The design of my blog

I just can't get my blog to be just like me. I like purple, simple, easy on the eyes. Organized. Girly but no fru fru. I have recently fallen in love with certain paisley designs. I play around trying to get my blog to look like all those ones out there I follow because I like their layout. But I just don't get it to look how I want. Buttons are really eluding me. I really like the one I got from Leelou's Blog over at my other blog, A Little Bit of Gratitude, except I think the header is too small (it was a theme). It is so frustrating because I have spent hours working at it. Maybe later in this nice life (meaning within the first year of my blog) I will be able to pay someone to do it for me. I am also thinking of going self hosted and think I will do that in the very near future, at least with Blogger for now. If anyone has any tips, suggestions, advice, please feel free to leave a comment below.