It's not very often that you come up with an idea that nobody else has had. I'm pretty proud of the fact that my magazine was the first one in the world made specifically about vintage caravans and trailers.
I started the magazine back in 2011 after having received lots of positive comments from people about my stories on this blog and in other magazine I was writing for as a freelancer. I love writing and sharing stories, I love vintage style, vintage caravans and traveling and this allowed me to combine all of my passions into one pursuit.
The magazine soon had subscribers from all over the world and got a lot of attention! I tried to cover stories from as many places as the stories were coming in from and began traveling regularly between the places where most of the readers came from: Australia, America and New Zealand which, coincidentally, were places I had spent the most time growing up in as well. I was born in Australia and my mother is Australian, my Dad was born in Canada but grew up in America. We spent several years in New Zealand when I was growing up. I went to college in Los Angeles, got married and had my kids in Australia and my Mum lives in New Zealand, so I consider all of these places home...
Knowing that the word "Caravan" means something completely different in America than it does in Australia, I registered and trademarked the name Vintage Trailer Magazine as well to cater for our American readers.
The best part of my job is being able to hook up, get out on the road and see so many amazing things, meet so many lovely people and get lots of photos for future issues. Life is a road trip!
In 2014 I set up a home and office in Oregon, where my sister had lived for the past 18 years and fell in love with the place! So many trees and rivers and mountains and snow... I think it is as close to heaven as I've been! I sold my 1965 Viscount "Vicky" to buy a 1953 Hudson Hornet to use in America and set off on a huge trip to discover more of my new home, from California across the top through Washington, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota and Iowa to Illinois with a 1956 Mercury trailer in tow.
From there I joined up with the Sisters on the Fly Route 66 trip and made some amazing friends who were just as wild and adventurous and brave as I was. I am so thankful to real life sisters Maurrie and Becky for sharing their passions with so many and creating a group where women can be girls, but still be empowered and silly too! This is Becky's trailer on the cover of Vintage Trailer Magazine Issue 26 - that's their Amazing Mum Maizie in the painting. Now she was a wild one!
Every time a new issue comes off the presses I feel as excited as a mother who has just been handed her brand new baby for the very first time. Even though I pore over every detail for the months leading up to print day, whenever I have the actual magazine in my hands, it's like I am seeing it for the very first time... every time! It never gets boring.
I make myself comfy, have a nice cup of hot chocolate or a sweet treat and sit and read it from cover to cover and every story takes on a whole new dimension when it is there on paper in front of me. I read it as if I have never seen it before, and it honestly feels like that!
How it all comes together is still a bit of a mystery to me, but somehow it does, from the skeleton to the fleshing it, it comes to life in pieces until the day a new magazine is born. And, like a new baby, it's exhausting and it keeps me up at nights many times, but I still love it to bits!
Here is the latest issue #29 of Vintage Trailer Magazine - out now.
Subscriptions can be ordered at www.vintagetrailermagazine.com
