scenes from the weekend | Girl Meets Life | a lifestyle blog by Gracie Gordon

a {long} weekend in the life.

1 September, 2014 by Gracie 3 Comments

I can’t believe summer is (unofficially) over. AHHHH.

Even though fall is my favorite season, I must admit I’m sad to see this summer come to an end. It was one of my favorite summers yet – full of highs, lows, lots of fun with my friends and family, and just some personal growth that I’m really excited about.

I decided to stay in town over the weekend, and it turned out to be a great few days! The city was definitely a ghost town, but I still managed to have a weekend balance of fun and productivity (aka the best weekends).

Rewind to Friday, where I gave myself the day off from work 😉 Gotta love being your own boss!

I started the day with a visit to Arrojo studio to get my hair done.

I’ve mentioned a handful of times how much I love Arrojo. The salon itself is great (complete with a café)…

…and I love their line of products as well.

And don’t even get me started on my stylist Nadia! I’ve been going to her for about 2 years, and no one gets my blonde ambition quite like she does

(If you’re in NYC and looking for a stylist – she’s your girl!)

The finished product:

After the salon I headed uptown to the Refinery Hotel for lunch with a friend.

Watermelon salad with pork belly – don’t mind if I do.

Followed by a celebratory Friday prosecco on the roof.

On Friday night we celebrated my friend Trish’s bachelorette party with sushi, lingerie, and my gorgeous friends.

On Saturday Jessi and I met up in the morning to do a quick video shoot for our client Red Carpet Manicure. Working on Saturday made me feel less bad about being such a spoiled brat on Friday, haha.

Then we headed to Williamsburg for Leah’s birthday brunch at St. Balmain. Happy birthday, Leah!

I’m kiiiinda sorta obsessed with St. Balmain. Last time I was there I got their avocado toast (bomb), but this time I went with their Breakfast Bowl - kale, spinach, red quinoa, toasted almonds, avocado, halloumi cheese, a soft poached egg. I think it may be one of my favorite breakfast dishes ever…

After brunch I headed back into Manhattan to meet up with Rachel and Martina for some Saturday adventuring. It was a bit of a gloomy day, but that wasn’t going to stop us!

We ended up at Epsteins for a few hours with all of the other “stayed in the city this weekend” rejects (I mean that in the nicest possible way, haha).

We went back to Martina’s for a few hours and watched The Devil Wears Prada (naturally) before heading back out for a late dinner. We tried to rally to go out afterward, but after being out for about 14 hours straight I figured it was probably best to call it a night.

Sunday was spent being productive – organizing the apartment, catching up on Speakable stuff, gym, etc. Then I went to church at night, which was 100% what I needed to start the new week.

And now here I am today – tempted to go do something fun BUT going to spend at least a few hours working. I have a crazy week, so gotta get ahead of the game!

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Did you do anything fun for Labor Day weekend? Are you sad to see summer go?

i’m back! + life updates.

7 August, 2014 by Gracie 20 Comments

Hi!

HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(insert a zillion celebratory emojis)

I’ve got to say I’m really, REALLY happy to be back. I definitely loved the time off, but over the past week or so I found myself counting down the days to return to GML. That was actually what I hoped would happen, so…mission accomplished.

I’m putting together a post to share what I learned/realized during my blogging break, but for now here’s a little update on what I’ve been up to.

I think I left off around 4th of July, which I spent out in Montauk.

It was so much fun! A huge group of my friends were there, and we got some great beach days and nights out.

Loved wearing my Flash Tattoos on the beach!

After Montauk I spent a few days back in the city before heading to my family’s shore house, where I stayed for almost two weeks.

While I was there I got to spend a ton of time with my family (cousins and all) AND my sister Katie even flew up from Florida for a few days!

It was the perfect summer getaway – I treated it almost like it was a retreat of sorts.

If I’m being completely honest, when my vacation was over I wasn’t fully ready to go back to NYC (which is rare). But as soon as I got back, I fell in love with the city all over again.

NYC skyline from the Top of the Standard:

Beautiful church in East Village:

Pretty red windows in West Village:

Movie in the park at South Street Seaport:

Saturday with my girl friends:

Washington Square Park:

Oh, and of course I enjoyed lots and lots of great food over the past month.

Brunch at Freemans:

(The biggest and best ever) Avocado Toast at St. Balmain:

Homemade Snickerdoodle Almond Flour Pancakes:

Big ol’ dinner at The Meatball Shop:

Above: chicken meatballs with pesto over polenta
Below: snickerdoodle cookies with brown sugar ice cream

SHAKE SHACK:

A few of many delicious dishes from ABC Kitchen – pizza with gold bar squash, cherry tomatoes, chorizo, garlic and stracciatella:

Sundae with salted caramel ice cream, candied peanuts and popcorn, whipped cream, chocolate sauce (image via Rachel):

…and some delicious DRINKS thanks to Nespresso!

Latte on the left, cappuccino on the right:

(Jessi and I went to their event hosted by Tim Gunn last week, and it was so much fun!)

Other than all of that there’s just been things like…

* spending a lot of time with friends
* working on Speakable
* leading Community Group on Wednesdays
* catching up on reading
* (trying to) catch up on movies I’ve wanted to see
* joining a new (closer) gym
* OH, and I found out I’ll be going on a work trip to Vegas later this month! I’ve never been, so I’m really excited about that.

