thanks, panictree. that error has been there because the client hasn't added any blog posts. i went ahead and added a fake post and the archives page is working now. thanks for the heads up!
thank you, raydale. using the blog profile as a base was pretty easy and didn't take long at all. it didn't take more than 3 hours to adapt my design to the blog profile. here's what i did:
duplicated the home page template and named it blog_home
created my own homepage template
i found it would be easier for the client to add content if i treated each section of the homepage as a page (home, gallery, order form, about, and contact) so i created templates for each with their respective fields.
all pages are published + hidden except for home and blog pages
i called all the needed fields in my home template (all home page fields, all gallery fields, etc.)
and then just created a page named 'blog' using the blog template.
hope this answers your question. many thanks to both of you!
alex