Trying to understand Photoshop CS6

I have been using Picasa to edit my photos because Photoshop CS6  is just too darn complicated. I have been trying to find tutorials to help me understand Photoshop so I can have some fun editing (YES I will admit it, I want to edit photographs). The reason I have changed my opinion on editing photos is because in my research I have seen some really fun effects and I am oh so curious.

Today I viewed a YouTube video on how to get started with Photoshop CS6. Below are my first attempts at editing. The first thing I learned (from my mistake) is to save my original image and edit a copy.

Unfortunately I don't have the before and after to share on one of the images so I will explain what I did. The picture of the tree had houses in the background which really bothered me... so.. poof... houses removed.

Here are before and after pictures of foxtails. I didn't like the branches from a tree on the upper right. When I was setting up the shot I tried multiple angles to avoid the tree branches but couldn't get the foxtails in the frame the way I wanted them. Now with editing I was able to remove the branches and some of the reeds in the grass, in addition I played around with the colors to make them a little warmer.

Now for some fun...

This picture was taken off of Lotus Road between Rescue and Coloma. By using "Filter Gallery"
and selecting Artistic/Poster Edge I was able to give this a totally different appearance. Make sure you click on them to open in a larger view so you can see the effect better.