Please, I need help fixing my background

A 1930's book embellished with ribbon and flowers. The story was forgettable; however, the little girl's face on the cover was enchanting.

Good morning all. It is another cold day in Maine. Now that we have gotten past Groundhog's Day and Valentine's Day, we just will have President's Day and St. Patrick's Day before we finally get to the most important day........March 20th and the First Day of Spring. For all the cold temps we have been having, the good news is that this is the first winter that my pipes have not frozen. Unfortunately, a bad ice dam, apparently a very heavy one at that, caused a large section of a gutter to come crashing down. As soon as the weather permits, that will have to be fixed. Oh well.

it is almost spring........It Is Almost Spring........... IT IS ALMOST SPRING! If I say it loud enough, will it get here any faster?

As you might have noticed, I have not been my usual chatty blogging self. I have a blog problem and I need your kind help. As you can see my background and template have changed. My previous background was a sweet piece that I got from Shabby Blogs. In January I was notified that I would have to get new code for the background. Wanting to oblige this request, I tried and tried and tried. Any time I would add a new code design, it would stay for just a second and then disappear. Also, when I went to my design page to delete the original background, there was nothing showing on that page that corresponded with the background. You know, like simply deleting a gadget.

So the time came, when my old background did get removed and it left a blank background but added a blurb about photobucket right in the middle of my banner. So I thought it would now be easy to add the new background. Wrong. Every time I copy the code and try to add it as a new gadget to the page, the image stays for a second than again is gone.(Thank you to the folks that have directed me back to ShabbyBlogs site. I can get the image but it doesn't stay.)So I tried playing around with the template and using one of the free images that came with the template and ended up with just a solid color background, even though the image shown in the preview shows the background being in place. Honestly, I have to admit that I now hate how my blog looks, rather sterile, so I have not wanted to blog. To make matters worse, also in January, my computer crashed and I lost all my wonderful photos. Over Christmas I had stocked up on images that I had planned on using over the next couple of months. They are all gone.

So please, if someone could help me out. I would love to have something pretty for my background once more. Hopefully I have explained what steps I have taken adequately enough so as to help in solving this problem. Any help that you might suggest, I would be so grateful.... for a pretty background and removal of that photobucket blurb. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Got it at Goodwill
Sherrie