If your loved ones are buried at a cemetery where only flat headstones are permitted you probably already know that the space youre offered for memorials is very small. Any memorials must be placed in the provided vase, or on the headstone itself. As the landscapers keep the grounds they tend to throw away anything that doesnt rest right on the headstone itself. In addition, if the gardeners arrive to spruce up the place, he or she will immediately throw away any flowers that have blown in the wind. After rainstorms and high winds a visitor can often expect to see the memorial flowers of others scattered around the grounds. Its a shame that these expensive flowers will be immediately thrown into the trash by the caretakers.
While visiting your lost loved ones the last thing you want to think about is what happened to their beautiful memorial flowers. Make sure they never blow away by creating easy weighted memorials instead. Its easy to make weighted bouquets, Christmas trees and more. There are several different ways to make them out of things you probably already have.
An ordinary margarine bowl can become the center of the weighted memorial. Use a small bowl and fill it full of rocks, marbles or something similar. You dont need to spend any money; just use a few rocks from the driveway! You can even stir up plaster mix - should you happen to have any - and fill the bowl with the plaster. Set the weighted bowl onto a large square of burlap. Set the floral bouquet or tree on top of the weighted butter bowl. Bring the sides of the burlap up and around the bowl. Use a ribbon or piece of wire to secure the burlap around the flowers or tree. The bowl will be covered but it will serve the purpose of keeping your memorial in its place. You dont necessarily have to use a margarine bowl to contain the rocks or marbles. You can place a handful of stones onto the square of burlap, position the floral or other arrangement, then pull the burlap up over the sides. Secure with ribbon or wire. One problem that this particular design can give you is some trouble setting the arrangement upright. You may have to lift and set, lift and set the burlap rock bag until the rocks settle in a position where they will hold the arrangement straight up. In really heavy winds the bag will usually stay on the headstone but might topple over. No matter how severe the weather becomes a brick memorial will not budge. You dont want to set a regular brick on the headstone so first cover it with burlap or something similar. Since bricks have three holes you can create any number of memorials on the brick. Set a cross in the center hole, and flowers in the other two holes, to create one particular memorial design. A different design can contain flowers in each of the three holes. If you sew you can simply stitch a narrow piece of elastic around the perimeter of the burlap rectangle. Make sure the rectangle of burlap you cut will be sufficient to completely cover the brick but not the flowers. If you dont sew you can just use a ribbon to secure the burlap piece. The uniquely-shaped weighted memorials are easy yet elegant. Dont have a brick? A two-by-four section can be used in the same manner as the brick. The block of wood has weight, so it wont blow away, but it doesnt contain the holes to insert the memorial flowers. Set fake or real flowers in small pots and set them, in a row, on the wood. Use the elastic burlap or tie the burlap around the base of the flowers, covering the block of wood. No one wants to pay big money for memorials only to see them blown away, and even though the issue isnt the money youve spent, you still want the flowers you buy to actually be there when you - and others - visit the cemetery. Make a simple weighted memorial and youll never worry about that again!
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