Thoroughly Irritated

OK--take no offense you new bloggers--but I am so irritated. All I want is a cute background on my blog and I can't figure out how to do it. I follow the directions, cut and paste code and then I get a really cute background with the middle, where my posts are, and all the blocks stay the same. They don't blend into the background or use that code to post. Now, some people who just started blogging have figured this out and I see myself as a pretty smart person. So I'm irritated!