Top Posts of 2020

Hi, friends! I can’t believe today is the last day of 2020 and that I kept up with this website for a whole year. In the last 12 months, I somehow managed to publish 41 blog post! I am seriously impressed with myself. Here are the 8 most popular blog posts from this year (with my commentary, of course).

To-Go Cocktails in the Triangle

I decided to write this after work one evening, I think the day after Governor Cooper signed the executive order. I hadn’t seen any list of restaurants and bars that were offering to-go cocktails even though many places had already begun to. So I did my own research using Instagram/Facebook/Yelp and put this blog together. I also shared this on a couple of relevant webpage discussions, and a few of the businesses had shared it on their Facebook page, which put this blog post at the top of this list!

Apple Picking at Millstone Creek Orchards

You know I had to write a blog post after going apple picking for the first time! This post “blew up” as soon as I posted it. I think it did well because Millestone Creek Orchards is the closest apple picking option/the only apple orchard within 2~3 hours from the Triangle area. There simply aren’t as many apple picking options as there are strawberry so this was an exciting activity to do with your families. I also included lots of details related to COVID-19 about how they’re limiting attendance and operating at half-capacity.

Thanksgiving Board with Sassool

Hands down, the most exciting collaboration I had in 2020! I got to create cheese boards for Sassool (a local family-owned restaurant if you’re not in the Triangle area) that anyone could purchase from them. I love making cheese boards, and I am so happy that people are associating me with cheese boards! It was an opportunity to push myself since I was making cheese boards for people other than my family and friends to enjoy, and using items from their market section allowed met to explore new cheeses. It was an honor to work with Sassool via Tabletop Media and to create something that hopefully helped their business at least a little bit!

My Top 10 Favorite Durham Foodie Spots

If you don’t know already, I live in Durham, NC and absolutely love Bull City! With my blog, it’s always my goal to highlight small businesses, and there are so many small businesses in Durham that I love! My sister Sujung suggested I make a list of my favorite Durham restaurants so you can thank her for this post! This was one of the easiest posts to write about in terms of all the lovely things I had to say about the businesses, but narrowing the list down to old 10 was tough–it took me literal weeks because I take my life very seriously! I still added at the end of list some “honorary mentions” because I couldn’t help myself!

30 Before 30

After I changed the Instagram account from Three Shinsters to Better with Ju, it was my intention to change it from a local-food-only account to more of an everything blog, which is still a work in progress. This 30 Before 30 list was one of my earliest attempt at sharing something more personal and diversifying my content topics! I shared it on my personal Facebook page, and I think a lot my Facebook friends read this specific post! I’m thinking of doing an updated post in January to do a progress check/modifying the list a little?

NC Small Business Holiday Gift Guide

When I launched this website in December of 2019, creating a local gift guide was on my ~content calendar~ for the following November already (can you tell I’m a planner?)! As much as I eat local, I try to shop local whenever possible. Putting together this gift guide was so fun! I included a lot of favorites from businesses I have supported and trust, and it introduced me to a lot of new-to-me small businesses too!

How I Work from Home

At the beginning of quarantine, I decided to share with the world my tips and tricks of working from home based on my extensive experience of having worked from home once a week for the past 8 months or so. With many people being thrown into remote working unexpectedly and for the foreseeable future, it seems like many people were searching for this kind of information! Looking back after almost a year of working from home, I still agree with this post.  

24 Hours in Asheville, NC

This Asheville trip was my first “vacation” of 2020, and I was so excited to share everything, especially in light of COVID-19 and because I went to Biltmore for the first time! Of my “travel” posts, this was the top performer, probably because Asheville is a popular destination in the fall and people were likely looking for COVID-19 specific information. Whenever I go somewhere, I try to look up ahead of time if the restaurant or brewery I am interested are even operating at this time and if so, how they are operating safely during this pandemic so I tried to include all of the information in this blog post!

That’s it, friends! A round-up of 2020 on here. See you in 2021!