Blog Frustration

I'm sure most of you noticed that I have been trying to get a fresh look to the blog for a couple of weeks now (which is something I do from time to time to freshen the blog up). I had a friend create a beautiful template for me and when I tried to install it, I made a huge mess despite following the directions to a T. So then I thought I'd leave the template the same and change the background. Now I am trying to play around with my blog and use one of the blogger made templates to get a new look. Sorry for the constant change-I'm just trying to make the blog up to my standards ;)