Mate,
I'd suggest that you continue doing what you're doing; if you enjoy it, and it isn't harming others, then I say "Go for it".
As for putting a web-site together, I am also doing the same thing (More just frigging around with Front page than any real "web-site design" per-se), and if people don't like it, they're more than welcome to "make like a turbo" (and blow me! )
Seriously though, you'll find as you get older that those kinds of comments/opinions (and the people who make them) will mean less and less to you...