Customizing My Blog

So my new goal is to customize this blog to look like what I want and not just use the standard template provided by Blogger. In the old days, this was much easier, but now you have to know html to a degree in which I am not fluent. I remember having to create my own website years ago for a college class, but this is much different. I want some of the ease of the Blogger layout options, but I want to customize my own background and heading. I'm afraid to start messing with the html just yet and am determined to teach myself exactly how to do this. I am on a mission. The internet is full of information and how to's for just this purpose, but finding the right site is proving to take longer than I had hoped. I just wish I could find a nice WYSIWYG tool so that I could just drag and drop boxex, pics and backgrounds where I want them without having to learn all the html speak. Some of the sites have too much info and some not enough. I am still looking though for that special 'how to' website for novices. I know I could use Pimp My Profile and get something 'okay' but it won't let me do as much as I would like. I may have to use if for the time being until I can learn the ins and outs of this whole thing. I wish I lived closer to a college campus that provided classes for stuff like this because I would love to take design classes for just such a thing. Oh well. I am sure with enough surfing and persistance I will be able to overcome this obstacle.