I don't have anything to say. I want to see what everyone else is thinking.

I think the other design is more in the right direction.

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UPDATED PORTFOLIO
www.jhousedesign.com

God.

Leaky Penny
www.leakypenny.com

Believe it or not, I can actually draw. - Jean Michel Basquiat

The colours and folder tabs are not working here, but I like the use of the larger icon--maybe try stylizing that or screening as a watermark in background.

I've yet to get onto my own web work--you know, the case of the plumber with the leaky faucets--but I have sketched out my plan of attack, which I believe you need to do here as well. Take your time, have some fun, and it will come.

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
— Frank Zappa

Those mushrooms must be kicking in...

Ignore this critique,
I'm embarrassed to have even posted it.

Jt Hollister
www.whywaitwebs.com

This isn't working, but reading through the other comments, you probably already knew that.

I don't want to walk you through the process of creating a website (you should know how to do that on your own), but I'd like to make some suggestions on the creation process. It might help get you on track to creating an image that you want to represent yourself with.

1. Decide on a a basic layout. I'm not talking about where each little element goes. I'm talking where your navigation, main content, and logo are going to be. That's all that really matters, anyway. Some people like two columned layouts. You could have a logo, navigation, and then content, all stacked on each other. There are a lot of different options. But at this point, I want to make something very clear: Keep it simple. Don't worry about shapes or colours, just basic blocks of content.

2. Decide a colour scheme that works well together, and represents the mood you'd like to come across. If you're not experienced in using colour, use a site like this. You can search something like "brown" and a whole bunch of different schemes come up. Please don't just throw random colours together. There is a science and an art to colour.

3. If you don't want a site in Flash, don't even touch Flash. Hide the shortcut if you have to. Take it off your taskbar. IF you want something in CSS, do it in CSS. Don't make excuses not to.

4. Don't try to imitate others too much. Don't add a lightbox gallery if that doesn't fit you or your site. Don't use badges or reflections if your site doesn't call for it. Ultimately you want your site to represent you and your services.

I hope that helps. You need to envision what you want your image to be. You can't really do anything until that is done. Once you do that, my process usually goes to Photoshop in order to flesh-out the image, and then directly to coding.

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My Portfolio

colours could do with going down a shade or two.
Lighten, simplify, avoid all the odd alignment of items, instead of being interesting it just looks wrong.