Yeah, I use Object Dock, I haven't looked too hard for skins, I just got that clock skin and a battery skin. I messed around with the code for all the skins, and mostly just changed fonts, colors, and sizes.
And about the custom shell (black taskbar with orange + sign as start button) I still can't find what you are suggesting. I see you're using all StarDock programs, so are you using WindowBlinds for the rest of your shell?