Spraying cheesecloth with dye

I wish I had taken more pictures because this was fun. In a nutshell:

You will need cheesecloth, several colors of dye in spray bottles, a bowl of water, and something to protect your work area, like a drop cloth.

• Unroll package of cheesecloth from cardboard.
• Do not unfold, leave it folded into multiple layers as it comes off the cardboard.
• Cut into sections approximately 12" long.
• Dip a section of cheesecloth into the water and wring it out.
• Lay it on the dropcloth. You can lay it flat or wad it up into a ball.
• Spray with your choice of dye colors.
• At this point I took the dyed piece outside and spread it on a bush to dry.
• After they were dry, I unfolded the cheesecloth to a single layer, which I will use for mixed media projects.

Notes:

1. Don't be put off by having to put the dyes in spray bottles. Get some little spray bottles from a craft store and mix about 1/2 c. of each color that you want. I put the dry dye in the bottle using a funnel, added warm water, and shook it up. It was easy and I mixed about 10 colors in less than 15 minutes.
2. If I were doing this for crazy quilting, I would use what I think is called scrim. It's like cheesecloth, but much heavier.
3. I used Dylon dyes from England because they do not require soda ash. The colors were not as brilliant as I had hoped. I don't know if I didn't use the dyes correctly or if they just won't give the results I want. I would like to try this with procion mx dyes and see if I get better results.

A mother's dilemma

When my 21 year old son told me he was bringing his girlfriend of a few months home for Thanksgiving I didn't give it a second thought. He is my only child and he has lived 750 miles away for over two years. I don't care if he brings Godzilla home with him just as long as he gets himself here.

I assumed that the new girlfriend would be smart because he likes smart girls. I assumed that she would be pretty because he likes pretty girls. And so on. What I didn't assume was that I would like this young woman as much as I do. She is accomplished, brilliant, funny, talented, beautiful, adorable, interesting, and kind.

They are very young, they are in colleges that are 6 hours apart. They both want to travel when they get out of school. I have no right to think that this will last.

So how are mothers supposed to keep from getting too attached to their children's significant others? What if she dumps him? I don't want my heart broken for me and for him. What if he dumps her? I don't want to have my heart broken for me and for her. While I think I have appropriate boundaries in most personal relationships, this one baffles me.