Blog | Ciera Design Studio

Your Big Opportunity May Be Right Where You Are Now – Desktop and iPhone Wallpaper Freebie

September 3, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! I went to Gulf Shores, Alabama for four days and while I won’t be blogging about it, you can see some of our Instagrams here. I’m back today with September’s design for your devices and some words of wisdom from Napoleon Hill. Your big opportunity may be right where you are now. Just a little something to keep in mind if you start to feel overwhelmed. Embrace where you are and you may find an opportunity that would have been missed otherwise. These new designs are available for download over on WhimseyBox’s blog!

This photo was from a camping trip that Zander and I took in 2011. Hope y’all like this new design and enjoy the now!

Your Big Opportunity May Be Right Where You Are Now

Whimseybox is the original subscription for DIY and craft lovers. Each month WhimseyBox sends subscribers a box full of craft projects along with a project idea. If you sign up through this link, you’ll get $5 off!

August In Review

August 30, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

August was a busy month here on the blog and full of freelance work! Is there anything you’d like to see here in September? I also wanted to mention that I added a new page to my site for a list of all the things that I recommend! It can be accessed through the button in the sidebar.

Popular-Posts-in-August

Ciera Design Elsewhere in August:

– Melanie featured my Ombre Necklace DIY in her amazing column Drink This, Make That
– DIY Air Plant Terrariums featured on BuzzFeed, 20 Dorm Room Decor DIYs
– Kate featured my Make Time To Create design here
– Caytlyn featured my blog as one of her favorite graphic design blogs, thanks girl!
– Friendship bracelets on Vixen Made

Thanks to everyone who shares my content, I really appreciate it!

The Font Feast Presents Easy Lemon Ice Cream

August 28, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

easy-lemon-ice-cream-melany-lane

With summer winding down, we’re trying to squeeze every last ounce of sunshine and warm weather out of each day. Ice cream sure helps, and what’s even better is ice cream that tastes homemade but doesn’t take forever to make. This tart and tasty lemony treat is so refreshing and so simple, you’ll find yourself wanting to make it again and again for as long as ice cream weather lingers.

The month’s Font Feast recipe was inspired by Melany Lane, a sweet and simple script font that looks hand-drawn.

easy-lemon-ice-cream

Easy Lemon Ice Cream Inspired by Melany Lane

1/2-gallon carton of good vanilla ice cream, softened slightly
8 fl oz frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

In a large bowl, combine softened ice cream with thawed lemonade concentrate, stirring gently until mixture is well-combined. Cover with plastic wrap, putting the plastic right on the surface of the ice cream, and freeze until hard.

About the author: Melissa writes about her adventures in food, family, and farming at Lulu the Baker. She develops recipes, cooks, and photographs for The Font Feast column.

Maybe This Inspired That // Monday Blues Confusion by Peggy Reimchen

August 26, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

Today’s Maybe This Inspired That is from Lisa! Lisa Danielson is a Graphic Designer/Photographer living and working in Chicago, IL. She is the founder of Neat Idea, Lisa. Design, Photography, Optimism. Your brand with a fresh perspective. Lisa specializes in logo design/branding, print design and custom photography for start-up companies and entertainers.

Maybe This Inspired That :: Monday Blues Confusion by Peggy Reimchen

The Art // Monday Blues Confusion by Peggy Reimchen is instantly mesmerizing and beautifully abstract with the strong blue hue and bright reflection. The lines are sharp yet skewed by the water and capture the viewer’s attention to lead them through the photograph. I love that this piece is hard to tell what exactly it is until you look closely.

The Inspired // This beautiful Day Tripper Scarf has a brilliantly cool pattern which instantly reminded me of the lines in Peggy Reimchen‘s photo.

I am currently taking submissions for this column! If you think you have a “Maybe This Inspired That” match, email me links to “the art” and “the inspired” along with descriptions. Please note that not all submissions will be published.

Brand Script Font [Friday Favorites]

August 23, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

I love a good, bold script, don’t you?! Jam jars; Warhol’s “Tomato Soup”; chalk lettering and baseball. Those were the triggers to make this soft chancery cursive turned into a script font. Brand by Maximiliano Sproviero is thought mainly for packaging but can be used in magazines and invitations also. Pro styles are loaded with the most complete sets of alternates, ligatures and ornaments; while Std styles are smaller versions of the font, with no decorative alternates. This awesome font is super affordable and is an extra 10% off right now! And as always there are a bunch of other great fonts on sale right now at MyFonts.

