I Was Featured in Inside Small Business 🥹🎨

This is definitely one of those “how is this actually my life?” moments.

Annalise Paints has officially been featured in Inside Small Business, and seeing my story written about in a publication like this feels incredibly surreal.

The article is called “A pandemic hobby takes artist from suburban letterboxes to the Big Apple”, which honestly sums up the craziness of this whole journey pretty perfectly. 😂

What started with me painting little watercolour portraits of my neighbours' pets during lockdown has somehow turned into my full-time business.

And now that story is being shared with people all around Australia.

Read the full Inside Small Business feature →

Seeing the whole story written down was pretty emotional

When you're running a small business every day, you don't always stop and think about how much has actually happened.

You're just onto the next portrait.

The next order.

The next market.

The next idea.

The next slightly chaotic thing that needs doing. 😂

So seeing the Annalise Paints story written out from the very beginning made me stop for a second.

It reminded me of painting those first pets during lockdown and putting them into my neighbours' letterboxes.

At the time, it was just something fun to do.

I had absolutely no idea I was starting what would eventually become my career.

From a hobby to my full-time business

One of the things that makes this feature so special is that it tells the story of how unexpectedly Annalise Paints began.

There was no huge business plan.

There wasn't some grand idea to build a pet brand.

I just loved painting animals.

People started asking me to paint their pets, one thing led to another, and eventually I took the scary leap into doing Annalise Paints full-time.

Looking back now, I'm SO glad I did.

Having Lunar be part of the story meant even more 🤍

The article also shares the story of Lunar and how losing her eventually shaped another huge part of Annalise Paints.

Lunar was there beside me while I built this business.

And after losing her, capturing her paw print became something incredibly important to me.

That experience eventually led to me introducing Inkless Paw Print Kits into Annalise Paints.

So seeing her story included in a feature about how the business has grown felt really special.

She is such a huge part of why I care so much about helping people capture the little things about their pets while they can.

And then there's Times Square...

This is still the part that doesn't sound real when I say it.

My artwork is going to be shown in Times Square, New York City.

From suburban Melbourne letterboxes...

to Times Square.

WHAT. 😂

Seeing those two parts of my story connected in the Inside Small Business article made the whole thing feel even more surreal.

I definitely didn't see that one coming when I was sitting at home painting my neighbours' dogs during lockdown.

A pretty big pinch-me moment

Being featured isn't something I ever expected when I started Annalise Paints.

I was just trying to create something people loved.

So having publications now reach out and want to share my story feels incredibly exciting.

It also makes me really proud of all the little milestones that happened along the way.

The first stranger who ordered a portrait.

The first market.

The first big order.

The first time someone told me they'd seen one of my products somewhere.

The first time I realised this little idea might actually work.

None of the exciting things happening now would exist without all of those tiny moments first.

Thank you for being part of it 🥹

I know I say this a lot, but Annalise Paints genuinely wouldn't be where it is without the people who support it.

Every person who has trusted me to paint their pet.

Every person who has captured their pet's paw print.

Every person who has bought a card, visited me at a market, shared a post or told a friend about my business.

You have all helped turn a random lockdown painting hobby into something I get to call my job.

And now somehow we're being written about in Inside Small Business and heading to Times Square.

Absolutely wild. 😂🤍

Read the full feature

If you'd like to read more about the story behind Annalise Paints, you can read the full Inside Small Business article below.

Read the Inside Small Business feature →

Thank you for being here and following this very unexpected little journey.

I genuinely can't wait to see what comes next. 🐾🎨🤍