Bonnie Jeanne (aka PostMuse) hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is passionate about snail mail, mailart… and postboxes! :) Come discover more about her on this Spotlight interview.
- How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?
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I discovered Postcrossing via Bookcrossing. I have been exchanging postcards most of my adult life, 30 plus years. When the Internet came about, I joined lots of online postcard groups, and that was fun, but often the exchanges were between the same group of people. I love the randomness of Postcrossing! I think that is the thing that most attracted me to the site.
- Do you have any other interesting hobbies?
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I sew, and I do a lot of mailart. I also love to travel and visit museums, especially little known museums, like the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania. I’m also a backyard birdwatcher and enjoy the constant chatter of the birds while I sit on my patio and write postcards and letters.
- Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!
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The mail chute is at work and I love using it. I only work three floors up, so I can actually hear the mail hit the bottom :)
The photo close-up (left) of my open mailbox at home is taken from the front. You can see how the back is also open so that in the winter I don’t have to go out on the snowy road to get my mail. A lot of people outside the US also don’t realize that we can leave our outgoing mail in our home mailbox for the mailman to take away. I leave LOTS of mail in my home mailbox.
The photo on the right shows my home mailbox in the spring. I do decorate my mailbox for seasons. In winter, I’ll string twinkling snowflakes on it and add a few other festive details. At Halloween it had a giant black spider with purple twinkling lights.
This photo shows postcards of my home mailbox inside the same postcard… very “meta”! :)
The metal mailbox is my post office box, where most of my incoming mail goes. I do get some mail at my home mailbox, but it is safer to have most of my mail go to my post office box … it is always dry, plus it is close to work, so I can get my mail before lunch and enjoy it while I eat.
- Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.
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My favorite postcards are pictures of the sender’s mailbox, even if it is only a mailslot. Some of the recent ones I’ve received are NL-1247688, DE-1267457, DE-1251668 and TW-455583.
Sometimes people write on the back of regular postcards that their mailboxes are not cute or interesting enough for a postcard. But, I think ALL mailboxes are beautiful. They are our connection to each other, even more so than email because you can hold snail mail in your hand.
- Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?
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Oh yes! A former coworker is now quite involved. As are my two oldest grandchildren. I help them with the project because they are only 5 and 3, so too young to write postcards. And I ramble on to whoever will listen about Postcrossing, at any opportunity :)
- What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?
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My very favorite part of the process is when I get an address of someone who welcomes mailart because I LOVE to make postcards.
- Is there anything that you are passionate about?
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I am passionate about snail mail. I send about 40 or so pieces of mail a week and I love the connecting with other people. Somehow political/cultural differences don’t matter when one is writing to another about some shared interest, like fountain pens, or beekeeping, or novels, or the cute little bird that sat on the back of my patio chair and sang me his life story.
Thank you so very much for listening to me my Postcrossing story! And thank you very much for this wonderful site.
45 comments so far
Hi BonnieJeanne,
nice to meet you in the Postcrossing Spotlight!
Best wishes for the Year 2013,
send to you from the Netherlands, Willemina
You're postbox is beautiful!! We only have 1 postbox for alot of houses in the UK and they all look the same :(
Thanks for another wonderul Spotlight - great to meet BonnieJeanne!
Lovely to .. well remeet you!
Loved your story....you are inspiring!!! Wishing you an overflowing mailbox in 2013!!
Lovely!
great article :D such a cute mailbox should be on a postcard!!
Lovely to meet you again!
Awesome! Great to see you in the spotlight Postmuse - much deserved. Happy to have been one of your postal-friends since I started sending post and it's great to see you still flying the flag.
Nice to know that you are here on the spotlight :D I participate on your interesting project and really hope the postcards arrive soon :) I enjoy your mail art!
Thanks for the spotlight....
hi postmuse
We miss seeing your mailart on MA365. Come start another year with us. I still haven't finished my first one. lol...
Aren't you fearful of people removing your outgoing mail from your box before the mailman picks it up? They had lots of theft of mail where people would remove your outgoing checks/payments and wash the ink and make the checks back out to themselves or to other places. Of course maybe more people now pay bills online so that isn't a concern.
