blogging | Girl Meets Life | a lifestyle blog by Gracie Gordon

summer vacation.

7 July, 2014 by Gracie 14 Comments

Hi lovelies.

I’ve decided to do something I’ve wanted to do for a while now. I’m going to take an entire month off from blogging - writing, reading, and hopefully even thinking about the blog world. No offense 😉

I just need a good long dose of “real life,” and a month off for the first time in 4+ years seemed appropriate. Hopefully I’ll come back feeling refreshed and ready to blog my little heart out once again.

Until then, feel free to keep up with me on Instagram if you’d like. I’ll see you in a month! xoxo

snapshots.

26 June, 2014 by Gracie 8 Comments

Sooo these snapshots are going to be another regurgitation of my Instagram feed, for the most part.

If I’m being completely honest, I’ve stayed in a bit of a blogging funk since taking a break a few months ago. I wasn’t really going to address it because I sort of can’t stand when bloggers are all “woe is me, blogging is sooo difficult,” because the truth is that it’s an incredible platform and I’m lucky to even have people who follow me.

I think this funk is a mixture of a few things – mostly a) after over 4 years of essentially documenting my entire life, it’s very freeing not to and b) the time commitment involved to produce “real” content is just not something I can do right now, especially with my other job(s).

So – that’s that. I’m not going anywhere and will definitely continue posting, but if you’ve been noticing my posts being more sporadic/few and far between, that’s why. I’m sure I’ll get back to a place of blogging more, but I just never want to force it, you know? In the meantime you can always keep up with me on Instagram (and Tumblr, if anyone actually still uses that…?).

I wasn’t planning on sharing that at all, but I’m glad I did On to the snapshots…

The summer makes it very difficult not to snap pictures of this city…

The latest via Speakable.

Last weekend we celebrated Monica’s birthday. I love her. Like, a lot.

I don’t know what it is about photo filters that turn my hair blue…

Speaking of blogging being an opportunity, Jessi and I went to a pretty cool event last week.

There were hundreds of amazing products, but we found ourselves most excited about the fondue fountain. Oops.

(image stolen from Jessi)

On Monday we celebrated Parker’s (Jessi’s husband) birthday, by way of a surprise party at Cannibal.

If the name of the restaurant didn’t give it away, it was definitely geared toward the carnivorous type. Challenge accepted.

Last but not least are these devos from the past few days, which I just loved…

(both from “God’s Promises Day By Day”)

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What’s been a highlight of your week so far? Any fun summer plans coming up?

insta-lately.

17 June, 2014 by Gracie 7 Comments

I have a confession. My love for Instagram is competing with my dedication to GML.

In the past I would “save” photos for GML because – let’s be real – if you follow me on Instagram, it’s sort of redundant to see all of the same pix on the blog. BUT…that’s what I’m about to do. So if you do follow me on Instagram, feel free to skip this post 😉

Rewind to Friday where Jessi and I started one of our video shoots for Red Carpet Manicure. I got to wear this gorgeous Jolita Jewellery necklace (although, this photo doesn’t even begin to do it justice!).

Also on the necklace front – I can’t get enough of how my Speakable necklaces layer perfectly.

(I’ve gotten some questions about the lengths – FYI in this pic the nameplate is 16 inch and the bar 18 inch.)

Saturday was just about the perfect day. I slept in, relaxed all morning, and gave myself a mani. I thought I loved going to the nail salon, but doing a gel manicure from my own couch with a big cup of coffee is much more enjoyable!

Then in the afternoon Rachel and I went out and about all over the city (I’m not exaggerating – we hit about 5 different neighborhoods, haha). Gotta love a World Cup weekend!

During one of our 3348659 cab rights we hit the jackpot and got a brand new cab – complete with a huge sun roof, phone charger outlet, temperature control, and an intercom to speak to the driver. If you live in NYC…well, this is a big deal, people.

On Sunday I got a bit sentimental on Instagram, starting with a Father’s Day shout out to my main man.

Side note – my sister and I joke that this was my “garden gnome” baby stage, haha.

I also spread some love for Rachel, which appropriately turned out to be one of my most liked photos ever. This girl’s story is beyond inspiring and is going to change so many lives (already has!). I’m so blessed to know her!

Be sure to check back on her blog A Life Feast, where she’ll soon be sharing her blog entries from her cancer journey a few years ago.

Another side note – did you know Rachel and I actually met via the blog world? It’s true!

Even though I just blogged about this giveaway yesterday, here’s a little reminder about my Instagram contest – I’m giving away a gift box of Rawxies products! Click here for details on how to enter.

Last but not least is Psalm 73:26, which I shared this morning. This verse couldn’t be any more perfect/true…

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If you’re a blogger, how do you balance your Instagram photos with your blog?

#LEAN14: hlb style.

13 May, 2014 by Gracie 21 Comments

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but I haven’t been doing the best job keeping up with #LEAN14 posts. Good thing it’s a year-long challenge, right?

I’ve been doing a pretty good job keeping up with my workouts, and so-so with eating healthy.

…but then again, I probably think so-so because I’m comparing myself to following Paleo, 80/10/10, or those other forms of “clean eating” that just aren’t my thing. But we won’t get into that right now 😉

ANYway, to hold myself a bit more accountable, I thought I’d start posting more of my meals like the old-school Healthy Living Blog days. I can’t promise I’ll post everything because…well, ain’t nobody got time for that. But here’s what I’ve got from this week so far.

