Life all over is moving!

So, when I started this blog, I didn’t realize that there was a difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org.  After trying to figure out how to change themes and do all the things I wanted to do with my blog I realized that I was in the wrong place.  If you have been enjoying my posts and want to keep up with me and read more (we’re moving to Alaska in 2 months and will have an awesome road trip chocked full of pictures) please visit me at www.lifeallover.com!  It’s way better over there.  Thanks for the support and we’ll see you at the new site!

Snapshot: New Orleans

I really wish you could hear this guy singing.  Bluegrass/blues/something else that I don’t think has its own genre.  He was in his own world, and what was coming out of it was groovy.  Just out of frame is his doggie, thumping along with his tail.  What a cool place.

You just never know who you will run into around the next doorway.

Photos copyrighted Payje Bier Photography 2011, all rights reserved (www.p-b-photography.com)

Polyvore Creations: Tangerine Smoke

 

Here is what I was going for with this outfit:

Smoke/Taupe/Slate have been killer colors this winter.  So I made the winter elements of the outfit smoke.

Tangerine is a GLORIOUS color that is just on its way in for the summer.  So I made the summer elements of the outfit tangerine.

The result is a delightful springtime getup that says “I’m ready for rain puddles and iced tea and sunshine… but it’s still cold outside.”

Snapshot: Burn Scar-Gila Forest, New Mexico

Copyright Payje Bier Photography 2011, All Rights Reserved (www.p-b-photgraphy.com)

Polyvore Creations: Easy Rider

I love this outfit, it was really fun to make because I was picturing myself riding a motorcycle through the desert the whole time.

Haha what a dork.

But seriously, I love all this stuff, I love the neutral colors, I love the fringe, I love the leather and tribal, I love the boots.  And I love the legwarmers/bootsocks!!!

Yucatan Cenotes

The ancient Maya believed that cenotes were portals to another world, and they treated them as such, tossing untold amounts of gold, jewels, and people into these mysterious holes in the ground as offerings to the gods.  I learned that in my Mesoamerican Prehistory class (my Archaeology degree may seem worthless to some, but I did get to spend all of my time learning interesting tidbits like this).  Since the time of the Maya, we have learned a lot more about cenotes (sin-oat-ays).  The jungle of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico is riddled with these incredible landmarks, which are actually an intricate interconnected series of underground freshwater lakes that have created jillions of caves and caverns.

Whoa.

So let me describe to you in picture words what a cenote is and why I am so very taken with them.

My sister and I visited a cenote near Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  We were given our safety gear (hard hats) and marched along on a short trek through the jungle.  In the picture above, I cut out half of the German guy standing behind me’s face because he had a very judgmental look in his eyes.  I don’t mind if people look at me like I’m crazy, but I wouldn’t care for a photographic reminder.

We walked down some stairs into a big ol’ cave entrance (my sister is making the descent in the picture above, being sure to mind her head), and were pretty much at a loss for words at what we immediately saw.  Stalactites dangle all around you, and you are greeted by a lake filled with literally the most crystal clear water you will ever see in the whole wide world.  Rock formations of all types poke up out of the pool, and altogether it creates a scene that you really thought couldn’t quite exist in real life.  And if it did you never thought that you would get to see it.  It’s that kind of thing.

Unfortunately the lighting was poor (duh we were underground) and I didn’t have any equipment with me other than the camera around my neck, so I didn’t get any good pickies of the water-meets-cave factor, so if you want to see that you’ll have to just make your own cenote excursion… or google it I guess.

Being the lucky ducks that we are, we got to swim in the ever so inviting crystal clear water.  When I say swim I mean we got to bob around in life jackets.  It was real cold, but we’re from Colorado and we didn’t want to seem like Sallyanns so we kept our mouths shut and shrieked inwardly at the bodily shock.  We also had to be quiet so we didn’t wake the bats.  For real. Our guide took us on a bobbing tour of the cave, and pointed out to us the tunnels and ropes that the cave divers use, 30 feet below us.  Yes, 30 feet.  You could see it like it was right in front of your eyeballs.  I have never seen anything like it.  Cave floating is enough for me however, I have absolutely no ambition to swim into a cramped tunnel that is not only 30 feet down in the water, but ALSO underground, with no real idea if it is going to spit you out anywhere else or if you are just going to perish in the abyss.

