OK, Tear it up! New website awaits your wisdom...

[Stormy]

No problems with load time here either....on ADSL 1 connection shared with game obsessed hubby. So not sure what could be causing the slow load time for other users.

I think a pale brown for the background rather than the pale blue and use a border to frame the main section. It looks like the texture doesn't carry across fully on all pages except the Home and Portfolio pages. It's not major but clearly visible - have taken a screen shot for you so you can see where the problem is.

I'd try to use the same font from your header in the main part...either that or carry the Arial looking font up from the footer section. Having three different fonts on the same page is a bit much for my liking.

I'd also shift the Blog link to the end of the header since it has a separate look to it. I'd probably be inclined to go Home, Portfolio, Bio, Packages, Contact and then Blog.