this is no longer my blog

I'm not a big fan of any of the templates that Blogger has to choose from. I find them all to be either terribly plain, or a bit too gawdy. So, as I was looking at the recent edition of my blog, I thought it was a bit plain, and I considered going through the process of picking a new template and then redoing my links section (because no, I do not use blogrolling. I tried once and for some reason it was beyond me, and so now I don't try anymore) and redoing my site counter and haloscan comments. That just seemed like a lot of work to me. Then, however, I was visiting a couple other blogs and they have nice pictures in their sidebars, and that's when it struck me. When I want to spice up my rooms at home, I add pictures. Pictures of loved ones and friends and family, of important and influential people in my life. I thought I might try to do that on my blog. Only one problem... I don't know how. I use a little program to upload photos into the body of my blog posts, and I know that Blogger now allows you to upload photos, too, but I don't know the html code, or whatever, to insert photos into my sidebar. Or how to figure out how to make them fit nicely without horribly distorting either the picture or my blog.

So here is my plea: All of you more tech savvy bloggers out there, how do you insert pictures into your sidebar? Help a brother out, please!!!