Aiden's Isuzu

Part 2 of my personal travel project centred around vehicles that have facilitated some amazing adventures all over the world! This one features Aiden’s incredible Isuzu truck, that toured us around some unbelievably beautiful wild camping spots in Northern Norway last July 🇳🇴 🛻

This is actually the 2nd time I’m sharing this (I deleted the old post) because I didn’t love the colours, but now I’m much happier with it! And I’m excited about how it contributes to a bigger collection that I have planned out and hope to be sharing more of soon!

Paddy 🍀

Part 1 of a little personal project dedicated to some incredible vehicles that I’ve had the pleasure of driving and adventuring in, and have all lead up to the decision to finally buy my own camper van to travel in! I’ve been working on this project for quite a while now amongst other things, but I’m hoping by posting it, will give me a kick up the arse to get the other illustrations that I have planned for this series done, which are currently a work in progress.

This first one is an ode to the incredible RV, that we named Paddy, that facilitated THE MOST amazing month long trip around America during April this year 🇺🇸 Driving from Las Vegas to Miami through desserts and snow, this was an experience I hope to never ever forget 🫶🏻

Change of Scenery

It’s been just over a year since my life got flipped upside down and I moved home to North London after living in the incredibly creative city of Bristol for the previous 4 years. This year at home has been immensely healing, I’ve been able to travel, spend far more time with friends and family, and navigate an ADHD diagnosis along with incredible support. It was exactly what I needed, but a year on, after applying for countless jobs with zero luck, I began to feel pretty stagnant. Then my car failed it's MOT very badly, and my relationship broke down too shortly after… despite the intense sadness, I took it as a sign from the universe to do something I’ve dreamt of for years, buying and converting a van to travel in!

I’ve been saving for a house deposit since I was 22, and I managed to put aside a decent chunk of money, but since I can’t hold down a reliable job nor relationship, I accepted the likelihood of getting a mortgage is basically non-existent, whereas a tiny house on wheels is way more affordable, and fun! I never thought I’d be doing this on my own, I had hoped it would have been with my ex partner, but alas, that clearly wasn’t meant to be, and I’m hoping that character and independence building aspects of this experience won’t be too challenging…

The first challenge was navigating the incredibly overwhelming market of options and what to go for. I took a decent bit of time researching and viewing and variety of choices, and in the end I opted for an orange short wheeled based 2017 Volkswagen Transporter! I’ve driven a couple of these before and I’ve heard they are very reliable in the long run despite the fairly more pricey upfront price tag.

I started to notice this orange colour way popping up and realised it was a common option as they are used as RAC vans! Similar to my illustration work, colour plays a significant role in my day to day, and so I simply couldn’t go with a plain white van. The existing milage on the van is pretty hefty which was a slight concern, but as the timing belt and clutch has been replaced, it drives super smooth, and overall I feel I made the best choice for me. I also haggled for the first time in my life and managed to get £750 off the asking price which I’m incredibly chuffed with!

The next challenge was establishing how to convert it, I accepted reality fairly quickly on this one and knew that as soon as a minor inconvenience came up within the conversion, I’d abslotley loose my mind, so I opted for outsourcing the entirety of the job. Whilst this is obviously a huge expense, I know my mental capacity and it simply would have imploded trying to attempt this.

I feel I really lucked out on finding a knowledgable and enthusiastic guy to convert it for me with immediate availability. He’s been sending me updates throughout and it should be ready to go in just over a week, which is INSANE!

Whilst he’s been cracking on with work, I’ve been mentally and physically preparing for life on the road. I don’t actually plan on living in the van full time, as it’s a bit too small for that, instead I’m hoping to do pet-sits, visit friends and family, and only spend a few nights here and there completely solo in the van. Regardless, it’s still a huge lifestyle change and so lots needs to be considered in order for it to go as smoothly as possible.

The first stage of this was finding a new therapist, which I did through Better Help, I’ve previously been hesitant about going completely online for this kind of support, as I’m very much and in person kinda gal, however with life being all over the place, it was kind of my only option, and I’m very pleased to say I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the service so far. It’s far more affordable and I got matched with a professional within my areas of need within 24 hours! I’ve linked a code where you can sign up for a FREE week here, because I get a free week too!

The next stage has been reducing my belongings as much as possible. I’m fortunate that I can leave plenty of stuff with friends and family, but I’m aware how good reducing clutter is for you, and I also have a abundance of stock left over from very unsuccessful markets, so to aid the reduction of that, I’m doing a huge sale on all of my illustrated products, with 50% off everything until 5th Oct!

I’ll be sharing more on this over the next week, but I think this blog post is long enough for now!