its good for a start, it not colorful, nothing stands out, and the text is kinda bland.... Keep working on it and it will be great!
what browser did you make this in? the hover menu doesn't quite line up with the background and the outer border stops short on the right side for me but all in all its pretty nice...
you should always tests layouts in different browsers and at different resolutions because they do make a difference and IE 7 actually has made an improvement in following web standards than previous versions of IE but I'd check out firefox
I think it's good, as a simple layout. Besides the errors that lazypando sticked out, your layout is quite simple, I mean structures and the way you place navigation, available place to place content. As its goal is to be a layout for a designs site, I think you should make it a more graphical site, maybe add more images and more tables, and make the background color contrast with the 'main' layout. Also, about the background, try adding a pattern that doesn't stick out much but fills the emptyness of the bg.
I disagree with royalsjock, I think the color scheme is lovely. Too many bright colors makes would it seem like all those other sites, trying to be fun and young and friendly. Yours looks sleek, sophisticated, and polished- very professional. It's unique, most sites of that nature don't use layouts like that. In fact, they use layouts which look rather cheap, as if they hadn't spent any time or effort. The only thing wrong is, as lazypando said, that it doesn't look right in Firefox, which is what I use.
I like that new one you made, except 2 things: the color scheme and the white borders in some tables. The stripes you added to the background make it cooler, and the organization of the layout is better too. If you could change that layout to gray in the background and beige as the color of the tables, I guess it'd be cooler (imo)
i love the layout and design of the second link you posted (the image), however there's something about that brownish color that kinda... i don't know, i just don't agree with it too much. my advice would be to use the color scheme of your first layout in your second design. in my opinion, that would make your site look professional and still provide a fun little twist at the same time.