Photoshop

I use Photoshop to create and modify logo and images. But to a beginner, spend thousands dollar to purchase software like this and months of time to learn are unpractical. What you can do is to download the free software GIMP. GIMP has much of the same functionality that Adobe Photoshop does, such as photo editing, image render and image format converter.
Here is GIMP tutorial:
http://www.gimp-tutorials.com

DreamWeaver

DreamWeaver is my favorite tool of designing and developing websites. But again, this is not free software, for those who don’t want to spend three hundred dollars for DreamWeaver, I suggest using text editor instead. My favorite free text editor is
Notepad++.

WordPress

You can download free WordPress 2.7.1 here.

PHP, Apache and MySQL

In order to run blog in your local machine, you have to install and configure all three software. There are some learning curves to make PHP, Apache and MySQL working together. Fortunately, you can download the pre-packaged software: XAMPP for free. XAMPP containing PHP, Apache and MySQL in one installation file, it is very easy to install, configure and use.

Free domain and web hosting

By the way, you can also create and publish a website and blog for totally free.
Here is the url for registering a free domain:
www.co.cc
To get free hosting account, go to:
www.awardspace.com, after registering, you can get free $200mb space to host your website.