Learning can be frustrating

As you can see, I'm new to this blogging thing. I was doing okay and having fun playing around with widgets, gadgets and templates for awhile. Then I decided I wanted something cooler so I surfed for other templates to use. I found one that I liked, downloaded it and followed the instructions to a "t", even backed up my old template "just in case". Well, it turns out I didn't like the template and when I tried to restore my old one, it deleted all of my gadgets (links, lists, photos, etc)! Ugh! So, now I have to start over.....bear with me as I stumble and learn.