When Good Ideas Go Bad

Sigh.
So much hope for this lil' project, and so much FAIL came out of it.  To re-cap, we use cloth napkins a lot - and we're a bunch of messy eaters, so our napkins that some idiot (ME) bought in white, were stained like a mo fo.  I bleached them - nothing.  Maybe lightened the stains a little, but I didn't want to have to keep bleaching them, so I thought, why not dye them?  They were still in physically good condition, no tears or anything, so why not?  And why not use a natural dye?  Hey, they're already stained from a gazillion tea party spills, why not dye them with tea?
I looked up tea-dying online and found some tips, gathered my materials, and set forth

Here they are before:

 God, fighting back a teabagging joke.

And

Anddddd .... the finished product.  Blergh.

 Didn't cover the stains.  And they now look like they're permanently dirty.  Blergh indeed.
I'm thinking of using them in some kind of crafty way - maybe cloth flowers?  That antique-y look would work there.  Hmm.
And here, something that came out soooo much better.  The finished birdbath in it's new home

 It's a bit shallow, but the birdies don't seem to care.  I spray painted this with Krylon all-weather paint in Hammered Grey, which is kind of fabulous.  In fact, I then looked at this beautiful iron planter that I had, which was great except for the color.  It was painted hunter green, and it was fug.  Hmmm ...

How cute is that?!?!  I'm planting it today with some red,white, and blue flowers that I scored from Home Despot's dumpster, along with two gorgeous hanging baskets.  I mean, seriously - 

 I also got some perennials, and I'm thinking about adding a rain garden to the front of the house to catch the run off from another downspout.
Any plans for the holidays?  I'm convincing the Mister to get over his grill phobia and we're BBQ'ing it, then heading to my aunt's to watch fireworks.
Peace, love, and plants! :-)