The Brooklyn Limestone blog is primarily devoted to recording the renovations being done to a Brooklyn limestone (duh), but they also have a healthy interest in Halloween.

A couple of their parties have included wonderfully elaborate invitations. Their 2009 party invitation was a box which included a “creature survival kit:” Wooden stake, silver bullet, holy water, and so forth. They followed up with a circus theme in 2010 with invitations featuring “preserved Siamese twins” in a little specimen jar. I don’t know if I’d have the energy to come up with any other party details after devising the invitations.

These really are a brilliantly effective means of immediately creating an atmosphere. They probably wouldn’t be practical for a very large gathering, but they’re just perfect for small-ish parties or weddings.

Be sure to search “Halloween” on the site to turn up lots of other posts, like this great Mad Scientist decorating scheme and these photos of the exterior covered with skeletons. Gorgeous stuff.

Here’s a nice way to add a subtle touch of gothiness to a room: Ameroonie Designs has instructions for making a throw pillow covered with bats.

Since the bats are made of felt their edges won’t fray, so there’s no need to worry about seaming the edges. The tutorial unfortunately doesn’t include a pattern, but searching “bat pattern” turns up plenty of suitable candidates, such as this one.

The pillow is made from the same felt as the bats, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t just decorate a pre-made pillow instead.

The blogger also did a “sequel” pillow using pumpkins, and the two together are a lovely matched set.

(via Creepy Cupcakes)