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!

Bob Ross Calm App: This meditation app is using Bob Ross magic to lull you to sleep

This meditation app is using Bob Ross magic to lull you to sleep

If you’re a fan of meditation/relaxation apps like Headspace and Meditation Studio, and ALSO a fan of the dulcet voice of Bob Ross, you’re in luck. The meditation and sleep app Calm is introducing PBS fave Bob Ross’ voice as part of its Sleep Stories, using the audio from his super relaxing painting episodes to lull you into repose.

From Mr. Rogers to Afropolitans in space: What we’re watching, reading, and listening to right now

We haven’t been talking a lot about what we’ve been consuming media-wise lately. And that’s no good since I know we’re all watching, listening, and reading things that aren’t just terrible news media. You’ve got to spend some time in other worlds sometimes, be they fictional fantasies, crime dramas very much not set in reality, and enjoying whatever it is we love most.

"Are you a boy or a girl?" How do you explain gender to a child?

“Are you a boy or a girl?” How do you explain gender to a child?

My kiddo is biologically male, but when kids ask him if he’s a boy or girl, he says, “I’m me. I’m a person.” Kids, however, don’t accept this answer and pester him to the point of tears. I don’t know how to tell him the difference between boys and girls, or if I want to tell him that there is a difference at all (besides anatomically).

How do you explain gender to a four-year-old?

Get your daily self love by following these body positive Instagram accounts

Get your daily self love by following these body positive Instagram accounts

We’ve been having some discussions about body positivity lately that made me remember that not everyone is entrenched in body positive role models on social media as others of us are. What better way to shine some light on our favorite bad-ass body positive babes than by finding some of the best body positive Instagram accounts out there?

Whether they’re loving their fat bodies, their differently-abled bodies, their perceived “flaws,” their feminism, and their everyday realness, these are some babes who will prove that “the norm” means nothing.

How to turn up the volume on your flat, fine hair

How to turn up the volume on fine, flat hair

I have flat, straight, fine, and thin hair, that falls flat no matter what I do. It’s long and has no volume whatsoever. How should I style my hair and how do I make curls stay? I also don’t want to damage my hair, and because it’s thin it gets damaged really easily.

Does anyone have any tips do deal with this?

Doing everything “right” & changing the world: My mental health and Anthony Bourdain

When I found out Anthony Bourdain took his own life, I was in shock. I still am. I cried all day. I’m crying now. My shock doesn’t come from a place of ignorance; I have clinical depression myself, and I’ve been medicated for a couple of years. I’ve worked hard to change my habits so that they help my mental health. Overall, it’s working. But there are still days, weeks, months when things are bleak…

Why I'm becoming okay with always coming out of the closet

Why I’m okay with coming out of the closet over and over

Coming out is not something that happens once and it’s over.

The first time I came out was with a bang. The anxiety accompanied with the initial big reveal has faded. Nevertheless, I continue to experience coming out of the closet over and over again…

I am curvy and that's beautiful: my (ongoing) journey toward body positivity

I am curvy and that’s beautiful: my (ongoing) journey toward body positivity

To be honest, I don’t recall a time when I have looked in a mirror and thought I was skinny or loved what I saw. I have spent hours trying clothes on; searching for that one outfit that made me feel good about every part of my body. I’m still searching, pretty sure those clothes don’t exist.

But here’s how I promise to try my hardest to love myself in my journey toward body positivity…