A Sunshine Coast-based blogger, Katy Roach (aka Katy Potaty) and I found each other on Instagram (using the #everydaystyle hashtag), met for a coffee on Hastings St in Noosa on my birthday last year and even though her first comment was about how short I am, we became fast friends. Since then we’ve discovered we’ve lived parallel lives – working for the same organisation and even dating the same guy (not at the same time!). Her blog, Katy Potaty, is dedicated to all of her favorite things. There’s no denying, I kinda heart her. Just a bit.
When did you begin your blog and what made you decide to start one?
My first blog (also called Katy Potaty) started in 2008 as an offshoot for my then-side business, baking cupcakes and cakes for local Brisbane events. I enjoyed the baking, but not enough to want to take it full-time, so when I married and moved back to the Sunshine Coast and started working part-time in education, I let the business side of things slide, but I was still publishing recipes and baked goods stuff online on the blog.
Where are three of your favorite places to shop?
I love to find unique accessories at markets, we’re so lucky on the Sunshine Coast to have Eumundi Markets here every week and I almost always find great earrings and fine silver rings. I’m a huge fan of Seed, they seem to always get the cut just right for my size 14 body, they use mainly natural fabrics such as cotton and linen, and their collections are always very stripe-heavy. And, as someone who prefers the term ‘style’ over ‘fashion’, I’m going to say my third favorite place to shop is Instagram! Seriously, I find so much inspiration on Instagram from small businesses and other bloggers.
What’s your favorite holiday destination and why?
I’ve got to say Port Douglas, I was proposed to there, got married there and now we celebrate anniversaries there. I love it because it is local enough that we can fly up for a long weekend (or drive if we want to take our puppy Stevie), it’s tropical and relaxed enough that I don’t need to frock up at all (indeed, I’ve worn thongs to fancy dinners and nobody batted an eyelid), and it’s just got that whole ‘island time’ vibe which means I start relaxing and de-stressing the minute we arrive.
Where do you find inspiration for your posts?
It really depends; usually my social media posts (Instagram and Facebook) are spur of the moment posts and I don’t think about curating them too much. My blog posts are often planned in advance, and whilst I know I should blog more frequently, I feel like when I read blogs, I can always pick the ones who are phoning it in or just writing to fill space, and I never want to do that. I get most of my inspiration from my friends, both online and off.
What is the best advice you have ever received and the best advice you have to give?I love this quote which I was given on a fortune cookie slip by a housemate: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. I share that one around a lot. Strangely, I have always been working in industries where I get the chance to either formally or informally support and mentor girls or younger women, and my best advice to them is always ‘Decide to do it now, and make it happen’. I know that I only properly regret the things I never tried (apart from one or two boyfriends), and I hate thinking that young women are too intimidated by the space that social media has become, to take a chance and do what they’re passionate about. Who are your favorite people to follow on Instagram? I adore seeing my bestie’s babes (3-year-old boy and 5 month old twin girls) grow into weird little characters every single day, and while we catch up multiple times a week, I still can’t get enough of what @traineemama posts. I also love following the #everydaystyle hashtag, there are so many awesome women out there who wear the cutest things. Describe your favorite way to spend a Sunday. My ideal Sunday would feature all my fave folk (it’s a short list, I’m surprisingly an introvert). I’d go out for a late brunch and a drive with my husband and Stevie, then head home to relax and maybe nap before my closest friends would come over mid-afternoon bearing bottles of icy cold Marlborough Sav Blanc and we’d sit around in the pool and solve all the problems of the world. Then they’d bugger off before I got sick of them, and husband and I would enjoy a night on the couch (ok, the dog would be on the couch too) watching a rom-com like 50 First Dates. Bliss.Read Katy Potaty’s blog here, find her on Facebook here and stalk her on Instagram here.
