STEPHANIE ECHE

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Sunday Slowdown 8

Pattern making Etxe Washington DC I spent most of the day in the sewing studio. I have been calling it 'sew studio', 'sewing studio' and just plain 'studio' because I don't really know what to call it, but no matter what I say it confuses people.

Today there was another woman in the studio about to leave for Russia on assignment -- she works for the State department. That's the cool thing about DC, there are people en route to other places, like the US Embassy in some other country. I'm about to visit a friend in Estonia working for the embassy over there. Crazy.

This week was pretty great. Tuesday we had the WDCC at the library on Tuesday. We started the WDCC a few months ago. It's basically a group of us women doing creative entrepreneurial things that meet up and work on a different topic each month. This month was content marketing. Afterward we went for a drink at one of my favorite neighborhood bars--Right Proper Brewing Co. We're so lucky to have met such amazing people here in DC to even have such a group! It's super important to us to have supportive friends around doing similar things, so the WDCC is essential. I left a similar group back in SF and it's nice to know even though I've moved they still meet.

Val and I launched our ETXE : HOME series this week - so check out each Tuesday for a new post! Thank you to everyone that has participated so far.

On Thursday I checked out a panel event for Jennifer Tress' book You're Not Pretty Enough. I went alone and after the panel I was just going to leave but thought, I'll get one sangria. I mean, I was on a rooftop and it was a gorgeous night. I ended up making friends with Jennifer's friends. I love it when you just meet good people and can talk about things you care about. I felt like we were all already friends even though I had literally just met them. I'm pretty good at doing things on my own, but sometimes I still get nervous or scared or shy. It was a nice reminder that the weirdness is totally worth going through, because otherwise I wouldn't have these wonderful moments.

Friday was my birthday and while I still had to work, I got to work from home, which means I took myself out to breakfast. Val took me out to dinner at Jaleo and we met another Echeveste! Dinner was fantastic and I'm so thankful to be able to spend it with family. We went out with friends to celebrate afterward.

Saturday I went to see the Made in the USA exhibit at the Phillps Collection, which introduced me to a new favorite, Augustus Vincent Tack. Beforehand we had brunch and afterward a whiskey afternoon. Later on, I went to see White Ford Bronco with another friend who happens to have the same birthday as me. We sang 90s songs to the 90s cover band and danced. It was great.

Then today, as previously mentioned, I spent all day in the studio working on some new patterns. I reconfirmed how bad I am at fractions, but thankfully I can count eights of an inch on a ruler pretty well, so I'm good. My weekend buddies are often a pencil sharpener, a design ruler, pin cushions and muslin. Doing what you love is sometimes lonely, but also totally worth it.

So, this is just a long way to say I'm exhausted. And now I have to pack.

Hope you all had a great week!