I spent two full days googling, codeacademy, downloaded a couple books, read lesson plans on how others taught themselves, everything.

That's exactly what happened with me. I didn't download any books but I kept open references and what not, by the third day I didn't even have to look anything. I use to ask people "How did you learn Lua, how did you learn Java Programming, how did you learn C++" and those people would tell me but it never helped me, finally I just decided to do it my own way but this time I wanted to learn CSS and Java, my friend offered me a chance at something, and I did some designs in Fireworks, went off and made it.

Truly the best way to learn programming is to just do it.

I'm working on a real site for a real client right now for work and I still don't have a fucking clue what I'm doing. Usually it takes about 4 stackoverflow posts before I get a real answer to the problem I was dealing with. But those little bits and pieces stick in my brain and now I use that knowledge on the next site or page.

Stackoverflow is amazing, I'm really bad at asking questions there, but I guarantee there's always one person willing to be patient with you.

So, my advice to you, is stop learning and start doing. Even if you are recreating something that already exists, the mere process of doing so will teach you skills, bits and pieces of information.

This is the most truthful thing about programming you'll ever learn.