for anyone who doesnt know… the GODart show is the latest Freak Show offering and focuses on religion. the topic is touchy as most anything thought provoking would be…

Its definitely worth a look as this may be the last Freak Show event.

etc…

in other news we’re still working hard on new products for the store and especially for halloween. so certain things have taken a backseat but I’ve been having fun creating a few things for guys including this new skin called muerto (meaning dead in spanish).

the skins are kind of a tribute to the day of the dead otherwise known as dia de los muertos (and we have more things coming out for that as well)

they’re for people who want to celebrate the festivities of this month. (to go along with the female skins nimil created – see: luni blog) or go check em out inworld for demos and more detail.

actually ive been feeling under the weather alot lately, but busy as usual. for a while there we thought our image hosting site of choice had a meltdown – so on the plus side i guess it’s good that i get on hot and cold streaks here isnt it?

for those of you “in the know” the twisted hunt is more than midway over and im very happy that people enjoy our entry. LuNi Designs : The Collectors Case

the case is filled with 6 original poses and as always when we do a hunt, it will never be offered again. (so get down and pick one up) if you have trouble with the new adult / mature sim restrictions send me a notecard or IM and i will send you the gift.

we’ve already started to update things at the store and soon we’ll have a whole set of new things to release. more on that soon.

the grid wide “kissed” hunt is in progress and we’ve had fun hanging out at the new build for the store and meeting new people. we hope that everyone who has hit our store for the hunt, has liked our gift. it was very fun to make.

the captive heart key

the item is based on a drawing nimil did, and i of course added a bit to it… hopefully it will begin a new series of items in the near future. (one that Im working really hard on) we want it to be something that’s a little different than the usual fare, and offer unisex and male options.

if you havent come down to pick it up yet, please do. tell us what you think, and if you take pictures please send them full perms to me, or if you’re on flickr, submit them to the LuNi pool.

we’d love to see ’em.

also please stay tuned for more cool stuff if you’re a part of our LuNi Designs Group. We’ll be sending out random items, especially as valentines day rolls around.

to learn more about what you can do personally, or for more information on world aids day events, please visit:

http://www.worldaidsday.org/

in second life

the alliance of library system with the help of a grant by the national library of medicine will open up a new island in second life today (dec 1st) dedicated to hiv/aids education, outreach and support.

christened ‘Karuna’, a word taken from an early indo-aryan language, the name of the island embodies the desire to remove harm and suffering, and to bring about the well-being and happiness of others.

schedule

all times listed are pacific standard times
Location: Karuna

10-10:10 Story to Live By (Jenaia Morane)
10:10-10:20 AIDS/HIV Support & Experience (Ricken Flow)
10:20-30 Health in Second Life (Pathfinder Linden)
10:30-10:40 HIV/AIDS in the U.S. (Miguelz Rajal & Ellechim Fizzle)
10:40-10:50 Karuna: The Grant and the Vision (Carolina Keats )
10:50-11:00 Questions and Answers
11:10 – 11:45 Tours of Karuna
11:45 – 1:00 Lunch break
1:00 – 3:00 Story writing workshop and posting of stories
5:00-5:15 Closing Ceremony – Candle of Hope is lit
6:00 – 8:00 Dance with live DJ
8:00 – 9:00 Music: Live performance by Cylindrian Rutabaga

related links :

visit karuna
kaurna sl info

i know some are horrible and cheesy, but there are some who are very inventive – and most are just plain fun. cover bands and tribute bands seem like they’re all about “an experience”. it just feels like fans being fans and sharing music (past and present) which is another aspect that i like about them.

you’ll never be able to see elvis or the beatles play live… but chances are, there will always be a cover artist or band (or impersonator) out there to help you re-live that experience.

sometimes even for artists that you just wish well.

i was flipping through events this weekend and saw “amy winehouse” listed as performing at “the pink cadillac club” in bellevue islet. so i grabbed mouse and went to go see.

we mainly just stood there listening – watching the band and watching people dance. that’s rare for us considering we never pass up a chance to use our chims. (we were on voice at the time – commenting on this and that – between songs)

it drives me crazy how fast time passes when you’re actually having fun – and mouse was feeling sleepy even before i dragged her out. (so we almost left a few times)

but each time we suggested we should leave if we were going to, one or the other of us stopped the thought to listen to the next song (the sign of a good set) and before we knew it, it was over.

in almost as brief a period of time, so much has been made about the twists and turns of amy winehouse’s career and life. you can always get caught up in different things, i suppose… but if you like soulful singing (sometimes brutally truthful lyrics) and the best things about r&b and pop today… listen to amy winehouse.

