need advice / pointers

hi guys.. this is my first wordpress site, i’m more used to designing in CMSs such as Joomla …

can you point me towards some good examples / tutorials / ideas to improve the area of wordpress that includes the posts…

as you can see here https://www.shellyradley.com … the post area is pretty boring in a ‘square’ area with a light pink background…

ideally i’d like to have a ‘container’ for each post .. i’ve seen the date format enhanced on a few sites .. and any other ideas you have to improve this area are greatfully received!

thanks

adec