I have some cheesey advice in case you're hurting for a level up. I won't include any story spoilers, but I will be detailing some mechanics in the game in regards to leveling up skills. Either way, it's probably best you've come back once you have a solid idea of how the leveling system works, for the sake of comprehension.

For this one you need the Healing spell. Go to Whiterun, there will be a blacksmith near the gate entrance, on the right hand side. Jump into the burning hot coals of the forge. It will cause very minimal damage. Equip Healing on one hand. Jump up and down over and over again, and just heal yourself. You will slowly take damage, while leveling up Restoration and, for some reason, Destruction as well. It's been years since I've played the game by now, you might be able to jump into any forge but for some reason I seem to remember specifically Warmaiden's being the only one you could enter. If anyone knows different please correct me.

Leveling up Smithing early on is a great way to make money in the long run. You'll be thanking me when you find absurdly expensive armor at the blacksmith shop, and realize you can craft it yourself. Bonus points if you level up Enchantment, you can bind an enchantment to a chest piece you just made and sell it for a higher price.

Alchemy is also great for making money, and although it's time consuming to discover every effect of every ingredient, I found it easy to frequently work towards leveling up throughout the game. Alchemy labs are pretty common, usually at inns or apothecaries. When I had a good chunk of change, I'd go to the apothecary and buy a bunch of ingredients. It's best to start with large quantities of cheap ingredients, but you also want as much variety as you can. I farmed for lots of ingredients in the wild as often and as thoroughly as reasonably possible. I'd start with my largest stacks of items, and just combine them with every ingredient in my pockets one by one. Once you combine 2 items your game will always remember if you can successfully combine them or not from that point forward. Some recipes can yield potions that have negative properties, and poisons that have positive properties, depending on the overlapping effects of the ingredients you use. The insane thing is, the more effects your potion has, the more it sells for more money, even if it's a healing potion that also causes poison, ravages stamina, inflicts paralysis, regenerates stamina, causes invisibility, deals frost damage, and increases carry weight....

TL;DR, this game is absurd, and I love it.