anywhere.

ghost busters
the ghost busters grid-wide ghost hunt was a great success. once again i’d like to thank toko voom for a well organized and cool experience. the great comments we received on our items were very much appreciated as well.

isle of shadows birthday bash
the celebration we had for the isle of shadows birthday was also a great time. aiko. maru, and mouse did a wonderful job of dj’ing and getting everyone going for the live acts in between. it was a fun time.

halloween party ’08
and last but not least, i’d like to thank all of our friends and supporters that attended our 2nd annual halloween party. everyone looked amazing, but in the end daphne and dazz won best female and male respectively. daphne was a beautiful ghostly bride and dazz was the king. (elvis or dazzvis if you will)

the build
last years party build was pretty neat, we had a giant dark circus / side show feel to the space we used.
(pictured below)

this year we went slightly more elegant and twisted with a puppet master / puppet theme. i made a giant dollcase, with arms that broke though the back wall. in each hand, a puppeteer control, with strings that played in the wind. nimil did some great textures for the case. (pictured below)

we had a fun time putting it together, and we hope everyone had fun despite things going slightly wonky at the beginning. (we had a telehub problem and people ended up being flung into the bay of shadows – such is the fun of SL) here are a few more pictures of the build.

*side note* i want to thank dingo and silver for keeping me company while we worked things out. i’d also like to thank my sister aiko for keeping ultra cool and fixing things so fast that we hardly missed a beat.

other news…
as many people may know, LL has changed the price of open sims. this will cause many people to lose their homes and businesses. some people are also leaving SL over this mess.

as of right now, tainted hearth’s future is up in the air… however things do not look good. if anyone hasnt visited yet, please do so. it’s a sight not to be missed. if you are not a second lifer, or can not get there in world, please take a look at the tainted hearth flickr pool… for it may be the last we see of this wonderful sim and dream that lacey and aza had for our SL.

related links:

Tainted Hearth

Tainted Hearth Flickr Pool

mouse (nimil blackflag) will be dj’ing for an hour and there will be live acts throughout the day.  this also officially begins our halloween celebration as well. we’ll be sending out group invites tomorrow, to both this event, and our own halloween bash on the 31st.

we’ll be giving out nifty stuff througout both events. so come by for some cool stuff and to listen to some good music, both from djs and live sets.

Isle of Shadows Official Invitation:

It’s been a year with lots of changes and it’s time to celebrate! The Isle of Shadows is 1 year old!
Come celebrate with the residents of Isle of Shadows and the staff of Shadowplay!

This is the birthday bash of the year! Sponsored by LuNi Designs and Aikostar Designs!

Free Gifts! Great Prizes! Incredible Music!

Oct. 30 Starting at 9AM SLT through 8PM Live music, DJ’s and contests all day!

Schedule of Events
9AM – 11AM Radio Free Aiko – Blues Jam – Best in blue contest $500L Prize! 2 categories Men & Women!
11AM – 12PM Skylord Carnell – Live on Stage at Shadowplay BDSM Club & Lounge!
12PM – 2PM Rebel Girl Radio – Best Halloween Costume contest $500L Prize! 2 categories Men & Women!
2PM – 3PM DJ Nimil’s Best in Blood contest! $500L Prize! 2 categories Men & Women!
3PM – Maximillion Kleene – Live on Stage at Shadowplay BDSM Club & Lounge!
4PM – 5PM Radio Free Aiko Raggae Jam – Grand Prize IOS Pumpkin Hunt Winners!
5PM – 6PM Bosco Constantine – Live on Stage at Shadowplay BDSM Club & Lounge!
6PM – 8PM Strummer Vultee – Live on Stage at Shadowplay BDSM Club & Lounge!

Come on out and join the fun! It’s an all day event at the Isle of Shadows!
Please visit our website http://www.aikostardesigns.com

EVENT : Isle of shadows Birthday @ Isle Of Shadows

strange feeling.  usually monday’s start out slow, and remind you that the weekend is over, and it’s time to focus on the coming weekdays.  but yesterday was a bit different.  we had a fun time going to the slcn.tv studios and watching fabulous fashion with angie mornington.  daphne abernathy did a piece on LuNi Designs for her accessories segment.

it was a wonderful show to sit in on.  neferia abel (Ivalde) talked about how she got her start on sl, and spoke a bit about her style and inspirations.  mouse thought her accent was sexy, and i agreed completely.  she was wonderful to listen to, and i thought angie did a great job with the interview itself.