Dramatic?  Maybe.  I am happy in my life jacket.

I think the reason that I am so fond of the cenotes is that they have multiple excitement factors for me.  First, they are archaeologically historical, which really tickles the nerd in me.  I love nothing more than standing somewhere and thinking about the people that were standing there before I was.  Second, it was kind of adventurous in a not so dangerous way.  I am no spelunker, so I found this thrilling.  Finally, it was so stinking beautiful!  It just knocks my socks off that God’s arts and crafts are so amazing.  I felt like I was in an episode of Planet Earth or something, all that was missing was Sigourney Weaver’s voice-over.

Do me a favor, if you go down to Mexico, try taking a little break from your resort and do something different there.  Disregard the cautionary warnings (to an extent) because for the most part they are way overblown.  There is so much to do and see there, and the vast majority of people are so nice, helpful and informative, and they are genuinely happy to have us there exploring their country.  Check it out!

*All photos on this post are copyrighted by Payje Bier Photography, 2011, all rights reserved*

Recipe Time: Fresh strawberry banana muffins

Though I am embarrassed by this, I will go ahead and say it.  9 days out of 10 my boyfriend eats a frozen waffle with Nutella on it for breakfast.  I make lots of cookies and other sugary treats (which he also sometimes eats for breakfast), but for the majority of the time it’s waffle and Nutella. I know, I know, I’m terrible.  That is not an acceptable daily breakfast. But I’m working on it!

I was like “What can I make that will be tasty and delicious, fulfill it’s required sweetness level on the Justin scale, and also sneak in a little bit of nutrition?”  BINGO: MUFFINS.  Justin calls muffins “breakfast cupcakes” or “cupcakes that are missing their frosting”.  I knew that was the right choice.  Also, they are easy to grab in the morning.  You can even stick them in the microwave on the way out the door.

This recipe covered all of my bases: the muffins are moist, sweet and delicious.  They also are chocked full of fresh fruit.  I love being sneakily healthy.  Get em when they don’t know it’s coming.  They came out perfectly the first time I tried them, which I consider a plus (the oven in our house is from FOREVER ago, and doesn’t heat things the way it should.  You never know what’s going to happen.  Sometimes it burns things, and sometimes it leaves them raw.  Oh well, at least it keeps things interesting.)  Are you sold yet?  Here we go with the recipe!

Fresh Strawberry Banana Muffins

From Sweet Pea’s Kitchen

What you need:

1 stick butter

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large ripe bananas, mashed up

1 cup strawberries, cut into bite sized pieces

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

What you do:

Preheat oven to 350.  Put 12 cupcake liners into cupcake tins, or grease the tins instead

Melt the butter in a small dish

In one bowl whisk together brown sugar, eggs,  bananas and vanilla.  Squash them all together until combined.  Add the melted butter and stir until combined

In a different bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Add the berries in, making sure that they get coated in flour.

Add in the wet ingredients, stirring until combined.  Batter will be THICK!

Divide all of the batter evenly between the 12 muffin cups.  Bake 20 to 24 minutes until muffin tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean.

Cool muffins on a wire rack so that the bottoms don’t get mushy!

Beauty tip: Get off that yucky sticky stubborn glitter polish EASILY!

So.  You jumped on the glitter train.  Me too.  It’s so cute right?  And it’s everywhere!  It’s sparkly, shiny, versatile, colorful, and it stands out.  As soon as I saw the new Muppets colors from OPI, I rushed out to the store.

We all painted our nails without a care in the world.  We reveled in our compliments for about a week until we discovered an even better technique to maximize our glitter potential, and busted out the polish remover.

Flash to me practically crying in frustration as I try to scrape the glitter flakes off of my fingernails with a butter knife 20 minutes later.  Yeah.  I would imagine that you know the feeling.  But there is a better way!

Peep this:  THE TINFOIL THEORY!

This is the angry glitter that I am talking about.  Let’s kick it’s butt.

