Adding ASCII art to the source code (the HTML files) may not interest people who don’t look at source code.

The source code is an easy place to add ASCII art because those files open in plain text, no formatting or fancy fonts. So, the ASCII art shows up without much extra work, almost none in fact.

If you access your HTML files you can add ASCII art yourself, without the plugins. (See above). But, not everyone wants to do that.

WP Figlet is all about adding text created in ASCII art fonts (figlets). It even lets you choose which figlet fonts you want to use. The auto suggestions creates a figlet in your source code like this (you choose your own words):

It does work.

Source Code (although not updated in 4 years, also works). If you are timid about mucking around in the HTML files then either of these plugins will work for you. Source Code lets you choose to have the ASCII art in your header or footer. However, I found it did need the extra HTML code for keeping the formatting after I saved my text image.

One thing I dislike about Source Code is the lack of artist credit (artist initials). I checked several of the ASCII images available with the plugin and none had artist credits. I used my own ASCII image with my initials.

In the end… DIY.

Don’t be bashful about getting into your own source code. Skip the plugins and just do it yourself. Once you access the file it’s very simple to add the ASCII art with the code for notes. (See the first image in this post, no reason you can’t do that yourself).

They did have their own unique way. Loads of butter and not being too fussy about how pristine everything was. Just like real people versus the over friendly and sterile stuff on most cooking shows now.

What can two fat ladies do? In this world where women are valued when they are young and skinny – what possible interest could two fat ladies from the UK have and how could they have published cookbooks and star in their own popular cooking show (1996 to 1999)?

Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright were the Two Fat Ladies

I loved the Two Fat Ladies because there dared to do things I would like to do. But, they dared to do them on TV, with people watching and they laughed too.

You can paralyze yourself with fear, make it hard just to get out of bed each morning. Out of bed it’s time to start thinking about how you look and how other people will see you. People with bad teeth won’t smile. People with bad hair wear a hat or shave it off. People who are fat can’t hide so well. Instead we think about how fat we look and we don’t smile, or talk much to other people. In short, many people are so self-conscious they do all they can to escape notice, stay in the background and go about doing what they must, living their own lives like ghosts. Living faded, in the background.

The Two Fat Ladies stepped out of the background and laughed about it.

They cooked with cream, butter, red meat and booze and they were not worried about dipping their fingers in or cooking in pristine conditions. They were biker babes riding a Triumph Thunderbird motorbike driven by Jennifer with Clarissa in the sidecar. The Two Fat Ladies were themselves and they let the rest of us see them that way too. I was proud of them and happy for them.

RIP Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright - You are missed.

Making cookies is a great thing to do around the holidays. But, you can make any kind of cookie you want to design all year round. With the right cookie cutter, some icing and a little know-how you can become a creative cookie designer.

My Grandmother had aluminum cookie cutters. She gave them to my Mother at some point. I can remember using the gingerbread man, the angel, the holly leaf and the holly wreath as we made Christmas cookies each year.

Making cookies is a great thing to do around the holidays. But, you can make any kind of cookie you want to design all year round. With the right cookie cutter, some icing and a little know-how you can become a creative cookie designer.

I'd Like to Be a Cookie Decorating Designer

Usually, I can find a cookie cutter for any shape I'm thinking of. But, I tend to stick with the standard gingerbread people, snow men and women, a house, an angel and round cookies which I can add some icing and sparkles. I'd love to try something like the cookies you see looking so perfect in the magazines and on the shelves at the local coffee shop.

So this season, I'm going to whip up another batch of my sugar cookie recipe and then follow the instructions to become a cookie decorating designer. I'd especially like to work on houses. I could turn them all into any season or style I can dream up. They would be a great way to work out the technique and, probably, let me hide at least some of my mistakes.

Be Your Own Tinsmith and Make Your Own Cookie Cutters

I think making your own cookie cutters would be a great new project. There would be a trick to planning the design to be just an outline yet still make sense. Also, it has to be something you can cut cookie dough without having it stick or come off with tiny pieces still stuck to the cookie cutter. I'd start with extra simple designs, like a cartoon with easy, basic lines.

Unique Ways to Use Cookie Cutters

Don't just use your cookie cutters for cutting cookie dough into shapes.

