everything you need to know is right here. shoutout to all of the fabulous people who've made their codes and tutorials for public use. y'all are a lifesaver.
the theme i used can be found here. it is heavily edited though, but i did ask the theme maker herself if i could edit it to my liking.
codes that came from painthemes: social/updates tab, pop up base, ask layout, links layout, blogroll layout.
codes that came from htmlqueens: pop up animation.