Attempts in Photoshop

I took this picture of my daughter on Easter, and while I absolutely loved the composition (and the subject!) I felt like this photo was in too much of a haze for me to really love it completely.

I had the honor and privilege to meet Noel Culbertson at CHA in California this January, and I have always admired her work, especially her pictures. (With our Pinterest boards I think we could be twins!) She has a lovely Photoshop Tutorial I decided to give a whirl and see how it turned out.

Using a couple of filters in PSE5 and adjusting the contrast a little bit, I think I truly love this entire picture now. I may have to use these steps quite a bit for the upcoming Project Life pictures to print out!

Here is another attempt I tried. This time I added the vignette Noel suggests. I didn't add it to the last photo because I loved it so much more without. Before:

And after:

I am wondering if I am adjusting the contrast a bit too much. But I feel like these pictures definitely pop the way I am hoping for. What do you think? Should I not increase the contrast so much? I definitely enjoy this process though.

**Edited - I talked to a graphics friend of mine, and he pointed out that the whites were too blown out for the flower picture. I agreed with him, so he showed me how to lower the levels a little bit on the top end. Here's what came out:

Definitely getting there I love the blue that popped out in the background after I did that, it makes a really beautiful color palette all together. Learning learning learning!