daphne’s piece also included autumn hykova’s (Pixle Dust) new witch avatar for halloween. (which we all thought was cool)  i personally thought daphne did a great job trying to explain our products and our latest offering for the grid-wide ghost buster’s hunt. (Vain Inc, Toko Voom)  when toko asked us to do the hunt this year, we wanted to offer something special and that we will never offer again.

it’s been very cool to hear the positive comments on ‘the death of romeo + juliet’ – we had fun making it and i personally adore toko, and thank her for tapping us on the shoulder about the hunt.  if you missed the show with neferia and our halloween segment live, or would just like to catch it again…

watch: fabulous fashion with angie mornington :: ivalde

great monday…

and then of course, all good things come to an end.

word spread like wildfire late last night about the second life blog posting on open sims.  i got messages from friends all over the grid that will be affected by this decision.  from open space sims used as small homes, lightly traveled shops, and art projects – to friends that got together to create more of a feelto an area rather than just a shopping experience (like tainted hearth – where LuNi Designs resides) all of which – will probably be gone after the 1st of january.

rather than cutting the resources that an open sim can use, or cutting the traffic to something they feel it can sustain (which many already believed to be the case when operating in an open sim environment) linden labs is choosing to raise the rates they charge, and not give anyone much of a choice on changing their open sim’s current structure (if seen as abuse) by not allowing the transfer of ownership to anyone but the original listed payer.

we are a smaller to mid level business in second life – almost by choice.  we choose to support our friends and create things we feel to be unique or meant for role play, or photography.  while we offer many things that would be considered mainstream, our main goal is to bring a wicked smile to people’s faces, and help them enjoy their second life a bit more… and have fun while doing it.

we will continue to do so.

however, this increase will stop us from purchasing an open space sim next year for personal use, and the killing of lightly traveled haunts – made more for pictures than for business – along with the continued wild fluctuation of land prices in second life (from mainland, regular use sims, to open space sims) will preclude us once again in investing more in a game and metaverse model that we believe in, and which we love to play.

we feel very deeply for all of our friends who are being affected by this… but promise to continue to try to support them.  as for LuNi Designs and it’s future in Tainted Hearth – we are proud to be a part of Lacey Mertel’s and Aza Zymurgy’s dreamscape / evil wonderland.  given the same choice, and understanding of open sims, we would still choose to support our friends.

it is what we do, and who we are.

that being said – we promise to redouble our efforts to improve our craft, and to bring to the grid whatever new ideas we have to offer, along with all the new things we have been working on so far.  and no matter where you find us (from x street sl or tainted hearth) we will always be expecting you.

Hey there! My friend Atom Burma, creator of the Carnivale rides, put together one of the best haunted attractions on the grid, and wanted to take the opportunity to once again use his talent to raise money for charity! Trick-or-Treat for Unicef was clearly the choice, so he’s been raising money via donations and through a percentage of his Halloween merchandise sales, but what is Halloween without a few parties?

So we’re throwing a day long party, on Saturday, October 25, 12pm-12am SLT, at the Haunted Mansion! A day full of spooky fun…not only will we have the Haunted Mansion to give us thrills and chills, not only will we have a sim full of Atom’s amazing carnival rides to enjoy, but we’re spinning Halloween flavored indie rock badassness all day long, AND we’ve gotten some of our favorite, big-hearted, generous designer friends to donate prizes to give away throughout the day for best costumes.

12pm-2pm DJ ssmariner Flossberg
2pm-4pm DJ Violet Morellet
4pm-6pm DJ Adeline Blackthorne
6pm-8pm DJ Esme Milena
8pm-10pm DJ Johnny Barbecue
10pm-12am DJ Niko Lyle

So get out your costumes, dance and spooky adventure with us, win some prizes, and donate to a very worthy cause. See you there!

-Violet Morellet

Haunted House benefitting Trick or Treat for UNICEF
SAT. OCT. 25th | 12noon till midnight | SL TIME (PST)
@ : Haunted Mansion at Carnivale, Venusian

if you didnt read our update blog (shame on you) but our firey pumpkin of doom has been available at our store for some time now – and has just hit the west coast, caLLiefornia to be exact. (callie pictured above getting tagged on the noggin by yours truly)

im glad she didnt take pics of some of the headshots she got me with… shes a good shot. lol

on an entirely different note, another good friend of mine violet morellet is helping atom burma set up an event to benefit Trick or Treat for Unicef. all the money from the attraction and the party on the 25th will go towards this worthwhile charity. LuNi Designs has already donated a gift to be given away at the event to help raise money.

the party is on October 25, 12pm-12am SLT @ Haunted House Carnivale.

i will try to blog more about this event when i get official word from violet.