Blogging and Journaling and why I do both

 People have asked me why I do both journaling and blogging when I could just do one or the other.  I can easily say that blogging gives me one output, while my journaling is something that I do just for me.

Blogging

I am someone that has more than one blog, and I am very happy to have separate ones for the separate parts of me. 

1.  Craftkitten

2.  DLK Life How I See It

3.  DLKsCrafts

Now each of these blogs are entirely different in nature as they are for difference audiences.  Now, to talk a bit about each of these, so you can understand why they are so separate.

Craftkitten – this blog is where I will post weekly updates about what crafts that I have been working on during that past week.  This blog doesn’t show a lot of what is going on in my life outside the crafting that I do.

DLK Life How I See It – if you are reading this post, you know what this blog is about.  This blog is where I can write about the various things that I am seeing in the world and also some other thoughts and feelings that bounce into my head.  It is something that I enjoy doing and where I can write about the various challenges that a lot of people deal with.

DLKsCrafts – this blog is more about my ETSY shop and how to run a shop like I do.  It is where I will give you some pointers, as I know that it is sometimes a challenge to start to set up an on-line shop.

Journaling

To explain a little about my journaling, I have to admit that it is something that isn’t planned to be shared with anyone else.  I write each day and have been doing that for a number of years.  I have been writing every day since December 26, 2013, so yes, I have been writing a lot since then.  The one thing that I can say is that the amount that I write each day depends on the time that I have to write and what I am feeling that day.

I have always been someone that enjoyed sitting and writing, and that is why I started to journal on a more regular basis.  I started out just writing when I felt that I had something to write about, and then it slowly turned into something that I do each day.  I now write electronic journals, while before they were all handwritten and something that I can still look at and laugh at sometimes.  I have written about a lot of the challenges that I have faced, and it has made it a lot easier to handle. For me my journal is what is going on around me and things that I have done each day, so it is more like a diary and I enjoy doing it.

For me, journaling and blogging are two separate things that I enjoy doing, and I will keep doing.   I may not always get a lot of blog posts written, but I continue to write each day.  If writing is something that you enjoy doing, I would recommend that you start to journal for yourself.  It doesn’t need to be fancy at all if you don’t want it to be.  It is something that you are doing for myself and through your writing you will find out a bit more about things that you have dealt with, and now you have got through them.

 

 

 

The past six months

 Who would have thought any of us would have been living through a pandemic.  Well, we have for the past six months here in Canada.  On March 13, WHO (World Health Organization) declared that Covid-19 was a pandemic, and that was the day that everything changed for a lot of us.

When you look back and think about how things have changed in the last six months, there are a lot of things that changed, and I am going to be talking about some of what happened here in Ontario for us.

• Schools - were going into March break, so they decided that they would extend the break by an additional week.  That March break turned into online learning for the rest of the spring, and then finally students have started to go back to school in person in the last week.  For this year parents and students could decide if they wanted in person learning or online learning so that is happening. Masks are mandatory for in class learning.
• Colleges/Universities - they also started to hold most of their classes online in early April, and they continue to hold most classes online.  Of course, there are some courses that need to be in a lab, etc and those are the ones that are being held in person. Masks are mandatory for in class learning.
• Businesses - a lot of businesses as soon restrictions were starting to be put in place asked staff to work at home as much as possible.  I know that some businesses couldn’t operate with staff at home, but the businesses that could are still working remotely. Masks are essential when you work in an office unless you are at your desk and able to maintain a distance of 6 feet from others.
• Retail – a lot of businesses if they were not considered essential closed their doors in late March and slowly started to reopen in June through now.  Yes, there are still a lot of restrictions about how many people can be in a store at once and how you pay for your purchases.  A lot of stores are now debit and credit where possible, and some are NO cash. Masks are mandatory for entering a store.
• Restaurants – these also closed their doors in March and were only providing drive through or take out where possible.  Finally, in early August some restaurants were able to open and have table service on patios, so that was a nice change. Later in August limited in restaurant dining was allowed but with a lot of restrictions such as masks until you are at your table.

Yes, things have changed a lot over the last six months and things continue to change.  The number of people that you can have in a private home for an event change depending on the number of cases that we have in Ontario. 

A lot of municipalities have put by-laws in place making it mandatory to wear a mask in any public place. This by-law also means that people living in apartments and condos are also required to wear a mask outside their units.  This can sometimes be a challenge, but it is best for everyone.  Also for apartments and condos they are recommended limits to the number of people in an elevator at one time, so that creates its own challenges.  Apartments and condos with a lot of families with school age children now have to figure out ways of getting their kids to school on time. 

I know that there have been some challenges through these last few months but if we all do what is necessary by social distancing, wearing masks and limiting our contact with others maybe one day we will be able to get back to seeing our friends and families again. 

 

Customer service and its importance

As someone that deals with customers for my business, I understand the importance of good customer service and quick responses.  If you are dealing with customers via the web, you need to try and ensure that you can provide a fairly quick response time.  The better experience someone has with you, the move changes you have of getting a repeat customer. 

Recently I had an experience with one business where I started to talk with them about a purchase and everything seemed to be doing well until all of a sudden the communication stopped and even after sending additional emails and a phone call, I got no response.  As this was a purchase that I wanted to get completed, I decided to try another contact with a competing business.  Well, the good news is the communication with the second business was wonderful and within a few hours I had all the information I required, and I also had made the purchase.  Getting a quick response made me feel that I was valued by them and that they were available to assist me.

Customer service is a way to make or break a business, and understanding how keeping customers happy is very important.  It ends up through this experience that I will be trying to make more purchases through the second contact, as they have been available to assist quickly.  I understand that everyone is busy trying to make sales and help everyone, but if it takes you three days and I still haven’t got a reply, I think that shows me that I might need to check another spot for the purchase.  If you are away and are unable to reply to a person, it is a good idea to ensure that you have your out-of-office notification on.

Customer service from a single-person shop to a major retailer has to understand that one bad experience can affect recommendations to others.  If you are looking for a successful business, know that assisting your customers or even future customers can help or hinder your overall success.