I hope you all are having a fabulous Valentine’s Day! I’m happy to have my husband back from the field just in time to celebrate it together. :)

Since he was out for the past week, I took some time to bake up treats to send to my family this year. I started with some shortbread that I intended to decorate like heart-shaped ladybugs, a.k.a. “hug bugs”. The decorating did not go as planned, but they turned out cute anyway! Then I cooked up some brownies, cut them into hearts, and sent them along.

You know it’s going to be good when you start with a huge bowl of butter!

I started off with my beloved hand mixer (an awesome hand-me-down from my grandmother!) but it was no match for all the butter.

So I pulled out my trusty Sunbeam. I love this mixer because it’s the same model that my mom uses, which was passed down from my great-grandmother! I had a similar one in college that was my grandmother’s (my mom’s mom’s) but it stayed in Texas when I moved to California, so now my mom pulls it out since hers is trying to give out.

I found this one randomly at the thrift store at Ft. Myer in Virginia, shortly after my husband and I got married. It might be the best $10 I’ve ever spent. (Never mind that I sometimes have to duct tape the power cord into the back of the mixer to get it to work!) Have I mentioned how much I love vintage appliances?!

Hey look! That’s me in the reflection in my teapot on the right! :)

The white tips are the results of my attempted ladybug-making, which quickly turned into drizzles!

The brownies were the easy part! :)

Have a great day and lovely week! ;)