Category Archive

Life

We launched as Offbeat Home in 2011, but it has become clear that the site is about much more. In 2013, we relaunched as Offbeat Home & Life, with an expanded focus on Relationships, Budget & Career, Travel, and Style. This is the category for the non-home/rest of life stuff!

AllGo app - plus size rating app - plus size yelp app -- There's an app that'll help you find places where you can actually take up space

There’s an app that’ll help you find places where you can actually take up space as a larger person

You know what’s rad? Stores, restaurants, bars, theme parks, and other public spaces which are accessible for everyone — even those of us who take up space or call ourselves fat or otherwise like to not be squeezed into spaces which are only meant for a fraction of the population. I stumbled upon an app that is sort of like a Yelp but for rating accessibility for fat/plus size (you pick your terms!) people. If you are one of these people, these things will sound familiar…

The call of loneliness

I truly want to believe that it doesn’t take heartbreak to make you remember the love inside you… But evidence suggests that it takes that agony, that searing burn of loneliness and anxiety and isolation to truly help you find the lover that’s been within you, waiting for you, all this time.

In which I tell conservatives I understand them because I used to be one

In which I tell conservatives I understand them because I used to be one

If I can say anything at this bleak hour, with the world splitting at its seams, it’s this: conservatives, I understand you. It may not be something you expect to hear from a liberal, but I do. I understand you. I understand you because I used to be you. Long ago, in the era of Slick Willy and the dawn of explicit labels on music CDs, I was conservative, too. I stood up for men first, considered money an inalienable right, questioned immigration, and thought abortion was the greatest moral crisis facing our lives…

Two years of two-word resolutions

Last year, my two-word New Year’s resolution was simply FEEL LOVED… which was oddly terrifying. How can two words be so difficult?

And oof, wait until you hear my two words for this year…

Gift your friends an early start on festival gear with these dried flower crowns

Over on Offbeat Bride, we featured a whole slew of fanciful dried flower crowns for weddings that can easily be worn every day, at closer-than-you-think spring and summer festivals, and wherever you like. Like, sitting on your couch eating cheesy poofs looking magical AF. Here’s a quick preview of some of my faves…

This new comic book company is coming in hard with rad & diverse new stories

New comic book publisher, TKO Studios, launched just this month and has big ol’ plans to take on the comic book industry. We’re talking the inclusion of some heavy hitting creators and stories from new and diverse voices and a focus on readers instead of investors. This includes a tale of three generations of Black women in Chicago working together to pull off the heist of a lifetime by Roxane Gay and Ming Doyle…

Don your handknit sweaters for this spectacular Harry Potter Christmas decor

Don your Mrs. Weasley sweaters for this spectacular Christmas at Hogwarts decor

Remember this magical Harry Potter home decor from reader Jasper Price and his wife Angie? We could only imagine how extra festive it got around the holidays at Chez Hogwarts. We don’t have to imagine anymore — Jasper shared with us their fantastical collection of mystical Christmas enchantment! Here’s what they had to say about their efforts to recreate the spectacle…

Requiem for Tumblr: pouring one out for a fat-positive space for nudes

Requiem for Tumblr: pouring one out for a fat-positive space for nudes

Besides being a huge blow to sex workers and LGBTQ people, Tumblr’s recent decision to ban adult content from its platform is a misguided form of censorship that will remove an outlet of self-expression for those who fall outside of typical Western beauty standards. There was something else, though, and that something is what I and I think many other people will miss most now that Tumblr has moved to ban adult content from its site…