We found Màiri (aka mairigold) through a charming owl-themed postcard exhibition she prepared for a museum in Scotland — and couldn’t wait to learn more! A lifelong postcard enthusiast, she finds joy in sharing postcards, decorating them… and even building tiny snowpeople on her red postbox! 😍
- How did you get started sending postcards? What is your earliest memory of them?
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This postcard was one of my most precious treasures as a child. I still like it now! Those 3D fairytale postcards seemed magical to me and I think that must have been what got me interested in postcards.
- How did you come across Postcrossing? What got you hooked?
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I heard about Postcrossing quite by chance in 2011 when it was mentioned in passing in an online interview. I signed up immediately! Until then I had never met anyone else that liked postcards as much as I did… suddenly a whole world of fellow postcard afficionados opened up to me!
- Show and tell us about your favorite received postcard to date, and what makes it special.
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Impossible to choose!
However, 18 August 2012 was a good Postcrossing day for me! These two beautiful postcards arrived together from China – one was drawn by Scarelt as a thank you for GB-339961 and the other (CN-627070) was sent by DogDadRory. - Show us your mailbox, your mailman/mailwoman, your postoffice or the place where you post or keep your postcards!
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I am lucky to have this red postbox just outside my door. This is where I post my postcards. When it snows I build a wee snowperson on the top!
I keep some of my postcards in these mango boxes!
- What is it your favorite part of the Postcrossing process?
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What I love is choosing the postcards to send. It is great when I have one that appears in someone’s favourites wishlist! I like choosing the stamps to use and writing and decorating the postcard too. I have a LOT of stickers and washi tapes as well as postcards.
- Have you been surprised by any place that you have received a postcard from or sent a postcard to?
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I received a postcard from Fiji which has only 17 postcrossers – quite an unusual postcard entitled “evoking spirits with a shaman’s drum”. And I sent a postcard – a map of Scotland – to a “country” I had never heard of: Saint Pierre & Miquelon, which is a French archipelago located near Canada.
- Do you have any other interesting hobbies or collections?
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I have a small collection of knitted or crocheted toys, which includes a wee crochet tea set and a vase of flowers, a wee knitted doll, two owls and a stripy cat.
I also have growing collection of fancy matchboxes too.
- Have you inspired anyone else to join Postcrossing or start collections of their own?
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I work in an art gallery and recently had a wee exhibition of (some of) my owl postcard collection in its sister museum: The Auld Kirk Museum in Kirkintilloch, Scotland.
Several of my colleagues share an enthusiasm for postcards and have now become Postcrossers too!
However, 18 August 2012 was a good Postcrossing day for me! These two beautiful postcards arrived together from China – one was drawn by 
62 comments so far
Oh, how many Belarusian owls there are🦉
😉👍
Love the snowman on the mailbox, not just to send mail but to have fun as well. Love also the clustering os postacards, it shows how owner sees them. An the reuse of fruit boxes seems fantastic and matches our need to compenssate somehow all the impact our hobby does to envirnoment.
Congrats for the iterview.
Màiri's first postcard is so sweet, one to dream on for years. Makes me wonder what impact we have when we send a postcard to a child! Wonderful interview ♥
I had never heard of those French islands near Newfoundland, and I went down a really fun rabbit hole about them. Thank you!
Wonderful post and images!
What a delight! Thank you, Màiri, for sharing yourself with us. 3D postcard! Tiny snowperson! Fancy matchboxes! OWLS! And thank you, Postcrossing and my Postcrossing comrades, for your joyful shenanigans. I've always loved the way postcards are windows into different worlds. I appreciated visiting your worlds today, Màiri!
Love it!
Lovely to "meet" such an artistic and enthusiastic Postcrosser and thank you for sharing your ideas! It's amazing how many Postcrossers are cat-lovers.. and philatelists!
Wish you many more postcards and stamps!
Such a delightful interview and the photos great too! 😊❤️
I enjoyed this post so much! I am inspired!! I have a local Library that hosts exhibits...mmmm I think I might just try one! The photos, the tiny snowman!! Just a yummy blog today!
Love this!
A great interview!
Maybe one day we will meet in the mail @mairigold.
Love your storage boxes.
Enjoyed reading this interview very much - thank you 😃👍
I enjoyed this post so very much! Thank you!
This was a very enjoyable interview to read. I loved your owl postcard exhibition. Here’s hoping someday I will get your name or vice versa!
This is lovely! I also like owl postcards and have a lot. Maybe I can do an exhibition of them in my library one day!
A great interview to read and see all the fun postcards!
I love these articles. We get to "meet" fellow Postcrossers and what drew them to this delightful pastime.
Lovely to meet you, Mairi! I admit I am jealous that you work in an art gallery! That has always been a dream of mine. :)
A fun interview! It must be fun to exhibit the postcards you received through postcrossing!
