Logo and Colors

hmmmm... I'm sorry but it looks far too "get something up quickly"...

I assume you wanna make money from this venture? People want someone to take the time with their site. not just slap something together quickly. which unfortunatly is what impression this is giving off.

DJ

What part exactly is giving this impression?

The poor quality of the graphics for one. You have a lot of jaggedy lines. The clip art feel as well.

Also, the menu is popped off the background in Firefox.

It looks like it was created in Paint, not a decent web graphics program. The fonts also look childish, and the colours clash. Oh, and the horizontal scrolling I get at 800 x 600.

I don't think i can add to whats already been said.

I think you wanna sell yourself. A good looking page for your homepage will sell your skills. A rough quick design is gonna send people running.

Sorry for not being much help.

DJ

Suzanne: By popped off the background, I take it that you mean there's white space?
I realize that I have to antialiase the better. I had increased the sizes, and that's what did it, I beleive.

Morgan: I also get scrolling at 800x600, I will shorten it.
By clashing colors, do you mean the blue doesn't fit, or the green and brown?
I will work on the graphics, but do you have any tips on making them more professional (beside antialising)?
As far as the font, it is supposed to look like it was written by hand, and the rest of the site will be in verdana. Once I put a little bit of content, the fonts didn't seem to clash too much.

I mean you have things in a table, but you're trying to use CSS positioning for the menu. Pick a method! It's literally off your background, no white, just not where it should be.

Oh, I see. I was having problems with my positioning. It's a long story, but basically I was trying to set the menu items 12 px right from the menu. But it didn't work.

The colors don't go together well and look washed out, and yes the quality is very bad.

If you are using a decent image editor, you need to turn antialiasing on. If not you really will need to invest in one if you're going to get into designing sites.

The best of course is Photoshop, but on a limited budget, Photoshop Elements will serve you well. I think it runs around 89.00 (US)

Pricy html editors are nice, but not really a necessity. A good image editor though, really is sort of a mandatory investment.

I suggest Photoshop or Elements over proggies that do just 'web graphics', because down the line you might need to edit client photos, and you'll need a tool that can serve all of your imaging needs.

I use PSP 6.

I'm redoing the color scheme (again), and the new color scheme can be seen here:
http://www.freewebs.com/bacsikdesigns/index.html
I'm using orange and and light blue, and a darker lightblue and white. I may go offwhite, with either some yellow, or blue, or grey.

P.S. I don't have a banner image yet, so that's just a place holder for the size.

[EDIT]
Also, I'm going to add a border around the content area. Would you suggest rounding the corners at the bottom and in the banner, or keeping it square?