Keep your cookie cutters handy next time you feel like getting a bit fancy:

• mozzarella cheese for pizza toppings.
• sandwiches for kids.
• set melted chocolate in cookie cutters.
• rolled dough for mini pizzas.
• jack-o-lanterns.
• marshmallows for hot chocolate.
• fruit for salad.
• mini pie crusts.
• ice cream to be added to hot pie.
• fry an egg inside a cookie cutter.
• cook a pancake inside a cookie cutter.

Cookie cutters can be used for crafts to cut out fabric shapes for wreaths and other projects. You can also tie or glue a selection of cookie cutters to make a holiday wreath.

See More Cookie Cutters

People collect vintage cookie cutters especially. But some just like finding something interesting and unique. Not all of these groups will be active but I found them all to have something worth the visit.

A photo of a few of my own cookie cutters.

You won't need to beg, not likely, though I wouldn't entirely rule it out. Don't be too proud to beg if you think that would work.

The first time I saw this book I passed on it. I thought it was just another book talking about stuff I knew when I was a kid in school. The ABC's of creativity with a finger painting lesson on the side. Later, when I read a blog post from someone, I actually picked it up and flipped through the pages at the bookstore. Still, wasn't so impressed with a book which was kind of hand drawn looking versus actual type and content. So I didn't buy it that time either. I did finally get my copy of the book the third time I saw it.

Don't Exclude Yourself from your own Creativity and Art

I bought the book because it said #3 Write the book you want to read. I was feeling so burnt out and frustrated with trying to write and not getting anywhere and not being happy about anything I was doing. I was trying too hard to listen to what everyone said I should do. I forgot myself in my own creativity.

Austin Kleon's book, Steal Like an Artist, is about being creative any way you can and in some ways you hadn't thought you would try. It's about taking your creativity, dusting it off, giving it a shake and actually taking it out of the plastic packaging - even though it won't ever be as pristine and collectible again. Creativity should not be pristine or perfect, or too tidy either. Get messy. Try something adventurous. Don't be afraid to steal something and make it your own, not literally.

Of course there is still a line you do not cross. Anything you take from another artist (of whatever form or genre) has to be your inspiration, not something you duplicate and then stick your own name onto. Taking credit for something you didn't add anything to (other than cut and pasting) is not being creative.

Being creative is about your own vision, your own version and how you see things and put them together in your own way. Each of us has a different way of looking at the same thing. Like the blind men describing an elephant, we all see the whole from our own smaller, focused perception.

You could stand a hundred artists in a row and have them all look at the same city skyline or sunset or forest (etc.) and each of them would create an image of their own. No two people see the same thing, in the same way. Think of playing telephone as a kid. The more people who repeated the message the more garbled and confused it became. Art is like that. Not that it become garbled but it is all filtered through different minds, different experiences and different knowledge and skill.

Art is Everything

Don't think an artist is just someone who works with images either. That is selling short. Art is such a huge area: words, buildings... what noun can you not find an art form for, somehow and in some way?

I LOVED The Courtship of Eddie's Father.

I had to look it up on Wikipedia to see when the TV show was on the air. Turns out it began on TV in 1969 and finished in 1972. I would have been just a kid about the age of Eddie when the show ran on television. From Wikipedia I found out the story was based on a book written by Mark Toby and had even been created as a movie before it was re-created as a TV show which starred Bill Bixby (who was later in The Incredible Hulk, among other things).

The story of Eddie's Father was about Tom Corbett and his son, Eddie. Tom was a single Dad, his wife had died and left himself and Eddie alone. I don't remember much mention about other family, like Grandparents or siblings. Usually the show was about Eddie, his Dad and the women Tom would meet and Eddie would try to decide which were right for his Dad.

The original book by Mark Toby and the movie which was created based on the book (before the TV show).

I found a nice, little tidbit of information which I came across while looking at the information about Brandon Cruz (the actor who was Eddie on the show). Bill Bixby died in 1993 but the actors had been close during and after the TV show. The death of Bill Bixby's only child, Christopher, may have given him a closer feeling to another child who was so much a part of his life as well. In 1995, Brandon Cruz gave his son (Lincoln Bixby Cruz) the middle name of Bixby in honour of Bill Bixby.

Bill Bixby (Tom Corbett was his name on the show) was my TV Dad. The Dad I wished was my own Dad when things were not going so well with my own Dad. Of course, not many real men can compare well with a perfect, scripted TV Dad.