This was nice to read, and I really loved seeing the mango boxes. I have some frozen mango puree, from a backyard tree, in my freezer right now. Maybe I'll make delicious icy mango sorbet for Easter :) Thanks for the idea! 68oF/20oC
Wat een leuk jntervieuw. Ik ben pas begonnen met postcrossing en heb afgelopen week mijn 1e kaart ontvangen. Ik kijk uit naar dit avontuur
❤️ I thought I had a close by post box only a few minutes walk but Maìri's is even closer!
What a happy story! Thank you!
Wow! That is awesome!
Thank you for sharing! @mairigold you live in my favorite country : )
Oh, what a beautiful blog post this week here.
I got an owl motif post card lately from another postcrosser. The owl motifs there are all around the world make me feel fascinated more by the forest that I love anyway. Scotland is a nice country, I once had a penpal from there. Maybe, @mairigold, we get to exchange here at the card feature one day by coincidence ;)
Mangoes are both beautiful and delicious anyway. I planted two mango trees from kernels and one is really big now.
As always, I really enjoy "meeting" other Postcrossers through their every-day fascinating lives and experiences. It's amazing to know all the stories we can share that become woven into our mutual postcard connections. Thank you for giving me some new things to learn today.
Thank you Màiri for an interesting post! How great that work and hobby complement each other. Great idea with the exhibition. The mailbox with the snowman is so cute, I can just see the smile on the postman's face. I read the comments, it turns out many people like owls, I took note. Good luck to everyone!
Loving real life postcrossers portraits! Màiri has woven postcrossing into her life beautifully
What a wonderful, heart warming interview. Thank you!
Yes, what a happy nice story. I hope to receive a owl some day...
wonderful story. I would like to send Maria an owl from Russia. is it possible?
Yes dear Postcrossers I love owls,I have at last 20-30 of them on stamps
Thanks for the red mailbox ,great ,Deutsche Post is removing more and more mailboxes and many Postal workers don't want to stamp our cards
All the best
Creative people always make me smile! What a wonderful story:)
Thank you for sharing your story. It is always so interesting to see the things that other postcrossers are interested in.
I love the little snowperson and the owl display! So cool!
This is delightful!
Love your enthousiasm and your fantastic ideas!
Thank you for sharing. This is wonderful to be able to
share and see other postcard collections and learn about
their journey.
A wonderful story and a beautiful exhibit at the museum! I visited Saint Pierre et Miquelon on a cruise last year and enjoyed a bit of France for the day. Now I'm enjoying watching a CBC tv series new this season called Saint-Pierre! The locations are all familiar from my trip last year.
I've always looked forward to the Spotlight interview, and it never dissapoints. <3 The mango boxes are a great idea for storage! So bright and cheerful!
This is a cheery article and I am mostly Scotch Welch with a little Irish and just before Saint Patrick's day I really enjoyed reading this!
Dear Mairi. Thank you for sharing your story. I mostly amazed to see at your mini exhibition two postcards with owls from my local artist Inga Paltser! She made many very cute owls indeed! Just search in Google. Good luck & happy postcrossing!
This is such a cool and a heartwarming story! I now kinda wish I draft Mairi's address when I send out my next card batch - I know exactly of an artist whose cards she might fancy. This artists paints animals in steampunk hats, and they have a cool owl in that series! :D
Wow, what a great story! Mairi's tales prove that Postcrossing is a real journey of discovery and connection.
GREAT!!! thank you :))
What a lovely story, the pictures made me happy. :)
Thank you very much!
Absolutely lovely 😊
Lovely :D
wow, i am so surprise that the beautiful card's author Scarelt is from Wenzhou, the same city i live!
Precious collection. This reminds me of the postcard museum (Musée de la Carte Postale) in Antibes, France. If you are ever in the South of France, this is worth a visit. It is mind blowing and the owner of the museum gives a delightful tour of the whole exhibition.
Love the interview and your owl card collection.
The 3D postcard is so very cute!
Thank you for sharing !
Wmae
I love it! I am always learning something new with Postcrossing!
So cute! Thank you for sharing.......
Wonderful! I like this.
Lovely blog post, cards and great exhibit!
So lovely! I wish we had interesting postboxes in the US. I love your passion for Postcards. I share that as well as an appreciation for art.
VERY cute! I enjoyed this blog post and learning more about you!
The owl display was just darling.
I'd love to visit that exhibition! 😍 Great interview!
Such an endearing interview! I am enjoying Mark, my husband the recent Postcrossers' world. This is so fantastic to have a window into your journey. By the way - this picture is of our beautiful rescue dog Liberty Isabel. She is a Papillon which means 'butterfly' in French (refers to her ears). Susan
It was through working in an art gallery that I met my first Postcrosser and was told about this wonderful community. She was looking for different postcards and sadly my gallery didn't have them reasonably priced enough at the time so she only bought a couple. When the postcards went on sale I wished I could contact her but I never knew who she was. A mystery Postcrossing person looking for great postcards to send. I checked it out and was hooked. I jo longer work in an art gallery but would love to have a postcard exhibition.
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