Last April, my friend Cindy and I attended the Country Living Magazine Women Entrepreneurs/A Celebration of Creativity convention in downtown Chicago. Since I have my own website/ doll pattern design business, and she is an aspiring, creative person with tons of ideas swimming in her head we thought this would be the ideal convention for us. Getting there was an easy feat because we live in Chicago, so we just hopped in the car and drove down. I sent my application in with my product idea and was told to come in to present it. I lugged my original design to the hotel, sweating it out, wondering just how I was going to get my idea across in the 3 minutes alloted to present my item in front of a panel of judges. I did okay and they all seemed to love it. I heard back about 6 weeks later from one of the assistant editors that they were considering my product but needed to see a finished version of this design and also a kit version. Today I heard back that I was one of the winners out of 71 other people who submitted their fine products for consideration.
I am feeling blessed and excited for what the future of Hootin Annies will be now that my design will be featured in a national magazine. I am humbled at the priviledge and hope this opportunity brings many new ventures my way.
Why Jane 