This is what you need:

• Tin foil cut up into 1 by 1 inch squares
• Polish remover
• Cotton squares or something similar, torn into nail-sized pieces

This is what you do:

• Douse the cotton pieces in polish remover.  DOUSE THEM!
• Put one piece on each nail, then cover it up with the foil and squeeze it tight around your finger.  I mean as tight as you can.  It has to keep the cotton pressing against your nail
• Wait 5-7 minutes, and hope that no one comes into the room and sees you.  My boyfriend did and I had to explain that I wasn’t trying to prevent aliens from stealing my finger’s thoughts.
• Once your time is up, push down on the nails and rub around a little bit while removing the foilies.
• Donesies! Now admire your resourcefulness and get ready for some new polish!

Photo of the Day (and a long story to go with it)

Photo by Payje Bier Photography (www.p-b-photography.com) 2009, all rights reserved

Few people are lucky enough in life to get to see this for themselves.  It is not on the beaten path, not somewhere that you can bop down to for the weekend.  It is a journey to get to, that is for sure.  And actually, I think that is one of the things that makes it so incredibly amazing.  It is not cheapened by convenience.  Nestled deep in the mountains of a country steeped in ancient culture an tradition, the journey to the top of this sacred mountain is as incredible as the space itself.

I visited Machu Picchu in 2009, while on an archaeological dig during college (I did not excavate there, I was working in a small town called Pucara).  I was with my family for a few weeks before the dig, my mom, dad, and little sister.  It was actually by the grace and stubbornness of my mother’s gypsy spirit that we made it there in the first place: it was on her bucket list.  I should mention that this same wanderlust has already taken her around the world and back numerous times.

My sister and I were crassly awoken by our alarm at around 4 am on the morning of our ascension.  You have to get to the bus station EARLY if you want to get your butt on a bus and make it up to the top by sunrise.  Rubbing our eyes, we stumbled out onto the tiny cobbled streets of Aguas Calientes, a city with plenty of alpacas but not a single car (unless you count the busses that shuttle masses back and forth to the top of the mountain).

The stories were true.  Even this early, the lines were crazy long.  But we were on a mission.  And if you know my father, you know that he has a (not so) mysterious way of moving through crowds.  It is not unusual to get left behind if you get distracted for even a moment.  A few elbows thrown here and there and voila! We were on our way.  The bus driver (like ALL other drivers in Peru) threw caution to the wind as a rule.  The bus careened wildly up a series of impossibly tight switchbacks, and, if we weren’t awake before the drive, we certainly were now.  Nothing like fear for your life to perk you right up.  After we surprisingly reached the upper parking lot in one piece, we were herded off of the bus, and hustled up to scout a viewing area.  We didn’t have long to wait.  The light was getting brighter, and the sun was only minutes away.  I was practically pushing people out of the way of my camera’s viewfinder…I knew this was something that I did NOT want to miss, and I certainly didn’t want my visual memories of the experience to include large German tourists.

In the end, the sunrise was so awe inspiring that I forgot the supposed importance of digital memories and just took the moment for myself.  It was the feeling of knowing that you are witnessing something truly special, that few others get to see, and that you will only experience this one time in your life.  There is nothing like that feeling.  It was the most beautiful morning, the sun came up quickly as wisps of fog crowded through the high mountain jungle and across the dramatic green peaks.  Pictures of Machu Picchu are incredible, but unless you are there in person there is no way to describe the scale of these mountains, and the drop offs that await you on all sides of this ancient getaway.  I live for moments like these, I relish them, and I hold on to them to examine later when things get boring.

Later that day my mom witnessed tourists being stampeded by llamas.  This post is already way too long so I will leave that image to your imaginations.

Pretty polish Wednesday: Glitter and sheer is where it’s at!

Chunky glitter polish with a sheer coat over top is my FAVE new trend.  It makes it look less glittery, like there are sprinkles on your nails!  For this look I used 4 coats:

• Park Ave by NYC
  
• Traffic Stopper Copper by Sephora by OPI
• Sheer Petal by Revlon
  
• Clear coat by NYC

The results are magical, I’m not even kidding.  Give it a shot and count how many compliments you get!  It also looks fa-han-tastic with Rainbow Connection by OPI, I’ll put up a picture of that one soon!  Has anyone else tried this? What did you think?

Want to know how to get the glitter polish off without picking at it for days or crying from frustration?  Check back tomorrow!