- Chestnut and Hemlock Newsletter
- Posts
- May Showers
May Showers
Terra Rodgers
May 27, 2026
It’s been gray, rainy and not as hot as normal which I have absolutely loved! Because of that, I was able to take a couple hours and beginning working on an idea that’s been in the back of my head of awhile.
Turning a bowl from Paduke.
Quick Notes:
My interview with Zak of Zakco Puzzle Boards is delayed.
Inventory has been updated on the website. All laser puzzles are currently in stock. If you ever need a laser puzzle that is listed as out of stock, feel free to message me. We’re probably working on restocking but can move your puzzle to the front of the line.
Puzzle Parley ticket prices go up June 1.
I’m working on a couple of new puzzles, but they’re in various stages of development. Hopefully they will be ready before Puzzle Parley.
Puzzle Jam Inc. membership is open.
Design Notes: Togetherness Puzzles
 Puzzle Jam South 2025 Community Puzzle | Togetherness Puzzles are designed to promote family and community, drawing on the success of the Community Puzzle I hand-cut for Puzzle Jam South, September 2026. Everyone decorated at least one piece, and then put it together at the end of the weekend to celebrate the puzzle community. It was such a hit that I created a laser cut version 4 laser cut versions that are designed as Never Ending Puzzles, so they all fit together, top edge to bottom edge, left edge to right edge (and vice versa, of course). You can also get more than one of any set and combine them. The 4 versions are: Togetherness Togetherness: Love Togetherness: Family Togetherness: Faith, Hope, Love They are all painted white on one side, with mahogany veneer on the other, so that you and your group can let your creativity free decorating each piece. |
Togetherness puzzle decorated by Rodgers’ family.
Here you can see how 2 Togetherness puzzles fit together.
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church got 2 Togetherness puzzles. Here is what their priest had to say:
We used this puzzle as a way to celebrate our congregation’s diversity and one-ness. We set up a station where people could decorate a puzzle piece (or take one home to decorate), with paint markers, regular markers, colored pencils, and so on. We had enough pieces that everybody could decorate their own, including kids! We also mailed out or dropped off puzzle pieces for some of our homebound members. We gave the project about six weeks. Eventually, as there started to be a good number of decorated pieces, some people started trying to assemble them, while standing around at coffee hour after church. Over a couple of weeks people finished decorating the pieces and we put the puzzle together! Our puzzle-assemblers were delighted to discover that they could move pieces around from edge to edge. Having a puzzle out at coffee hour turned out to be a great way for some of our more introverted members to enjoy being together, and we’ve actually started doing that (with less extraordinary puzzles) on a regular basis! We loved this project and the beautiful, colorful puzzle we created together, with Terra’s help.
Plant Corner:
I harvested our first tomato today! We have 6 cherry tomato & 6 basil plants in pots on the back deck. We decided we absolutely did not have the energy to fight the weeds and root knot nematodes by planting them in the garden area, so we rounded up all of our big pots.
I accidentally broke off a piece of my escargot begonia, so I put it in a container with some damp dirt and covered it with Saran Wrap and crossed my fingers! It actually worked! It’s rooting! And since that CLEARLY proves I now have a green thumb, I added a black begonia, a rabbit foot fern (3rd time’s the charm?), a maiden hair fern, a white cyclamen and a Thai variegated monstera. Death toll to come.
