Intentional Spends and Small Biz Feature - December

Three Cool Edmonton Businesses I went to or shopped at this month!

New, cool, nice, or interesting businesses in and around Edmonton that I purchased from this month.

December!

The Month of the joyous “Holiday Season” Baby!

This year I feel like I avoided all things extreme capitalism, or tried to at least.

With Christmas and Holidays in the air, the pressure to buy, buy, buy, always makes me feel icky. And then I find myself overthinking any and every gift I would buy anyone, and it becomes this completely overwhelming and stressful experience of overspending or feeling like I’ve never got enough to give.


I know i’m not alone in this - so then where is the JOY in all that - huh?!

Thankfully, my family and I are on the same page with attempting to forgo this Holiday Spend and Stress Cycle that we most definitely have found ourselves in for many years.

We agreed to do a White Elephant Gift Exchange instead. With a max spend of just $60!

Anyways, because of this - and because my friends and I like to invest in experiences and quality time instead of gifts now, this month has been SO MUCH less stressful for me!

Instead, it’s allowed me to spend some of my money and time in a few choice places, and on a few choice things - with more intention and more good feels about all of it.

Now, who doesn’t love good feels?

So here we go!

Here are three businesses in Edmonton I spent money at this month (with intention)!

1. 78 Acre Woods

   
   This small sister-run business is located in Central Alberta. They use something called “tallow” to create handcrafted body creams. Instead of adding essential oils to their products, they infuse their creams with actual whole plants!
   
   How neat it that?!
   
   This product intrigued me after a friend shared about its moisturizing qualities, great smell, and new ingredients I hadn’t heard of before - like tallow.

   
   So, according to 78 Acre Woods’ website, Tallow is “suet (beef fat)” and is usually something that goes wasted. It also has “similar in properties to our skins own oils” and therefore, acts as a great moisturizer!
   
   Well, YOU know what Edmonton winters are like.
   
   Dry, cold, dry again.

   
   I needed to try this stuff.
   
   

2. The Mash

   
   This is an Alberta craft pizza and beer chain that popped up recently on Whyte Avenue in Edmonton. A friend and I were making dinner plans and she suggested we try it out.
   
   Considering we met and became friends while working at a pizza place, it seemed fitting we test out a new pizza joint together.

   
   Now, i know TONS of people LOVE pizza.
   Like, last-meal-on-earth kinda love.
   

   But if I’m being honest? (Wait, is this a safe space?) Pizza is not my go-to.
   
   I just love sushi and ramen okay??

   
   However, to my surprise, this place was actually pretty dang delicious!

   They make their pizza dough with the spent grain that’s left over from brewing beer. (If you want to know more about that process, head over here).
   
   Not only does this reduce waste, and repurpose yet another thing that would usually go unused - but it also makes pizza dough taste really good.
   
   Kinda like sourdough-esque. It’s definitely got a healthy thickness to it.

   
   We tried the Dill Pickle and the Mushroom Pizza and (spoiler alert) the Dill Pickle one won the competition for both of us, although the Mushroom was also good!

   
   Okay and they also have an awesome feature deal: One 10 inch pizza and an entire pint of beer for $16.00.

   We couldn’t even finish our pizzas, and thats basically a free beer!
   

3. YEG DATE’s Christmas Cookie Decorating and Cocktails at Glasshouse Kitchen & Bar

   
   Remember how I was saying that my friends and I try to go for experiences rather than “things” as gifts now?
   
   Well this lil activity gave us an experience, quality time, AND a bunch cookies to take home and eat!
   
   Normally for our Friendsmas we make homemade gingerbread houses together (one each) and then spend HOURS decorating them to the nines. It’s awesome, but exhausting. And we always overspend on candy.
   
   We also ALWAYS run out of time - too exhausted to care anymore at 2 am in the morning.
   
   This year, life was pretty hectic for all of us, so we decided to try a different route…
   
   
   Glasshouse Kitchen is a restaurant located in St. Albert’s Enjoy Centre.
   

   With ambient lighting, high ceilings, plants, and a huge wall of windows - it’s a gorgeous spot to hit up any day of the week.

   
   Right now, YEG DATE is doing these cute nights out there where you’re supplied with a bunch of pre-made gingerbread and sugar cookies, icings, AND sprinkles at a private table. The package also includes a small eggnog cocktail to sip on.

   (Personally, we wished we had been able to pick our own cocktail since not everyone messes around with the big D - (the D meaning, DAIRY, you sicko).

   
   We ended up hanging out for three hours decorating our cookies, catching up, talking about the state of the world and how we’re going to be able to afford lettuce in the future when it’s already $8.00 right now…..

   
   Despite the rising prices of groceries right now, we still had a great time together, and got to make a new (easy) memory.
   
   And the absolute best part of all?
   
   We got to leave all the mess on the table and were in bed by 10:30pm!

Well, there you have it folks! Those are three businesses I intentionally spent money at this month. What fun, right?
Thanks so much for reading!

Feel free to check any of them out - and if you do, let me know what your experience was like!

And if you liked this post, or if you have any businesses you think I should check out next month - let me know below!

Side note: I need your opinion - if the max spend for a gift exhchange is $60 does that mean you should spend the full (or close to) the $60? Or does it mean you could spend say like, $30? Would you be mad if you brought a gift for $55 and someone else brought a gift that was around the $30 mark and nothing else?

Comment below to let me know what you think!

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Taylor Ellenne is a Family, Portrait and Branding Photographer based in Edmonton, Alberta.
She loves capturing humans at all stages of life - from maternity, to the days of childhood chaos, to 35th anniversaries, 80th birthdays, and beyond!

Interested in booking a shoot with me? Head over here and fill out my contact form to get in touch!