So You Want to Know Who Stacy Uncorked Is…

Me and my Miracle, Princess Nagger, Summer 2012

Who Am I?

I’m Stacy Johnson (not to be confused by the financial dude, obviously), born and raised in Washington State (and no, not during the age of Cowboy’s and Indians… er, um, excuse me, Native Americans) but since I have an adventurous spirit I’ve lived in Oregon, Michigan, New York and most recently Pennsylvania. Plans are underway to return to my home state of Washington in the summer of 2013. My fellow Washitonians, you have been warned.

I moved to Pennsylvania because of this guy:

That was in 1997 – that sounds so long ago, doesn’t it? We actually met online before it was the ‘in’ thing to do – he was in San Francisco and I was in Washington State. After a few months of dating long distance, we moved together to PA since his dad, who lived in Maryland, was very ill.

We only planned to stay in PA one or two years, but thankfully his dad recovered and lasted another 13 years before finally meeting his maker in October of 2010. He was happy he got to stick around long enough to see this:

We don’t follow the ‘norm’ – we did everything in reverse. Had the kid, bought the house, then got married.

After 20+ years in the Corporate World and years of infertility, I welcomed a Miracle Baby (aka Princess Nagger):

Princess Nagger, 5 Minutes Old
November 2002

Yeah, you’d probably be looking a little frumpy too, if you had just exited a nice dark warm place and had someone annoying you with flashing lights. Or when you’re nine, and your mom (me) is annoying you unnecessarily:

Princess Nagger (Age 9) May 2012

After weighing all our options, I decided to forgo returning to the 60+ hour weeks and stay home with my new baby. Being a SAHM/WAHM has been both a challenge and a joy – and I’m loving every minute of it.

In 2011 we welcomed another addition to our family (Little Dude) by way of foster care to adoption, with the adoption finalized in June, 2012. The Road to Adoption story will be coming in the future, I promise.

Little Dude (Age 4) May 2012

We have an eclectic mix of pets including our Dork Dogs Travis and Rolex:

L: Travis (Blue Merle Sheltie) R: Rolex (Red Merle Sheltie)

We also have three cats, Link, Zelda and Agent Orange, along with two birds and a pond full of fish (that Princess Nagger likes to pretend she’s fishing in).

We live in an antique house – built in 1817 – that has lots of character and is rumored to be the stopping place for the President during the Civil War when he was traveling between Gettysburg and York, Pennsylvania. We have done a lot of work on our house, adding some modernization but keeping it ‘old’ and as original as possible with our DIY projects.

I love to cook and try new techniques to turn ordinary into extraordinary. Crafty by nature, I tend to take on a lot of unique projects and enjoy seeing the end result.

Not one to sit still for long, I started my own business doing Web and Graphic Design for select clients (I’ll add a link later – when I actually pay attention to my own website since I tend to make that the bottom of my priority list) and Custom Gift Baskets. For a number of years (pre-Princess Nagger) I also enjoyed creating One Of A Kind (OOAK) Barbie creations, which I haven’t gotten back to since Princess Nagger was born, and explains why I haven’t updated my SassyDolls website in a number of years.

My favorite crafty mode, of course, is making my own wine. Naturally I had a lot to learn, since my first batch turned into vinegar. Luckily I never repeated my mistakes, and have enjoyed making win with a passion. I even entered some of my wine in Winemaker Magazine’s International Winemakers’s Competition, winning a Silver Medal in 2011, and Gold and Silver Medals in 2012. It’s always nice to be validated – or at least know that you’re doing something right.

Why Am I Here?

I started this blog in September of 2008 – it seems so long ago, now. Prior to that I was part of a group of rabid fans on a quest to Save Journeyman, and had published a few rants on TV.com during our movement to get NBC to save our precious show. It wasn’t saved, unfortunately. I had enjoyed the interaction with like-minded people in this crazy virtual wold, and stumbled across several “Mommy Blogger” blogs and decided I might as well join the fray since I was a mommy, too.

I actually wrote a post that explains ‘the beginning’, and sums up why I blog: In the Beginning, There Was A Blog… and it was Random. It was part of one of the meme’s I participate in, which seems to be par for the course more often than not lately. Change is coming…

I blog about the joys of parenting, family, friends, life, love and anything else that strikes my fancy. Mostly it’s because I’m lazy and haven’t ever kept a journal or baby book, and wanted to make sure I was documenting milestones somewhere, so I’d be able to look back and have those “I remember when…” moments as Princess Nagger grows up. That, and it’s nice to have some good blackmail material for when she starts dating.

I thoroughly enjoy the camaraderie I’ve found with fellow bloggers – we are in a class all our own, aren’t we? People who don’t blog don’t seem to get it, when you mention the word ‘blog’ they look at you as if you’ve grown a set of antennae or a third eye. Or that you’re using a fancy new dirty word.

Along with being a paparazzi-type with my kids, family and friends (and anyone else who happens to end up in front of my lens), I do occasional reviews and giveaways, but I’m not specifically a review and giveaway blog. I am very selective on what I will review or giveaway, because it’s all about you, my most awesome readers, that I want to make happy. I will only review things that I myself have or will use, and that I can stand behind.

I shoot from the hip and sometimes speak before I think – sometimes I’ll do that when I’m writing, too. It’s just who I am.

My blog has morphed and changed over the years, and as we begin to wind up the year 2012, look for even more morphing and changes happening along the way. They’ll all be good, I promise. And I always keep my promises.

Thank you for checking me out – well, you know what I mean. Feel free to make yourself at home, pour yourself a glass of wine, and stick around for a visit. I appreciate you being here.