DESIGN MY OWN BLOG? Yaass I did that!

"If there's something I don't know, I can learn."    That's one motto that I try my best to work by. I mean who goes into a new job or project knowing everything there is to know? Well if you do, more power to you! However not knowing something does not mean you can't pass go and collect $200. It just means that you have a little bit of research and work to do before the actual job begins. For example the look of this new blog I designed.
How does it look to you? I really would like your feedback on it. I think that it looks cool and is certainly an improvement compared to the way it looked before, all black, cold, and uninviting . I wish I saved a screen shot to show you, but it really looked more like a blog dedicated to vampires or maybe a grunge, rock band. I do love vampires (Team Edward & Lestat) and rock (Linkin Park, Evanescence, System of a Down) by the way. However not everyone is into that, so I decided to redesign it.    Although Blogger provides many beautiful templates, the overall aesthetic of the blog is completely up to the blog owner. Determining a color scheme, customizing my header, the about me section on the side, and even the little tiny square at the top of your internet browser that says "LM"  were all designed by me. Yaass I did that, but I didn't know how to do it a few days ago. 
It took research, following tutorials, trying it on my own, getting it wrong, and trying it again. I hope that this doesn't come off like I'm bragging , but I wanted to use this to back up the fact that YOU can do anything you set your mind to. 
Most importantly I wanted to share the links to some pretty awesome blogs dedicated to DIY blog design. They were very helpful to me. Here they are below.
Design Your Own Blog (choosing colors, overall blog aesthetic, design tutorials, inspiration) Creative Kristi (customized headers, free fonts, links to other cool sites) Flavicon Tutorial: (how to customize the little square on the tab up top)