Easy little edit, can I say YAY!!?

So, I have to say... I am extremely excited about some tutorials that I have recently read and watched on Ashely Sisk's blog.  These have totally changed the way my photos can look.  I can now take a so-so picture and turn it into something that I would share with people.  I have TONS of so-so pictures. Ashley does explain that it is easier to take a good picture to begin with, but I am still learning and these tools really make a difference for me.

 The tutorials are for some version of photoshop (which I don't have).  I have found that it is usually pretty easy to follow photoshop tutorials in Gimp (a free program online).

I can't tell you what all I did to this picture.  I think I pretty much just lightened it up a bit because I knew it needed more, but I didn't know what to do.  So here is my before:

So I thought I wouldn't ever be able to use this shot for anything. Which was a shame because it's the only close up I got of Abbie in her little hat on Mothers day.

Here's after my edit:

Keep in mind that I know very little when it comes to editing.  I guess it may look a little strange with the hat shadow detail on her face, but  I think this is pretty nifty looking.  I lightened her face with the dodge burn tool and then I used the unsharpening mask to sharpen up the picture a bit (which makes no sense... unsharpen = sharpen, yeah no wonder we need tutorials to do this stuff!).  It makes me happy to think so much can be done with so little effort!! :0)  Thanks Ashley!