Seven-year-old
Emme models the stilts that she and her father designed
for Dad’s Book of Awesome Projects.
Photo courtesy Adams Media
Imagine spending your days putting together
fabulous crafts
using whatever is in your junk drawer—and getting paid to do
it. That’s the
life Duncan Street resident Mike Adamick has been leading.
Adamick’s new parenting book, Dad’s
Book of Awesome
Projects, was published by Adams Media last month,
just in time for
Father’s Day June 16. It has had so many pre-order requests,
it’s already in
its second printing.
Easy to see why. The 176-page paperback shows
you how to make
more than 25 projects—from birdhouses and friendship bracelets
to rope swings
and fruit-crate scooters. “Think MacGyver meets Martha
Stewart,” jokes the
author.
Adamick, 36, is a reporter who gave up his job
at the Contra
Costa Times seven years ago, soon after his daughter Emmeline
was born. He
blogs for the San Francisco Chronicle’s parenting
blog “The
Poop” and for KQED Radio, and has a column, “Daddy Issues,” on
Jezebel.com.
But his major title these days is stay-at-home
dad. Adamick’s
wife, Dana Kromm, an attorney, is the main breadwinner in the
family.
Adamick describes himself as “the caregiver
who’s home most of
the time to handle the day-to-day drudgery of parenting, both
the good and the
bad—homework, chores, carpools, pickup, drop-off, [and]
grocery shopping.”
Nevertheless, he absolutely loves the role,
because the “good”
is being able to spend creative quality time with his
daughter. Emmeline
(nickname “Emme”) has been his collaborator in crafting ever
since she could
grab a piece of construction paper.
“We’re always looking for fun things to do,”
says Adamick. Those
fun things include building a catapult, constructing zip lines
from their house
to a tree in the back yard, and mixing up mounds of homemade
play-dough.
For Emme’s seventh birthday, Adamick made her a
pogo stick. “She
really loves it. When I was a kid, I tried to get to 100 jumps
on my pogo
stick, and it’s so great to see her excited to try it, too.”
Bridge Knowledge Comes in Handy
Emme,
Dana, and Mike Adamick have collected the family’s best
inventions in a crafts book, already in its second
printing a month after publication.
Photo by Pamela Gerard
The idea for Dad’s Book of Awesome
Projects wasn’t
Adamick’s originally. He is friends with former Noe Valley
resident Jeremy Adam
Smith, who wrote a book on stay-at-home fathers called The
Daddy Shift (see Voice June
2009). Smith’s agent was on the hunt for a father who could
pen a book about
crafting with kids. Smith knew Adamick was the dad for the
job.
“It never occurred to me to combine my two
interests—writing and
DIY stuff with my daughter,” Adamick says. “It’s just one of
those things. I’m
really grateful Jeremy passed along the information.”
As a reporter, Adamick covered state
transportation politics. “I
wrote about the quite fascinating and arcane Bay Bridge
construction project,”
he says. He still keeps track of the bridge’s progress.
“It’s interesting to see it’s still big in the
news every day.
One project in the book is inspired by the differences between
suspension
bridges and cable-stayed bridges.”
That would be the popsicle-stick bridge, which
is fashioned to
look like a miniature Golden Gate Bridge. To make it, Adamick
dug around Emme’s
art bin for popsicle sticks, glue, tape, and twine one rainy
afternoon when
she’d been asking questions about bridges. He was in “dork
heaven.”
Made with Found Objects
Adamick divides the projects in the book into
three types:
afternoon crafts, weekend projects, and school-break projects.
He says one of
his key points is to not spend a lot of money on supplies.
“Most of the things you need are probably lying
around the
house, or you can head over to Cole Hardware on Mission Street
for a few
things. I love Just for Fun on 24th Street. They have great
crafts supplies.”
The Noe Valley landscape is also a good
resource. “I’d say 99
percent of the stuff used in the book came from the
neighborhood. The sticks
for the bow-and-arrow project, we found those walking around
Glen Park
Canyon," Adamick says.
One of his favorite projects is the circus
stilts. “I was really
surprised at how easy it was to make them. Emme likes to march
around on those
things. It’s a surefire hit.” He also likes the “old-school
favorites,” like
making homemade ice cream and superhero capes.
Adamick says most of the crafts in the book are
meant to be easy
to do and not “blow up the kitchen too much.” Others—such as
building a
seesaw—can take a few days to accomplish.
All projects come with a list of supplies and
instructions, and
are illustrated with photos, many featuring Emme and friends.
A Born Tinkerer
Adamick says he inherited some of his ideas
from a childhood
growing up in Fairfield, Calif., with two older brothers. The
boys would roam
their suburban neighborhood, mucking around in the creek and
“tinkering around
the house. I remember we found a turtle and tried to build it
a home of dirt
and wood. We didn’t know that turtles are good at digging,
and in the morning
it was gone from our back yard—probably
back to its real home in the creek!” he laughs.
He and Dana have lived in Noe Valley since
their daughter was 2.
He says they’ve been surprised—and pleasantly so—by how much
like a small town
the neighborhood is.
“Fairfield was small and tight-knit, on the
edge of farmland.
That feeling is replicated here. It’s like Noe Valley has that
small-town
culture in a big-city neighborhood. Everyone is so friendly,
and we have our
haunts—Phoenix Books, which has a great kids’ section, and
Martha’s for
caffeine fixes.”
He’s hoping people will use his book as
inspiration, and not
worry if their results aren’t exactly like those in the
pictures.
“This is the golden age of DIY with
Pinterest.com and being able
to share ideas on the Internet. At the same time, it can freak
people out when
they see these photos of perfect crafts and then what they
make doesn’t look
like the picture. They can get frustrated, but they
shouldn’t.”
Adamick also reminds us that the book is aimed
at families—that
means letting kids take the lead. “Let them wield the saw or
the drill. It doesn’t
have to be perfect, especially if a kid is doing it. As long
as they’re having
fun, they will be so proud of what they make.”
Mike Adamick will be at Paxton Gate’s
Curiosities for Kids at
766 Valencia St. on Saturday, June 15, from 10 a.m. to 2
p.m. Kids will get a
bag of mystery crafts supplies and build with whatever
happens to be in the
bag. Copies of Dad’s Book of Awesome
Projects will be
for sale. They are also available at Phoenix Books on 24th
Street.
