I play as an archer with heavy armor (although my companion, mercutio does great damage as a destruction Mage. Kind of want to be a Mage now..) anyway, I have no idea how smith/enchant/ or use alchemy thing. I have heard they are very usefull, but I dont know how to use them! Is there a guide somewhere? I am 12 hours in and level 12 and I have never touched a smith/enchant/alchemy lab. Help?

There is a help section in the pause menu, where you save,it list topics and has a topic on all of those.

Urghh... Alvor the blacksmith clan?

Not sure.

I think its fairly self explanatory. If you speak to the guy in Riverwood he talks you through the basics of smithing.

Alchemy:
1. Eat ingredients to get first attribute
2. Combine ingredients at an Alchemy table with matching known attributes (or use a recipe) to create potions and discover new effects
3. Repeat

Smithing
1. Use the tanning sheet to make leather and leather strips from hides and the smelter to make ingots from ore (which you can mine using a pickaxe or buy)
2. Use these with the forge to create basic armour and wepons
3. Improve weapons at the wheel and armour at the workbench
4. Repeat - especially leather pauldrons and iron daggers

Enchanting
1. Deconstruct any useless magic items you get at an enchanting table to learn an enchantment
2. Combine basic equipment with a learned enchantment with a filled soul gem (cast soul trap on an enemy and kill it while carrying a soul gem)
3. Create lots of gold rings of fortify sneak. Sell them and repeat
4. Enchantment!

For alchemy, there are two ways to get ingredients. Either purchase them, or go walk around in the wilderness/dungeons etc., and take every flower, shrub, mushroom, butterfly, etc. that lights up your E button when your cursor runs over it.

It's a time-consuming thing because you constantly stop-pick-go rinse and repeat. And you have to look everywhere because of the number of different ingredients that are found in strange places. I purchased a guide with the game that have all the recipies listed in them, along with the required ingredients. So, it's just a matter of going to the lab, clicking on it which brings up your Ingredients list in your inventory, and then combining ingredients by selecting them - keys for these actions are at the bottom of the screen. If you get a hit, you level up a little. Better combinations, I guess, level you up faster. I'm glad I got the guide because without, you have to eat the ingredients to discover one or two out of the 4 things that you can combine to make potions - and then trying to combine those with others to hopefully get something useful.

I would check the different Wikis and see if they have more info on the necessary ingredients for different potions. And, if you don't want to spend the time walking around looking for all the ingredients, you'll need a steady supply of money to purchase them.

When you are successful and make a potion, it automatically goes into your Potion slot in your inventory. I haven't looked yet to see if selling potions is a money-maker (after subtracting the costs of ingredients if you purchase them.) If you find the ingredients yourself, selling potions would be a pure profit then - if you need the money.

In that first town you arrive at after leaving the keep, there's an alchemy lab in the Inn.

Good luck.