Garden" room, the "On the Banks of Plum Creek" room and the "Sleeping Beauty" room, which has a single bed. On the third floor, is "Heaven to Betsy", the largest room in the house. "I didn't renovate the third floor until after I'd been open a year and a half when I had a better idea of what people wanted – which is a large room with a Jacuzzi," Hansen explains.

Though the rooms are full of feminine touches -- a flower arrangement here, a pink couch there -- Hansen says she has tried to decorate in such a way "that both men and women are comfortable."

After renovating the home and hiring full-time employees, she started offering cooking seminars "as a way to draw in more people on days when we aren't as busy," she explains.

She lived in Europe for three years and has incorporated what she learned about cooking there into seminars about French, Italian, German and Scandinavian cuisine.

Hansen also has offered classes on cooking meals for breakfast in bed, for tea parties, with fresh herbs and edible flowers, with different types of wine and classes that focus on dishes from different parts of the United States.

She tries to offer a cooking class every month, either in the evening or on a weekend. "Cooking with Sherry" will be offered Aug. 13 and then, on Sept. 18, a "Sweet Land of Liberty Quilting and Cooking" workshop will be held.

The Blue Belle Inn is located at 513 W. Fourth St., St. Ansgar, Iowa. Room rates range from $70 to $150 a night (a room with a twin-size bed may also be rented in connection with another room for an extra $30 a night). The cost of cooking seminars usually ranges from $30 to $45. For more information, call 641-713-3113 or visit their Web site at www.bluebelleinn.com.

Amanda L. Rohde can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :mailto:amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com