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

a {birth}day in the life.

19 March, 2014 by Gracie 8 Comments

First of all, thanks so much for the birthday wishes! You all are the sweetest

My birthday started out as just any other Tuesday. I went to the gym super early and took in my beautiful city right after sunrise.

When I got home I had a breakfast of a green smoothie + one of these imploded (yet delicious) muffins I made the other day.

(Hopefully I can perfect these and share the recipe soon!)

The rest of my day was pretty standard, but with tons of birthday love via phone calls, social media, flowers, and emojis

As I mentioned yesterday, I got my laundry and groceries delivered.

It’s not me, it’s my walkup.

The rest of the day was spent doing the norm – working, Pinning, and getting excited for a birthday celebration with my friends.

When I was done work I spent a few hours listening to podcasts and just reflecting on the past year. I love reading back in my journal about all of the amazing things God has done!

Then it was time to get all dolled up. I wore this beautiful kimono Rachel got me from LF. Since it’s still technically winter I wore it with all black, but I can’t wait to rock this with some cutoff shorts and a messy top knot!

For dinner we went to one of my favorite restaurants, Candle 79. I hadn’t been there in about 4 years (since going with Gabriela), and had been craving it for…about 4 years, haha. It’s not always easy to find people who trust me when I say that the (all vegan) food there is incredible, but I knew my girl friends would be up for the challenge

What we got:

Guacamole Timbale – poblano-guacamole, chipotle black beans, jicama-cucumber salsa, plantain chips, ranchero sauce.

Wild Mushroom & Vegetable Fricassee - soft polenta, truffled almond cheese. (unpictured)

Live Zucchini Enchiladas – cashew cheese, crunchy sprouts, avocado, cashew sour cream, toasted pumpkin seeds, cucumber-jicama salsa, chipotle-tomato sauce.

Chickpea Crepe - filled with sauteed wild mushrooms, grilled chili tempeh, butternut squash, and spinach with a garlic truffle aoli.

(Definitely the winner of the entrees.)

And for my birthday, we went to town on the desserts. From left to right:

Mexican Chocolate Brownie - caramelized bananas, french vanilla ice cream, candied pecans, chocolate-ancho sauce

Live Pear Pie - nut granola crust, vanilla-cashew cream, candied almonds, huckleberry ice cream

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bliss - chocolate & peanut butter mousse, salted peanut-caramel crust, berry coulis

Each and every bite was so, SO delicious. While I’m still a meat-eater, there’s just something about the flavors, textures, and freshness of vegan food that I love so much.

After dinner we headed back downtown to Rose Bar in the Gramercy Park Hotel. I don’t go to Rose Bar often, but it’s beautiful and more celebratory than our normal go-to bars. They also had live music, which I just love.

Some more friends met up with us for what turned out to be the perfect little birthday night I can’t remember the last time I *didn’t* have a big party for my birthday, so I actually enjoyed keeping it low key this year.

Thanks again to everyone for the birthday wishes! xoxo

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How did you celebrate your last birthday?

Travel Brilliantly with Marriott.

2 March, 2014 by Gracie 12 Comments

If you follow me on social media, you probably noticed that last week I had a “stay-cation” adventure in NYC. It was all thanks to Marriott Hotels, who were kind enough to invite me to join their Travel Brilliantly campaign.

I was really excited to be a part of this for a few reasons. First and foremost, I love an opportunity to share my favorite things to do in NYC! Secondly, I get so many requests about where to stay when visiting New York, so I definitely wanted the chance to check out what Marriott Hotels had to offer. And I must say, I was VERY impressed.

From the get-go, I loved the ease of my stay at Marriott Hotels. I was able to utilize their mobile check-in on Thursday morning, which couldn’t have been more simple.

When I arrived at the hotel around 5pm that day, my check-in took all of about 20 seconds. It was so seamless!

I stayed at the New York Marriott Downtown located in the Financial District, blocks from One World Trade Center. The view from my suite says it all…

My room itself was amazing too. Kiiiiinda wish I could live here…

Perfect selfie mirror – check

I felt all sorts of special when I was welcomed with a card and some fancy chocolates.

