New Header for a New Year

Hi everyone!  Wow, can you believe it's a new year?  Time just seems to get away from me.  I know I keep having to apologize for not posting.  I really do have intentions to post and then when I get to the computer, I forget or something comes up that I have to do.  One of the things that I have been wanting to do is to learn how to edit my pics.  I've seen so many blogs that have nice collages, etc and I don't have any software to edit my pics.  I have a Macbook and with iPhoto, there really wasn't anything to do this with.  So tonight I checked out Picassa to edit and was playing around a bit to figure it out.  I made a collage of some WIP blocks and while it isn't the best, I thought I'd try it out.  What photo editing software do you all use?  

Also, I see so many graphics on sidebars and wonder where you all get them.  I would love to make my blog enjoyable and also use it as a journal/notebook of my projects.  Maybe have a WIP list on the side, some pics of my completed projects.  So any tips you all can give me will be appreciated.  

We went home to TN for Christmas this year.  It was a nice visit, even if the drive is so long.  It takes around 15 hours to get there.  The boys had a good Christmas and loved being with their Grandparents.  Doug surprised me with an Accuquilt Go Cutter!  Now I get to play around with it.  We've only been back home since Sunday, so I've had to deal with laundry, but I did play around with the circle die cutter  and tried it out on wool.  It cuts the wool pretty good.  I just wish they would have circles in between 1" and 2", as I would prefer those sizes for penny rugs.  I will have to work on taking pics and posting in a few day.  I'm paying for the trip and over doing things with a fibromyalgia flare up right now.  Maybe I'll work on my list of things to do in 2011.  

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!