On Zinnias and Creative Fingerprints

June 2025 Link Round-Up

I try not to make a habit of giving my home address to strangers on the Internet, but when a kind woman named Gerica asks if she can send me zinnia seeds from her garden, I conclude she is not a serial killer and tell her exactly where I live.

To provide more context, here is the full comment:

Lo and behold, a card appeared in my mailbox a few months later:

To be honest, I had completely forgotten about all of this. Gerica’s comment. The offer to send me seeds. Our brief conversation over Instagram DMs. The fact that Molly—a mutual friend of ours—had sent Gerica seeds the summer prior, inadvertently leaving some creative fingerprints on the whole cross-pollination exchange.

But wait. It gets better.

About six weeks ago, I came home from a trip where one of my children promptly informed me: “Luna ate one of your letters.”

Apparently our dog had gotten ahold of the mail, including a card from my friend Kendra, which contained—what are the odds?—more zinnia seeds.

Again, context is important here, so what you need to know is this: I had meant to order Floret seeds all spring, but in a state of overwhelm/burnout/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, I never did.

Alas, three tiny packets arrived in my mailbox anyway. A reminder that creativity does, indeed, beget creativity. I know this, of course. I believe this down to my bones. And yet, kneeling in my backyard, dropping zinnia seeds in the dirt, I felt overwhelmed by the pure generative nature of it all. Creativity. Art. Flowers. Not to mention the grace of it all: that in a span of time where I had zero energy and zero bandwidth to think about my own summer garden, two different women—one across town and one across the country—were miraculously thinking about it for me.

TL; DR — My tiny garden bed runneth over. And I guess I wanted to share this backstory so that weeks and months from now, when I start posting an obnoxious amount of flower photos (sorry I am not sorry!), you know exactly where they came from. These upcoming blooms are the byproduct of someone else's love, someone else’s tending, someone else’s generosity.

I’ve always said that every good thing I’ve ever made has the fingerprints of other women on it. What a gift to add “zinnia garden” to that list. ❤️

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A big, bold ask: I am off Instagram for the whooooole summer, which is wonderful for my mental health, but terrible for sharing my work. If you generally enjoy my writing and the art I put into the world, would you consider sharing this newsletter with a friend who might enjoy it, too? Either hit the forward button in your inbox or click share below. Thank you, thank you. ❤️

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And now, onto the links!

Our Coffee + Crumbs summer collection is live! Grab a sparkly beverage and take your time reading through this beautiful batch of essays and poetry. This one made me lol.

Currently reading and/or just finished: Broken Country (loved!), Dear Writer, We All Live Here, Heartburn, We Need Your Art, My Friends (only halfway through and will already call this a top read of 2025), Beasts and Beauty (currently reading this in a writing workshop and it is blowing my mind in the very best way), Great Big Beautiful Life (hot take: I didn’t love it, please don’t let this affect our friendship).

I am impartial to the Orgain vanilla protein powder (which I buy at Costco), but the Truvani peanut butter chocolate is not to be missed. I throw it in the blender with cold brew coffee, few scoops of greek yogurt, a banana, and ice. NO NOTES.

My friend Laura is doing a fun travel series on her Substack and invited me to share a behind-the-scenes look at our recent trip to New York. Go check it out if you’d like to know why I cried on my birthday, plus the one thing I always pack and never use (tell me I’m not alone?!).

We are giving our boys a LOT of freedom this summer to come and go as they please, ride bikes to our neighborhood parks, meet up and swim at their friends’ houses, etc etc. I really loved this post, especially this line: So the real choice isn’t between risk and no risk, it’s between different kinds of risks, and different rewards.

Weird passion project launch: if you’ve seen my notes on Substack, you know I’m having fun experimenting with AI-themed erasure poetry, inspired straight from the news. Decided I wanted to keep them all in one place, and, well, voila!

Super niche question: do you live in Seattle? Would you be interested in hiring me to photograph your family? A few people have expressed interest, but I need to book four sessions to make it happen. Email me (ashlee.gadd@gmail.com) or DM me here on Substack if you fit that bill!

Speaking of photography, friendly reminder that I made a guide for memory-keepers and you can grab it here.

Summer little luxuries: this hair mask (I apply in the shower in between shampoo/conditioner!), waking up with an ice roller, and this smells-like-vacation body butter.

In an ongoing, life-long effort to become A Person Who Meal Plans, I made these Greek chicken meatballs last Saturday and they were so dang good. I used store-bought Tzatziki Sauce and served over a simple orzo pasta (cherry tomatoes, red onion, feta cheese, greek dressing). Will definitely make again!

It is stupid how much I love this $15 oversized sleep shirt. I have literally worn it every night for the past month and desperately wish it came in more colors/designs (I have the dark grey one).

Creative speed dating? How FUN. My friends Laura & Laura (yes, really) are the best facilitators and creative hype girls. This looks like such a great offering!

Summer staples I’m wearing on repeat: these tanks, these sandals, these bike shorts (paired with an oversized shirt), and these overalls.

Look, I am squarely on the “buy kid junk off Facebook Marketplace” team, but after searching for a used Guardian bike for three months (!) without success, we finally bit the bullet and bought one. I’m slightly embarrassed to tell you that at 6.5 years old, my darling daughter was not even close to riding a bike. But Shark Tank has never steered me wrong, and I’m happy to report that on day ONE, she was riding a bike proficiently within an hour. No joke. I don’t know what kind of voodoo engineering went into this product, but I am here to tell you: it works.

Please don’t let the title of this podcast scare you off; this is one of the best conversations on porn I’ve ever heard. (And hey, listen to this one, too, while you’re at it.)

Pieces I read this month that I’m still thinking about: Brotherly Love, Why The French Don’t Obsess Over Purpose, A Good Story, Still Unfolding.

Five minutes into summer break, I freed myself from being The Screen Time Police and insisted my husband figure out a way to set YouTube time limits on the family computer. Turns out, there’s a chrome extension for that. BLESS IT.

What’s everyone watching this summer?! I am not-so-patiently counting down to The Gilded Age, America’s Sweethearts, The Summer I Turned Pretty, and of course, The Bear. We just re-subscribed to Netflix after a 6-month break and I am taking recs! (Already watched Sirens, whoa.)

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Currently blessing my inbox:

My two-year-old daughter recently got hold of my book. When I found her, she gave me that classic guilty look. To my surprise, the book seemed fine—just a small crayon mark in the corner. But when I opened it today, I discovered HER art, and honestly, I don’t think it could have been more prophetic. Her carefree, scribbly marks across the opening title page felt like a bright, flashing sign from God: to dive in and simply Create Anyway. Once again, I’m reminded it doesn’t have to be perfect or measured and to stop getting in my own way. Just begin. Thank you for using your gift to stir the gifts in me.

-Chloe (a young Aussie mum creating in the margins)

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That’s all I’ve got. What are you reading? Wearing? Cooking? Watching? Tell me everything!

Quick disclaimer: My Substack is always free to read! I use affiliate links in posts like this, but rest assured: I only recommend stuff I genuinely love.