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Soooo that’s what I’ve been up to! Like I said – I’m SO very happy to be back. While I was gone I got some ideas for blog posts that I’m excited to share, so stay tuned

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How has your summer been going? What have been the highlights?

scenes from the weekend.

29 June, 2014 by Gracie 15 Comments

Haven’t done one of these in a while!

This weekend was a great one – a perfect balance of productivity and fun.

Gotta rewind to Thursday because that’s where the weekend really starts, right? I headed down to Arrojo after work to get my blondes done by Nadia. If you’re looking for a colorist in NYC, I couldn’t recommend her more!

Afterward Rachel and I went to our standard evening spot, conveniently called The Standard.

Friday was a long work day, so I spent the night in eating brinner and watching TV.

It was perfection…as was this dessert I came up with – coconut butter sandwiched between two pieces of bacon dark chocolate. I know.

And then there was Saturday, which was pretty much the perfect NYC adventure day. I woke up super early and got a killer workout in, caught up on some work stuff, and then Rachel and I headed to Williamsburg for Smorgasburg.

Smorgasburg is one of my favorite things to do in the city during the summer. As much as I love brunch, there’s nothing like getting an assortment of different delicious and unique foods for lunch.

Rachel and I went halfsies on some Vietnamese summer rolls, a Red Hook Lobster Roll…

…and THEE best ice cream sandwich of all time. Ever. No exaggeration.

That’s The Good Batch’s Brown Butter Coffee Caramel Ice Cream Sandwich - Brown Butter Salty Cookie, espresso beans, caramel cream, and coffee ice cream. You have no idea.

After hanging with Jessi and some church friends at Smorgasburg for a bit, Rachel and I headed back to Manhattan for the rest of the afternoon. We stopped at STK rooftop and the Standard Biergarten before heading home to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at Toro, which is definitely one of my favorite new restaurants. I’m a tapas girl, and their Spanish tapas were perfection…to the point that I forgot to take photos of them 😉

I did snap this shot of my first ever bone marrow. The texture threw me off when I first saw it, but it was SO good!

After dinner we bopped around some spots on the West Side (Tao, PH-D)…

…before realizing that we were more in the mood for an East Side vibe. So we headed to The Wren for a bit before calling it a night.

Today (Sunday) I reverted back to relaxation/productivity mode – cleaning the apartment, Speakable stuff, gym, etc.

Church was especially awesome too. I’m going to share the podcast later this week!

I wrapped up the weekend back in front of my TV (er, computer) with a nice sushi meal.

I’ll leave you with this snippet from Saturday’s Cheque Book of the Bank of Faith (my favorite daily devo).

Aaaaaaand some more inspiration. Just ‘cause

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What was the highlight of your weekend?

scenes from the weekend {amanda and justin’s wedding}.

28 April, 2014 by Gracie 10 Comments

Well hello there! Thanks for being so understanding of my little (less than a week-long) break. If I’m being honest, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, haha.

But…I’m back! And here’s a glimpse of my weekend

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On Saturday two of my favorite people made the vow to spend the rest of their lives together.

It was such a special day!

Erica and I left the city early on Saturday morning by way of Zipcar.

Without planning, we ended up in matching pink dresses and orange nails, hehe.

(I wore the dress you all helped me choose via Instagram back in March!)

Our first stop was the beautiful ceremony at Amanda and Justin’s church in Bethpage, New York.

After the ceremony we headed over to our hotel to check in, then continued to the reception at Raphael Winery on the North Fork of Long Island. It was absolutely stunning there.

For almost 7 hours we ate, drank, danced, and celebrated the night away. Everything about the reception was perfect. The cocktail hour was the best I’ve ever experienced with about a dozen of different food and drink stations.

Then we headed into the dining area for an amazing meal. It was easily the best food I’ve ever had at a wedding.

After dinner and speeches we headed back to the main area where the party really got started, complete with a live band. It was so much fun!

I was glad I had at least some room for dessert because in addition to the wedding cake, there was a selection of about 20 other desserts. My sweet tooth was very, very happy.

Seven hours of reception fun later, Erica and I headed back to our hotel and passed out for a much needed 9 hours of sleep. Then on Sunday we hopped back in our Zipcar and made it back to the city by noon.

It was such a perfect weekend! Not only was it amazing seeing my friends get married, but it was great to have a little weekend escape from the city with Erica.

…but now, back to the daily grind 😉 Enjoy your Monday!

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What was the last wedding you went to? What’s your favorite part of weddings?

scenes from the weekend.

6 April, 2014 by Gracie 8 Comments

(…AKA, mostly food pics. That okay?)

Over the weekend my two college best friends/roommates Chrissy and Nicole came to visit me! Back in the day we went by “GNC” – Gracie, Nicole, Chrissy. We thought we were just the coolest, haha.

On Saturday it was gorgeous out, so we spent as much of the day outside as possible. First we walked to brunch at Philip Marie.

After brunch we headed downtown and got our shop on in Soho.

The shopping apparently took a lot out of us, so we headed back to my apartment to relax for a few hours. Snacks were in order, clearly.

I made us some guacamole with chips and (sprinkle-less) Cake Batter Blondies.

Then we got ready for a fun night out. I took the girls to Lure Fishbar for dinner, which was definitely a treat. Their menu has everything from sushi to seafood to steak, so we decided to do a “sampler” meal and split four appetizers.

My favorite was the Crispy Rice Cakes topped with Spicy Tuna. So SO good.