And my icon is my PO Box. It is an old combination lock box.
Hello
What a cute mailbox you have!I'm postcrosser since march and I love it
greetings from Austria
Hello BonnieJeanne, good to see /read all this things about you and your snailmail!
Warm greetings!
Nice article on a snail mail/mail art legend.
Great article! Awesome mailbox! I share your sentiments exactly. Postcrossing really brings the people of the world together!
Enjoyed your story. Love the cute mailbox! Thanks for sharing.
Hi neighbor, I'm right next door in "Da Rox"....they forgot the H! Haha! Great article!
Nice to see PostMuse featured on here. I have followed her blog for a long time. But it would have been nice if you spelled her city correctly - it's Pittsburgh, not Pittsburg.
I'm so happy to see the story on it!
I love post box too : )
Another cool story. I wish next time you get my address so I can get your mail art...
Hello Bonnie Jeanne!
Many thanks for sharing the interesting story & photos with us. Your mailbox is full of American atmosphere as typical American movies present. Warm greetings from Taiwan!
@medusa242 fixed!
Nice reading more about you Bonnie Jean- I loved participating in your orphaned card project! Lori
And what an inviting little flower garden! i also like th artsy display of the fotos in the mailbox...cool idea.
Hello from NE Ohio, PostMuse! :) I absolutely love the postcard of your mailbox, it's such a great idea!
This was a lovely spotlight! Nice to meet you!
- Marica from near Akron, Ohio
I always like reading the spot lights. Well done! :)
I didn't know you could leave your outgoing mail in your mailbox. That's so cool :). Thanks for teaching me this ^^
great blog report and lovely to see the pictures of the mailbox... it's very different from the collection procedure in the UK.
Thank you for this great story and the pictures. Indeed, I did not know you can leave your outgoing mail in the box and let the postman pick it up..what a great idea.. And your mailboxes really look much more inviting than ours ;-)
Hello PostMuse. I've exchanged postcards with you like some of the other folks commenting. I'd like to correct one comment though. Only some people in the US can get their mail picked up at home. I have to walk to a mail box two blocks away to mail mine. Not that big a hardship but when the weather gets bad here in Chicago, you can find me procrastinating going out.
Congrats on being featured here.
Hi Bonnie Jeanne I recently took a photo of my mailbox and will include a copy in my next post to you and will probably get some postcards made of it. Thanks for the idea.
Take Care my friend, great to see you featured here. MOL's is almost upon us, your mail box will be full I'm sure!
What a thrill that PostMuse was the featured interview! I feel like I know a celebrity now.
But the article certainly should have mentioned the OPP - Bonnie Jeanne's Orphaned Postcard Project. Google it, people. More postal fun to share in!
Hi Neighbor! Love how pretty the mailbox looks. Our neighbors mailboxes are plain and boring and we are the only family that decorates the mailbox for holidays and plants flowers around it.Great interview! The Lords from Shaler PA!
Thank you for all the kinds comments! I am honored to be the spotlight interview on Postcrossing. And my mailboxes have never been happier.
Nice mailbox, you don't see them in Holand.
And i have to walk for 5 minutes to put my cards in the mailbox.
I also love the trill of snail mail
I absolutely love your home mailbox! Your work mail chute is really cool, too, though. I don't imagine there are that many like that around any more, are there?
Happy to see PostMuse on the spotlight! :)
OK, this is kind of funny. The city spelling was corrected, but now the state is spelled wrong (both in the title & the article)!
Postmuse and other postcrossers saving postal jobs world wide one card at a time......As a postal worker I have always loved intresting mailboxes .
Love your home mailbox! It must be so handy to be able to leave post there for collection too :-D
Nice interview and your mailbox is awesome!
I am a mailman but we do not pick up any mail, just deliver :)
Great article about a wonderful woman. Bonnie Jeanne's orphaned postcard project is awesome - check it out and participate for some extra fun in your day!
Delightful Spotlight interview! After reading this wonderful interview, I started paying attention to the mailboxes in my neighborhood. To my surprise, I spotted quite a number of houses with mail slots. I live in San Francisco, California, in a neighborhood with many Edwardian houses. Recently, my neighbors also added a mail slot to their house.
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