Bacon egg cups and sunflower art

So one fine day my girlfriends and I decided to have a cookout/potluck. Everyone had to make a dish, so I finally managed to try a recipe I'd kept bookmarked on my web browser for a long time. Breakfast bacon cups! A recipe that looked really easy and infinitely yummy.

This is how version #1 looked like:

Followed the recipe mostly, but left out the cheese 'cause of one friend's preference. The cups didn't turn out looking as nice as I'd hoped.

Some tips / reminders to self:

- Don't crack the whole egg straight into the bacon cup. Too much egg white might cause the piece of bread at the bottom to float up and the cup will go out of shape

- Use a smaller muffin tray (or bigger pieces of bacon?) so that the bacon wraps more securely around the egg

- If you prefer a perfect looking sunny side-up (runny yolk), change the heating of the oven to bottom-up. If you prefer a yolk that's more cooked just do the usual top-down/bottom-up heating

- Maple syrup can be replaced with honey, it tastes fine

This is how version #2 looks like:

Adapted the recipe and found a new way of making the cups. It became bread flowers instead of bacon cups. Basically I made cuts on the sides of the bread and folded them. Also, instead of the honey/maple syrup butter I used garlic spread. I think black pepper would go well with it. Two bread flower cups can be a whole breakfast on their own; two whole slices of bread, two slices of bacon and two eggs! And there are endless ways to adapt the recipe. Like using ham and cheese instead of bacon. And it is so easy and fuss-free~

Random flower art I arranged and took a snapshot of. 

The sunflower bouquet J got me for my graduation ceremony fell off the window ledge one day and the sunflowers threw down their petals in protest at the uncivilised treatment. Felt so sad about the half-bald sunflowers and I couldn't let the petals go to waste, so they're currently being pressed in a notebook under a humongous stack of notes.

Tea party: paper flower balls

Easy-to-make tissue paper flower balls! Adapted from the book Paper + Craft by Minhee and Truman Cho

Materials: tissue paper, wire, thread, scissors
You can experiment with the type of paper used actually. In this case I mixed patterned paper with plain colored ones. You could try crepe paper as well.

For the bigger flower ball, stack 8 sheets of 21cm x 30.5cm tissue paper together and fold in 3cm accordion folds. Trim the edges (either pointy or rounded). Tie the center with wire. Loop thread with wire and leave it long enough to hang from the ceiling. Carefully separate each tissue layer, pulling each layer away from the center until they form ball-like shapes.

For the smaller flower balls, the tissue paper should be cut into rectangles 13cm x 15cm. The book says each ball requires 4 rectangles of tissue paper stacked together, but after experimenting I find the flower balls look prettier with 5 sheets, like the one above.

This one is made with 5 sheets of tissue paper too.

This one's made with 4 sheets.

Budget-friendly and pretty-looking decorations for a party (;