Description and samples from MyFonts.

Maine Through A Golden Half Camera

August 21, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

One of the things I miss about living in Boston is being so close to Maine. We used to go up and visit Zander’s grandmother all the time! I just came across these photos that I took with my Golden Half camera of their fish house and the launching of the float one year, I think from 2011.

Palm Springs To Los Angeles Road Trip

August 12, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

Okay guys, this is my final post from my June vacation, I hope you have enjoyed! The Palm Springs area was amazing with so much to do and see. I can’t believe it took me over a month to edit a weeks worth of photos! After spending the majority of our time in Palm Springs we decided to venture out on a little road trip. The same day we went to Salvation Mountain we also decided to head to LA for a few hours. So after leaving Salvation Mountain we stopped along the Salton Sea, it was very eerie, huge campgrounds with no one around for miles and miles! Everything seemed abandon.

We took a pit stop to see the Cabazon Dinosaurs and drove past all of the windmill farms (I could barely keep my eyes on the road they were so mesmerizing).

Then we had lunch in LA at Lamill Coffee Boutique, did a little window shopping, walked around the Ivanhoe Reservoir (much longer walk than we anticipated) and headed up to the Griffith Observatory to watch the sunset. We didn’t want to get back to Palm Springs too late, so we had dinner at Feed Body + Soul and hit the road! We definitely got a lot of sightseeing done that day!

There’s the Hollywood sign, can you see it?! I can’t wait to go back to LA again and actually spend some time there! This week in California was such a fun vacation with my two best friends full of great memories!

If you missed any of the posts along the way you can check them out here: ACE Hotel & King’s Highway Diner, Salvation Mountain, The Saguaro, Parker Palm Springs, architecture tour, Aerial Tramway – Mount San Jacinto State Park. Did you have a favorite?

Salsa Fresca with Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips

August 8, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

Y’all, I love chips. I can not even eat a sandwich without having some on my plate. I’m always looking for some healthier alternatives to your average greasy chip. SO when I saw the new Green Giant Veggie Snack Chips I was very excited! While these are not a replacement for real vegetables they do contain about 40% less fat than regular potato chips. I was got two flavors, Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chip – Garden Ranch and Multigrain Sweet Potato Chip – Barbecue.

So first let’s talk about theBarbecue Sweet Potato Chips. I’m not usually a fan of barbecue flavored chips, they are always too overwhelming and sweet. But I was pleasantly surprised, these are good! They are slightly spicy but the flavor is not over the top, which I like.

The second flavor I tried was the Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips in Garden Ranch. I love tortilla chips and I love ranch so of course these chips were amazing! I had a hard time not eating the whole bag while I was taking these photos.

I not only like chips with a sandwich, but I also loooove chips for dipping, so I decided to share a Salsa Fresca (Pico de Gallo) recipe that goes great with the Garden Ranch Tortilla Chips. The chips and salsa are perfect for an afternoon snack or backyard party!

Ingredients

1 tomato, seeded and diced
1/4 of a red onion, diced
1/4 of a red bell pepper, diced
1 tablespoon jalapeno, seeded and diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
Juice of 1/2 a lime
2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper

Directions

Add all the ingredients to a medium bowl. Toss to combine. Transfer into a serving dish and set aside for 15 minutes to blend flavors.

So, now that I am done talking about these chips, I’m going to eat the rest of the bag!

Thanks to Green Giant™ Veggie Snack Chips for sponsoring this post! Thank you for supporting Ciera Design by allowing me to post occasional sponsored content. All sponsored posts feature products or services that I genuinely feel would be of interest to you and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway – Mount San Jacinto State Park

August 5, 2013 by Ciera Holzenthal

While in Palm Springs we had a gorgeous view of the San Jacinto mountains. We were totally surrounded by them the whole time so we decided to get up close and personal to see what they were all about. We heard the best way to do this was to take the tramway to the top! The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is the largest rotating aerial tramway in the world. It was opened in September 1963 as a way of getting from the floor of the Coachella Valley to relatively near the top of San Jacinto Peak. San Jacinto Peak, 10,834 feet, is the highest peak of the San Jacinto Mountains and is within Mount San Jacinto State Park.

I’m not gonna lie, the tramway was kinda scary, it was so steep! But the view made it totally worth it! At the top of the mountain we did a short little hike and then had lunch before heading back down. It was a nice little break from the Palm Springs desert heat. The temperature dropped quite a bit up in the mountains!