Wonderful Pella

Last weekend I took a little road trip with my mother, brother and my brother's girlfriend to Pella, IA. We wanted to experience Pella at its best! Which means looking in all the fun little shops and stopping at the bakery before leaving.

The draw of Pella is it's cleanliness and the "little" town feel one gets when arriving there. Pella has a fantastic square where several shops are located, including the bakery. Pella also has a surplus of speciality shops ranging from Dutch souviners to clothing to purses and accesories to antiques.

Pella is the "little Holland" around here, that is why there is so much focus on everything Dutch. The pastries are Dutch, there are windmills a plenty to look at and admire. They even have a celebration called Tulip Time. Tulip Time of course is associated with the tulips that appear in May, people come from all around to enjoy them and to enjoy the festivties associated with the festival.

Jessica, my brother's girlfriend, had never been to Pella and the original plan was for my mom and I to take her there to enjoy the small town. But when the day came, it seemed my brother Trevor wanted to share in the experience.

Despite the fact that there are many woman oriented shops in Pella, Trevor was a very pleasant person during the whole event. He took our bags to the car, he looked around with us and did not complain once about going home. It was a surprise! I haven't ever seen my brother so positive and willing to participate in something like that.

One shop we went into, called Funky Junque had fun antiques and a few crafts. I found some great Christmas presents there. They are homemade fingerless gloves  made out of old sweaters. I also purchased some fun Lego earrings which I could not resist for the decent price or the fun they would be to wear at the school I work for.

fingerless gloves

On the crochet side of things I'm afraid I don't have too much to say, except that my next penguin is coming along nicely. But I also noticed my stash is almost out  of control. I was thinking about not buying much yarn in the next couple of months and have a "stash series" on what all you can make out of left over yarn. I do already have couple of projects in mind for some of the yarn, but you never know when you will be able to get to it!

Well, I must be off. It was nice seeing you again. Keep smiling!