Smoothies! No surprise there. This one included a huge handful of frozen strawberries, 1/2 a banana, and 1 cup of almond milk.

Juice Press lovin’.

Their raw oatmeal is unreal. It’s soaked in cashew cream and tastes like dessert!

The rabbit feast has continued with lots of fruit + granola.

Then I went back to my carnivorous roots. Eggs aren’t very pretty, are they?

Gotta love a good train ride snack. KIND to the rescue.

The most boring sushi ever. ‘Twas craving the simple avocado roll, what can I say?

Last but not least - a ridiculously delicious salad – spring mix, chickpeas, roasted sweet potato, avocado, and Annie’s Goddess dressing.

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(If you do) when did you start reading “healthy living blogs?” What are some of your favorites?

on sponsored posts.

29 March, 2014 by Gracie 42 Comments

Hi hi, happy Saturday!

So I usually try to keep weekend posts pretty lighthearted, but there’s something I’ve been wanted to address lately. I’m assuming the title of this post gave it away…

I’ve gotten a bit of flack recently for posting sponsored content, so I wanted to address the topic straight up. I’m not trying to hide anything here on GML, or pretend you don’t notice it.

The bottom line is that - yes, I participate in sponsored posts. I understand that that might bother some readers (and has become quite taboo in the blog world as of late), so maybe this will help you understand a bit more why I do so.

I’ve invested over 4 years into blogging, so I think it’s understandable that I’d want to monetize it. That’s the only way I’d be able to keep up with the time commitment of blogging, actually, which is about 20-30 hours per week (maybe more? Considering how much of my daily life/routine it has become).

When I first started blogging the main way to monetize it was through ads, which I utilize as well, but these days advertising has strongly gone in the direction of sponsored content. Monica does a good job of explaining it more here.

I know some people think that blogging should remain strictly a hobby and shouldn’t be monetized at all. But for me, that’s just not feasible. Like I said before - I wouldn’t be able to make the necessary time for blogging if it were just a hobby. Even though it truly is something I love doing, I need to make sure I balance my passion with being able to support myself financially (especially living in New York).

When it comes to jobs/careers as a whole, I’m a big believer in doing what you love, so if I have the opportunity to make at least part of a living from blogging (especially as someone who is self employed) by posting sponsored content a few times a month, I am going to take it. And I’m okay with admitting that.

With that being said, I want to be clear that I’m very particular when it comes to sponsored posts. I turn down dozens of offers a week - probably enough that would allow me to blog full time, as a lot of other bloggers have made the transition to. I make it a point to always be truthful about what I decide to promote, even if I am being compensated for it. Please believe me when I say that I only promote products and services that I either would genuinely want to try, or already do use myself.

I should also note that when I am compensated in any way, I will disclose it on that post in one way or another. So if that isn’t there (either an “official” disclosure, or me just saying “I got free samples”), it means I’m just posting about a product/service I like and use myself. That’s the case more often than not, as I truly love reviewing products, restaurants, recipes, etc.

Look, the last thing I want to so is turn off my readers. So for that, I will try to keep things as honest and real as possible (hence this post). I hope that you understand where I’m coming from, and that you’ll continue visiting GML.

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What are your thoughts on sponsored blog content? Does it turn you off from reading?

what i hate(d) about blogging.

19 February, 2014 by Gracie 44 Comments

This post is one that I’m surprised I haven’t written yet. It’s based on something that goes through my mind every single time I hit publish on a post, or share on my gazillion social media outlets.

(It’s funny, though. When I was done writing this post I changed the title to hate(D) because I suddenly became FREE from what I thought I hated about blogging. Don’t you love it when that happens?)

Thanks to Clare and her post from yesterday for inspiring me to share my thoughts on this. Clare addressed the issue of feeling the need to censor herself on her blog, and I couldn’t agree more. For me, though, the pressure to censor myself has less to do with my blog readers and more to do with my real life friends, acquaintances, and various relationships.

Over the years I’ve definitely gotten to the point where I’m comfortable sharing my blog with everyone I know – I tell friends about it, post it on my personal Facebook, and even refer to myself as a blogger when asked my profession. Considering how I was almost embarrassed about GML at first, I’ve come a long way when it comes to being proud and confident in being a blogger.

The difficult part now, though, is coming to terms with the fact that I’ve opened myself up to so many people’s opinions and criticisms that a normal person would just never have to face. It can be uncomfortable to realize that people (whether they’re people I know or not) can know things about me that might take months or years for someone to learn if I didn’t have this little old thing called a blog.

But you know what? That’s just something I’m going to have to deal with. I know for a fact that this platform was given to me for a reason, so I’m willing to take whatever comes along with that.

I think that what it all boils down to is that having a presence on a public forum like a blog has forced me to learn what it means to be fully and unapologetically myself.

So yes – I take pictures of my food.

I share TMI sometimes.

I wear too much makeup sometimes.

I had adventures in Tinder.

I take selfies, and I love other people’s selfies. SELFIE SELFIE SELFIE.

I don’t have a “real” job.

I’m a Christian that goes clubbing.

I overuse emojis, Pinterest quotes, and hashtags.