Comfy and CUTE maternity offerings from Etsy
It’s been a minute since we’ve given Etsy vendors some love.. which is funny, because I spend a solid part of every day scouring shop after shop. Since a lot of in-store maternity fashion can be troubling to say the least, Etsy is always an excellent alternative. Who knew you could find something like this vintage-inspired floral number from Hellcat Mama.
Naked scientists and ways the world might end: 5 calendars for 2012
Now it is the best time of the year: the END of the year. It’s fascinating that we as a people periodically say “this period of time is over. BEGIN NEW PERIOD!” Isn’t it? As December 31st ends, we mentally partition off the year, old habits, and new goals. January 1st isn’t a different day than December 31 in any way, but if FEELS new.
AND YOU GUYS, I HAVE BEEN SAVING CALENDARS FOR YOU FOR SIX MONTHS!
Lightsaber candles perfect for your holiday buffet
Snap ’em up, light ’em, and enjoy the nerdy candlelight glow this winter.
White elephant gifts people will actually LIKE (updated for 2019!)
In the next two weeks, thousands of White Elephant gift exchanges will unfold. There will be variants. Many people will completely forget to get a gift until the morning of the exchange, and many more will go home with weird combinations of stuff they don’t really want — one year I got a scented candle and a pack of cinnamon out of the draw, and knew my boss must’ve swung by Walgreens over lunch.
If you’re going to do something, why not do it right? Here are 10 ideas for random gift exchanges — five items under $20, five items under $10, and five items you can make or find in your home.
Decked out Frankensteined lighting by Omega Too
Shopped for lighting lately? You probably found yourself disappointed by the white bread wood veneer choices at Home Depot. Our new sponsor Omega Too Lighting & Design will pull you out of the sad chandelier shopper slump.
I LOVED browsing their site. I got a very The Sims vibe, bouncing from art nouveau pieces to gothic chandeliers to candle sconces — you wanna see?
ZOMG Smells: the only place you can buy the scent of a Triceratops
ZOMG Smells is ZOMG amazing. They’re our new sponsor. They make fine, nerdy scents with very specific names. And the amount of perfect they are for the Offbeat Empire readers is nuts.
Background information: all the Empire staff got a little Squees in our welcome bags. We each pulled out our Squees and compared: Megan took a whiff of one: “Ew, this smells like a wet hippie.” Ariel snatched away the vial, inhaled, and cried: “OMG IT TOTALLY SMELLS LIKE A WET HIPPIE. I love it!”
I think that’s a pretty good introduction to ZOMG Smells.
3 options for easy and relatively non-cheezy holiday greeting cards
Can you imagine what it must have been like to be offbeat and try to send holiday cards 15 years ago? I can picture the aisles of stationary stores, where a sad looking proto-hipster can’t find a box of holiday cards to fit his family. Hokey Christmas angel? Goofy reindeer poop humor? He picks up box after box of beautiful cards, but they just don’t feel right.
Thank you, internet, for solving this problem for us. Now you have fine-grain control over precisely how sappy or serious or nerded out or swear-filled your end-of-year cards are. These three services will get you started on making a card PERFECT for your household.
A very gigantic age-appropriate gift guide for the adult and child geek(s) in your life
Here are three things I really, really love: holidays, geeky stuff, and gifts. I love giving gifts and receiving gifts and in general just having an awesome time with gifts — especially if they’re remotely geeky in general. Here are some of my favorite things I’ve found online — I felt like I couldn’t possibly pass up the chance to share them with ya! Some are kid-specific, and some are for adults, and some are just… for whoever loves them the most.