Hi guys,
I have a crappy blog and I'm looking to make it a little less crappy. I have an idea of what I want and, though I don't know html or anything, by playing with the code on one of the default templates, I've managed to get it pretty close to what I'm looking for. But I'm having trouble with a few things to finish it off and I'm wondering if there's anyone who knows html or blogger who might be able to help?

The things I'm looking to do are - add a coloured frame for the whole blog (I managed to do this using a very skinny repeated jpeg image but, because it's a fixed size, I can't be sure of where it will drop on different screens and, as I'm looking for just flat colour, I can't help feeling there's a better way), add another sidebar box for the widgets/gadgets and, lastly, simply center my header image (you'd think that would be easy!).

If anyone thinks they may be able to help and are willing to help, please let me know! Thanks in advance.

you may want to google.. i believe there are ton of good templates.
why don't you try wordpress as there seem to be more templates creator.