After I got all settled in, I met up for a tour of the hotel with the Marriott team and some other bloggers. We also got to learn more about Travel Brilliantly and the fun new Marriott Mobile technology, followed by a welcome reception with cocktails and au d’oeuvres.

And then, it was time for me to experience Travel Brilliantly for myself! First off was a visit to nearby Century 21, where I was able to use a Visa gift card to do a mini shopping spree. I kept with the mobile theme by having my lovely Instagram followers help me choose which outfit(s) to buy.

Since the prices were way marked down, I went with two of the outfits! With your help I chose the pink dress and the green pants. Gotta love a shopping success

After a quick run back to the hotel, I got on my phone once again – this time to schedule an Uber car to bring me to my next destination.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that Uber is one of those apps I can’t live without. It’s leaps and bounds more convenient than waiting outside to hail a cab, and you can even follow the car on a map with a countdown to see when it’s going to arrive.

Uber brought me right to my dinner reservation at Empellon Cocina in the East Village, which I booked through OpenTable (seriously – what did we do before mobile technology?!). Rachel and Dara joined me for some of the best Mexican food I’ve had in the city.

We were going to order off of the special restaurant week menu, but decided to just do a la carte (mostly because we wanted their famous masa chips & pistachio guacamole, haha).

All of the food was so delicious! Thumbs up from Dara

After dinner we got picked up by Uber again, this time a big ol’ fancy Escalade.

We met up with some friends at Brinkley’s in SoHo, then went across the street to GoldBar.

It was such a fun night out on the town! As if I didn’t feel spoiled enough, I loved being able to go back to my hotel room and get an amazing night’s sleep. As difficult as it was to wake up in the morning, I loved feeling extra pampered thanks to a room service breakfast. I’m a sucker for the “bed office.”

A few hours later it was time to check-out, which was just as seamless and easy as the mobile check-in. Just a simple click on my phone, and I was good to go! We actually did a “Mobile Check-out race,” which included certain tasks to be shared on social media, and guess who won? Meeee!

I really must say I loved my stay at Marriott Hotels and learning more about them. Even though Marriott Hotels is already an industry leader, they’re on an exciting transformational journey looking for new ways to interact with and accommodate their guests. They’re working hard to introduce technological innovations for the next generation traveler, including being the first to introduce the mobile check-in and check-out.

Another way Marriott Hotels is enabling guests to Travel Brilliantly is through their Guest Services app, which allows guests to request service at their fingertips. I really love that option because it’s not only convenient, but it’s personalized and makes you feel like a VIP during your stay.

Click here to learn more exciting information about Marriott Hotels Travel Brilliantly!

Thanks so much to Marriott, Uber, Century 21, OpenTable, and Empellon Cocina for accomodating such a fun NYC adventure.

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Disclosure: please note that I was given a complimentary 1 night stay at New York Marriott Downtown, a $200 Visa gift card, and $40 Uber credit. All thoughts and opinions in this post are my own.

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Is mobile check-in/check-out something you’d like to try?
What’s your favorite travel app?

scenes from the weekend.

23 February, 2014 by Gracie 17 Comments

Weekends are always a fun time, but they’re especially great now that I live within walking distance of most of my favorite places in the city.

…like St. Paul’s German Church, where we had an amazing Liberty Sisterhood gathering on Friday.

Followed by a cozy late night dinner at the Meatball Shop.

Then after a few hours of bopping around we ended up at the “neighborhood club.”

In case you missed everyone’s Instagram updates, the weather in the Northeast this weekend was per-fec-tion. No winter coat necessary!

And springy nails to match.

The West Village was doing all sorts of showing off.

We brunched 13 people strong at De Santos.

I’m thankful that Rachel likes splitting meals as much as I do. Why on earth get one entrée when you can have two?

We kicked the new week off right with a visit to the gym on Sunday morning.

(Sunglasses to cover up the post-gym roughness, ha.)

With a weekly Quest Bar restock on the way home, of course.

Spring-ish attire, day two.

Dinner of lazy folk champions.

(This was actually really good!)

Last but not last is the most special part of my weekend. This is Ayanda, the adorable little girl from Zimbabwe that I’m so blessed to sponsoring through Children’s Cup.

I’ll leave you with some inspiration for the week ahead…

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What was the highlight of your weekend?