No you can usually insert your own backgrounds...
I imagine it has that white background because they wanted it to match the book...
i told her we would give her a good price if she's ever interested, but we can't do it for free.
our portfolio isn't so bad now. we would like to focus on refining the sites we have while working on new projects for either paying clients, or special interests that we just like to do for fun.
that's why this update for the forums again.. just refinining our portfolio. :P
@damage: nope, so far dodged that bullet :P